VERY rough around the edges and feels kind of empty compared to the later games of the franchise, but hey this is where all began
worth playing this version for the ost and the dub
This is where everything began, and by result its the most barebones entry. Combat is extremely clunky and side content that isn't major is pretty hard to keep track of. The story though, while short, is good and emotional enough to keep you interested, and the dub, while pretty bad, is charming and good for a few laughs.
The somewhat rough start of the now incredibly long running Yakuza/Ryu ga Gotoku franchise. Some stiff beat-em-up gameplay, and an absolutely amateur English dub prevent this game from being great, but leave room for sequels to improve upon
Yeah the English dub is really silly and the load times on this early one are a bit obnoxious, but damn if I'm impressed just by this atmosphere. Really came onto the platform as an open world with a different feel, one with a randomness and a bustle and a life. I hope to return to these Tokyo streets again just to further fuck around, and excited to see what the series improved upon from here.
i'll cut to the chase and spare you some prose and witticisms you'll read either through glazed eyes or gritted teeth: six and a half years ago i was in a real bad way and i wasnt enjoying a single one of my hobbies the way i had used to. i had made plans to try to get into this series from its inciting incident just to have something to do that day, and it was around that time that yakuza 5 was serendipitously announced for localization, an unprecedented miracle that blindsided its then-largely isolationist and niche fanbase. felt like a sign, to me - i was playing this game the very next day, and within four months had completed all hitherto localized titles in the franchise, eagerly anticipating the fifth game. i was having fun with games again.
since then the series has received widespread recognition, often for better or worse (usually for very cynical reasons, attracting a specific kind of crowd that i would like to stay very, very far away from, and yet still needlessly spurring on several inane culture wars because no one knows how to react to media with good sense, tact, or nuance anymore) but im still here playing this franchise for reasons im not sure i'll ever be able to adequately articulate. and despite all this - this is the entry i return to the most. it's a kind of ritual homecoming. certainly, yakuza 2 is the more refined title. it's a successor which embraces its cinematic lineage and nagoshis directorial flavourings; it is pulpy and jettisons any sense of restraint, it sports a combat system arguably better than the roughness of its predecessor, it is more cognizant of how to utilize its living and breathing world and array of denizens to capture the frivolities of the human experience. but it's also the establishment of something formulaic, a pattern. a mold for a franchise aided by the careful supervision of fan-feedback and by the business acumen necessary to pilot an initiative that transformed yakuza into a yearly asset-flip series (this is undoubtedly in addition to a shitton of crunch. there is no doubt in my heart that y2 worked its employees to the bone.)
when so many of yakuza and yakuza 2s strengths in atmosphere and design tend to overlap, it's not hard to see why im kind of enamored with the guts this specific project displayed in a way that yakuza 2 does not. and when looking at the overarching path the series has taken - in which entries felt increasingly hurried and fraught until learning to respect restraint in 0 - this becomes especially clear. it's bold, it's risky - researching it, it becomes clear that it required a lot of attitude, finesse, trust, and collaboration to see a unique vision like this to the end and there are still flashes of that experimental tendency to be found in this specific entry. i love how punishing the games central heat mechanic is because it forces you to expend it desperately which often resulted in greater xp gain, i love how abilities are often tied to exploration, i love the overhead camera angles of this gritty and noirish red light district as opposed to the bog-standard third-person view the rest of the series employs, i love how its heat actions are absolutely brutal but orchestrated around brevity so as not to interrupt the flow of combat (something which later entries completely miss the point of), i love how its perhaps the only yakuza that doesnt necessarily characterize kiryu as a rogue paladin or a saint, i love that the substories are all grunt-work, assisting normal-ass people who often dont have much vested interest in you, the player, or kiryu, the supposed paragon of humanity, i love that there are cursory glances of what the series could have become in its structure had it not been turned into an asset-flip series, hell i even love the awkward english dub which tried to endear itself to the cult of rockstar and GTA. it's not very good, but much of that is attributable to script rewrites and voice acting direction as opposed to the fault of the actors themselves, and even at its very worst it is infinitely preferable to parse when contrasted against some localization decisions in the recent remastered collection which, at least at launch, frustratingly changed instances of dialogue in substories to include insular online lingo as the punchline. these are minimal in number, but they tie into what i stated earlier about how i fear this series is perceived, and it's often not in a very sincere or affectionate way. say what you will about the english dub wherein kiryu uses a slur or two, but he actually sounds like a former gangster, at the very least. keep in mind that i'm more than a little bitter that impassioned fans could not get people to play this series, but a single screenshot of a chicken did, no doubt influencing the direction of marketing, teaching profit-driven suits the value of the snapshot and altering franchise perception for the rest of time.
and while the series has continued to take risks, trying their hands at ideas various other studios would never consider because of RGG Studio's unique developmental approach (spin-offs as experimental grace periods developed for reprieve or to test new technology, each mainline entry's narrative being set in the year in which it was released, a greater than the sum of its parts design approach largely centered around content density), no title has ever been as uncompromising experimental as this one. its janky and its rough, but its unapologetic and totally committed - that's why im such an ardent fan, and probably at least subconsciously why i return every now and again. helps that 'tis the season, and it's a peak christmas game too.
