Monday, September 19, 2011

Music! Yakuza 4 Edition

So, since I've been playing it tons lately and because I have a pretty bad headache that is preventing me from thinking enough to write something cohesive, I decided to showcase a few songs from Yakuza 4.  Originally, I was a little skeptical of the soundtrack after the intro song, "For Faith" didn't really....call out to me.  But it grew on me, certainly, and I've heard some that are just quite good.  The challenge, of course, is in finding them since Yakuza 4's OST is apparently massive and requires two volumes.  Though I've learned Volume 2 is mostly just the karaoke songs, which.....aren't actually terrible.  But I probably won't feature those.

Now, in Akiyama's chapter, you'll eventually run across a character by the name of Saigoh who appears to be a rather military man and is, in fact, a mercenary-for-hire with no job at the moment.  After witnessing Akiyama's willingness to help innocent bystanders by fighting off their oppressors, he offers Akiyama some training to awaken his 'hidden potentials'.  Through the training, you get, well, some very useful moves, though the other benefit is the song that plays during said training sessions.  It's called, quite simply "Theme of Saigoh" s'far as I can tell.


It's fairly rockin', as they say, and while not being the most inventive track out there, I still get a kick out of it and it really helps one be in the mood to battle.  Which, well, if there's anything the soundtrack to Yakuza 4 (or any of the Yakuza games for that matter) does, it sets the mood for battle quite well with every song that needs to.

Next up is a song that I, unfortunately, forget where I heard it in the game, but it sounds neat regardless and could fit into several different portions of the game, really.  It's called "Rebellions" and carries quite a different sound from the rest of the soundtrack that I've heard so far.


The beginning is very...noir-influenced, I believe and carries a quite nice and distinct personality separate from the in-your-face-and-pumped notes that many of the songs on the soundtrack carry.  While the fact that those songs are as they are isn't a bad thing, some variation like this is quite nice and quite welcome.

And the next song, which is near-mandatory for me to include is, apparently, Goro Majima's theme.  (And that would be why it's near-mandatory for me to include it.)  There's....really not a whole lot to say about it.  Goro Majima is the goddamn man and his theme is equally great.  So, without further ado, this is "Receive and Bite You" which, well, I don't know why that is.  It'd make sense if he had a snake tattoo but he has, I believe, a Japanese Theater-style evil spirit on his back.  But hey, whatever, it sounds good.


I really like the build-up to the breakdown at the start, personally, and then it just goes wild.  Much like Majima himself.  So there, it's fitting.

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