𝑰𝑵 𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝒀𝑨𝑲𝑼𝒁𝑨, 𝑭𝑬𝑨𝑹 𝑰𝑺 𝑵𝑶𝑻 𝑨𝑵 𝑶𝑷𝑻𝑰𝑶𝑵!

Duality lies at the heart of Yakuza 2, with the 2 in the title not just being an indicator of this being the next entry in the series. Like a virus, it infects this game on every level. Two cities, two regions, two clans, two identities, two nationalities, double agents, double-crossed, body doubles, twice as big as the first game, twice as bombastic.
AND TWO DRAGONS!

Any discussion of the PS2 Yakuza games isn’t complete without first bringing up the separate atmosphere these games exhibit which is something the series has sorely lost post Yakuza 0. The biggest fix to the atmosphere is by making the sound of each district of Kamurocho more distinct and unique, unlike the first game which insisted on reusing the same loop for almost every area resulting in walks across town feeling even more like a chore than they usually do. That’s exactly why the town of Sotenbori contrasts so beautifully with Kamurocho, being the exact opposite in a lot of ways. More varied, more compact, and in a lot of ways is a better city than Kamurocho itself. A charitable view of this difference is that it’s meant to signify how exactly the Omi Alliance separates itself from the Tojo Clan, even more than the Omi HQ itself.

The first game’s combat, while being beaten by other games released during that period, was still relatively fun but Nagoshi’s insistence on making sure Yakuza 2 lives up to that number means the combat receives a major overhaul on almost every level. It flows much more smoothly and lays a lot of the groundwork for the design philosophy of the combat system that is still followed by RGG Studio to this day. I played the game on Hard difficulty and occasionally no damaged a few bosses, allowing me to appreciate where this system excelled and where it fell short. And despite how fun it usually is there’s still the occasional boss which feels poorly designed, or like it’s meant to be played on a lower difficulty.

Although I’d be lying if I said the combat is the main draw of these games for me, going to the narrative I realize that it’s probably some of the best writing this franchise has seen. The first two Yakuza games were still written by multiple writers, after which the series mostly became Yokoyama’s playground; and this being his second game the improvement is very noticeable. He’s able to infuse the pervasive theme of duality in every element of this game, and while I can praise Yokoyama it’s still important to acknowledge that a lot of what makes Yakuza 1&2 so great is their ability to write crime dramas so well. This was most likely Hase Seishu’s doing, as he still script-doctored Yakuza 2. So it feels like a crime drama in its second season, aiming higher and being louder. It’s unknown how much Makoto Itakura, the third writer, did as after Yakuza 2 he’s mostly been relegated to the background just to show up in the “assisting directors” list of almost every Like a Dragon game released since but whatever he did I think Yakuza 2 shows why having multiple writers can work very well sometimes. Bit by bit, it’s able to effectively build up and unravel its mystery, showing just how much petty revenge can consume you. It all culminates in one of the bloodiest nights Kamurocho has ever seen, one of the best finales this franchise has to offer, and definitely the best Christmas game ever made.

On a cold winter night, they exchange fists. It's not a matter of love, it's not a matter of hate. Not even about honor. Just the desire to prove they can, before the silence that will ensue.

𝗦𝗜𝗟𝗘𝗡𝗧 𝗡𝗜𝗚𝗛𝗧, 𝗛𝗢𝗟𝗬 𝗡𝗜𝗚𝗛𝗧.

Crazy how much the second game in the series pretty much traced the course of the franchise's next 9 years. Kiryu finally handles like the man dubbed Dragon of Dojima ought to be, a force of nature.

When I first started my RGG journey with 0 and the middling-to-abysmal Kiwamis, 2's story was 'merely' cool and enjoyable. Now that I'm caught up on the "Kiryu Saga", 2's tale stands out in its comparative straightforwardness, a quality the series too often lacks. All-time antagonist Ryuji Goda is a big reason as to why that is, but the overall essential cast, combined with the emotional rawness of the events shown, those are the real key ingredients.