in fact, even with the series transitioning to the turn-based genre, when so much of the post-0 output is so utterly reliant on incessant callbacks and fanservice relating to that one moment the western discovered this franchise existed in 2017, i'd without hesitation wager it still hasn't been anywhere near as risky as the first yakuza!
living with yakuza for as long as i have, learning the ins and outs of its development process, appreciating it from afar and growing to love this specific entry in retrospect has oddly enough honed my creative ability and imbued me with a sharper edge, a specific sense of what endears me to any given work. it's forced me to challenge convention and to be confident in conveying my thought process - to say with defiance that this is what i, singularly, admire and respect about a work. this is undeniably a strange and alienating response to have to a 2005 JRPG brawler laden in machismo, but stranger things have happened. that's the power of art as it relates to the individual, i'd say. goes without saying but if you havent gotten the picture from the tone of this review yet i think kiwami is awful
since then the series has received widespread recognition, often for better or worse (usually for very cynical reasons, attracting a specific kind of crowd that i would like to stay very, very far away from, and yet still needlessly spurring on several inane culture wars because no one knows how to react to media with good sense, tact, or nuance anymore) but im still here playing this franchise for reasons im not sure i'll ever be able to adequately articulate. and despite all this - this is the entry i return to the most. it's a kind of ritual homecoming. certainly, yakuza 2 is the more refined title. it's a successor which embraces its cinematic lineage and nagoshis directorial flavourings; it is pulpy and jettisons any sense of restraint, it sports a combat system arguably better than the roughness of its predecessor, it is more cognizant of how to utilize its living and breathing world and array of denizens to capture the frivolities of the human experience. but it's also the establishment of something formulaic, a pattern. a mold for a franchise aided by the careful supervision of fan-feedback and by the business acumen necessary to pilot an initiative that transformed yakuza into a yearly asset-flip series (this is undoubtedly in addition to a shitton of crunch. there is no doubt in my heart that y2 worked its employees to the bone.)
when so many of yakuza and yakuza 2s strengths in atmosphere and design tend to overlap, it's not hard to see why im kind of enamored with the guts this specific project displayed in a way that yakuza 2 does not. and when looking at the overarching path the series has taken - in which entries felt increasingly hurried and fraught until learning to respect restraint in 0 - this becomes especially clear. it's bold, it's risky - researching it, it becomes clear that it required a lot of attitude, finesse, trust, and collaboration to see a unique vision like this to the end and there are still flashes of that experimental tendency to be found in this specific entry. i love how punishing the games central heat mechanic is because it forces you to expend it desperately which often resulted in greater xp gain, i love how abilities are often tied to exploration, i love the overhead camera angles of this gritty and noirish red light district as opposed to the bog-standard third-person view the rest of the series employs, i love how its heat actions are absolutely brutal but orchestrated around brevity so as not to interrupt the flow of combat (something which later entries completely miss the point of), i love how its perhaps the only yakuza that doesnt necessarily characterize kiryu as a rogue paladin or a saint, i love that the substories are all grunt-work, assisting normal-ass people who often dont have much vested interest in you, the player, or kiryu, the supposed paragon of humanity, i love that there are cursory glances of what the series could have become in its structure had it not been turned into an asset-flip series, hell i even love the awkward english dub which tried to endear itself to the cult of rockstar and GTA. it's not very good, but much of that is attributable to script rewrites and voice acting direction as opposed to the fault of the actors themselves, and even at its very worst it is infinitely preferable to parse when contrasted against some localization decisions in the recent remastered collection which, at least at launch, frustratingly changed instances of dialogue in substories to include insular online lingo as the punchline. these are minimal in number, but they tie into what i stated earlier about how i fear this series is perceived, and it's often not in a very sincere or affectionate way. say what you will about the english dub wherein kiryu uses a slur or two, but he actually sounds like a former gangster, at the very least. keep in mind that i'm more than a little bitter that impassioned fans could not get people to play this series, but a single screenshot of a chicken did, no doubt influencing the direction of marketing, teaching profit-driven suits the value of the snapshot and altering franchise perception for the rest of time.
and while the series has continued to take risks, trying their hands at ideas various other studios would never consider because of RGG Studio's unique developmental approach (spin-offs as experimental grace periods developed for reprieve or to test new technology, each mainline entry's narrative being set in the year in which it was released, a greater than the sum of its parts design approach largely centered around content density), no title has ever been as uncompromising experimental as this one. its janky and its rough, but its unapologetic and totally committed - that's why im such an ardent fan, and probably at least subconsciously why i return every now and again. helps that 'tis the season, and it's a peak christmas game too.
in fact, even with the series transitioning to the turn-based genre, when so much of the post-0 output is so utterly reliant on incessant callbacks and fanservice relating to that one moment the western discovered this franchise existed in 2017, i'd without hesitation wager it still hasn't been anywhere near as risky as the first yakuza!
living with yakuza for as long as i have, learning the ins and outs of its development process, appreciating it from afar and growing to love this specific entry in retrospect has oddly enough honed my creative ability and imbued me with a sharper edge, a specific sense of what endears me to any given work. it's forced me to challenge convention and to be confident in conveying my thought process - to say with defiance that this is what i, singularly, admire and respect about a work. this is undeniably a strange and alienating response to have to a 2005 JRPG brawler laden in machismo, but stranger things have happened. that's the power of art as it relates to the individual, i'd say. goes without saying but if you havent gotten the picture from the tone of this review yet i think kiwami is awful
A somewhat rough but still solid groundwork for what would become a fantastic series, the combat feels rather basic and stiff compared to later games in the series but is still cathartic with some satisfying animation and sound effects.
