Review #622: Yakuza

 Just when I thought I had played everything worth playing on the PS2!

 So... a few years ago I got my hands on Yakuza 4 and I fell in love with the crime drama soap opera as well as all the silly humor that peered its head between the story missions. I almost platinum'd the game, even going so far as to defeat the Amon brothers and, surprisingly even to myself, got the Trophy for the hostess mini-game. One of the trophies required watching the recaps of the previous games, and let me tell you, they completely sold me on the franchise. I was gonna play them all. Time passes and Yakuza 5's demo hits the PSN store. It's great, of course, but a certain piece of news comes to me: Digital only. Disappointed, I completely forgot about the Yakuza franchise. But the franchise caught on and every game since has gotten a physical release, and here I am fixing errors past: Not playing through the entire series.

 In this first game you play as Kiryu, an ex-Yakuza who took the fall for killing his own leader, something he did in order to protect his best friend, and actual murderer, Nishiki. Ten years go by and Kazuma Kiryu is out of prison and back to the city of Kamurocho, but while the city hasn't changed the people sure have. Nishsiki is now a ruthless leader of his own group(Or 'family' as they call them) and their best friend, and Kazuma's love interest, Yumi is nowhere to be seen. Just so happens that the Tojo family has been robbed of 10 billion Yen and a young girl, Haruka, is looking for her mom. All these seemingly unconnected events and people come together to make for one fantastic and over-the-top soap opera that's as thrilling as it is exciting. You'll find yourself making your own guesses as to how it all pans out because it's just so interesting! And that's just the main story, you're free to tackle any of 70 side-quests that have their own mini scripts, often delving into the ridiculous. In a good way. The bland voice acting does help add a bit of personality to the game, because it feels like a proper dubbed Asian crime flick. Speaking of the voice acting, they had some really great talent, like Mark Hamill and Eliza Dushku, but even their performances left a lot to be desired.

 The game takes place in the city of Kamurocho, a city filled with side activities. Sure, you can meander about hoping to come across the various sidequests, but you can also search for the 48 locker keys, each locker hiding a goodie for you. You could go to the massage parlor and engage in a silly minigame, you could go visit the hostess bars and try to seduce them or why not hit the batting cages? But, maybe, the crane at the arcade is more up your alley. Busting skulls will be the thing you'll be doing the most, but dammit if they didn't go the extra mile to sell you on the city of Kamurcho! It all adds up to make Kamurocho feel alive, and like a proper district infested by Yakuza and gangs. 10+ for effort.

 The brunt of the game is like so: You watch a long-winded, but awfully interesting, set of cutscenes and get tasked with a goal, such as 'Feed the dog'(Seriously, it makes sense in context) and then... you are free to run throughout Kamurocho. Want to follow the story? Just follow the pink arrow on the radar below. But maybe you want to go to any of the shops and restock on healing items, or maybe weapons, you can do so too! As a matter of fact, I suggest you take frequent walks in-between chapters through Kamurocho in order to try to find side-quests, they really do help fleshing out the city and showing you just how much of a goodie-two-shoes Kazuma is. That said, do be careful, as random encounters are out and about. After a while you'll learn to recognize which NPCs will trigger a fight if you walk close to them, so you can avoid them. At times the encounter rate can be a bit too high, but that's mostly during the last chapters of the game, since each chapter has a level cap, and once you hit it enemies will stop spawning. You can, however, equip a lucky bracelet if it gets too annoying. I don't recommend it, however, as leveling up allows you to develop Kazuma in any of three ways: More Health, better Heat consumption or more moves. You can, eventually, get every area to level 10, but you are free to prioritize however you like. I always kept my Health at the highest level while Heat was a close second, for instance.

 Exploring isn't the only thing you'll be doing, as pretty much any problem can be fixed with Kazuma's fists. Square is your weak four-hit combo string and triangle is a strong attack that can be used to end your combos with. Circle can be used to grab enemies, X is a dodge and R1 can be used to target enemies. You can also pick up weapons from the floor, from pipes to road cones, anything is a weapons in Kazuma's hands... or your enemies'. Landing attacks and keeping on the offensive increases and maintains your Heat gauge. At first you can only use it to deliver powerful Heat attacks by grabbing enemies next to a wall, but as you develop Kazuma's stats you'll gain access to a few more Heat actions, such as Heat attacks on downed enemies or while holding weapons, or even an increase or two to Kazuma's strenght while the gauge is full.

 Look, I loved the game, but one thing is true: Combat is kinda wonky. R1 targeting doesn't work very well and it's easy for Kazuma to lose the target(Although I think it was done on purpose? Since it happens whenever you dodge. Regardless, it's a poor design choice) so often times you'll be having to let go off the targeting, reposition yourself and then press R1 again. Not that that's too easy, since the camera is terrible and you can't move it around with the shoulder buttons or the right analog stick, so mostly you'll be moving around hoping the camera lets you see that one guy that is shooting at you from afar or press the L2 button to shift the camera behind Kazuma's back. Neither option works very well, especially considering that Kazuma's back will be blocking your view from incoming attacks! And once you start your attack string you are committed to punching in that direction, since Kazuma has a one track mind. You can, however, unlock an attack that lets you kick in the opposite direction you are attacking from, but it's not the end all be all to this issue as it requires enemies being at the right distance.

 One tiny issue that my get on people's nerves are the loading times. They are not too long, but they are frequent. Navigating Kamurocho is through fixed-camera angles, and while they aren't intrusive, it takes one or two seconds to load different areas. Add to that that random encounters require a loading screen before and after the fact, so it can get a bit grating when you hit the last parts of the game and there seems to be a miscreant on every corner waiting to get their due.

 I can wholeheartedly recommend Yakuza on the PS2. It's a fantastic action/beat'em up game that while a bit repetitive and clunky in execution has a lot of heart. The script is brilliant and knows the perfect way to deliver both heavy-handed and silly stuff without generating any mood whiplash. Everything flows well together, so much so that it's easy to forgive its shortcomings when it comes to the combat. Yakuza was a fantastic gem in the rough, and I can't wait to delve into the sequels.
 8.0 out of 10