[10/29/07] Yakuza

[Fatal Rose]

Published by: SEGA

Developed by: Amusement Vision

Genre: Action Adventure

Number of Players: 1-2

Release Date:

US: September 5, 2006

Japan: December 8, 2005

Europe: September 15, 2006

Australia: September 21, 2006

Yakuza promises to immerse you in the Japanese underworld in this crime drama epic action adventure. Is it an accurate representation of Japan and it's underworld? No. But it does give you an idea and it is a big immersing adventure that is enjoyable.

Criminal organizations have always been a topic of interest, specially in media and fiction. It has fascinated the general public with its violence, strict brutality, and underworld myth's. Yakuza tries to bring this world to you in a fun and immersing experience. Does it get the job done? for the most part yes.

You begin the adventure controlling young up and coming Yakuza member Kazuma, who is doing very well and is about to move up in the ranks and start his own family (which means an individual faction within the Yakuza). The game opens with a simple debt collect mission, when you arrive at the scene (thanks to the map on the bottom left of the screen that points exactly where you need to be), it provides a good tutorial on how the game is played in actual game play. After you accomplish the mission you meet up with KAzuma's mentor. While in conversation with him you get a urgent phone call saying a good female friend of yours has been kidnapped and your best friend (who is also a friend of hers) has gone off to rescue her.

 

Problem is the guy that kidnapped her is a very high ranking member in the Yakuza, and interfering with him is pretty much forbidden and can mean certain death. Kazuma being the loyal brave man that he is runs to his friends rescue against his mentors advice. Upon arriving at the scene he finds a dead body with his best friend holding a gun and the girl in shock. Out of loyalty and honor he takes fall for his friend and ends up in prison being labeled a traitor and expelled from the Yakuza.

Ten years later you are released from prison and the year is now 2005. The real adventure begins. Instead of a joyful reunion you find that your crime family has all but fallen apart, your girl is missing and your best friend that you took the fall for has "changed".

 

Yakuza's gameplay is basically split into two modes. The overarching Adventure Mode allows you to run around the city, fight random yakuza’s/street thugs, explore, purchase items, and gather information from ordinary citizens. You can expect a plethora of sub scenario side missions, including catching con-artists, reuniting families, saving stray puppies, and visiting mini-game venues --just like Shenmue.

While exploring the city adversaries will give chase to you, avoiding these is near to impossible at times, and it always seems to happen when you are trying to reach a certain destination. It almost feels like random RPG battles similar to the likes of Final Fantasy 7-10. But overall you will enjoy it, the fighting is fun, fast and fluid for the most part. Controling your character can be difficult during combat at times, directing your attacks, countering, evading can become very frustrating at times. Maybe is has something to do with using the analog stick instead of the d-pad? I don't know to be honest. But the controls did annoy the hell out of me at times. But its not all the time, overall all the combat is handles pretty good. could have been much better though.

 

But it's not all jsut fist and feet, just like in Shenmue there are a lot of side quests and mini games to participate in. Going to strip clubs and keeping in touch with random girls, saving and feeding a puppy, going to the bar and getting drunk, helping citizens out against Yakuza just to name a few. It is immersible and fun. Trying to complete all the extra stuff can be tough at times, there is no pinter on the indicating where the location is. You just have to try to remember this street is, this store etc..

 

Battles can take place at random locations, even though the controls are pretty flawed the fights can be intense and exciting. You can stomp your opponents face on the ground, mount them and ground and pound them, hit a string of combo's to build up your heat gauge to unleash devastating throws or or enhanced strikes. You can also pick up weapons with most of them having a unique attack, if your heat gauge is high enough you can unleash a special attack with whatever random weapon you are armed with. Beer bottles, bikes, boards, knifes, baseball bats, Katana's, and trash cans all are fair game.

The story is pretty good compared to most games, you will definitely feel inclined to reach the next destination to see what happens next.