In Yakuza you play as Kazama Kiryu, one tough ass yakuza who used to extort people in order to get what he's told to by his clan's boss. One day he gets in prison for something he didn't do. After getting out of it, the same city that had forgot about his existence during those 10 years in prison suddenly revolves around him and pretty much every interaction within the Kabuki-chō district is the same: someone approaches you acting all mighty and you fight.
Everyone, inside and outside the game, knows the yakuza are bad; but you know, Kiryu is different because he doesn't only protect his loved ones, but also a random kid he finds -though he fights in front of her like it's ok to do so-. In fact, all you do in the game is beat the shit out of anyone who comes near you, doesn't matter who that is or what the situation actually demands. This apples to pretty much anything in the game. But what bothers me is how biased it is: different people are portrayed and judged differently for doing the same exact thing. For * sake, they're all * Yakuza.
Finally, since this always happens, I'm going to address it directly: even though one could argue that the game shouldn’t be taken so seriously since there’s all these fun, hilarious quests and situations spread throughout all of Kabuki-chō, but I’d say the game itself makes a really clear distinction between all of that and what’s actually important. And honestly it’s not like you can just judge both things separately, they’re two sides of the same coin.
Everyone, inside and outside the game, knows the yakuza are bad; but you know, Kiryu is different because he doesn't only protect his loved ones, but also a random kid he finds -though he fights in front of her like it's ok to do so-. In fact, all you do in the game is beat the shit out of anyone who comes near you, doesn't matter who that is or what the situation actually demands. This apples to pretty much anything in the game. But what bothers me is how biased it is: different people are portrayed and judged differently for doing the same exact thing. For * sake, they're all * Yakuza.
Finally, since this always happens, I'm going to address it directly: even though one could argue that the game shouldn’t be taken so seriously since there’s all these fun, hilarious quests and situations spread throughout all of Kabuki-chō, but I’d say the game itself makes a really clear distinction between all of that and what’s actually important. And honestly it’s not like you can just judge both things separately, they’re two sides of the same coin.
Yakuza 1 envelheceu pior que leite após ficar 3 horas sob o sol de começo de tarde do sertão do Ceará, controle todo duro, o lock é praticamente inutil, e o Kiryu anda q nem lesma e as side quest são chatas
Mas o jogo não é só defeitos, a OST é excelente, eu não consigo dizer uma que eu não tenha gostado, os bosses são muito bons (tirando oq usa pistolas fdp arormbado) e a historia é excelente
Sei lá, em geral eu gostei do jogo, foda, foda
Mas o jogo não é só defeitos, a OST é excelente, eu não consigo dizer uma que eu não tenha gostado, os bosses são muito bons (tirando oq usa pistolas fdp arormbado) e a historia é excelente
Sei lá, em geral eu gostei do jogo, foda, foda
JUST YOUR BAD LUCK... TO RUN INTO ME
This review contains spoilers
Hikayesi güzeldi fakat aşırı alışılageldiğim bir hikayeydi. Daha önce birçok benzerini görmek etkileyiciliğini inanılmaz azalttı. Karakterler güzeldi. Hikaye ilerledikçe ve olaylar açıldıkça karakterleri daha çok sevmeye başladım fakat Goro Majima gibi hikayede kilit bir rol oynayan karaktere sanki hiç yer vermemişler gibi değil mi? Yani hikayede bu kadar yeri var ama hakkında hiçbir şey bilmiyoruz resmen. Arada çıkıp kazuma-chan deyip gidiyor. Majima karakterine biraz daha özen verilmesi daha güzel olurmuş sanki. Savaşlar güzeldi fakat savaşları kamera açısı ve kontroller inanılmaz baltalıyordu. Düşman fokus sistemi bence bu oyunda büyük bir sorun olmuş. Çünkü düşmanlara tam olarak fokus yok. Oyundaki fokus tuşu olan right button tuşuna bastığımızda ana karakterimiz Kazuma kendisini o yöne doğru kilitliyor gibi. Direkt olarak düşmana kilitlendiğini hissettirmiyor çünkü düşmana kilitlendiğinizde o düşmana vuramayabiliyorsunuz. Sağa sola kaçıyor arada yumruklar. Kamera kontrolü de bu fokuslanmadan kaynaklı çok sıkıntı olabiliyor. Çünkü fokuslanmanıza rağmen belirli noktalarda kamera daha ileriye gidemiyor veya değişemiyor. Görüşünüz tamamen kapanabiliyor veya çok saçma bir açıya zorlanabiliyor. Random encounter meselesinin bu tarzda olması hoşuma gitti. Random encounterları için "kaçınılabilir" doğru bir kelime olacak sanırım. Sokakta karşılaştığınız insanların bazıları çok belirgin bir şekilde bu random encounterları oluşturuyor. Çoğunlukla kaçmak mümkün olsa da bazılarını harita değişimlerinde karşınıza direkt koyduklarından kaçmanız imkansız olanlar da var. Ben yer yer atladım bu savaşları yer yer ise atlamadım. Keyfime göre bu