Yakuza

Because Yakuza 3 came out this past week, I thought I might as well write a review of the first game in the series, which I’m sure at some point, will become a PS2 Classic.

Story

You play as Kazuma Kiryu, a Yakuza in enforcer (Dragon of Dojima is his rank) and you start the game off in a bit of a pickle. You take the fall for the death of a Yakuza boss for a childhood friend of yours (one that you spent time in an orphanage with), and then go to jail. After serving your lengthy sentence where your character hasn’t seemed to age at all seemingly you’re released and try to find out what happened with your friend, your Yakuza Clan (the Tojos) and find out what has happened since you’ve been in the slammer.

Despite the fact the story is a bit cliché, I really got into the characters. Even though Kazuma is a Mafia member he’s certainly a stand up guy and you really see him as the good guy in this story that feels as large and involved as a first class rpg. Betrayals and twists are always surprising and it’s always a thrill to see your character triumph over his enemies. It’s a lot like the Rocky movies in that sense. Even though they’re unbelievable and cliché when Rocky is in the ring you can’t help but cheer for him.

Gameplay

Image Via IGN.com

The world of Yakuza is set in a district of Tokyo, and there are many different shops, stores and restaurants that are fully explorable and the city is teaming with people. It’s really vibrant and is an interesting place to set a game. Imagine GTA but in Tokyo, and you can go into way more stores instead of them all being just painted store fronts. You don’t drive cars when you’re roaming the world though, so you’ll be running everywhere. It’s a large area still, but it makes it seem a little bigger because you have to walk everywhere. (Taxis do serve as a bit of a warp system though, so if you know where you’re going you don’t have to see your character running for five minutes to get there).

Combat in Yakuza is straight up brawler style and the combat is seriously satisfying. Anything in the world you can pick up and use as a weapon, and as you pummel your opponents to a pulp it never seems to get old. When you’re running around the world street thugs and rival Yakuza will run up to you and initiate a fight, after beating these people to a pulp you gain experience points and you can upgrade your stats, learn new moves, and your character becomes extremely powerful by the end of the game. The boss fights make you think out your strategy a bit more, and you’ll need to make use of your blocking, parrying, and sidestepping stills you’ll learn. But they were all really thrilling, and great challenges.

Graphics

Image Via IGN.com

They get the job done, and it’s an authentic depiction of the city (or so they say, I’ve only seen Tokyo in pictures). But having tried it on both an SD tv and an HD tv both on a PS3, you owe it to yourself to play it on the old school set. PS2 games for the most part don’t do to well when they’re stretched out to widescreen when they’re not used to it. The characters all really emote well though, and for PS2 hardware it’s impressive in that sense.

The game runs smoothly though, and it’s quite colourful. The depiction of violence in the game is awesome because the animations are brutal and over the top in a way where it’s still entertaining and gritty, but not nauseating.

I played through the North American version and the game was dubbed into English. Some actors that I’ve even heard of were part of the localization (like Micheal Rosenbaum who played Lex Luthor in TV’s Smallville). For the most part they do their job well, and they get you into the story. Don’t expect anything Oscar worthy, but there are still some good performances in there that add to the story.

How does it hold up Today?

Playing through this title I was compelled to get to the end, the story was driving me forward, and the action was addictive and satisfying. I loved this game, and you owe it to yourself to pick it up. I got my copy used for $14.99 at a local gamestore, now that Yakuza 3 is out in North America you might need to search around for a copy as it wasn’t a big seller.

I can see why these games as such huge sellers in Japan though, it’s easy to get attached to the characters and I’m looking forward to playing Yakuza 2, which I felt compelled to buy. If you’re in anyway interesting in Japanese culture, this game needs to be in your collection.

9/10

Approx 16-17 hours of playtime.

WARNING! If you have an 80 gig PS3 with backwards compatibility this game will freeze at the 13^th chapter, play this one on your ps2, or end up being REALLY upset come the end of the game.