Maybe it's the season, maybe it's the fading adrenaline from a shirtless fight on top of Kamurocho Hills ended with the angriest, most brutal Heat Action in the game, maybe I'm just tired... yet it doesn't feel like a proper year has passed if I don't finish a Like A Dragon title. Knowing the series still has so much to give fills me with trepidation as well as warmth. Despite the turmoil we live in, it's nice to do some virtual tourism, to immerse yourself in a different time and space. At this point, beating thugs senseless in the streets is just a nice bonus.

On Sunday afternoon I thought to myself, oh yeah I should write something and try to get a functioning ranking of Yakuzas before I get through LAD. Then I immediately decided not to do that because it's effort. Unfortunately I stayed up too late and in my sleepy state I committed to the project and now I'm doomed.

Anyway, as with Kiwami I haven't played this in ages. In fact Kiwami 2 wasn't even out when I played this so I went with the PS2 version, but I don't think that's lowering my rating in any way. 2 is so complex in a lot of ways that I imagine my thoughts will be very different when I get around to Kiwami 2 some day. Still I think I just can't easily decide which of the first two I rank higher so I'm punting it. Thoughts in no particular order.

My understanding is that they apologized at some point for this one being really super racist. There's a cop who loves murdering foreigners but it turns out to be okay because gangs. They never really stopped being nationalist games but we didn't get anything quite that bad.

The series begins here, and will continue hereafter, to have a certain desire to depict queer people while also being really cishet about it. This is kind of the high point for me? The Earth Angel mama is okay in my book, probably because she calls herself a homo. I'm guessing that line is changed in Kiwami 2. Even in LAD I stopped in there in chapter 1 and they stopped giving her any kind of unique dialogue but I can still nod appreciatively.

Ryuji Goda is interesting as an antagonist in that he's barely developed but I still somehow have residual good feelings about him. I think this is because he looks cool and the last fight with him falls under the "two men beating the shit out of each other for no reason because they're too stupid to kiss" trope and I frankly like that one every time. The end of MGS4 has me hootin' and hollerin' I cannot get enough of this shit.

The Castle Segment. Anyone who has played knows that entire chapter is just the best unhinged shit.

Second instance of Kiryu knocking out a guy with a gun and then not taking the gun from him so he wakes up and takes a shot at Kiryu but another important character jumps in front of the bullet. This is a problem on the level of Goku letting guys power up in front of him.

Yakuza 2 is very obviously a game that tries a Icarus stunt and I don't think it reaches the sun how it should have done, the game is better than the first one on a macroscopic level but the devil is in the details and the microscopic level actually shows that the first one is more consistent game all across the game, the story is more complex but its execution is messier, the gameplay is better but some of its fight can be really a chore given some harder spikes, the side content is bloated and not really consistently interesting with some side content being a downright chore or simply not really interesting, I wanted to like this one more than the first one but simply I can't, which is a shame because it could have touched the sun but it still reached very far and it's a damn good achievement, the game has an amazing vibe a mostly (MOSTLY) good pacing, the story is great when it doesn't get messy and kamurocho is still a great place to bum around in, both Yakuza on PS2 are really amazing games damn easy to recommend.

Usually Yakuza 3 is the one people talk as the blueprint of the series but Yakuza 2 deserves way more this title.

In a series with so many unique games Yakuza 2 stay unique by how he picks everything the original tried out and sticking together to build something.

Is a Hokuto no Ken game with hanzai eiga elements in it with a strong direction and a lot of choices that makes the whole experience strong. The game have jazz, have the cool as fuck brutal combat, a fun side content and a cool cast.

Yakuza 2 do a lot of interesting things with the writing and how everything plays out and have some misteps because of how early he was doing some of the questions (like the whole debate about misogyny and how it impacts Kaoru being made with good intentions but is not so well done) but still manage to work.

It's a classic, Kiwami 2 did dirty a lot of things with it.

A peak in the PS2 library. Combat's refined and the edges are sanded off so that things really start to glide comfortably without alot of the irky-jerkness that made Kiryu feel stiff in the first game. Incredible writing that's better than the first, incredible performances from the original cast, allowing you to finally get swept away in Takaya Kuroda's complete command over this character alongside everyone else batting a 1,000, and the presentation is still breathtaking to this day. Kamurocho looks stunning and some of the fight locales are holy-shit-this-was-a-PS2-game? jawdropping. Kiryu comes into his own fully as a character and Ryuji Goda is that dude. It's a pretty flawless game aside from having less interesting substories compared to the first in my opinion, I just wish it saw more wide release in the states beyond being on the fucking Wii U of all things

A good follow-up to the first game and introduces some staples to the series like the new explorable city of Sotenbori. I may be in the minority in saying that I somewhat prefer the first game's story, though this one had higher highs. Kiryu gets some good development and the main antagonist is much more compelling than Nishiki was in the first game.