savaşlara katılmam hoş olmuş. Boss fightlar güzeldi. Özellikle boss fightların sıralanışı çok güzeldi. Gittikçe çıtanın yükseldiğini hissettirebiliyordu. Ki bu bence bayağı önemli bir konu. Bu sıralamayı başarılı yapması hoşuma gitti. Fakat boss savaşlarının hepsine aynı özen gösterilmemiş. Sadece Goro Majima boss figtları özel hissettirecek şekilde dizayn edilmiş gibiydi. Az önce bahsettiğim keşke bu karaktere hikaye olarak daha fazla önem verselermiş demem buradan çıkıyor işte. Oyunda bu denli yer edinen ve boss fightlarına önem verilen bir karaktere keşke hikayesel olarak da aynı önem verilebilseymiş. Neyse. Hikaye anlatımı güzeldi fakat diyalogların seslendirmesiz sunumunu beğenmedim. Neden böyle bir seçim olduğuna da anlam veremedim. Ama ilk 2 saatte falan alıştığımdan oyunun gerisinde problem ettiğimi de söyleyemem. Ayrıca oyunun avrupa ya çıkışında japonca seslendirme, ingilizce altyazı gibi bir seçenek olmadığı için oyunu ingilizce dublaj oynamak zorunda kaldım. Yer yer aşırı irite ediciydi fakat katlanılmayacak kadar kötü değildi. Fakat şöyle bir şey var ki ben kişisel olarak dublajı hiç sevmem. Ve bu oyunu oynarken inanılmaz yansıdı. Hikayede çok önemli şeyler yaşanırken kazuma nın seiyuu sunun bende hiçbir his uyandıramadığını hissettim. Fakat elimden de bir şey gelmedi yani. Oyunda benim için en katlanılmaz kısım da kesinlikle buydu.
Horripilante
"Just your bad luck, to run into me"
Yakuza is the best PS2 game I have played since Lego Star Wars: Episodes IV-VI.
The storyline is very well-written (even if I wish there was a "here's what has happened so far" because I forgot some plot points/characters). I really liked Date, Haruka and Kazuma.
The combat is very fun. There are lot's of move sets and ways to beat up street hoodlums. The random encounters are a little annoying in the late game but the fun combat makes them a little bearable. The camera can be an enemy sometimes but it happens so rarely, it's not a complaint.
The open world had a lot more things to do than I expected. Granted, some of the activities are annoyingly stupid like the slot machines and claw machines but most of them were fun. (my faves were BlackJack, fighting and batting cages and visiting the hostess bars.)
Overall, I wasn't expecting the first game to be this good and if this really is not the series high point, I have high expectations for Yakuza 2 and beyond.
Yakuza is the best PS2 game I have played since Lego Star Wars: Episodes IV-VI.
The storyline is very well-written (even if I wish there was a "here's what has happened so far" because I forgot some plot points/characters). I really liked Date, Haruka and Kazuma.
The combat is very fun. There are lot's of move sets and ways to beat up street hoodlums. The random encounters are a little annoying in the late game but the fun combat makes them a little bearable. The camera can be an enemy sometimes but it happens so rarely, it's not a complaint.
The open world had a lot more things to do than I expected. Granted, some of the activities are annoyingly stupid like the slot machines and claw machines but most of them were fun. (my faves were BlackJack, fighting and batting cages and visiting the hostess bars.)
Overall, I wasn't expecting the first game to be this good and if this really is not the series high point, I have high expectations for Yakuza 2 and beyond.
the game plays like DOO DOO but better than kiwami 2 LOL, I want to play this game after I finish all the spinoffs
akira nishiki did nothing wrong
also the dub is good come on
also the dub is good come on
A great starter to a very beloved franchise, but has weak points that really bring it down, such as repetitive, long, grating load times. If you want to experience the same story, Kiwami is a much superior method of delivery, but if all you have is a PS2, or maybe if you're just a masochistic retro devotee, it's still a very fun way to spend some tens of hours.
Yakuza features an intriguing story, but the gameplay amounts to a pretty middling 3D beat em up and the enemy variety is lacking, resulting in a game that feels like a chore by the end.
better than kiwami and the voice acting puts it up a point
Me duele muchísimo no darle una nota perfecta a este juego, ya que narrativamente es uno de los mejores juegos de PS2 que logré probar, con una cinematografía bellisima que plasma casi a la perfección los dramas policiales japoneses, y la forma de sumergirte a su mundo logra que sea un sucesor espiritual digno de Shenmue gracias a los cambios de clima y la absurda cantidad de sidequests que tiene, todas ricas en contenido. Pero el combate llega a ser desprolijo a tal nivel que enfada, muy lento y con movimientos demasiado torpes, y los comandos mas complejos llegan a sufrir de un delay muy irregular que a la larga prefieres no usarlos. Además de esto, cuando se amontonan demasiados enemigos es prácticamente injugable, y ni hablar de los jefes que intercalan entre muy sencillos a super injustos.
