Anyone Played Yakuza by Sega Yet?

[Diabollokus]

Seen it for sale, haven't read any reviews yet but I was hoping it was a bit like shenmue? Anyone able to tell me what its like? and most importantly whether its another Sega game for the next gen thats worth buying!

[tekneekz]

im buying it for dam sure even if the fighting system from the demo i played was kinda bland, its the city of tokyo that we get to roam around on and story is what im after, the game is pretty dam massive lots to do, lots of stores to chill at etc. the english acting sounds pretty decent to me. Plus its sega . Im not a Fan of GTA by the way.

[Daigohji]

"Do you know any places where sailors hang out?"

I can't find any import reviews under the game's original title of Ryu no Gotoku, but the PAL (and presumably US) release is only three weeks away, so I imagine the domestic reviews will start popping up soon.

[Daigohji]

Jeez, they've already made a movie!

http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-aa- ... -18fv.html

[Bingo]

There should be a thread about it in here, under the original title. It's a cool game if you're into yakuza films and atmosphere. Gameplay itself is somewhat light, but fun. It's nowhere near as expansive as GTA because it's a completely different game. It's much more streamlined, although it gives you the freedom to roam around the area and act like you're just hanging out. What's really cool is the story and the characters, they're cliched but very effective if you like the genre. The fighting isn't overly complex but gets better as you progress, and it always remains satisfying in a lemme-put-this-bike-through-your-thick-skull-you-cocky-bitch sort of way. Forget Shenmue too, it's not like that. This isn't epic, it's gritty and personal and there's a punk every few steps hellbent on trying your patience. There's quite a bit of optional content scripted into the environment, all designed to further the atmosphere: texting the ladies in the hostess bars, getting them shiny stuff in a futile effort to get laid (there's even mini-games where you have to butter them up), small time criminals trying to pull a fast one on you if you run into them etc.. I enjoyed it immensely, but that was in no small amount due to the perfect recreation of the genre that the original pulled off, including voice acting etc. No telling how the dub stacks up in that department.

[GaijinPunch]

It's a moderate game. Overrated though. Story is all right. Graphics not bad. Fight engine clunky. Played it, sold it. No regrets.

[Daigohji]

Gamespot's review is up.

http://uk.gamespot.com/ps2/action/ryuga ... id=6157009

7.4 is about what I was expecting. I'm disappointed at how brawling oriented it looks, but I'll still be buying it, and probably on the 15th (assuming the UK date doesn't get dropped back).

[judesalmon]

Yes. Very far through it too.

[GateofThunderforceIII]

Got mine yesterday. Gotta finish Otogi 1 first, though I did a test run. Pretty fun and interesting! They sort of dump too many names and characters on you at first and the Japanese names seemed all the same to me resulting in a little bit of confusion. The f word is overused however. Sega of America tried too fucking hard to please fucking Americans. Fighting engine is pretty good. I'd say about on par with Final Fight Streetwise's, if not a little deeper. Will definitely play and finish after the big O.

[TVG]

hey guys, am i the only one that found final fight: streetwise pretty decent? every review ive seen bashed it, and everytime i see someone talk about it on a forum they write bad stuff about it.

[GateofThunderforceIII]

Fuck, are you fucking kidding me? I fucking loved the shit out of FF Streetwise. Seriously, I found it really entertaining and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Very nice fighting engine. The part where you smashed the cockroaches was way too corny, though. And I thought the game engine could've been smoother with all the slowdown in the game. The original characters (Cody, Haggar and Guy) seemed out of place compared with the more realistic and modern new characters (main character, etc. even some of the NPCs). Other than that, everything else about the game is very functional. Awesome and funny dialogue!

[TVG]

i liked the cockroaches game!!!
the only things i didn't like is that the minigames repeat themselves and loose their novelty after a while, that and i could have had a few more hours.

oh and the shitty port of the original FF game, but other that that it's a solid game, very fun while it lasted.

i guess people just don't understand these types of games anymore, everyone calls it a button masher no brainer game, but it's no worse in this regard than, say, DMC.

[Daigohji]

Got the UK version last Friday and I'm enjoying it so far. The PAL release has NTSC and 16:9 support, so it's nice and smooth on my widescreen TV Though considering the insane amount of swearing that's crammed into the dub, I laughed my butt off when the "Save the Puppy" mission flashed up. Proper Gangsta, I tell thee

[D]

The commercial is shown alot on Dutch Television.
And I'm like: "Sega, just now you've discovered tv-marketing?". It might just be the first ever Sega commercial on Dutch tv. Hmmmm, that surely couldn't be the case. I bet they had tv commercials for the Megadrive with Sonic back then, right?

[Daigohji]

I think Sega's European TV advertising team have been locked in a dungeon for the last five years. Considering the Dreamcast commercials that were on UK TV back then, it's not hard to understand why. "Got the most powerful console around? Got great launch titles like SoulCalibur? Well, don't show any of that; let's have ads of people cutting hair."

[Strider77]

So has SEGA of USA's advertising team.... maybe not as much I dunno.

Still it just goes to show you making a great game or console isn't what makes a hit. It's whoever has the most money to tell the public that's what they want. I better stop here and get off my soap box. I can go on for hours on how folks like EA are killing a hobby of mine I really enjoy and how people have to be "told" what to buy/like...

[fl0w]

why oh why did they feel necessary to dump the original voices and dub the game in English ?

[Rob]

How much of the game consists of fighting and does the fighting consist of button mashing? I'm interested, but not if it's 5+ hours of button mashing, 10 hours of GTA-ish dialogue and "humor."

[D]

So has SEGA of USA's advertising team.... maybe not as much I dunno.