Unfortunately, I feel like the story gets extremely messy towards the end and I've never been 100% on board with the romantic approach they took with Kiryu and Sayama. However, in every other aspect, this game surpasses the original in terms of gameplay, the combat is remarkably smoother than it was before.

Overall, a solid entry that fumbles a bit towards the end but is good fun for most of its duration.

Melhor jogo que tem Suda51 como dublador.

Esse é um jogo que me fez apreciar ainda mais uma historia que já havia visto anteriormente na versão Kiwami, só que contando com o charme especial da era PS2, um ponto que ainda me faz ser um puta saudosista desse titulo. De verdade, sou muito mais levado a recomendar essa experiência do que o remake, afinal, não há como negar a importante marca que esse jogo deixou para o restante da franquia, coisa de estar na lista de jogos que mais impactaram a série para melhor. Yakuza 2 é um clássico e será o meu meu dever espalhar a palavra dele para todos os quatros cantos do mundo.

Andar por Kamurocho nunca me causou tantas comoções quanto agora, me deixando muito mais fascinado do que já era pelas suas ruas cheias de vida e coisas novas a se fazer a todo momento. Isso me levou a procurar por diversas fontes sobre o surgimento da ideia por trás dessa cidade. É uma loucura agora saber como a ideia original saiu de uma simples conversa que alguns membros da equipe tiveram em um bar no distrito de Kabuchiko, a maior inspiração para o principal palco que vemos dentro da série.

"E se existisse um jogo em que pudéssemos visitar todos esses lugares que frequentamos?" foi uma das perguntas descontraídas durante a reunião da equipe, mas que felizmente acabou se tornando uma das coisas mais importantes já ouvidas por Nagoshi, uma ideia brilhante que hoje podemos ver os frutos maravilhosos que deu. Posso realmente passar horas falando sobre a Kamurocho da era PS2, ela realmente me traz uma puta sensação maneira, algo que só a Okinawa, que foi introduzida no terceiro jogo da franquia, tinha conseguindo despertar em mim até então. Além disso, foi nesse jogo que Sotenbori foi introduzida, palco de várias missões principais e diversas outras substories da historia. Shinseicho também foi outra localização incluída, mas que acabou sendo removida no remake. Não diria que fico chateado com isso, fiz apenas a pequena parte da missão principal e não pisei por lá novamente, talvez eu concorde um pouco com essa escolha feita e em breve vou rejogar a versão Kiwami pra ter uma opinião mais bem formada. Mas também entendo quem não vai de acordo com a enorme quantidade de coisas cortadas nessa versão.

Se você já sentiu a angústia de ter experimentado o combate do primeiro Yakuza, não se preocupe em ter que sentir isso novamente. Esqueça os momentos agoniantes em que você fez uma sequência de combos e não conseguiu parar, mesmo tendo errado o alvo por questão de metros. Os controles lentos e imprecisos, que tornam a experiência do primeiro jogo uma dolorosa forma de tortura, não estão mais presentes nessa sua continuação. Ainda assim, há momentos em que os controles podem dar um pouquinho de dor de cabeça.