Aún así recomiendo que lo prueben, de todas formas es un juego medianamente corto y, tal como Shenmue, llega a prevalecer más la estética de exploración y aventura que una de desafío/acción. Además, por lo que sé, sus secuelas han mejorado muchísimo este último aspecto, asi que a pesar de ser jugablemente torpe empieza muy fuerte en otros aspectos, asi que no veo que sea una perdida de tiempo en ningún sentido.
Aún así recomiendo que lo prueben, de todas formas es un juego medianamente corto y, tal como Shenmue, llega a prevalecer más la estética de exploración y aventura que una de desafío/acción. Además, por lo que sé, sus secuelas han mejorado muchísimo este último aspecto, asi que a pesar de ser jugablemente torpe empieza muy fuerte en otros aspectos, asi que no veo que sea una perdida de tiempo en ningún sentido.
Rough game but boy oh boy does the sequel deliver
A solid start to a franchise that seeks to make the player feel involved in a small, but greatly interactive and reactive setting. Though its combat starts out stiff, it soon grows into a versatile test of the player's reflexes. Thanks to a story with intimately personal themes and strong characterization, the game leaves a lasting impression that masks an experience filled with noticeably inconvenient and obtuse game design.
Every time I think about Yakuza, I see a cinematic angle of Kiryu strutting down the dark, neon-lit streets of Kamurocho in the pouring rain, accompanied by a low-key bassline. It's a striking image that both comforts and inspires me, one that makes up for just about every issue I have with this game's janky combat, insufferable load times, and hilariously ill-advised dub. As an atmospheric piece, Yakuza 1 is truly incredible, and none of the post-PS2 games even come close to its neo-noir feel.
a fine start to this crazy series, it offers a lot to do and the experience overall was pretty fun, even if later entries improved so much more from this. beating up your enemies feels satisfying and great in this game, and the story was interesting to see, since it replicates yakuza movies. for a PS2 title i´d say it´s really impressive and not a bad way to get into the series.
This is one of those games I like/low-key love despite its faults.
From where it all started, seeing this series in retrospect is pretty interesting. This is a game that was uncertain if it were getting a sequel. Lots of characters come and go, deaths as common as a sunrise, etc.
I think the story is cool. It's more unique compared to future Yakuzas that it focuses almost exclusively on the gang politics. To put it in simpler terms, the "Crime" overtakes the more character driven "Drama" in this Crime Drama. May not gel well with some people who're there for the story and characters, but if the game wants to be a gangster movie, I'll accept it as such.
Gameplay is not perfect but it works. Kiryu's controls are stiff but its also very simple to wrap your head around. Heat drops fast but its also easy to gain fast.
One combo not working? Do a different combo. Enemy dodging your strikes? Grab him. Enemy snuck up on you? Dodge.
Kiryu can get some of the best techniques with little to no grinding by game's end. Not perfect combat, but it has its own logic to it that can be mastered funnily enough. Majima is an asshole.
Sidequests are pretty simple. Compared to other Yakuzas, a lot of them are pretty bare but some I felt very "real".
Yakuza 1 is a simple game. Mostly straightforward story, simple beat em up and a pretty cool setting.
From where it all started, seeing this series in retrospect is pretty interesting. This is a game that was uncertain if it were getting a sequel. Lots of characters come and go, deaths as common as a sunrise, etc.
I think the story is cool. It's more unique compared to future Yakuzas that it focuses almost exclusively on the gang politics. To put it in simpler terms, the "Crime" overtakes the more character driven "Drama" in this Crime Drama. May not gel well with some people who're there for the story and characters, but if the game wants to be a gangster movie, I'll accept it as such.
Gameplay is not perfect but it works. Kiryu's controls are stiff but its also very simple to wrap your head around. Heat drops fast but its also easy to gain fast.
One combo not working? Do a different combo. Enemy dodging your strikes? Grab him. Enemy snuck up on you? Dodge.
Kiryu can get some of the best techniques with little to no grinding by game's end. Not perfect combat, but it has its own logic to it that can be mastered funnily enough. Majima is an asshole.
Sidequests are pretty simple. Compared to other Yakuzas, a lot of them are pretty bare but some I felt very "real".
Yakuza 1 is a simple game. Mostly straightforward story, simple beat em up and a pretty cool setting.
There isn't much to praise this game for. It was the first game in the series and even without playing the other games, I can tell that the creators were only trying to see if the formula works rather than creating a great game.
The story is ... alright. The themes are forced into your face and don't really leave any impact. The characters are low-key fun, but also shallow.
Also, the dub is straight-up BAD. No two ways about it. It's bad.
To be completely honest here, the only thing about this game that makes it worth investing time in is the over-the-top insane action. And, well, that was good enough for me.
Maybe if it was a longer game, that formula would have gotten boring.
But, for the 12 hours it took me to beat it, it was pretty fun.
The story is ... alright. The themes are forced into your face and don't really leave any impact. The characters are low-key fun, but also shallow.
Also, the dub is straight-up BAD. No two ways about it. It's bad.
To be completely honest here, the only thing about this game that makes it worth investing time in is the over-the-top insane action. And, well, that was good enough for me.
Maybe if it was a longer game, that formula would have gotten boring.
But, for the 12 hours it took me to beat it, it was pretty fun.
Good god, am I glad this game got remade.
