History VideoGame / Yakuza4

* AbsurdlySpaciousSewer: In Saejima's story chapters, he uses Kamurocho's sewers to avoid any police presence due to him being a wanted man. The trope applies especially if you undergo Master's training, which sees you unearthing two cavernous [=WW2=] air raid shelters underneath Kamurocho - and I mean ''cavernous''. There is no visible roof, with the walls just sloping away into the darkness.

* TheCityNarrows: This game introduces the Little Asia district of Kamurocho, familiar to ''VideoGame/Yakuza 0'' players. Tanimura, a polyglot, is able to freely explore the area, a warren of narrow alleys and apartment corridors run by Asian Gateway, a charity that provides homes for Asian immigrants and orphans.

*** Despite being in a perfect position to blast Saejima dead from behind, Katsuragi makes an odd show of only winging him before diving in front of him.

* AbsurdlySpaciousSewer: In Saejima's story chapters, he uses Kamurocho's sewers to avoid any police presence due to him being a wanted man.

* AntiFrustrationFeatures: [[spoiler:Downplayed. When Hana initially leaves, any substories tied to her become unavailable for the rest of Akiyama's chapters. However, in the final chapter of the game in which every character becomes playable and all substories are supposed to be completable, if you haven'ts finished all of the "Hana substories", you can examine Akiyama's desk in order to "reminisce about Hana-chan" to "bring her back" and complete them as well as sing karaoke with her. Weirdly enough, you can't do this if you've already completed the substories in which she's relevant so you'll have to wait until after the FinalBoss if you want to sing any Karaoke with her then.]]

* PantyThief: The subject of Akiyama's first revelation is one, [[{{Acrofatic}} who jumps across buildings like a ninja]].
* PinataEnemy: The oddly dressed "Rich-Looking Guy" that rarely spawns in Kamurocho's street level. He has a chance to drop anything from high-level healing items to Gold and Platinum Plates that sell for 100,000,-150,000 Yen. He's also pathetically easy to beat even on the hardest difficulties and always fights aone.

* SecretTestOfCharacter: The late game substory, "Floriography," is one for the Florist's estranged son, Takashi, who wants to find his father, unaware that he's in front of him. His first task is to find a cheater in the Fukuma Casino which happens to be Tanimura. He offers a way to cheat in the games, though Takashi turns it down and offers to work for his money the hard way. The next is to break up a sleazy scout trying to recruit girls for his hostess club, and that scout happens to be Akiyama acting like a total pervert. After Takashi drives him out, the hostess is now the one trying to tempt him away from his girlfriend, which he quickly avoids. The third task is to break up a fight in the Champion District where Saejima is "robbing" a homeless victim. Takashi is about ready to fight him, but backs down...and then goes for it anyway, only to get knocked down. Saejima tells him that it's one thing to be brave, but getting killed is stupid.

* PinataEnemy: The oddly dressed "Rich-Looking Guy" that rarely spawns in Kamurocho's street level. He has a chance to drop anything from high-level healing items to Gold and Platinum Plates that sell for 100,000,-150,000 Yen. He's also pathetically easy to beat even on the hardest difficulties and always fightd aone.

** Why is Daigo [[spoiler: throwing his lot in with Arai to steal Akiyama's money? It turns out that turning down the Okinawa land deal in ''3'', while very honorable, is biting the Tojo Clan in the ass. The clan turned down enough profits to keep them liquid for the better part of a decade, and Daigo is desperately in need of cash. In the same vein, being the largest yakuza outfit in Japan is all well and good, but 30000 subordinates that are left without wages or equipment will either revolt or seek greener pastures.]]

* Shun Akiyama, an easygoing LoanShark infamous for giving out ridiculous amounts of money at a zero-percent interest rate, so long as a client can pass one of his [[SecretTestOfCharacter Secret Tests of Character]]. He is drawn into the story when a mysterious woman named Lily asks for a loan of 100 million yen and refuses to explain why while investigating a series of murders after his benefactor and business partner Hiroaki Arai murders an Ueno Seiwa Lieutenant and disappeared. His fighting style is comprised [[ExtremityExtremist almost entirely of kicks]] done in rapid succession.

