Playing through this for the first time was such a delight. It has such a strong identity, it isn’t difficult to see why it was successful and spawned as many sequels as it did. It’s kind of crazy seeing how much of the series identity was there from the beginning. It definitely is a little rough in parts, but it’s a PS2 game, I think I can give it some leeway. Some of my gripes, such as the camera being shit and Kiryu almost always facing the wrong direction, were outweighed by just how charming everything else was. And the dub’s not that bad, though I’m glad they went back to JP voices afterwards.
If I was an adult when this game came out, I probably would've thought it was the best game ever.