Yakuza: Dead Souls

Yakuza: Dead Souls All right, now we're at Yakuza: Dead Souls. And yes, this is the one where Kamurocho has a zombie outbreak. I've been covering the different branches of this series along with the numbered games, so I wanted to give this one its own space. Dead Souls takes characters and places that are already familiar and puts them into a completely different situation. You still have substories, karaoke, hostess clubs, gambling, and people asking you to help with their problems. You also have infected people running through the streets while the military keeps moving the quarantine barriers. The four playable characters are Shun Akiyama, Goro Majima, Ryuji Goda, and Kazuma Kiryu, in that order. Each has four chapters, followed by the finale. Their signature weapons give them different roles: Akiyama has his twin handguns, Majima has a shotgun, Ryuji has a gun built into his prosthetic arm, and Kiryu eventually gets an anti-materiel rifle. Most of the fighting revolves around guns, movement, and environmental attacks rather than the usual brawler combat. Before anything else, Dead Souls is an alternate-continuity spinoff. It isn't Yakuza 5, and you don't have to insert the zombie outbreak into the main timeline to understand what happened between 4 and 5. Ryuji being here is another reason to make that distinction clear. I'd put it after Yakuza 4 when taking this detour, because that gives Akiyama and the returning cast their proper introduction first. The Japanese release is called Ryū ga Gotoku OF THE END. It came out on PS3 in Japan in 2011, followed by the Western Dead Souls release in 2012. These guides use the English PS3 version's names and trophy requirements. A Japanese guide can be helpful, but some translated item names and controls won't line up word for word. Helpful Links: Complete English PS3 walkthrough: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps3/998171-yakuza-dead-souls/faqs/79387 Platinum roadmap and trophy requirements: https://www.playstationtrophies.org/game/yakuza-dead-souls/guide/ With that being said, the thing I'd explain to somebody starting this one is that knowing Yakuza doesn't automatically mean you know how to play Dead Souls. The camera and aiming take adjustment. Akiyama's handguns don't make the ammunition for every other gun unlimited. The quarantine keeps changing which routes you can use. And the hardest difficulty makes getting knocked down in a crowd a much bigger problem than it might seem early on. There is a lot more to finishing it than reaching the credits, too. There are 60 substories, partner and hostess progression, Hasegawa's directives and combat missions, weapon upgrades, underground dungeons, an Amon fight, and a separate Endless Subterranea challenge. The platinum also requires Extra Hard and Dead Souls mode, and those two runs do not use the same starting rules. I'll keep the setup here light on story spoilers. The walkthroughs get specific where they need to, especially with the bosses and side quests. I don't want to call something a guide and then leave out the part that actually helps you get through it.