Ao mesmo tempo em que é incrível, é notável a enorme evolução que essa área do jogo teve. No entanto, não diria apenas que houve evolução na jogabilidade, porque o jogo consegue atingir muito mais além do que se propõe em tudo, desde sua apresentação até suas cenas muito mais bem trabalhadas. Além disso, conta com um roteiro bem superior escrito pelo gatinho do Yokoyama, um cara que eu passei a apreciar muito desde que zerei Yakuza 5 e vi do que ele é capaz de fazer com uma caneta. É interessante ver um de seus antigos trabalhos já sabendo disso e ver até onde esse cara conseguiu chegar. Ele soube dar peso para as ações dos vilões principais e foi o principal responsável por dar maior profundidade para aquele que se tornaria meu personagem favorito na história dos videogames: Uncle Kazzy.

um salto de qualidade enorme comparado ao primeiro jogo, melhoraram tudo que podia o combate ficou incrível antes era cheia de problemas e insuportável de jogar principalmente nos vilões, além de adicionar mais sidequest interessantes e mais lugares para explorar como sotenbori.

a história tá sensacional goda ryuji é um personagem incrível um vilão super carismático e com uma dinâmica incrível com o kiryu, o embate final entre os dois é uma das minhas lutas de chefões favoritas, e também tenho que elogiar muito a trilha sonora que está incrível.

With a pretty damn short dev cycle of around 11 months, RGG got off lucky by having the groundwork of the original Yakuza laid out for them. Even still, making a sequel to be bigger and better than the original Yakuza, a game that was both made on a pretty huge scale, and had a massive budget, would still be a hefty feat. But goddamn, did they deliver.

Sure enough, Yakuza 2 manages to be bigger than its predecessor in just about every way, even if it's due to a lot of the groundwork with both combat and the overworld being laid out from the 2005 original. The vibes of Kamurocho, as well as the new Sotenbori and brief trip to Shinseicho are as on point as ever, as they were in the original. The combat's taken a massive jump, with a few essential moves from Yakuza 1 being unlocked from the start; a really cool and handy feature! There's also a lot less lock-on related issues, and small but appreciated quality of life improvements like weapons taking up their own slots on the inventory, and the ability to send an item back to the hideout if you collect something with a full inventory. There's a few new moves, some insane new Heat Moves, the good stuff. It's everything a good sequel should be, and that especially extends to the OST, and the story.

While the OST is something I'd need to give a few more listens to, mostly so I know track names and can hear them better over the sounds of punching and weapons, the music of the game was absolutely fantastic. From regular battles in the streets, to the major bosses closing off the chapters, just about every battle track had me gripping my controller, locked into the moment and only served to hype me up to kick ass. The good shit, definitely going to have it on the Spotify playlist for a bit.

And man, that story. Between expanding upon Kiryu as a character, both on his own and with his relationships with the extended cast of both returning and new cast members alike, to the much grander scope it goes onto take with Japan and Korea going to blows. Ryuji has gotta be one of the sickest rivals I've seen in a game in some time; basically the closest this series would have to a Vergil, if I had to guess. Sayama was a great female lead to tag along with Kiryu, with the pair getting a ton of both heartfelt and somber moments throughout. And Daigo was a chad who I wish got more screentime, but I'm pretty sure he shows up later throughout the series, so hell yeah. But without giving too much away, one of the best things Yakuza 2 manages to do is absolutely throttle the players with twists, especially by the end of the title. From the cold opening covering the Jingweon Massacre, all the way through to the climax, it's sincere, heartfelt, dramatic, hype, everything I look for in a great story.

And all in all? Yakuza 2's just about everything I look for in a great game. Long as it took me to complete, thanks mostly to work kicking my ass, I had an absolute blast with it from start to finish. It's one of those cases where I'm basically bordering on giving the game a flat 10/10, so consider my 9/10 subject to change. Might be my favourite of the series thus far, at least until I replay 0 at some point later down the line, though it's really the DMC3 VS 5 sort of toss up, where I could go back and forth. Excellent game regardless of any internal debate, sure glad I didn't play that whack ass remake as my first experience with the game!

this was the best way a sequel to yakuza 1 could have panned out, and for a game made in a year this could potentially be one of the greatest projects ever created lol.

starting with the gameplay, kiryu finally fights like someone that knows how to fight. the clunkiness that a lot of people complain about in the first game is straight up just gone in this game, and instead replaced with a significantly wider variety of fun, exciting heat actions that are super satisfying to pull off. kiryu is also able to turn in the middle of a battle which is SUPER helpful while not breaking the game or anything. the kino level on boss fights is turned up to the max in this game, and there was never really a low moment gameplay-wise (even the mid-game boss that gave me a ton of trouble was still fun and satisfying when i beat him).

