3/5 ★ – Lord_Hazenberg's review of Yakuza: Dead Souls.

This game right here is almost certainly the most divisive entry in the entire Yakuza series. Every comment I see is either, “Remaster please,” or “It’s a cash grab that nearly killed the franchise.” To be fair, neither side is technically wrong. This is a zombie shooter released in 2011 coming from a series that had been solely brawler action games up to this point. At the time it absolutely was a failed cash grab, but now with the passing of time we can appreciate it as its own thing. The story sees an alternate timeline in the Yakuza universe where Kamurocho is overrun by a zombie infestation. Also thank god they call them zombies, because it’s so annoying hearing writers try to come up with clever ways of not calling the undead zombies. You play as Akiyama, Majima, Ryuji Goda, & Kiryu in an attempt to rescue Haruka from the big bad who is experimenting on humans with this zombie virus to create the ultimate weapons. Gameplay is wack lol. The shooting & camera angles are extremely wonky. There’s also a mechanic similar to dead rising where you can bring other survivors along with you as partners. Substories are still here so you get that classic Yakuza style humor & charm. It’s also cool seeing the infection of the city grow as the game progresses, where areas that were safe before are no longer. Beware using any type of explosives in this game because good god the frame rate will drop to a slideshow. In conclusion, this is a game that gets better with time. Now that the franchise is financially performing the best it ever has, Dead Souls can be seen as a cool little spinoff rather than a horribly misguided attempt at western popularity. A rerelease on current gen platforms would be nice as I would not recommend hunting down the ole PS3 just for this one game.