Yakuza is an unpopular game that deserves some credit since it's a pretty good game. It's a fighting game that also incorporated a free roam aspect like the GTA games. It can take arounf 12-18 hours to beat. The story is pretty well done but also very complicated. You play Kazuma a member of the Japanese mafia, the Yakuza. The Yakuza is broken into families and you're part of a certain clan or family. Your dear friend Nishika kills one of the Yakuza bosses and you being the nice person you are take the heat for it and get sent to prison for 10 years. When you get out the Yakuza are ina a mess, everyone hates you and 10 billion yen is missing of the Yakuza's money. You resemble Kazuya from Tekken in appereance buy you are a good guy not a villian. What sets this apart from other fighting games is that it has a fairly interesting story and it's a free roam. You get to roam around a Japanese city and fight a lot of random battles that almost always star with someone yelling "hey you" and then chasing you. These random battles are fun since the fighting in this game was created well but countless battles get really annoying. They especially drive you nuts when you're trying to do a mission. The fighting is basically street fighting along with being able to use any weapon you can think of. From Kendo sticks and traffic cones to switchblades to bar stools each weapon packs a punch. The fighting is somewhat complex though as you progress you earn experience to make you stronger and acquire new moves along with special movies. Special moves are done by filling a bar at the corner of the screen after hitting opponents successfully. The special moves range from stomping on an opponents head to smashing his heat into a while, very fun I might add. Any weapon can also be used with the special moves. For example you can throw at basket at someones head and punch through until it breaks or choke someone with a metal pipe. There is a lot of running from point a to point b in the game and there is no way of skipping it, so it requires a great deal of patience especially if you die. One thing I found odd in this game is that the main character Kazuma shows basically no emotion in the game until the end. Someone dies and he will casually say no or tell someone casually to **** off with no emotion, he's like a robot at times. Also in this game there is a ridiculous amount of swearing which makes you laugh at times. Anytime someone comes up to you it's "f***ing yakuza lets fight" or "don't f*** with me" it's pretty funny but fits at times. The game also contains many sidequests that are for the most part are unnecessary and only in the game for some extra play time. So in the end if you enjoy a good storyline with good fighting and a laughable amount of profanity pick it up but be warned patience is required to play this less patience if you play on easy though unlike medium.
Paraphrased. This game freaking rules! It's the bastard child of Shenmue, GTA and River City Ransom - complete with buying wacky food at restaurants for healing, XP, and getting armor & stuff at pawn shops. I coul... Read Full Review
Most video games we've seen over the years have always been Mafia games based on the Italian Mafia through various parts of America. But we never hear much of other Mafia games until Sega released Yakuza which was releas... Read Full Review