the story was phenomenal, and while i do understand people that find it to be somewhat chaotic, everything tying together at the end just solves all of the gripes that i had throughout the game. its like a crime thriller at its core, but it becomes so much more by the end, with a lot of moving parts that get resolved in a really clean manner. the themes of moving on from your past are super pertinent, and while theyre always present throughout the game theyre presented in such an interesting way that i cant help but love them.

characters like sayama genuinely feel like humans, and the extra development that kiryu gets in relation to not only her but the overall themes of the game make him an even more engaging protagonist than he already was. ryuji goda is the perfect foil to kiryu and they both bounce off of each other in a way that i really dont see very often. both him and kiryu's character progressions are super engaging and the entire game just kept me hooked from start to finish.

overall, its a game about accepting your fate and everything that comes with life, while not letting your past actions or memories define who you are. while fate dictates what you do in your future, how you handle your future is fully up to you, and thats something that i heavily resonate with.

I recently finished the first ’Yakuza’ game and it immediately shot itself up there as one of my favorite titles on the PlayStation 2. Due to this, I was fairly quick at picking up the sequel and giving it a try and I’ll admit, I came out disappointed. ’Yakuza 2’ embodies the style of my least favorite type of sequels that feel more like big expansion packs rather than a new numbered entry. Take ’Resident Evil 3: Nemesis’ and ’Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne’ as some other examples. I mean hell, just look at the first ’Yakuzas’ box art then the seconds and it already plays the same melody, but with different notes. This doesn’t make ’Yakuza 2’ a bad game or anything like that, but I felt a lot of my enjoyment that came out of it felt shallow because it was pretty much exactly like how it was in the first game from specific story beats to reusing the whole same open world from the first title.

To speak more in depth about this, I don’t think reusing content is always a horrible thing, but I feel ’Yakuza 2’ pushes it a bit too far. A majority of the game, you spend your time in Kamurocho, the same city in the first entry. I feel the issue that comes out of this is that it is exactly the same. From the layout of the city to very minimal details such as the noise of the crowds being identical to the previous title. This goes on into pretty much every aspect of Kamurocho. I wouldn’t mind if they reused the location, but added new touches to give it a unique flavor similar to how Bright Falls feels distinct, yet similar in both of the ’Alan Wake’ games. The problem for me here is how Kamurocho doesn’t feel any bit new, it is entirely reused from the original ’Yakuza’ which is super lame. Some aspects are changed such as Purgatory and a bar you used to go to having a different name, but I would’ve liked a bit more than that. There are a few new towns you’ll explore throughout the game which are cool, but they are noticeably smaller in size and don’t have an as interesting design to them as they are just a few square blocks without many alleyways or unique parts to them.

The combat is the same from the first title with some quality of life improvements. It’s much snappier and reactive than the previous game letting you quick turn into punching an enemy behind you. This helps the lock on feel not as busted although it still has its annoying moments. There’s a few new combos and heat mode attacks which are fun to experiment with. The heat mode does feel more generous this time around in how slow it can take to disappear, but this was helpful since enemies have a ton more health this time around. Some normal enemies can have more than one health bar and the major bosses can go up to three. It wants to test your endurance more and I appreciate that. I also felt much more of an incentive to dodge and block since some attacks can do an extreme amount of damage that is better to avoid than tanking. There is also a much stronger emphasis on quick time events this time around. I don’t mind QTEs usually, but the ones here require an especially fast reaction which I just didn’t have. This was annoying, but not too intrusive for my enjoyment. I do find the upgrading to be inconvenient because near the final upgrades you have to hold down the button for like fifteen seconds for a new skill and I wish it would give you the option to automatically use all your points to receive the upgrade.

