Yakuza 2 RetroReview: two Dragons for an epic game

Ryu Ga Gotoku 2
Picture uploaded by Abriael

About one week ago I reviewed the first chapter of the Ryu Ga Gotoku series, A.K.A. Yakuza. The second chapter, Yakuza 2, was released in the west without any promotion and so late after it's it's original release in Japan (a whole two years later), that it was almost completely ignored.
I actually remember walking into the local Gamestop about a year and a half ago, well into the current generation, and randomly giving a look to the shrinking PS2 area (that I didn't visit regularly anymore) of the shop, completely oblivious of the fact that Yakuza 2 was to be released, and just finding it there, unannounced and unexpected. Even at that time, I used to follow the gaming news regularly. This blog was already well underway by then, but the release of Yakuza 2 was advertised so little that even I didn't know anything about it.

I wouldn't be surprised, then, if the vast majority of the ones that will read this review completely missed the game. Hopefully this will serve as a little guide for you to decide if it's worth it to go back a generation and try Yakuza 2 out.

The story is set exactly one year after the first Yakuza. Kazuma Kiryu has taken upon himself the responsibility of taking care of Haruka, and is now living a peaceful life. Unfortunately the internal struggle happened the year before has left the Tojo clan weakened, and the relationship with the more powerful clan Omi, based in Osaka, is becoming tense. If a full scale war between east and west were to happen, the Tojo clan would be obliterated.
Terada, the new chairman of the clan, decides to ask for Kiryu's help, in order to establish a truce with the Omi clan and give the Tojo some time to recover.

Unfortunately a group of killers was waiting in ambush, and manages to kill Terada right in front of Kiryu, that decides to go back to his old clan in order to avoid it's destruction.
A war between criminal organizations is about to start, but a smaller but no less deadly battle of wills and muscle between two dragons is also ready to begin. Kiryu, the Dragon of Dojima, will find a worthy opponent in Ryuji Goda, the Dragon of Kansai.
What Kiryu doesn't know, though, is that the Omi clan and Ryuji Goda aren't the only threats to his former comrades. Forces much more ruthless than the Osakan yakuza are stirring even beyond Japan's borders.

This already complex setting is just the tip of the iceberg of an extremely deep and emotional story, that will dig into Kazuma's past and will bring old and new friends and enemies together in a frightening power struggle that will put the survival of Kamurocho and the future of the Japanese underworld at stake.
If the story behind the first Yakuza was already quite the masterpiece, it evolved into something even bigger and better in Yakuza 2, featuring several plot twists, most of which completely and utterly unpredictable, but falling perfectly in their place like Tetris tiles, building what's one of the best crime stories ever born from the gaming industry.
Tense moments alternate with moving scenes and comic relief at a perfect pace, carrying the player along on an emotional roller coaster that never disappoints.

The strongest point of Yakuza 2 are most definitely it's characters. Old acquaintances like detective Makoto Date, Goro Majima (probably one of the best characters in the series) and Yayoi Dojima get more time under the spotlight and a deeper emotional connection with the player.

Compared to the first chapter of the series, Yakuza 2 benefits from two very important new elements. While in Yakuza the main "villain", Nishiki and Kiryu's love interest Yuki, played roles that in the end proved secondary, watering down the emotional effect a little bit, this doesn't happen in Yakuza 2.

A new love interest appears, Kaoru Sayama, an osakan detective whose position as a female cop gives her a much more active role during the game. So active that she will often fight alongside Kiryu.
While a policewoman as a love interest for an ex Yakuza might sound cliched for some, her role is definitely different from what one might expect, and despite partly fitting into the "tsundere" stereotype, Kaoru is an extremely deep character, not to mention a charming counterpart to Kazuma, helping the player build an extremely strong emotional connection with the couple. Female gamers will have absolutely no problem relating to her, making Yakuza 2 a game that can be fully appreciated by players of any gender.

Even the main villain, Ryuji Goda, is much more active and charismatic than Nishiki was, playing as a perfect polar opposite to Kazuma, but showing depth in emotions and feelings that one wouldn't expect from him.
Despite being enemies, between him and Kiryu there's a genuine, solid feeling of respect, and while their confrontation is inevitable, one can easily wonder if they could have been friends if the circumstances were different.
He's not your usual mono-dimensional villain and will probably attract many sympathies between the players.

Of course such a strong supporting cast wouldn't be complete without a solid hero, and Kazuma Kiryu, just as he did in the first game, easily delivers. Looking at most brooding silent muscular heroes the gaming industry got us used to, they normally tend to come out as a bit flat in their characterization and feelings.
On the other hand Kazuma is deep and complex. He's the silent type, but he's not afraid to show emotion as a lover, as a friend or as a quasi-fatherly figure when he's with Haruka. As his past gets revealed bit by bit, it's almost impossible not to form strong emotional ties with him, probably stronger than those created by most other characters in the history of gaming.