I don't really have much new or interesting to say about it: the story is great, Kiryu is a treasure, Haruka is an angel, the combat is rough, the English dub is endearing but not necessarily good.
It ends up being a pretty fascinating game to look at after you've played the other games and see how different certain aspects of it are. Maybe the most interesting thing was the localization and dub and how much that can change the tone of the whole game to where it occasionally feels like a parody of a Yakuza game.
More than anything, this game made me appreciate the Kiwami remake so much more. I already really liked that game but now I like it even more. It adds several scenes that are critically important to adding depth to characters that are relatively flat or poorly characterized in this original version. Go play Kiwami.
If you've never played a Yakuza before, do yourself a favor and play Kiwami instead. But if you've played them all and are desperate for a little bit more then this game is a fun thing to check out.
I don't really have much new or interesting to say about it: the story is great, Kiryu is a treasure, Haruka is an angel, the combat is rough, the English dub is endearing but not necessarily good.
It ends up being a pretty fascinating game to look at after you've played the other games and see how different certain aspects of it are. Maybe the most interesting thing was the localization and dub and how much that can change the tone of the whole game to where it occasionally feels like a parody of a Yakuza game.
More than anything, this game made me appreciate the Kiwami remake so much more. I already really liked that game but now I like it even more. It adds several scenes that are critically important to adding depth to characters that are relatively flat or poorly characterized in this original version. Go play Kiwami.
If you've never played a Yakuza before, do yourself a favor and play Kiwami instead. But if you've played them all and are desperate for a little bit more then this game is a fun thing to check out.
Mark Hamill as Majima.
That is all.
That is all.
Make no mistake, despite the low score I actually had a great time with the original Yakuza! However, it's also not hard for me to admit the game does kinda suck.
For context, I recently played through Yakuza 0 and absolutely fell in love with it, so I've decided to do a sort of marathon of the series. A friend of mine gifted me a PS2 copy of this along with Yakuza 2 for my birthday. If you're reading this bro, thanks again, man! Sorry if you may not agree with everything I'm about to say though.
I kinda pity those who started with either Zero or Kiwami and didn't like the combat from there, because ho boy, they really don't understand how far the series has come. Combat in this game is kind of a clunker. Kiryu is noticeably slow in this game in both turn-speed and frame-data. When you attack in this game, he will commit to swinging his fists in that direction, but the enemies you encounter are very slow too, so I can't say the game isn't designed around Kiryu's slow moveset. However, the main problem is that Kiryu doesn't have a hard lock-on like in other action games. He has to rely on a soft lock-on that doesn't give an indicator to when it activates and isn't very intelligent, as it will often break mid-combo. Combine that with the uncontrollable camera in battles, battles will often look like drunken fisticuffs where Kiryu clumsily whiffs his fists 40 degrees away from someone right up in his face. This becomes a problem when in the later half of the game you fight crowds of people with bats, swords, or god forbid guns and you get wobbled around in hit stun because your big kick didn't combo properly. Combat is still relatively easy though. Most of the problems Kiryu faces can be solved by hitting square 4x > triangle and it will eat their guards and knock them down most of the time, where you can walk up to them and hit triangle for a heat execution move. This was my end-all-be-all strategy for about 90% of the encounters in the game, which isn't exactly very engaging. By around the halfway point of the game, I would actively try to avoid walking into encounters in Kamurocho (which by the way, the encounter rate is comically high in this game, like Final Fantasy IV bad.) because they weren't exactly pounding my pulses anymore.
Speaking of walking around in Kamurocho, I was surprised to see just how hard they nailed the atmosphere in this game. The streets of Kamurocho are often dark and littered with trash, only brought to life by the illumination of neon signs and dim street lights, and the bustling crowds of noisy people. The fixed camera angles while walking around also make the city seem daunting, as the camera angles often pan above Kiryu to make the city seem larger than he is. It's absolutely fascinating stuff, and you combine that with the side quests you can find while talking to NPCs on the streets (which unfortunately most of them are fetch quests, with a scant few being memorable side stories) you really get the feel Kamurocho is a living, breathing metropolitan, crime-ridden, red-light district.
As for the story, it feels like a great proof of concept. I was surprised to see how briskly paced it all was, baring one chapter which mostly felt like filler. Maybe a little too brisk. I feel the cast of characters introduced here the devs haven't decided what to exactly do with yet, so they end off coming off more like prototypes for the larger narrative than real explored characters yet. One of the few characters that actually do get some scenes of character development outside of Kiryu and Haruka, Detective Date, gets his scenes in the aformeantioned filler chapter. It doesn't tie into the main story at all, but it was also nice to see a side character with his own struggles with the themes of family in this game.
Unfortunately, that may also be because this game has a quite frankly hilarious dub. I miss when Sega was the kings of shitty awkward dubbing, and this game offers plenty of lines that made me burst out laughing. It's still unfortunate because the actual good performances in this game like Mark Hamill as Goro Majima still have to wrestle with the horrid sound mixing. The dub does kinda ruin the mood of some scenes that were genuinely cool, there are still a lot of hype moments in this game that unfortunately get bogged down by bad voice direction or bad sound mixing. Let me share some of my favorite iconically bad lines:
"I did feel the urge to hit some balls today... I suppose yours will have to do"
"Go! Kill this arrogant mo-ther-fuck-er!"
