Yakuza 6’s massive demo is now available on PlayStation 4

It’s time to light up the streets of Kamurocho as famed Yakuza series protagonist Kazuma Kiryu with the Yakuza 6: The Song of Life demo. The massive 36.53 GB demo for PlayStation 4 fans is live now, and you can start your progress through the game in time for April’s full release. 

It’s time to light up the streets of Kamurocho as famed Yakuza series protagonist Kazuma Kiryu with the Yakuza 6: The Song of Life demo. The massive 36.53 GB demo for PlayStation 4 fans is live now, and you can start your progress through the game in time for April’s full release. 

The Yakuza 6 Prologue Demo kicks off at what seems to be the very beginning of the game, so you can follow his journey throughout all five previous core games (aside from the spinoff Yakuza: Dead Souls) and get up to speed on his life thus far as well as the important people in his life. The story is, as usual, excellent, I was able to experience from downloading the demo ahead of time with an Australian PSN account. 

There’s so much to do that you routinely forget you’re in a demo, until you hit up an arcade and are met with a message that it isn’t available in this version of the game. Bummer. Though there is plenty to interact with that’ll take your mind off not being able to head to the arcade just yet.

For instance, you can work out at the RIZAP gym and buff Kiryu up, which includes having your trainer act as your nutritionist as you run out to a restaurant and beef up on the type of food he suggests for a bonus. You can take selfies with your phone and interact with those who text you with adorable LINE-like stickers, too. 

Failing that, you can hit up the batting cages, eat at your favorite restaurants, and take part in a few sub stories as well as story missions. It’s more than enough to get you started, and you can bring all your progress over to the full game, including your inventory and EXP. You won’t earn trophies in the demo, but you can always go back and play the beginning of the game again if that’s something you find important. 

Yakuza 6: The Song of Life is the final entry in Kazuma Kiryu’s story, and it looks like he’s going out with a bang. The full game releases on PlayStation 4 on April 17.