Yakuza Empire

Yakuza Empire game combines action elements with XCOM-like strategic gameplay, adding simple storyline threads about one of the yakuza gangs. The development of the game was the responsibility of the Polish studio RockGame S.A., which has mainly simulation games in its portfolio (e.g. Ninja Simulator or Cowboy Life Simulator).

Plot

Yakuza Empire tells the story of one of these Japanese criminal gangs. The action takes place in Tokyo in 1992 and begins just after the beastly murder of our previous group leader by his rivals. As a new oyabun (stepparent), we have to do our best to make the organization work efficiently. This is the only way to get our revenge and regain our lost honor. History is filled with difficult moral decisions in which we have to balance on the verge of successfully doing our business and maintaining the loyalty of our people.

Mechanics

The key element of the game is to recruit new people to the gang. The game focuses on the sense of unity of all collaborators, highlighting that the team is as strong as its weakest member. In order for them to work as efficiently as possible, we need to organize various trainings to develop the skills needed to perform their tasks. What a given employee specializes in determines how effective he will be in our planned operation. It's not worth training everyone in everything - it's better to perfect some of the available skills and then form teams of people with different predispositions.

The development of the yakuza is not possible without a properly equipped headquarters. Between planning and carrying out the action, we must take care of the development of our base, presented from a 2D perspective and divided into many segments. Each of them can be transformed into a room giving us specific bonuses or new functions, e.g. a melee training ring, shooting range or warehouse. When planning an expansion, we must be careful not to spend more money than we have. While we can borrow from the relevant NPCs, we have no guarantee of their integrity.

During the mission, we manually control our team members. The game reminds a bit of the XCOM series, but we observe the action from the side, not from top-down view. This means that the clashes are turn-based, and their key element is to find shields behind which we wait for the right moment to attack. The missions are varied and may involve protecting drug transport, sending threats to rivals or defending business against the police.

As part of his rest after work, the protagonist can go to the gaming room or casino to use his hard-earned money for a moment of luxurious relaxation.

Technical aspects

Yakuza Empire has a pleasant graphic design. The stylized graphics pay attention primarily in terms of lighting and molecular effects, highlighting an atmosphere of Tokyo of the 90s.