"Women: "Are you fucking [R slur]?" Kiryu: I'm not as stupid as you."
I know this whole review seems kinda negative so far, but I was being genuine when I said I actually still had a great time with Yakuza despite all these flaws. Perhaps it was the brisk flow of the story, the atmosphere, and the discovery of all the little side content within the streets of Kamurocho is that kept me engaged throughout this experience the most. It's rare to see a game attempt to experiment with a bunch of ideas and still come out with something unlike anything back in the day.
The entire experience actually reminded me a lot of when I played Demon's Souls last year. Both games were born from internal company failure and both directors set out to create a new ambitious idea to lay the groundwork of a now iconic series, rising their studios to fame. Both games do feel a tad clunky and maybe less-fleshed out than they should be, but both games still feature experimental mechanics and atmosphere unlike anything else from their respective series. It's special to play a game like that, but I would argue Demon's is a more polished game overall, which is why I've played through that game three times as of writing this.
I'm not sure when I'll return to Yakuza 1, because while I did have my fun with it, I can also see this as a hard game to come back to if the other games deliver as much as people say they do. Yakuza is a beautiful messy blueprint and I'm ready to see how they'll iron out these kinks of this pretty solid game in its sequels.
For context, I recently played through Yakuza 0 and absolutely fell in love with it, so I've decided to do a sort of marathon of the series. A friend of mine gifted me a PS2 copy of this along with Yakuza 2 for my birthday. If you're reading this bro, thanks again, man! Sorry if you may not agree with everything I'm about to say though.
I kinda pity those who started with either Zero or Kiwami and didn't like the combat from there, because ho boy, they really don't understand how far the series has come. Combat in this game is kind of a clunker. Kiryu is noticeably slow in this game in both turn-speed and frame-data. When you attack in this game, he will commit to swinging his fists in that direction, but the enemies you encounter are very slow too, so I can't say the game isn't designed around Kiryu's slow moveset. However, the main problem is that Kiryu doesn't have a hard lock-on like in other action games. He has to rely on a soft lock-on that doesn't give an indicator to when it activates and isn't very intelligent, as it will often break mid-combo. Combine that with the uncontrollable camera in battles, battles will often look like drunken fisticuffs where Kiryu clumsily whiffs his fists 40 degrees away from someone right up in his face. This becomes a problem when in the later half of the game you fight crowds of people with bats, swords, or god forbid guns and you get wobbled around in hit stun because your big kick didn't combo properly. Combat is still relatively easy though. Most of the problems Kiryu faces can be solved by hitting square 4x > triangle and it will eat their guards and knock them down most of the time, where you can walk up to them and hit triangle for a heat execution move. This was my end-all-be-all strategy for about 90% of the encounters in the game, which isn't exactly very engaging. By around the halfway point of the game, I would actively try to avoid walking into encounters in Kamurocho (which by the way, the encounter rate is comically high in this game, like Final Fantasy IV bad.) because they weren't exactly pounding my pulses anymore.
Speaking of walking around in Kamurocho, I was surprised to see just how hard they nailed the atmosphere in this game. The streets of Kamurocho are often dark and littered with trash, only brought to life by the illumination of neon signs and dim street lights, and the bustling crowds of noisy people. The fixed camera angles while walking around also make the city seem daunting, as the camera angles often pan above Kiryu to make the city seem larger than he is. It's absolutely fascinating stuff, and you combine that with the side quests you can find while talking to NPCs on the streets (which unfortunately most of them are fetch quests, with a scant few being memorable side stories) you really get the feel Kamurocho is a living, breathing metropolitan, crime-ridden, red-light district.
As for the story, it feels like a great proof of concept. I was surprised to see how briskly paced it all was, baring one chapter which mostly felt like filler. Maybe a little too brisk. I feel the cast of characters introduced here the devs haven't decided what to exactly do with yet, so they end off coming off more like prototypes for the larger narrative than real explored characters yet. One of the few characters that actually do get some scenes of character development outside of Kiryu and Haruka, Detective Date, gets his scenes in the aformeantioned filler chapter. It doesn't tie into the main story at all, but it was also nice to see a side character with his own struggles with the themes of family in this game.
Unfortunately, that may also be because this game has a quite frankly hilarious dub. I miss when Sega was the kings of shitty awkward dubbing, and this game offers plenty of lines that made me burst out laughing. It's still unfortunate because the actual good performances in this game like Mark Hamill as Goro Majima still have to wrestle with the horrid sound mixing. The dub does kinda ruin the mood of some scenes that were genuinely cool, there are still a lot of hype moments in this game that unfortunately get bogged down by bad voice direction or bad sound mixing. Let me share some of my favorite iconically bad lines:
"I did feel the urge to hit some balls today... I suppose yours will have to do"
"Go! Kill this arrogant mo-ther-fuck-er!"
"Women: "Are you fucking [R slur]?" Kiryu: I'm not as stupid as you."
I know this whole review seems kinda negative so far, but I was being genuine when I said I actually still had a great time with Yakuza despite all these flaws. Perhaps it was the brisk flow of the story, the atmosphere, and the discovery of all the little side content within the streets of Kamurocho is that kept me engaged throughout this experience the most. It's rare to see a game attempt to experiment with a bunch of ideas and still come out with something unlike anything back in the day.
