Truly gripping story, fun gameplay, a few flaws

User Rating: 8 | Ryuu ga Gotoku PS2
For more visit Iamllamapie @ YouTube.

When I first read about Yakuza in an issue of GamesMaster in '06 all about its western release it caught my attention but not long enough when there were games such as Oblivion around. Now it's almost 2013 and I've just picked it up for £2. And oh my, money well spent.

Yakuza's story is long and very compelling. I guess I can give of the basics without spoiling too much. It's 1995 and you play Kazuya, a Yakuza that is on the verge of making his own family. You encounter most the Oyabuns through this and it's made aware that Yumi, your childhood friend from Sun Flower Orphanage has an interest in you and another friend from the orphanage, Nishiki, wants to be able to be as good as you. As you are visiting Fuma you're told that your Oyabun has kidnapped Yumi and is most likely going to rape her (If you're sensitive about sex stay away from Yakuza...It doesn't hold back) and that Nishiki has ran off to save her. You run to help them both but on arrival Nishiki has shot the Oyabun dead and Yumi is in shock (later reveled she's lost her memory). Earlier it's told that Nishiki's sister will be having an operation soon and she might not make it so insted of letting him take the blame, you take his place.

10 years later you find out Yumi is missing, Nishiki has started his own family and that 10 billion yen has been stolen from the families. But who did this and why? Play it to find out.

Now this story had me hooked throughout and even if you're not interested in the main plot there are plenty on the side to keep you entertained. Fights take place through battle modes. A man will see you, stop you, come up with a lame excuse to fight you, then you battle about 3 people (standard amount).
Then you have adventure mode where you run around the red light district to get from point A to point B. Aside from this, you can visit casinos, fight clubs, bars, fast foods, court hostesses, visit Club SEGA, go to the batting cage, and much more to keep you occupied.

Now with these goods comes 2 major flaws:
1) Camera sucks. Since they're fixed most the time the right analogue is used to scroll through the mini map, but you can in certain places recenter it behind Kazuya with L2. But these are only in big battles stages. So if you're in a tight spot, tough luck.

2) This might not be major to you, but to me it is. When you hit in a combo you CANNOT turn at the same time. So if someone swerves out of your way you can't turn to hit them like most beat 'em ups. You can't even cancel the moves with a block to defend yourself if you're waiting for Kazuya to finish his combo. Other than this, controls were really nice.

This is only a little bit of the game. Once the get the footage I will do a video review on YouTube (Iamllamapie). Brand new this game goes for £10 and used as little as £1 so I highly advise picking this up. This game made my mind up of getting a PS3 in order to get 3 and 4 once I get 2 and finish that of.

This game gets a WIN. Buy now.