The overall gameplay experience of Yakuza is a mix bag of outstanding moments of plot development and intrigue soiled by repetitive Battle Mode ambushes and experience point grinding. The game starts off engaging and immersive for the first few hours of gameplay. However once you get to a certain event, the instance like Battle Mode ambushes get ridiculously frequent --about a battle every city block. This pattern of repeat is duplicated throughout the entire game and it becomes a chore to travel from one part of the city to another. It would be a more pleasant experience if the fighting was handled better with a more in-depth combat system on par with Shenmue. How come they just did not port over the already amazing combat engine from Shenmue with a few differences here and there with some updates. Give the main character a different move list but similar play style and input commands, would have made the combat much better. It’s not horrible but nowhere near as good as it could have been. It wont ruin the experience though, it is good enough and Yakuza is still a great game.

In the end, Yakuza is a fun game with a pretty decent game engine and an engrossing storyline. If you're into crime noir action games/a fan of martial arts or fighting games, then Yakuza won't disappoint you. The gameplay may be a little convulsive but Yakuza more than makes up for that through engrossing story and attention to details. If you enjoyed Shenmue you may enjoy this game, but honestly Shenmue was much better. If only the fighting mechanics were better, but knowing me I am usually expecting to much since I compare most games like this to Shenmue. but honestly I had a lot of fun with this game, it's simple combat is fun and entertaining for the most part. most people wont be as hard on this game as I was. If you have not played through Shenmue 1 and 2 then give this game a few extra points.

 

Controls: 7/10

As alluded to earlier, could have been much better. At times you will destroy your opponents with ease and at other times you will end up trying to punch the wall for some reason with no intention of doing so.

Graphics: 7.5/10

Sometimes it looks great, other times it looks bland. Overall it gets the job done, some slow down does occur though. Character models look good but lack detail.

Sound: 7/10

No option to change it to the original Japanese voice acting really hurts this game, It's hard for me to get into a game when every character is Japanese and is speaking English. But the voice acting is ok overall. The music and sound effects are ok. Nothing to memorable. due to the repetitive battles the fight music can get annoying at times. It is ok, not bad. You wont feel the need to mute the volume.

Gameplay: 8.5/10

Overall this game is a great experience, very fun. In spite of its flaws I was hooked on the game for two and a half days straight. I really liked it and I think most gamers will too.

 

Overall Score: 7.5

 

Grade: c+

 

Overall I give this game a

Link to art gallery of this game:

http://www.kawaiidream.net/

[L.S.D]

So, it's trying to be like Shenmue but is not Shenmue?

 

I was expecting better. The preview picture shots of the main character at the red light district with all the neons light up give me hope that SHenmue might be revived sometimes since they succeed to bring this game to PS2. Guess it doesn;t meant to be.

 

What about Yakuza 2?

[JKKDARK]

So, it's trying to be like Shenmue but is not Shenmue?

 

I was expecting better. The preview picture shots of the main character at the red light district with all the neons light up give me hope that SHenmue might be revived sometimes since they succeed to bring this game to PS2. Guess it doesn;t meant to be.

 

What about Yakuza 2?

The Yakuza 2 US version will be released in 2008.

 

Too bad this serie is Sony exclusive

[Fatal Rose]

So, it's trying to be like Shenmue but is not Shenmue?

 

I was expecting better. The preview picture shots of the main character at the red light district with all the neons light up give me hope that SHenmue might be revived sometimes since they succeed to bring this game to PS2. Guess it doesn;t meant to be.

 

What about Yakuza 2?

I think the team behind this game took ideas from Shenmue. I think they were also trying to cash in on the cult following Shenmue has. Give this game a shot LSD, I think you will like it.

[2eyez]

I thought the game was good. I wish I could of beaten more people up. Enemies needs to respawn.

[L.S.D]

So, it's trying to be like Shenmue but is not Shenmue?

 

I was expecting better. The preview picture shots of the main character at the red light district with all the neons light up give me hope that SHenmue might be revived sometimes since they succeed to bring this game to PS2. Guess it doesn;t meant to be.

 

What about Yakuza 2?

I think the team behind this game took ideas from Shenmue. I think they were also trying to cash in on the cult following Shenmue has. Give this game a shot LSD, I think you will like it.

I can't as I sold off my PS2 for some time already

Hoping it will come out on PSP

[SuperSoaka420]

my bro bought this game last year. it flocking rocks! i love beating the guys up. thank god for all these beat em up games. nothing can beat grand theft auto though.