The entire experience actually reminded me a lot of when I played Demon's Souls last year. Both games were born from internal company failure and both directors set out to create a new ambitious idea to lay the groundwork of a now iconic series, rising their studios to fame. Both games do feel a tad clunky and maybe less-fleshed out than they should be, but both games still feature experimental mechanics and atmosphere unlike anything else from their respective series. It's special to play a game like that, but I would argue Demon's is a more polished game overall, which is why I've played through that game three times as of writing this.
I'm not sure when I'll return to Yakuza 1, because while I did have my fun with it, I can also see this as a hard game to come back to if the other games deliver as much as people say they do. Yakuza is a beautiful messy blueprint and I'm ready to see how they'll iron out these kinks of this pretty solid game in its sequels.
This game is fantastic, i have a lot of fond memories playing it and replaying it recently i still think it's good, i like how tight and focused it is, the game doesn't waste your time with grinding or padding.
The city is fantastic, you can see how they wanted to recreate the shady aspect of the red light district of Tokyo, the fixed camera works to its favor to show off the city at its best, it really does seem like a dangerous place full of scammers and thugs, it's also filled with little details like you can find the fake Mizuki or the white color gang hideout before the main story mentions them.
They also used the rain and snow really well in certain moments of the story, atmosphere isn't just a meme.
The combat is good and i'm tired of pretending it's not, sure it can start out pretty basic but you'll get everything you need during the course of the game, it really feels like Kiryu is becoming a more skilled fighter during the course of the game. I also really like how good it feels, it's a mix between the animations of your attacks, the enemy reactions to getting hit by your combos and the sound design being really crunchy, every game's combat after Yakuza 2 didn't feels quite as good as this imo but they were good in different ways.
I also never see anyone talk about how good Kiryu's moveset actually is, something about it is just really iconic, his kick is in the front cover for a reason.
The story is beautiful, i like the mistery and how everything unravels, my only complaint is that the death scenes for most characters aren't handled that well, that's certainly something they got better at in later games. Nishiki itself already worked in this game imo, the loss of his sister, Yumi and Kiryu all in a short time made him change and that's stated pretty clearly in game. I don't feel like the cutscenes added by Kiwami really add much to his character, instead they only made him look pathetic. 0 does a much better job at making you feel for Nishiki than Kiwami does.
Regarding the substories, it seems the first Yakuza has a reputation for having bad substories and i can't say i agree, sure most of them are scams but there's quite a bunch of more elaborate ones with cutscenes and all, i especially like those tying into the main story like The fake Mizuki or the Yakuza's wife(the rain and thunder in the background are so kino). Plus there is some light hearted substories here too, it's not like humour was invented with 0, it's just that this game has a different tone.
The music is good but that's true for all the games in this series so i won't talk about it more than that.
Edit: As of 25/06/2022 the restoration patch to get the japanese dub is actually out and it works perfectly, thank you Sylwahan
The city is fantastic, you can see how they wanted to recreate the shady aspect of the red light district of Tokyo, the fixed camera works to its favor to show off the city at its best, it really does seem like a dangerous place full of scammers and thugs, it's also filled with little details like you can find the fake Mizuki or the white color gang hideout before the main story mentions them.
They also used the rain and snow really well in certain moments of the story, atmosphere isn't just a meme.
The combat is good and i'm tired of pretending it's not, sure it can start out pretty basic but you'll get everything you need during the course of the game, it really feels like Kiryu is becoming a more skilled fighter during the course of the game. I also really like how good it feels, it's a mix between the animations of your attacks, the enemy reactions to getting hit by your combos and the sound design being really crunchy, every game's combat after Yakuza 2 didn't feels quite as good as this imo but they were good in different ways.
I also never see anyone talk about how good Kiryu's moveset actually is, something about it is just really iconic, his kick is in the front cover for a reason.
The story is beautiful, i like the mistery and how everything unravels, my only complaint is that the death scenes for most characters aren't handled that well, that's certainly something they got better at in later games. Nishiki itself already worked in this game imo, the loss of his sister, Yumi and Kiryu all in a short time made him change and that's stated pretty clearly in game. I don't feel like the cutscenes added by Kiwami really add much to his character, instead they only made him look pathetic. 0 does a much better job at making you feel for Nishiki than Kiwami does.
Regarding the substories, it seems the first Yakuza has a reputation for having bad substories and i can't say i agree, sure most of them are scams but there's quite a bunch of more elaborate ones with cutscenes and all, i especially like those tying into the main story like The fake Mizuki or the Yakuza's wife(the rain and thunder in the background are so kino). Plus there is some light hearted substories here too, it's not like humour was invented with 0, it's just that this game has a different tone.
The music is good but that's true for all the games in this series so i won't talk about it more than that.
Edit: As of 25/06/2022 the restoration patch to get the japanese dub is actually out and it works perfectly, thank you Sylwahan
I'm only playing this after playing through the entire series via the remakes and it's surprising how much of the series' identity is visible even back then. The combat is simple but every move is useful. There's not that many minigames but a few of the regulars like baseball and the crane game are here. The substories are also pretty simple which was evident in Kiwami 1 but there are a few good ones. Overall, it is still a very enjoyable game even if I do think I prefer the remake.