Thoughts on Yakuza(PS2)

[Lego]

I saw this for cheap at EBgames and was wondering what people thought of it. IGN and Gamespot gave it nice reviews, but sometimes reviews are subjective. It reminds me a lot of Shenmue with the open areas and the ability to do little side quests and go in stores. The combat seems to be more of a "The Bouncer" style with 3D fighting and random encounters. While I've read up on it, I usually go with first hand impressions a little more.

[Johnny]

Sega's best game in years. That not enough? OK try a gripping story with fantastic combat and some adventuring thrown in for good measure.
Combat takes place kinda like an RPG where you will meet thugs and then be taken into an arena based setting where you must beat them all to level up and move on.
Personally I'd say it was the best PS2 game of last year.

[GHardin]

Intriguing story, decent dub, crummy fighting. The fighting isn't bad per se - it's a lot more entertaining than Shenmue's battle system, but after a while, the battles are just repetitive and grow kind of dull...but that's only if you use nothing but your fists and feet. Using weapons and finding hotspots during battle is a more entertaining endeavor.

All in all, it's pretty good, and it's worth buying if you enjoy this kind of setup.

[Lego]

Originally Posted by johnny

Sega's best game in years. That not enough?

That scares me more than helps me

The only thing I could see myself not liking is the fighting setup. But still it sounds like a pretty interesting game. I still have Shenmue for the Dreamcast, so I'll hit the store sometime today and add it to my collection.

[Nyanyaan]

I agree that it is a great game..BUT....know going in that the F-bomb is the most spoken word in the entire game. In just random street fights (which can be rather common)you can hear 3-4 different versions of it!

[ilmaestro]

I agree basically with johnny, except the combat was solid, rather than fantastic, and there were at least two better PS2 games (FFXII and Okami) released last year, but this is up there.

[dejr8bud]

Yakuza is a good game with wasted potential. A somewhat interesting story(a little cliche)with a decent cast of characters.

Dub is mostly atrocious but when its good its really good. I liked the music but would have liked to heard more tracks.

Fighting engine is a mixed bag. There are some cool and fun gameplay mechanics but most of the new moves learned during the game are worthless. You can get by with the basic moves that you start with. Also you tend to hit air alot. A lock-on might have helped but that would have made the game easier than it already is. I wish there was a hard mode.

Load times are kind of annoying. This game probably should have been on 2 discs.