Yakuza

"A cinematic gem of a game."

The Japanese mafia sure are a wacky bunch! If any Yakuza are reading this, I assure you I'm merely kidding....now that I got my cowardly plea for safety outta the way it's time to review the game.

STORY
You play as Kazuma, a former member of the Yakuza who was living the high life. He was gonna start a family of his own, until his friend Nishiki screwed up and killed a clan boss by the name of Dojima. In order to help Nishiki and his sister out, Kazuma takes the blame and gets locked away in prison for 10 whole years. The Yakuza now only see Kazuma as a traitor that deserves to die. And when he gets back into civilization, he finds the families are in hot water with 10 billion yen missing from their vaults. So in order to restore balance and solve everyone's problems, all the while searching for his missing girlfriend, he has to hand out some beatings and deal out his own brand of justice. The game is heavy on the story, and unlike most games, I was actually interested after each cutscene to see where the story would go next. Again a warning: there is a skip scene feature for a reason. The story is huge.

GRAPHICS
The graphics do a splendid job if I do say so myself. Already it's unique because you spend most of the time in the streets of Japan. Nice neon lights, tons of people walking around...you will definitely feel like you're there. The character models all have tons of polish, from the hairs on their head to the amount of teeth in their mouth. The cutscenes are also directed as if they were movie quality. The game looks amazing and you'll feel like you're in this world.

SOUND
The audio has some great voice acting and music as well. Eliza Dushku, Michael Madsen, Rachel Leigh Cook, and even Mark Hamill lend their voices to this game. And for the most part it's all done well. Just a warning though, this game is not for kids. I have never heard so many F words in one game before until I played this one. Lots and lots of swearing...apparently the Yakuza have potty mouths.

GAMEPLAY
The gameplay involves dealing out some beatings, Yakuza style. Is it fun? Sure. Basically it's a beat'em up where you smack thugs around, walk around the city doing fetch quests, and accept the occasional side-mission along the way. Like an RPG the game has an element where the more you fight the more experience you get. With your new experience you can increase your health, learn new moves, and ultimately get stronger. So at least the battling doesn't get repetitive in that respect.

The fighting engine is decent...I wouldn't say it's anything special but it gets the job done. I do like that you can pick up practically anything in the area and use it to beat the crap out of your enemies. From bicycles to golf clubs you can unleash a lotta pain on people. Side-missions include playing a claw mini-game, getting massages, going to strip clubs, and winning ladies similar to GTA: San Andreas. The difference being you waste too much money on the girls in this game. Another thing I liked was how easy the map was to follow. You'll rarely get lost in Yakuza, as it tells you exactly where you need to go.

One problem the game suffers from is it's constant battles and frequent load times. You'll be walking around the city a lot, and like RPGs, battles just keep happening. Seriously the city in this game is terrible. Everyone in it has a bone to pick with you. And rather then just break into fighting, it loads for 8 or so seconds and then starts the battling part up. Sometimes these battles are so small and pointless that you'll just get really bored with the game. The random battles may break the game for you, so you've been warned.

I was kinda hoping the game would offer you other stuff like the ability to choose how the story went and give you different clothing and hairstyles to wear. But the story is so good I can look past all these problems.

IN THE END...
I'd recommend a buy for the story alone. The gameplay isn't perfect and by no means state of the art, but it gets the job done. If you can't watch hours worth of cutscenes though, stay away from this one. Give Yakuza a try to those that can though, and that's all I'll say about that.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 10/27/06