The most significant and focused aspect of ’Yakuza 2’ is by far its story. I didn’t know how they were going to continue the plot of the first game since the ending was as concluding as it gets, but the setup here is fine. The strongest aspect is the characters and thank god for that because some of the big story beats and plot twists are immensely derivative or simply not that good. Through some parts of the plot, you pretty much get thrown into the same situation that you already went through in the first game. The most notable example of this being the huge tournament fight in Purgatory, but then you get hit with this one two punch of it ending with fighting Majima. I don’t want to do all this again. If I were looking for that I would well… play the previous title! The parts of the plot twists I dislike the most are actually in the ending. I won’t spoil as to what they are, but they hit you with like three fucking twists within a twenty minute time spam as well as a cliffhanger they didn’t even commit to as they show what happened after the credits. The issues I have do weigh down the story for me, but I still enjoyed it for the most part. The main antagonist, Ryuji Goda, is especially amazing although could use a little more screen time. The thing that makes him stick out to me is how he engages with Kiryu. He obviously has a high level of respect for him and he shows it. It creates an interesting dynamic between them that I loved. Alongside Kiryu for almost this entire journey is Sayama who is also a solid character. ’Yakuza 2’ decides to push into a silly direction more than the first game which is welcome. A lot of the first titles goofiness was unintentional due to the english dub, but ’Yakuza 2’ is much more purposely frivolous. I find myself having a preference towards the first game’s story, but ’Yakuza 2’ is a decent follow up which alone is worth experiencing if you were a fan of the previous game.

The presentation and sound design is all relatively the same to the first entry. The new soundtrack is pretty great though and the game still looks pretty, but that is expected. So much of it being exact makes it harder to compliment here because the last title already showed us this a while ago. It seems the pausing between camera transitions is faster this time around though which is a nice improvement, but there’s not much else to comment on besides that since I would just be repeating what I said about the previous game.

It may be annoying how much I hammer in about how much is the same, but it was frustrating to do all these things all over again. In a sequel, my desire is to get a completely new game that takes the mechanics from the previous entry and improve upon it entirely such as ’Resident Evil 2’. I also enjoy a sequel that feels like it reinvents itself to make a different experience as a whole similar to ’Alan Wake II’, but I can not get around sequels like this. They are so unfulfilling and forgettable to me because so much of what I loved was done the exact same way previously. It gives me no incentive to really care when all I think about is how I could be playing the first game instead. That’s what I mean by an “expansion pack sequel”. If this is your type of thing and you prefer a faithful to tradition experience then you will love ’Yakuza 2’ and I highly recommend it, but for others like me, I don’t. The game is enjoyable either way around, but it all feels so damn artificial that I can’t help, but feel underwhelmed.

--INCOMPLETE--

I got majorly fucked over and lost over 9 hours of gameplay. I'm gonna get back to it eventually, but, for now I'll just write my review and leave it.
Yeah, it's good. Like really good. The combat feels nice, just moving around feels so much more fun. You get to go to Sotenbori but also Kamurocho which is awesome. I really like this thing yakuza does of reusing the same map, idk, it makes me feel at home. Not a huuuge fan of Kaoru but she and Kiriyu are kind of cute. I wish haruka was in it more, but than again maybe she is BECAUSE I COULDNT FINISH IT

"a real man ought to be a little stupid", indeed. yakuza 2 follows up on the previous game in a lot of very ambitious ways, but it shoots itself in the foot just as frequently as it triumphs. the combat is more nuanced than in yakuza, but the game is more willing to throw overly tanky encounters at you (seriously, 6 fucking health bars on hayashi?). the story is more complex than in yakuza, but it also has a tone problem, jumping back and forth between a very moving and understated detective story and absurdly overblown, often illogical setpieces. the biggest issue i have with yakuza 2, however, is that it feels very blatantly padded, often giving the player long stretches without clear direction and expecting you to simply accidentally run into the next stage of the plot. there's times when this works, such as the investigative storyline in shinseicho, but much of the time it's used to highlight storylines that don't provide much more to the game than most of the substories. that's not to say 2 is without it's merits at all though, ryuji goda ends up being a very fun antagonist as a strong foil to kiryu. he may deal primarily in aura and atmosphere, but i'll be damned if that aura isn't a strong one. sayama is also a very well-realized character and this game is much more willing to provide quiet, poignant character-building moments because of her presence in the story. the substories here are much more varied and interesting than in 1; you still have your classic "kiryu gets scammed then beats up some guys" stories, but you also get pretty fun and absurd stuff added around them too. it's a shame that the overall package doesn't feel very cohesive, because yakuza 2's strongest moments intrigue me a lot more than anything in 1, but the payoff just isn't really there and it feels like it wants to divert course all the time.