Kurohyou: Ryuu ga Gotoku Shinshou (Yakuza Black Panther)
Is a great spinoff taking place after Yakuza 4, where we play as a 18 year old serious prodigy fighter/delinquent named Ukyo Tatsuya.
The soundtrack for the game is top tier and is amazing, the gameplay is a fun however repetitive in terms of street fights being constant. The game comes with it's romp of substories and includes minigames (some certainly better than others).
The game also features cabaret clubs and cameos from characters from the main Yakuza series including Akiyama and Hana (only appearing in a ramen minigame), and featuring the Florist of Sai as a helpful all seeing eye that helps Tatsuya find answers. The biggest issues with the game are mainly the gameplay in terms of running around Kamorucho with it's camera being a fixed camera since this is a PSP game.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Story: The story starts with Tatsuya Ukyo, a 17 year old fighting prodigy delinquent, who attempts to rob a Tojo Clan hideout with 2 of his friends. However he get into an argument and decides to do the robbery on his own, he successfully does but accidently ends up killing a high ranking officer with a death blow that he didn't think would kill him.
Tatsuya is spotted by Ryutaro Kuki, Head of the Kuki family for the Tojo Clan and tells Tatsuya that in order to buy back his freedom and make sure he's not exposed for killing Naoki Toda, however the deal is that in order to do so, Tatsuya has to beat 10 different fighters in Dragon Heat.
The issue is that in the history of Dragon Heat, no one has actually won 10 matches in a row as it is explained that each family within the Tojo Clan who are apart of handling/running Dragon Heat select fighters to then get more money, however if 1 family were to consistently win, then it would cause an internal chaotic war because of the financial unbalance. Throughout the game we learn that Tatsuya is surviving by being forced to participate in Kuki's Tojo Clan's affairs all for the sake of not being arrested for Toda's death. However overtime appreciates the people he meets within Dragon Heat and the fights he learns from, forming bonds with people within Dragon Heat.
Tatsuya enters and fighter against Tomoki, a boxing prospect who has quite the ego in thinking he can easily defeat Tatsuya, and gets annihilated in his fight. Tomoki uses the Street Karate Style of fighting.
Tatsuya wins however is later asked by 2 individuals who help with the medicine and recovery side of Dragon Heat, an 17 year old girl named Saki, and a late 40s/early 50s year old "doctor" named Taizan Amamiya. Taizan asks if Tatsuya learned anything from his fight, and Tatsuya ignores him, and continues his way of being egotisitcal and uncaring.
Tatsuya finally learns something during his second fight with a powerful fighter named Sho Hyuga who is cocky but has a philosophy of fight, and Taizan explains to Tatsuya that in order for Tatsuya to truly improve, he must have a philosophy and positive motivation in order to improve. Currently Tatsuya fights only to destroy his opponent instead of equate their strength and overcome it. Taizan describes Tatsuya like a wild animal with 2 options: Fight or Flight, saying that Tatsuya sees an easy opponent and wants to immediately destroy them, however if an opponent were stronger than Tatsuya, he'd most likely flee and lose. Taizan says an important part about being strong and having a good offense is defense, which allows you to perceive your opponents true strength while defending, if Tatsuya never learns this, he will lose.
The game continues with Tatsuya fighting a strong willed teacher from his past named Masumi Yuki that endured constant ridicule and torment's from Tatsuya and other delinquents in high school, holding back his true strength. They both go all out and Masumi breaks down in shame and anger to Tatsuya for all the pain and suffering he endured, Tatsuya apologies and even says that Masumi is strong for putting with such torture and ridicule for so long. They both finally respect eachother when Tatsuya tells him he's sorry and respects his strength.
Tatsuya's next fight is against a Karate Master named Nobumichi Fujimoto, who wants revenge against Tatsuya because his son was beat up by Tatsuya after he claimed that Karate and the Karate his father taught was lame and weak. Tatsuya did beat up his son however after the fight Tatsuya explains his regret and shows his true self and is honest about what happened. You see Tatsuya did beat up his son however he never caused the severe neck injury that put his son in the hospital. The father receives a call from his son from the hospital and they let him know that he's finally going to be able to walk again after so long. The father cries and Tatsuya is happy he could make piece with that. Nobumichi Fujimoto fights using the Karate Style
The next fight is against Hayato Makabe, nicknamed the MAD DOG OF DRAGON HEAT, he was hired by Kozo Nioka
to try to defeat Tatsuya by going crazy and by any means necessary. Hayato Makabe fights using the Extreme Awakening Style.
Tatsuya finds out that Toda is actually alive as he sees him in an elevator at the Millennium Tower, seeing this Tatsuya immediately decides to go and confront Kuki since Toda being alive contradicts what's on the robbery tape and that Tatsuya would no longer need to fight for Kuki since there's no point in having said evidence. However the next day on the news, it's reported that Toda's body had been found and that the suspect is... Tatsuya. Tatsuya again goes and confronts Kuki but Kuki tells him that they never revealed nor sent the tape to the police, so someone is attempting to set up Tatsuya now.
Tatsuya is chased throughout the first half of the game by Shozo Takenaka, a police detective that handled Tatsuya's juvenile cases when he was in his delinquet schoolboy era, but now is chasing after Tatsuya since he's a suspect.
Tatsuya's next fight is actually a rematch against Hyuga who looks more angry and ready to kill Tatsuya, this is due to the fact that he was tricked by Kozo Nioka and businessman Masa into believing that Tatsuya had kidnapped and is holding Hyuga's sister, Chiaki Hyuga (reporter who helps Tatsuya figure out issues within the Tojo Clan and Dragon Heat) for ransom, when infact it's all a lie to try to defeat Tatsuya before Tatsuya breaks the 6 match win mark. Tatsuya and Hyuga make ammends and become friends, with Hyuga letting Tatsuya know that him and Chiaki are moving away from Kamorucho in order to not get involved with anymore Yakuza business, however as a thank you, Hyuga teaches Tatsuya how to Wrestle.
Ryutaro Kuki is assaulted by an unknown assailant at his Family office and has Tatsuya's bracelet planted on him at the scene of the crime. While not dead, Kuki is gravely injured and while at the hospital, he decides to contact Tatsuya to meet him at a safe location. Kuki explains to Tatsuya that the footage of the robbery has been destroyed, but also pleads and begs Tatsuya to win the final 3 matches for the sake of Dragon Heat that give an avenue for people like Tatsuya to let themselves go and entertain. Kuki also explains that he might know who the true culprit of all of this problems occuring and it can be found in a microchip that Kuki installed however he sadly dies before revealing the location, and only gets a few bits of the locations words out. Tatsuya sadly yet determinately agrees to fufill Kuki's wishes.
The 7th fight is against Koumei Cho, who is fighting on behalf of the Nioka Family in order to learn the truth about his mothers death during a fire in the Champions district. Cho is a very emotional, yet strong fighter who fights using Extreme Wild Dance Style.
After his defeat, Tatsuya becomes friends with Cho and helps him figure out what happened to Cho's mother as well as learning info from his sister Saeko. They also visit the Florist of Sai to find out more information as to the goings on at the Champions district and learn about a man named "TORU NOBI" who's supposedly responsible for a fire that occured when Tatsuya and Cho were kids.
The 8th fight is against Tsuyoshi Aramaki, who is a mercenary known for assassinating his targets who was hire by Nioka family in order to finally take out Tatsuya and stop the Kuki's family domination. He uses the Commando Sambo Style. After his defeat he's confronted by Isamu Washio, a businessman who works on the behave of Masatoshi Tsutsui who works for the politician, Tadashi Tsurumi. