It has it's good side and it's bad side, but in spite of either it is fun to see where they took the story.
From the moment I selected 'New Game' I was sold. I played it almost non-stop and finished it even though the end annoyed the hell out of me.
I was very excited that Yakuza 2 finally came to Europe. I started playing it, but for some reason it didn't captivate me quite as much as the first one (this is of course not unusual for sequels), I played it a while and did really like it, but it still ended up back on my shelf looking pretty but otherwise doing nothing.
After a couple of months of feeling guilty I didn't finish it yet, I picked up where I left off and the spark was back.
I played and I played and I got annoyed and I kicked @$$.
Yakuza 1 and 2 share very similar (if not the same) sound tracks and they are both very good. It's more techo-ish then I look for in music I listen to personally, but it still has a rock vibe for the fights, which fits in nicely because it gives me a real kick@$$ feeling.
The graphics are nice for the time it came out in Japan and the machine it was released on, it surprised me with it's expressive faces, but physical interaction between characters (holding hands, punching, etc.) still looks very awkward, but then again even on the PS3 this is still a problem.
Low-grade textures on any non-important character and surroundings are unfortunate, but not yet annoying.
Gameplay pretty much suffers from the same problem that the first did. The AI knows a little too well when you're cooling down and they like to use that moment to strike at you. If some of the bigger ones get angry they'll attack and not notice your hits, floor you, repeat. If there's more then one of those doing that, two seemingly easy enemies can really knock off a lot of health.
There were a few points in the game where I felt like giving up because guns seem a little overpowered, they'll tear you to shreds (closer to real life then I'd like maybe).
The story continues nicely, from beginning to end there are things happening that you don't see coming and they make for an interesting plot that made me very curious how it'd end.
Most of the cutscenes are gameplay scenes, but the ones that aren't maybe should have been, gameplay graphics look good for a PS2 game and the cutscenes really just show what it still lacks, even though even those aren't top-grade, nowhere near FF12 quality, but then neither is the game, graphics-wise.
I can't understand, though, why they switched from English to Japanese voice acting. I'm usually for Japanese voice acting, but since the first game was English I would have preferred some consistency and had English here too (or Japanese there), but that is something minor, since by the time I picked it back up this point was long gone from my mind.
It's a good game, if you like to beat people up and games with lots of story and side-quests (which are plenty and fun, btw), then this is certainly a game you should try.