I’ve been meaning to play the ’Yakuza’ games for a long while now, but always found myself caught up in different franchises constantly. I can confidently say I hate myself for not playing it sooner. I fucking loved ’Yakuza’. I was hooked to a point where the moment I woke up I thought “I really want to play ‘Yakuza’ right now.” This game exceeded my expectations and then some. It has joined along side ’Silent Hill 4: The Room’ and ’Fatal Frame’ as one of my favorite titles on the Playstation 2 ever. I was in love the entire way through its gameplay, narrative, music, world design, basically everything. Now, the game does have a few issues and in certain aspects hasn’t aged perfectly, but it was still impressive to me how accessible and good ’Yakuza’ felt more than fifteen years later.

The game uses a fixed camera perspective as it's easier for the developers to mask some areas loading in with this technique. I’ve always preferred tank controls you’d find from ’Alone in the Dark’ or ’Resident Evil’ with this camera system, but due to ’Yakuza’ being much faster and action oriented, the 3D control scheme works for the better here. I tend to believe that this movement feels worse in enclosed locations, but ’Yakuza’ has very few moments in small areas and focuses more on a large, wide space to traverse through which works towards its benefit to not feel as awkward. The approach taken here was a good one and it doesn’t get in the way of combat either.

The fights in ’Yakuza’ are fantastic. It may be a bit repetitive for some, but I feel the game gives enough options and risk/reward moments to always make it feel like it doesn’t overstay its welcome. You’ll have a few basic combos that you can use to fight baddies with variations of punches, kicks, and grabs. You’ll also be able to stomp on someone before they get up when you knock them down. Then the big thing that helps it from being too tedious is that almost anything can be a weapon. Grabbing a bicycle and twirling around with it knocking everyone around you down never gets old. It remains fun and some weapons can even have different effects such as the tasers and guns. There are other systems to take note of such as dodging and blocking. Blocking is easy by just guarding at the right time, but dodging I never really got the hang of since it felt awkward to me. Dodging isn’t something that is really required though and you can pretty much go through the whole game without needing to worry about it much. The only time combat feels frustrating is when enemies have weapons that can stunlock you for a long time. There were moments where I would get tased by a guy and after Kiryu takes a few years to stand back up he would get tased again. This looped over and over and that can be annoying, but you can sometimes knock weapons out of enemies hands so that helps balance it out a bit.

The other major part of the combat that I haven't mentioned is the heat gauge. When you do enough damage to enemies, a meter will fill and Kiryu will be engrossed with blue flames and at this moment you can do multiple special moves. The main one you have from the start is you can grab an enemy and slam them against a wall. This does a huge amount of damage, but if you take too long dragging an enemy to a wall, your meter will run out or they can break your grab. This can be difficult to pull off so when you do it, it feels really satisfying especially since it's complemented with a big flashy scene. Sometimes in these moments you’ll get a very quick QTE to stomp them while they are down which just adds to the gratification of the moment. I feel though it can be a bit inconsistent at times. Sometimes I would have gotten the special prompt and would’ve interacted with it at the right time, but it would lead to the same punch he would do when he normally grabs an enemy. It always left me feeling a little empty when this happened as I know I did what I needed to do. There are other kinds of special attacks though. After a few upgrades, you can do two extra special moves. A special stomp while an enemy is on the ground and a special attack with a weapon. Neither of these do anywhere near as much damage as the main one, but still do a good amount. Although they don’t do as much damage, they are much easier to pull off. It leads into the risk/reward system I mentioned perfectly as it makes you choose whether you will go for a full blow or one of the other more simple moves. The choice has to be made quickly as the heat gauge will deplete over time and can fall even quicker if you take enough damage. I adore how the heat gauge works and I think it’s what ends up saving the combat from getting too mundane near the end.

The upgrade system in ’Yakuza’ is very simple, but serves the game well. You have three choices with upgrading being soul, technique, and body. These basically are an improved heat gauge, new combos and moves, and health. You’ll unlock experience from simply engaging in combat which can come at a strikingly fast rate. It isn’t too complex and doesn’t need to be. It feels fleshed out and complements the game's systems and combat really well. I spent almost all my points entirely on health and technique as I found I was able to make choices with the heat gauge quickly and it’s always fun unlocking a new combo or attack and trying it out for the first time.