Moving forward to the graphics, we have to take in account that Yakuza 2 is a game released in 2006, and as such it's most definitely not as advanced, technologically, as more modern games.
Despite this, it's one of those PS2 games that definitely benefits from being played on a backwards compatible PS3 if you're the lucky owner of one. Compatibility is 100% perfect whether your console does it via hardware or software, and the game looks quite sharp thanks to the upscaling and smoothing done by the PS3. Built-in Widescreen and 60 Hz support help further in closing the generational gap at least a little.

The game's cutscenes, mostly rendered in real time, are a shining example of beauty. Thanks to an advanced (for the time) facial engine and a peculiar filtering technique, they can easily compare with today's games, and in many cases surpass them. You'll be hard pressed finding many characters as expressive as those in Yakuza 2 (unless you're playing Yakuza 3 or 4, of course). This definitely adds to the depth of the story, as the feelings and deep emotions felt by the characters can be easily read on their faces even before they speak.
In addition to this, the advanced camera cuts and photography have very little to envy to sanctioned film-making, making Yakuza 2 a game that can single-handedly obliterate foolish standpoints like that of Roger Ebert, that deny that video games can be art.

During gameplay graphics become a little more blocky, suffering from a less than stellar texturing that can be defined more or less average for it's age. It still delivers, though, especially due to the extremely detailed environmental design that characterizes the series, bringing the district of Kamurocho to life. The same has been done with the new Osakan fictional districts of Sotenbori and Shinseicho, inspired by the real districts of Dotonbori and Shinsekai, and that create a nice contrast with Kamurocho, showing a completely different style and bringing on a realistic comparison between Tokyo and Osaka.

In addition to this, every district is designed with several light conditions to represent different times of the day, and different weather conditions, including rain and snow (It's Christmas, after all).

One of the aspects I criticized the most about Yakuza 1 was sound, due to an extremely monotonous ambient track that plagues the game quite horribly. This flaw has been partly corrected in Yakuza 2, as more variation has been added, and a more subtle mixing helps the repeatitive spoken sentences blend more with the background sound. While there's still almost no music during exploration gameplay, the quality of the soundtrack has been improved a lot, especially during cutscenes and during battles. Most of the story-driven moments are even more compelling thanks to an extremely fitting music score.

Voice acting is in Japanese, with english subtitles, and the game benefits a lot from that. It definitely helps conveying the deeply Japanese atmosphere and the cast is absolutely top-notch. The beautiful bass voice of Takaya Kuroda complements the looks and character of Kiryu perfectly, something that Darryl Kurylo could never accomplish in the first Yakuza.
Hidenari Ugaki is equally awesome in the role of Goro Majima. His sudden transitions between his normal clownish mood and the few moments of deadly seriousness will send chills down your spine. Even a famous actor like Mark Hamill (that played the part in the english adaptation of the first game) simply lacks the vocal tools to compete.
The same can be said about the rest of the cast. In the end, when videogames are concerned, Japanese voice acting simply has no rivals in the west, and the Yakuza series is a perfect example of this.

Gameplay is a direct evolution of what we have seen in the first chapter of the series. You can freely explore Kamurocho, Shinseicho and Sotenbori sandbox style (even if you're not allowed to freely move between them until the last few chapters), doing the many (over 100) sidequests at your own pace or progressing with the main story.

Unfortunately exploration is still a bit flawed by the fixed camera angle, but the loading time between the various screens have been reduced a lot, turning into little more than a small stutter. Still not perfect, but definitely much, much better than in the first Yakuza game.

The side quests vary a lot in style and many of them give you further insight on the secondary characters and on their life, completing quite beautifully the story and turning the virtual representations of Osaka and Tokyo into living and breathing entities, with many citizens that go on with their lives despite the struggle happening in the background.

Character progression is more or less similar to that of the first title, with an RPG-like experience system that will allow you to allocate points into three statistics (soul, mind and body), that will in turn make you stronger and unlock techniques that you can use against the enemy.
You can also unlock several techniques through events in game and sub-quests, creating an extremely deep arsenal of moves usable during battles.

Combat is where Yakuza 2's gameplay truly shines. The addition of a target lock system, of a freely rotating camera and of the ability to suddenly change the direction of attack helps in making the whole process much more natural and fluid. The absolute wealth of combos, parries, counterattacks and definitely brutal Heat Action moves, both unarmed or using one of the hundreds different weapons (from knives to swords, passing by shotguns and improvised weapons like neon signs or tables), creates what's probably the best and deepest combat system ever seen on the PS2 and one of the most fun overall. You can even perform tag heat action moves with several secondary characters.
There are so many ways to brutalize your opponents, that you'll find yourself hard pressed to remember them all.

In-between questing, exploring and fighting, the player is also granted a whole slew of minigames that make for a quite big slice of additional gameplay and are one of the staples of the series. Yakuza 2 includes Shogi, Mah-Jong (probably the only instance of the actual game ever published in english. The usual pairs matching game that uses the same tiles isn't actual Mah-Jhong), Baccarat, Roulette, Black Jack, Cho-Han (betting on dices), Slot Machines, UFO-catchers, Bowling, Indoor Golf, YF6 (an arcade game that features beam-saber fighting), a massage minigame, and few more minigames related to host and hostess clubs.

If you wonder what you missed in the shameful cut of all the hostess club-related content in Yakuza 3, Yakuza 2 will let you catch at least a glimpse of it.

You will be prompted to please (and date) ten hostesses (nine plus a secret one), you will be able to manage a whole hostess club by yourself, deciding the style of the furniture, the price of the menus and so forth. You will be also able to get Kazuma to play the host himself for once, trying to please the ladies that will visit the host club Adam.
It's actually a quite nice insight in the world of host clubs (and believe me, you'll notice that it's not all glitz and fun as many would think). In addition to this it'll let you "experience" that awesome moment of absolute Japanese crazyness called the "Champagne call". If you don't laugh at that one you're seriously made of solid ice.

The localization is again one of the weakest points of Yakuza 2. While not as weak as in the first chapter of the series, because of the original Japanese voice track that at least avoids the trap of a poor voice acting, the translation is just another example of the fact that Sega West's team of translators should probably go work on cooking manuals or something else as far as possible from videogames. The Japanese voice acting and the English subtitles often don't match, and even a superficial knowledge of the Japanese language will let you understand that the subtitles include parts that simply shouldn't be there.
Cultural issues are also present, with a deep "americanization" of the dialogue, with awful extremes as the police officers cracking down on a case of financial fraud called "feds" (Since when the FBI has any authority in Japan?).

One of the worst aspects of the localization is that the translators fell into the common (and noobish) mistake of translating all the characters talking in Osakan dialect with hillbilly-like slang speech. That kind of speech gives an obvious idea of ignorance to the reader, that in the end finds himself with an entire city full of hillbillies, while actual Oakans have obviously nothing to do with widespread ignorance, grammar mangling or american hillbillies.
The funniest part is that Kansai-ben (the group of Kansai dialects that includes the Osakan one) is what gave birth to Keigo (the most widespread Japanese formal way of speaking). Translating it with hillbilly speech is an unacceptable misrepresentation of the general cultural level of the people of Osaka.
To put it down simply, it's a shameful and unprofessional mess.

Yakuza 2 is a very, very solid title that corrects most of the flaws of it's predecessor. Laying on the table 80 hours of gameplay in an average playthrough (during my last attempt I reached an 83% completion in 86 hours, leaving behind some of the most difficult challenges), it's clearly an example from which many game developers should learn in an industry in which "meaty" titles are becoming more and more rare and far between.
The story is simply fantastic and will easily see most players moved to tears or laughing at several turning points. The cast of characters is equally top-notch, easy to relate with and displaying a degree of humanity and realistic feelings that's very seldom found in video games.

I honestly have to chuckle at the press raving about some of the latest story-driven (and while good, extremely short) games like Heavy Rain or Alan Wake, like they were the second coming of Christ and something unseen in the gaming Industry. Games like Yakuza 2 featured quite more involving and moving storylines and deeper characters already four years ago, while still including much, much more playable content.

If you want a deep, emotional, moving and complex crime story with great fighting, a lot of enjoyable content and a superlative cast, you simply cannot go wrong with Yakuza 2, despite it's (few) flaws, and it's age.
On the other hand, some developers should feel a bit of shame about their 5-8 hours-long games sold for sixty dollars.
Ultimately, Yakuza 2 is a shining but forgotten diamond in the rough that has been ignored far too long by the general public due to a bad release timing and an absolutely insufficent promotion. If you missed it, you should definitely try to get it at least preowned. Unless your whole idea of gaming relates to mindlessly pulling a trigger and shooting aliens in a storyless rail-fest, you won't be disappointed.

New to the Yakuza series? You can order Yakuza, Yakuza 2 and Yakuza 3 from Amazon.com.