* Masayoshi Tanimura, a young and corrupt cop who is infamously known as "The Parasite of Kamurocho". His goal is to investigate the death of his father, who was also a cop. His fighting style emphasises counterattacks and can chain combos into heat moves.

* FailedASpotCheck: Near the end of the game, Arai fails to notice [[spoiler:the complete lack of a bullet wound and splattered blood after shooting Munakata in the head in his office, while looking at him. Given that Arai had previously killed Ihara via a bullet to the head, it should have been very obvious that something was off - namely that Munakata had loaded the gun he had given to Arai with rubber bullets]].

* FiveManBand:
** TheLeader: Kazuma Kiryu
** TheLancer: Masayoshi Tanimura
** TheSmartGuy: Shun Akiyama
** TheBigGuy: Taiga Saejima
** TheChick: Haruka Sawamura
** SixthRanger: Makoto Date. Goro Majima to a degree. [[spoiler: Goh Hamazaki]], although he plays a role primarily in Saejima and Kiryu's CharacterDevelopment.

''Yakuza 4'', known in Japan as ''Ryū ga Gotoku 4: Successor of the Legend'' is the fourth main entry in Sega's ''VideoGame/{{Yakuza}}'' series, which was released in March 18, 2010 in Japan and March 15/18, 2011 for NA/Europe for the UsefulNotes/PlayStation3. A remastered port for the UsefulNotes/Playstation4 was released on January 17, 2019 in Japan, and in the rest of the world on October 29 that same year, with PC (via UsefulNotes/{{Steam}}) and Xbox One ports releasing on January 28, 2021.

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: [[spoiler:Munakata sees through the entire rubber bullets assassination stunt within moments when he realizes the perfect headshot wounds don't add up with an inexperienced and hotblooded gunman like Saejima shooting everyone liberally with what left superficial wounds, plus the illegal allocation of experimental police resources to pull it off. Katsuragi and Arai consequently end up blackmailed and forced into manipulative secrecy that drives the rest of the plotline because of their reckless grab for power being so blatantly obvious.]]

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: [[spoiler:Munakata sees through the entire rubber bullets assassination stunt within moments when he realizes the perfect headshot wounds don't add up with an inexperienced and hotblooded gunman like Saejima shooting everyone with superficial injuries, never mind the illegal allocation of experimental police resources to accomplish such a task. Katsuragi and Arai consequently end up blackmailed and forced into manipulative secrecy that drives the rest of the plotline because of their reckless grab for power being so blatantly obvious.]]

* RealityEnsues:
** In "Kotaro Gets A Job," even if Kotaro is a former Reaper who can hold his own against yakuza, it's still frowned upon talking back to customers and getting into fights with them, getting him fired...again. Turns out his problem is even though the place was quite packed and the open seats were clearly marked "Reserved," it's his utter rudeness that got him into this mess.
** The Tojo Clan's ridiculous size finally gets hit with this. [[spoiler:Namely that a clan that gargantuan need a ''lot'' of money to keep running. Money Daigo has all but run out of, forcing him to throw in with Munakata's scheme.]]

* AntiFrustrationFeatures: [[spoiler:Downplayed. When Hana initially leaves, any substories tied to her become unavailable for the rest of Akiyama's chapters. However, in the final chapter of the game in which every character becomes playable and all substories are supposed to be completable, if you don't finished have all of the "Hana substories", you can examine Akiyama's desk in order to "reminisce about Hana-chan" to "bring her back" and complete them as well as sing karaoke with her. Oddly enough, you can't do this if you've already completed the substories in which she's relevant.]]

