P’shaw. I know the Yakuza games are much-loved by the Japanese and the three or four westerners who bother to buy them, but it’s another demo that did nothing for me. I started the game, went into a club, watched a dull cut scene, then found myself in a big fight against multiple enemies. The fighting controls felt stodgy and I had no idea how to kill the main foe. His health bar never moved, but I managed to get him to whip out a sword by hitting him when he was at the top of some stairs. No idea why it only happened there, but it was the same in two attempts. In both attempts, I couldn’t work out how the hell I was meant to fight the guy when he had his sword out and so died quickly.

Might be a great demo to show off how things have changed to fans of the series, but it didn’t work for me at all. Much as I hate lengthy hand-holding tutorials, a little pop-up box of tactical hints now and again might have been nice.