A majority of the game is spent in a small open world that I enjoy. I tend to be very critical of open world games, but ’Yakuza’ is by far one of the bests I’ve seen with the style. The world is small and compact which leads to you memorizing the world over time and just naturally knowing where to go when you need to go to a certain place. I adore these types of games where over time you look at the map less and less as you learn the layout and have it in the back of your head. It always is extraordinarily satisfying getting to that point. A majority of the side quests are simple and tend to be a civilian losing an item and you need to go find and give it to them, but there are a few notable ones which act out as more important and story driven. These ones were very memorable. There’s also a good amount of stores and places you can actually go into such as arcades, restaurants (from simple chains to fancy bars), casinos, and strip clubs. These all make the world feel real especially since you’ll end up learning where these locations exactly are by heart. There is also a feature where random people in the world will just go up to you and fight you for the dumbest reasons. These were funny, but it is a bit difficult to avoid the encounters sometimes if you are meaning to because of the camera angle. This can be quite annoying, especially when you are at the end of the game and just want to do story stuff, but it isn’t too frustrating that it ruins the game’s pacing or anything.

The normal main storyline campaign is also really well paced and structured. The game doesn’t overstay its welcome and knows how long to keep certain chapters and to keep you engaged… mostly. There can be a few times where it feels the game is padding itself a little bit by making you do small fetch quests, but these aren’t ever too long to be noticeable, usually lasting around fifteen or twenty minutes. I felt it was worth mentioning because this does happen here and there, but it doesn’t waste too much of your time which is why I believe it’s as well paced as it is, especially compared to other open world games that drag itself on for a miserable amount of time.

’Yakuza’ has a wild fucking story. So many twists, turns, and insane things happening. I fucking love it. The plot centers around three specific people being Detective Date, Haruka, and of course, Kazuma Kiryu. Haruka is a little girl that you and Date try to protect throughout the game as she has a pendant that is worth ten billion yen that was given to her from her missing mother. With a strong focus on characters, that is the best aspect of the story. The more time you spend with these people, the more you care about them. The way they interact with each other and trust one another more is especially well executed. They don’t just do this through cutscenes, but even gameplay at times. I know a lot of people may not enjoy escorting Haruka around the city, but I loved going to arcades and ice cream shops with her. It doesn’t just make the father/daughter dynamic between them feel stronger, but it also makes you care so much more for her. I wanted to do these activities with her because I was so immersed into the game’s world that I felt she needed a break from all the chaos around her. Oh, and Detective Date I obviously love since I always crush hard on detective characters lol.

The characters aren’t the only strong aspect though. The pacing of the story is phenomenal. You pretty much are stuck in the middle between mafia families, street gangs, politicians, the feds. The whole way through you feel like you’re one step behind all of them, not seeing the whole picture. The payoffs at the end feel especially satisfying because it's a moment of full clarity. The amount of people that are pulling at the strings while you desperately try to find leads is very well done. There are a few more things about it that are great, but I don’t want to go overboard and end up spoiling, but I fucking love the narrative of ’Yakuza’ as well as the characters in the world.

The writing and english dub of the game is very of its time, but I mean that in the best way possible. It’s very charming and had me laughing a lot of the time. This isn’t the case for all characters though. Specifically, Detective Date’s voice actor did an incredible job with his performance and it’s honestly no surprise that he’s coming back for the new game as well. Oh, Kiryu’s voice actor in this game rocks as well and I love his stupid one liners before he beats the shit out of someone.

’Yakuza’ looks amazing. Probably one of the best looking PS2 games ever made. The thing that makes it stick out to me especially is how good the models look. I feel the models in this game look even better than the ones you’d get from some games in the seventh generation. The world itself looks great too. I especially like the chapter where there’s slight snowfall, but I feel it's obvious enough I would enjoy that lol. The atmosphere of the world is unforgettable. It’s also optimized pretty well although when the camera switches angles the game will pause for a few seconds which can feel like it lasts a lot longer than it should. I think it’s a fair compromise though for how well detailed the world is as well as the characters in it. I think the fixed camera adds a lot to the atmosphere of the game as well.

The sound design helps elevate its atmosphere with every busy street being filled with people talking and laughing, but can help in more empty moments when no one is in a building. The fights also sound punchy and responsive which greatly improve the impact they have. It is impossible for me to look over the soundtrack as it is fantastic. So many memorable tracks. I love how almost every song with guitars uses harmonics or dead mutes constantly. I’ve always had a soft spot for those in music. Both the sound design of the game and the OST is fantastic and is just another thing ’Yakuza’ excels at.

I loved ’Yakuza’. It has its flaws and can be a bit janky depending on how used to older games one may be, but everything about it just clicked with me. I didn’t want to do anything but play this game when I was going through it. If you are interested in getting into the franchise just like I was, this is an amazing starting point. (Thanks for reading! I tried to make this review so much shorter, but there was so much I wanted to talk about lol)