* FlashbackWithTheOtherDarrin: A flashback to events that occured in the first Yakuza game occurs early in Kiryu's portion of the game. The original release of ''4'' reused clips of the cinematics from the first game on PS2 complete including the lower quality models from that era. However, the Remastered version of ''4'' instead uses clips from the ''Kiwami'' remake of the first game.

* WhatAreRecords: Played for laughs at the end of Saejima's "Mother and Daughter" substory where he promises to buy Makiko's record, which gets her laughing. Justified due to him being out of the modern world for the last 25 years. After the substory, two NPCs can be heard in Theatre Square talking about her new album confused about why it's on both CD and vinyl.

* CentralTheme: How the past affects the present, a majority of the events that happened in Yakuza was due to actions done 15 years ago

* FishOutOfTemporalWater: Saejima often comments on how different Kamurocho is, and doesn't know what newfangled technology like a "CD-Rawm" is, since he spent the last 25 years in prison.

* PooledFunds: Akiyama's substory, "The Fate of the 30 Million Yen" has him getting fleeced out of 30 million yen by a father who said his daughter was kidnapped. When he catches up to them, the man's wife is bathing in a hot tub full of money.

** Tanimura also learns during his section that [[spoiler:hiss father had investigated the hit Saejima had taken part in, but stumbled upon a conspiracy, and was murdered in order to keep a lid on said conspiracy by his father's partner, and his superior officer, Sugiuchi.]]

** The Ueno Seiwa hit had a noticeable [[BloodlessCarnage lack of blood]] on some of the injuries. [[spoiler:This is because all the Ueno Seiwa members had been shot with non-lethal rounds. The few cases where there is blood drawn are close range enough to still realistically draw blood from the injury.]]
** The game uses revolvers a ''lot'', being the standard weapon of Tanimura and being prominent in the Ueno Seiwa hit, and pointedly renders the bronze brass rounds in the chambers when the guns are armed. [[spoiler:But the non-lethal rounds in both Saejima's six revolvers on the hit as well as the revolver that Arai shoots Munakata with noticeably have a darker, non-reflective end, distinguishing to a player with a sharp eye which guns aren't killing anyone. The hit and scene pre-empting it also specifically avoid showing the chambered rounds except for a few key shots just to hide the abnormality so players don't notice it too soon.]]

* ManipulativeBastard: You will find a whole lot of them here. [[spoiler: Daigo Dojima, Kido, Munakata...]] It would be faster to name people who don't try to do that in this game.

* WalkingArmory: Taiga Saejima made his debut by using more guns than anyone else in the entire series: six at once! Two in either hand, two in his pockets, one in his belt, and one in his teeth. 36 bullets to wipe out an entire branch of an enemy clan. In Japan, where guns are rare to begin with, this is ''ludicrous.'' The game also has an achievement for Saejima finding and carrying five guns at once in his inventory.
** This was an InvokedTrope, and patently ''looks'' ridiculous (even though he [[spoiler: apparently]] completed the mission well enough), because Majima was supposed to turn up and use half of the guns. The reason why they packed more guns than either could wield simultaneously is that reloading would lose critical seconds, especially since the hit was to be carried out in a small area, and Majima and Saejima would be ''heavily'' outnumbered. [[spoiler: Also, the guns came from the police, who are bound to have plenty]].

** The Tojo Clan's ridiculous size finally gets hit with this. [[spoiler:Namely that a clan that gargantuan need a ''lot'' of money to keep running. Money Daigo has all but run out of, forcing him to throw in with Munukata's scheme.]]

* {{Kappa}}: One substory revolves around Saejima trying to find a supposed kappa, which turns out to be just a guy in a kappa custome. [[spoiler:[[RealAfterAll It ends with an actual kappa peeking out of a manhole]]. You can see its model in full in the Ultimate Challenge "Sprint Match 3" where you have to outrun a horde of kappas trying to tackle you in the streets of Kamurocho. Suffice it to say, ItMakesJustAsMenseSenseInContext.]]