Is it a co-op mod that lets two main characters play together? It’s quite ambitious, but based on what we’ve seen so far, it looks exciting.

After waiting a long time for a wildly ambitious co-op mod, here come two at once. First, the revamped co-op campaign from the original Command & Conquer was released, and now someone has reworked Yakuza 5 to be playable with a friend. That’s modding genius Jhrino. He is responsible for Intertwined Fates, a mod that adds multiplayer to the penultimate adventure of Yakuza protagonist Kiryu Kazama. The mod allows two players to experience the entire Yakuza 5 story together. The second player takes on the role of Ichiban, the series’ new protagonist.

Intertwined Fates doesn’t just throw Ichiban into the world and ignore him; it integrates him into every part of the experience. In addition to enabling Kiryu and Ichiban to explore and fight together, the mod includes playable cooperative dance matches and hunting. Furthermore, Ichiban is included in Yakuza 5‘s taxi minigame, idol battles, and hand-to-hand combat; however, he is not playable in these scenes.

The mod brings Ichiban into the story as naturally as possible. Watch the scenes in the video below. In the video’s description, Jhrino says they made Ichiban an extra muscle for Shinada and Haruka, so he appears mainly in scenes with them. Admittedly, some of Ichiban’s appearances seem a bit forced, but Jhrino explains that he is not yet proficient in animation and that the quality of the scenes will improve as the game progresses. This is partly due to their growing experience and partly due to the help of Janfon1, another modder who joined the project later.

Still, it’s impressive. You can find the download and installation instructions on Nexus Mods, by the way. Intertwined Fates is designed primarily as a local co-op experience, but Jhrino says it can be made to work online with a little extra effort. If you don’t have someone to play with, the mod supports Ichi as an AI character, so you can enjoy playing solo with him.

Source: PCGamer, Nexus Mods