Still it just goes to show you making a great game or console isn't what makes a hit. It's whoever has the most money to tell the public that's what they want. I better stop here and get off my soap box. I can go on for hours on how folks like EA are killing a hobby of mine I really enjoy and how people have to be "told" what to buy/like...

I feel exactly the same way. Us humans turned into zombies after all.

[Daigohji]

How much of the game consists of fighting and does the fighting consist of button mashing? I'm interested, but not if it's 5+ hours of button mashing, 10 hours of GTA-ish dialogue and "humor."

Despite the brawler battle system, the game's structure is rather like a JRPG, so you'll run into random encounters with street punks as you explore the city. Fights are pretty frequent, but become more enjoyable as the game progresses and you unlock more moves. Button mashing won't get you far in the game as you'll often run into nimble foes who dodge, leaving you vulnerable if you've pounded out an attack combo that is still being executed. Also, it's rarely a one-on-one fight. Most of the time there are thugs coming at you from every direction, but hardly any of your moves target multiple opponents. Due to this, you need to quickly prioritise enemies; delivering swift knockdowns to the lighter opponents who lose their footing easily, clearing the field for a few moments so that you can concentrate on wearing down the heavy hitters.

Also, despite the gangster theme, this game is nothing like GTA in its story. Yakuza takes itself pretty seriously, has a surprising amount of subtlety to the physical acting of the in-game character models, and has none of the goofy self-conscious humour or cartoon ultraviolence that typifies GTA.

[Bingo]

I can only echo Daigohji, that's exactly what it plays like: nothing like GTA. The brawling does get mildly repetitive during the 'popcorn enemy' encounters, random thugs trying to score a new pair of shoes. Those are trivial to defeat. On the upside, they provide a welcome opportunity to just mess around with the fight system. Said system relies heavily on a manic brawling aspect: you against many in a confined space. Many of the scripted encounters will force you to use the space you're in and fight tactically. There's an interesting bit of realism to the approach: try to throw the wee guys into the big ones, not vice versa!

This cannot be repeated often enough, though: the game is story and atmosphere above all. If you don't like the style I fear even the brawling will get stale after a while.

EDIT: just recalled one of the fun encounters as an example. It's not part of the main story so no spoilers. Guys running a scam on you eventually land you in a tiny bar crammed with tables and barstools...and about 4 or 5 baddies. There is very very little room to move, no safety zones. They use everything they've got, chairs and whatnot, rushing you from the word GO. Tactical throwing of enemies, using them as shields and positioning yourself is not just added flavor here, they'll mop the floor with you if you don't.

[RoninBuddha]

what im concerned about is how 'tolerable' the english voices are...

i mean, 'yakuza lingo flavor' is important, and not to mention it seems more apt for japanese voices (duh)... i mean, watch some of the better yakuza movie flicks, speech is part of it's... "culture"

im just wondering if these aspects are raped in the localization...

[junkeR]

*Thread Resurrection*

I played through the first one about 8-9 months ago. Really enjoyable and had a little "Shenmue" spirit. I've owned the second Yakuza for some time now, but haven't got around to playing it yet. I just downloaded the demo for Yakuza 3 on the PSN last night and that game looks great. The demo starts out in the same spot where Yakuza starts out at... so you will see a lot of familiar places.

[CMoon]

Yakuza 2 is probably the best of the series so far, but I can't wait to get my hands on 3. Unfortunately we (non-Japanese speakers) missed the one set in feudal Japan.

Edit: somehow 'feudal' got omitted from my post. Don't know how I did that, but since they're all set in Japan, wanted to have my post make sense.

[kengou]

Glad someone necroed this thread, I just played through the Yakuza 3 demo on PSN, first of the series I've played, and really enjoyed it. The fighting was challenging and fun, with a LOT of options for environmental attacks and weapons. I would have liked smoother defensive mechanics, as sometimes you can be in the middle of a combo and get hit with no way to quickly stop and defend. I also really liked the open-world aspect, and the "revelation" feature was interesting. The whole game reminded me a lot of Shenmue or Way of the Samurai.

Also did anyone else love the shmup in the arcade that is playable? I've never played anything like it before but it was really fun! Are there more arcade games in the final game worth playing?

[robthebanks]

Man, I got through the first half of Yakuza 2 and was really enjoying it, but ended up getting distracted by Persona 4... I'm super amped for the 3 to come out, DAY 1.

[ZOM]

...I would have liked smoother defensive mechanics, as sometimes you can be in the middle of a combo and get hit with no way to quickly stop and defend...

I haven't played part 3 yet, but if it's anything like the previous titles, Kiryuu-chan will be able to learn new moves through the course of the game, including evasive ones.
Great series!

[FIL]

I loved the first Yakuza but never finished the second, the thought of having to entertain Haruka for half an hour again put me off.

[Koa Zo]

(...) would have liked smoother defensive mechanics, as sometimes you can be in the middle of a combo and get hit with no way to quickly stop and defend.

In the first game you would eventually learn evasive side step and also reverse attacks.
The character can be built-up by assigning experience points to each of three attributes and this will sometimes enable new moves.
The other way is from an old master in the homeless village who will teach you if you are ready.
from gamefaqs:

There are other skills you'll have to learn. These are mostly from Komaki,
an old master a homeless man makes a reference to early on in the game. He
can be found in the River Styx--a place you'll need to find
in the main story. Other than from him, you can learn the Turn Kick from a
magazine obtained from Coin Locker Key #50

Playing through once, I might have accumulated 60% or more of the keys, but never knew about #50!

here's the other way to power-up

[CMoon]

Noticed right away in the demo that some of Kiryu's standard moves aren't there--most notably the sidestep/dodge. I'm sure you'll get this soon in the real game, but found its omission in the demo rather awkward.