Video games are a pretty repetitive media. How many times have we complained about samey open worlds, overdone tropes, copy-pasted mechanics ? But sometimes, a game surprises you with its exuberant creativity and soul. Yakuza is one of the latter type of game.
Yakuza is a series that always intrigued me from afar. I would see these insane clips of the protagonist using pretty much anything from the decor as a weapon, a guy with an eyepatch moan before fighting the protagonist in a minigame battle, all while people would keep singing the praises of the game's story and characters. It just seemed like a weird match at first glance, like pear and melted chocolate. But, just like pear and melted chocolate, Yakuza is a mix of insane gameplay and characters with a good, drama-driven story that works wonders.
No aspect of the game encapsulates the craziness of Yakuza as well as Majima. The guy is a complete psycho, capable of inspiring fear just as well as he is capable making you smile and laugh. His schemes to get Kiryu to fight him are hilarious, the japanese voice actor does a great job at bringing the character to life. He switches from terrifying psycho to goofball in a heartbeat and I love him for it. He absolutely is the best part of this game.
As for gameplay, it varies greatly in quality. You can dfeinitely feel this game was born on the PS2, as there is some grindy boss fights in there. The combat gameplay is at its best when you have a handful of goons in front of you that you take out alone, with or without furniture, motorcycles, bikes, katanas, lightsaber rip-offs or any other object you can put your hands on, ripping through them as the one-man army you are. When you get to one-on-one though... the game can get frustrating and unsatisfying. If you didn't know this was a PS2 remake, you'll definitely know once you get to the boss fights. These are impossible to do without item consumption. Bosses will ignore your attacks, dodge pretty much everything in heat mode, which isn't helped by the lock-on system that can be dreadful at times (especially when you only have two enemies left, it kinda pannicks at that point). My tip is to just stack healing items and power through, because it feels like that's what the game wants you to do. Rush mode is also your best option for boss fights, switching to other styles to use heat attacks.
The boss combat is definitely the worst aspect of the game, but the combat, overall, is great. Heat attacks are absolutely amazing, and even though I would've liked more variations in the animations of each individual type of heat attack (if i see Kiryu pick up a knocked down guy's head to punch it one more time, I'm gonna explode), there are a lot (especially for a game that originates from the PS2) of different context sensitive heat actions by the end-game. The 4 styles are pretty cool, each with their own best context to use. My favourite is probably rush, as you can do some real serious movie-style one on one fights filled with dodges and counter attacks. I didn't really try out dragon-style, as it takes time to become viable and by the time it did, I was already too familiar with the three other styles to switch.
The side content is really well done. The "entertainment" activities are really cool, wether they be bowling, darts or, especially, POCKET CIRCUIT, THE ABSOLUTE LOVE OF MY LIFE. Seriously, it's so cool and addictive, even though I was terrible at it. I will say it was hard to understand which attributes were really important and which weren't (the game insists acceleration is important for slopes but honestly, you should always prioritise a better top speed, even on sloped circuits), but it's addictive. The side-quest attached to it is really cool as well, which I can say about a few other "substories" as the game calls them. The one where you make a tourist visit town is really cool for example. It is a shame though that a lot of them are just about Kiryu escaping scams by beating up people, it just gets kinda repetitive. Majima Everywhere is an amazing concept, and there are great moments attached to it.
SPOILERS FOR THE STORY AHEAD
As for the story, it tries, maybe a bit too hard. The characters are great, with understandable motivations. Kiryu is an interesting idea, a kind-hearted yakuza who does his job in his own way. Nishikiyama is a great villain, shame he barely shows up by the end of the game. Overall, the pitch of the story is great: Yakuza drama, ten billion yen stolen, a mysterious girl at the center of it all, that's delightfully 2000-y. But, the story gets confused at the halfway point, and gets confusing in the final quarter. Chapter 6 is just pure filler, chapter 7 is better, but then it just devolves into chaos. New characters, whole new entities are presented in the final quarter of the story. The key to the mystery at the heart of this game is a guy you've barely heard of. I think the story would've been better if we stayed focused on the Tojo Clan family war, as that's what the first quarter of the game sets up. By the end, Nishikiyama feels like a complete after-thought, which is a shame because his dedicated cutscenes between each chapter made it so that he was the best-developped character in the game. He is the final boss, sure, but I'd argue he isn't the main antagonist, as that role falls onto Jingu, who you've barely heard of until then. I just think it undermines Nishikiyama's character development from loser to villain, as he just feels like he's been a pawn all along, really undermining his story. Furthermore, his sacrifice is just stupid: why did you blow up the building while the ones you are trying to save are still there ??? I know that you could interpretate his actions as pride, done in spite of Jingu rather than in favour of Yumi and Kiryu, but come on. Oh, and Yumi's death isn't nearly as impactful as what it could've been, because we barely know her. The game's story, by the end of it, just feels like too much.
Yakuza is a series that always intrigued me from afar. I would see these insane clips of the protagonist using pretty much anything from the decor as a weapon, a guy with an eyepatch moan before fighting the protagonist in a minigame battle, all while people would keep singing the praises of the game's story and characters. It just seemed like a weird match at first glance, like pear and melted chocolate. But, just like pear and melted chocolate, Yakuza is a mix of insane gameplay and characters with a good, drama-driven story that works wonders.
No aspect of the game encapsulates the craziness of Yakuza as well as Majima. The guy is a complete psycho, capable of inspiring fear just as well as he is capable making you smile and laugh. His schemes to get Kiryu to fight him are hilarious, the japanese voice actor does a great job at bringing the character to life. He switches from terrifying psycho to goofball in a heartbeat and I love him for it. He absolutely is the best part of this game.
As for gameplay, it varies greatly in quality. You can dfeinitely feel this game was born on the PS2, as there is some grindy boss fights in there. The combat gameplay is at its best when you have a handful of goons in front of you that you take out alone, with or without furniture, motorcycles, bikes, katanas, lightsaber rip-offs or any other object you can put your hands on, ripping through them as the one-man army you are. When you get to one-on-one though... the game can get frustrating and unsatisfying. If you didn't know this was a PS2 remake, you'll definitely know once you get to the boss fights. These are impossible to do without item consumption. Bosses will ignore your attacks, dodge pretty much everything in heat mode, which isn't helped by the lock-on system that can be dreadful at times (especially when you only have two enemies left, it kinda pannicks at that point). My tip is to just stack healing items and power through, because it feels like that's what the game wants you to do. Rush mode is also your best option for boss fights, switching to other styles to use heat attacks.
The boss combat is definitely the worst aspect of the game, but the combat, overall, is great. Heat attacks are absolutely amazing, and even though I would've liked more variations in the animations of each individual type of heat attack (if i see Kiryu pick up a knocked down guy's head to punch it one more time, I'm gonna explode), there are a lot (especially for a game that originates from the PS2) of different context sensitive heat actions by the end-game. The 4 styles are pretty cool, each with their own best context to use. My favourite is probably rush, as you can do some real serious movie-style one on one fights filled with dodges and counter attacks. I didn't really try out dragon-style, as it takes time to become viable and by the time it did, I was already too familiar with the three other styles to switch.
The side content is really well done. The "entertainment" activities are really cool, wether they be bowling, darts or, especially, POCKET CIRCUIT, THE ABSOLUTE LOVE OF MY LIFE. Seriously, it's so cool and addictive, even though I was terrible at it. I will say it was hard to understand which attributes were really important and which weren't (the game insists acceleration is important for slopes but honestly, you should always prioritise a better top speed, even on sloped circuits), but it's addictive. The side-quest attached to it is really cool as well, which I can say about a few other "substories" as the game calls them. The one where you make a tourist visit town is really cool for example. It is a shame though that a lot of them are just about Kiryu escaping scams by beating up people, it just gets kinda repetitive. Majima Everywhere is an amazing concept, and there are great moments attached to it.
SPOILERS FOR THE STORY AHEAD
As for the story, it tries, maybe a bit too hard. The characters are great, with understandable motivations. Kiryu is an interesting idea, a kind-hearted yakuza who does his job in his own way. Nishikiyama is a great villain, shame he barely shows up by the end of the game. Overall, the pitch of the story is great: Yakuza drama, ten billion yen stolen, a mysterious girl at the center of it all, that's delightfully 2000-y. But, the story gets confused at the halfway point, and gets confusing in the final quarter. Chapter 6 is just pure filler, chapter 7 is better, but then it just devolves into chaos. New characters, whole new entities are presented in the final quarter of the story. The key to the mystery at the heart of this game is a guy you've barely heard of. I think the story would've been better if we stayed focused on the Tojo Clan family war, as that's what the first quarter of the game sets up. By the end, Nishikiyama feels like a complete after-thought, which is a shame because his dedicated cutscenes between each chapter made it so that he was the best-developped character in the game. He is the final boss, sure, but I'd argue he isn't the main antagonist, as that role falls onto Jingu, who you've barely heard of until then. I just think it undermines Nishikiyama's character development from loser to villain, as he just feels like he's been a pawn all along, really undermining his story. Furthermore, his sacrifice is just stupid: why did you blow up the building while the ones you are trying to save are still there ??? I know that you could interpretate his actions as pride, done in spite of Jingu rather than in favour of Yumi and Kiryu, but come on. Oh, and Yumi's death isn't nearly as impactful as what it could've been, because we barely know her. The game's story, by the end of it, just feels like too much.