Players sure love Yakuza 4 for some reason

The Yakuza series is definitely well celebrated, especially in recent years. Its resurgence is sparked by the incredibly popular Like A Dragon that launched last year and the upcoming spin-off sequel Lost Judgment, which recently received a new trailer during Sony’s State of Play.

What if I told you that none of these new games even come close to being finished by players compared to other games in the series? Not as much, at least.

By far, if you look at the completion rate on the PlayStation alone, Yakuza 4 Remastered is the highest completed game of the bunch, with Yakuza Kiwami 2 and Yakuza 3 Remastered rounding out the top 3. I was also surprised that popular titles like Yakuza 0, Yakuza 6: The Song of Life, and even new titles and spin-offs didn’t come as close.

Coming in at a staggering 65.8% for the “Thank You” trophy, Yakuza 4 Remastered is the most finished game in the series. At second place is Yakuza Kiwami 2 coming in at a 60% completion clip, and at third is Yakuza 3 Remastered at 56.8%. On Steam, the “Thank You” achievement for Yakuza 4 sits at 57.9%, which is still very impressive.

How does that stack with the rest of the series? Just for reference, Like A Dragon came in at 33.3% completion and Judgment is at 30.0% completion if trophies served as the metric.

Even lower than the completion rates are the platinum trophies earned for this series. I, for one, have not pushed for a Platinum trophy run, with my highest completion rate being 76% for Yakuza 6: The Song of Life. Ironically, that is also the game that has garnered the highest platinum completion at a 3.5%, with Like A Dragon following suit at 3.3% and then Yakuza Kiwami 2 with a 2.6% platinum completion.

Out of the entire series, the last place for both completion and platinum is Yakuza Kiwami, which has a completion rate of 16.6% with a platinum achievement of 0.3%. Personally, this is the most difficult and frustrating of the Yakuza titles, and it ranks quite low on my personal rating, with only Yakuza 3 Remastered setting the bar even lower. If you remember, I gave Yakuza 3 Remastered my only Ignore It rating back in February.

Yakuza Games Ranked by Completion Rates on PlayStation

Yakuza 4 Remastered – 65.8%
Yakuza Kiwami 2 – 60.0%
Yakuza 3 Remastered – 56.8%
Yakuza 5 Remastered – 52.8%
Yakuza 6: The Song of Life – 44.0%
Yakuza 0 – 33.8%
Yakuza: Like A Dragon – 33.3%
Judgment – 30.0%
Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise – 20.9%
Yakuza Kiwami – 16.6%

What’s with Yakuza 4?

As much as I would like to argue that Yakuza 4 Remastered is a straightforward game compared to the rest of the bunch, the same could be said with Yakuza 6: The Song of Life and Judgment if you’re only following the main story. From what I remembered from the game, Yakuza 4 didn’t force the players to go through certain mini-games blocking completion, which is highly prevalent in games like Yakuza 0 and Yakuza Kiwami. There’s also no bogeyman like Goro Majima in Yakuza Kiwami and Mr. Shakedown in Yakuza 0 impeding progress.

Personally, I rank Yakuza 4 number three in my personal tally. Out of the entire series’ goofy stories, it actually makes sense and it doesn’t insult your intelligence. It introduces you to some of the series’ fan favorite protagonists: Shun Akiyama and Taiga Saejima. It’s also the first game where Kazuma Kiryu takes a step back and opens up the rest of Kamurocho to a different point of view, either through other characters, or by letting the player explore underpasses, rooftops, back alleys, sewer ways, and inside buildings.

It’s biggest reason why I rated the title a “Buy It” and the only game worth picking up in the Yakuza Remastered Collection.