Reviews

Game of the Month - September 2006

Yakuza

Japanese gangster Kazuma Kiryu curses in front of small children. He has no qualms about beating a man to death with a baseball bat, an expensive umbrella, a sofa, a bicycle, an advertising standee, a gold club, a flowerpot or a decorative column. Yet he’ll spend quality time hunting the streets of Tokyo for dog food to save an injured puppy, or he’ll help the less fortunate by giving them what they need (mostly liquor). He is—not to sound like a tenth-grade English report or anything—a study in contrasts.

As the protagonist of the adventure Yakuza, Kazuma must hunt down ten million yen that’s gone missing, find the woman who absconded with it, and put to rest a growing conflict among rival Japanese gangsters. Exploration and fighting make up the bulk of the gameplay, and, in many ways, Yakuza seems to be the adult-themed spiritual successor to the Dreamcast’s Shenmue series.

A neon-soaked Tokyo serves as Kazuma’s playground. Yakuza excels at giving its players lots to see and do, and the various distractions prove almost as tantalizing as the mystery itself. Restaurants offer foodstuffs to replenish Kazuma’s health. In the convenience stores, Kazuma can thumb through girlie magazines or buy items to replenish his health. He can whack homers in a batting cage, visit strip clubs, get a massage, gamble, or win toys from a crane game. On the streets, young toughs await, ready to brawl with anyone who crosses their path. It’s possible to run away from fights, but even so, players will often find themselves forced into combat against a host of ruffians.

The fighting in Yakuza is diverse enough to hold the interest of even the most seasoned gamer. Using two attack buttons, it’s possible to pull off a wealth of punch-and-kick combinations. A grab button lets Kazuma snatch up weapons from the environment, as well as snare foes for powerful strikes. Blocks and dodges allow for strategic defense and maneuvering around the battlefield, and a heat meter, when filled, lets Kazuma perform devastating slams and weapons-based hits. As Kazuma wins fights, he can upgrade his skills in one of three categories, letting him learn new fighting moves, increase his health, and upgrade his ability to stay in heat mode. All in all, combat works well other than the decided lack of a lock-on mechanism to fix Kazuma on a foe—the hero often kicks or punches right past an enemy, leaving him exposed to strikes from the back or side.

It’s never a dull moment with Kazuma. One minute he’ll be fleeing from a Japanese gangster’s funeral, and the next he’ll be lumping up a host of villains in a batting cage. The ride is long and crazy, to be sure, but it’s definitely not to be missed.

—Greg Orlando

Watch your mouth, S*******!

In an attempt to capture the rough language of the Japanese gangster subculture, Sega has opted to translate Yakuza with all its cursing (presented in both voiced samples and in-game text) intact. This, coupled with scenes of stark violence, means that Yakuza is definitely not for impressionable children.