In the hostess clubs of the Yakuza series up until now, you would traditionally chose a topic to talk about with your hostess from an assortment of choices. But in Yakuza 6, hostess clubs are a strategic card game where you’ll use 83 kinds of topic cards to liven up your hostess. Keep coming to the club to build up an intimate relationship with your hostess, take them out, and perhaps even get a reward…
You can choose your best “Conversation,” “Drink,” and “Food” cards to boost the “Tension” of your hostess. Depending on the cards you choose and the conversation that follows, your hostess’ Tension gauge will increase. Of course, choosing topics of conversation, as well as foods and drinks, to the hostess’ liking will liven up the mood. If your hostess gets excited enough, you’ll get closer to her.
“Conversation” cards have genres, and by skillfully stacking genres and connecting the conversation, you’ll enter a “Hit” state. By increasing your number of “Hits,” the Tension gauge’s ascension rate will also increase.
Your reward is determined based on the Tension gauge at the end of the hostess game. If you get a “Perfect,” you can immediately get close to your hostess. If your intimacy level with the hostess reaches “MAX,” you can enjoy a special, realistic and immersive movie. If you listen to i with surround sound headphones, you’ll get an even greater sense of realism to the point where you can almost feel your hostess’ breath.
■ Live Chat
Live Chat is a completely new play spot appearing for the first time in Yakuza 6 where you can live chat with sexy girls on the internet. You’ll enter text into the chat through properly timed button presses. Doing well in the chat will liven up your web girl. Continue to excite them and they’ll become daring, at first wearing clothes, but wearing less as their excitement rises. And in the end….?
■ Karaoke
Karaoke returns with a great number of new songs. Sing rock, pop, and songs tailor-made to the new setting of Onomichi Jingaicho. Enjoy a wide variety of music! Playback Mode is also included so that players who don’t enjoy music rhythm games can listen to the new songs at their leisure.
The karaoke mini-game offers familiar controls. Press, mash, and hold the buttons to the rhythm, and connect combos to enter “Super Passion” mode and aim for the high score.
Yakuza 6 has a collaboration with Joysound for a ranking function just like real karaoke. There is also a Score Attack mode.
■ Darts
You can play darts in Kamurocho at Bantam and Club Sega, and in Onomichi at Snack. There are three gameplay modes: “01,” “Cricket,” and “Count-Up.” The game system and control methods have been completely redesigned.
While Kazuma Kiryu can play darts on his own, a heated match will unfold if someone calls him out. There are always rivals at the places where darts is available, who you can challenge by talking to them. Of course, if you take a hostess out, you can also play darts with her. Aim to defeat all your rivals and become the best darts player.
When playing darts in Yakuza 6, you’ll throw the dart by aiming a circular cursor that appears on the screen and determining the power of the throw by pressing the throw button with proper timing. If the timing of the button press is off, the power of the throw will also be off, and the arrow will be thrown away from the target. Be careful.
■ Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown
In Yakuza 5, Virtua Fighter 2 was playable. Now, in Yakuza 6, the latest entry in fighting game series, Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown, is fully playable. The game features 19 playable characters, and two-player battles are also supported.
■ Puyo Puyo
In Yakuza 6, you can play the classic falling object puzzle game Puyo Puyo. You can play a tournament-style game mode where you battle CPU characters one after the other.
■ Batting Center
The Yakuza series’ familiar Batting Center returns in Yakuza 6, though it’s a bit different from previous entries in the pursuit of “more realistic batting.”
As a major feature of the Batting Center this time, the balls fired from the pitching machine are thrown into divided sections of the strike zone, including the inside corners, outside corners, and high and low sections.
Yakuza 6 introduces a touchpad-based control method. You’ll use the touchpad to select the strike zone. Then, if you touch the upper right of the touchpad, the cursor moves to the high outside to the right of the batter. Or, if you touch the lower left of the touchpad, the cursor moves to the low inside.
Of course, you can use traditional controls with the left stick and confirmation button, as well.
Visit the Sega Arcade to play the golden age of video games, including Space Harrier, Outrun, Super Hang-On, and Fantasy Zone. In Yakuza 6, everything is gathered together at Club Sega, so unlike Yakuza 0, you won’t need to run long distances between game shops to play each one.
■ Mahjong
The 136-tile, definitive table game returns in Yakuza 6. Rather than play Mahjong at the regular Orchid Palace, you play in “Lullaby,” which appeared in the Yakuza 6 early demo.
Yakuza 6 is due out for PlayStation 4 in Japan on December 8.
