The Steam Machine PC Gaming Podcast · Dalton Suter, Willie Eaton, TeamRetrogue

Yakuza 6: The Song of Life

August 15, 2025·2 hr 12 min·5 clips

I had to go to Japan and talk with the Mad Dog of Kamurocho to get our guest back for the show.

This episode of The Steam Machine PC Gaming Podcast focuses on the game Yakuza 6: The Song of Life. Host Dalton is joined by regular co-host Willy Michi and special guest McAuliffe from Team Retro, who returns to the show after a hiatus. The group reconvenes to discuss their experiences playing through this final chapter of Kazuma Kiryu's story. The hosts note Yakuza 6 was the first game in the series to use the new Dragon Engine, marking a significant graphical and technical shift. They compare its combat, where Kiryu has only one fighting style, to the multiple stances in earlier titles like Yakuza 0 and 5. McAuliffe mentions he only finished Yakuza 5 a few weeks prior, allowing him to jump directly into this game. Willy Michi observes the story begins with a recap of Yakuza 5's ending, creating a seamless narrative transition. The group discusses the game's shorter length and a new progression system where technique experience is earned primarily through mini-games rather than combat. A surprising technical discussion reveals co-host Nate experienced severe frame rate issues with the PC version, which were oddly resolved by launching the game through Steam's Big Picture Mode. Dalton and McAuliffe have been extensively playing the classic MMO Final Fantasy XI together, with Dalton guiding McAuliffe through its lack of modern quality-of-life features like quest markers. McAuliffe shares he is scaling back on review obligations for his channel to focus on enjoying games again, including using a modded Switch to transfer a three-year-old Breath of the Wild save to a Switch 2. Willy Michi details his recent pinball adventures, including playing a massive 1979 Atari table called Hercules that uses a cue ball-sized pinball. Dalton created custom entrance themes in WWE 2K25 using a rap song from Willy Michi and a metal song he wrote himself. The hosts briefly tease a collaborative project that involved McAuliffe stepping far outside his comfort zone, which will be featured at the episode's end. McAuliffe also recounts watching *Jurassic Park* for the first time, an experience discussed on another podcast called Media Dump. The tone is highly conversational, casual, and filled with friendly banter and inside jokes between the long-time collaborators. The style blends game critique with personal anecdotes, technical troubleshooting, and tangential discussions about hobbies like pinball and cooking. Listeners who enjoy laid-back, meandering podcasts about gaming culture and the personal lives of the hosts will find this episode engaging. Those seeking a tightly focused, critical review of Yakuza 6's gameplay and story might find the extensive off-topic tangents less appealing.

As heard by us

A brash, funny Yakuza chat that keeps finding the series' strangest corners.

The episode feels like a loud, affectionate hangout, and it keeps circling back to the series' odd little stories. The best parts come when the talk slows for pirate ghosts and the time traveler girl, then veers into baseball management and Clan Creator.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

Press play for a rowdy Yakuza hangout with pirate ghosts and baseball chaos.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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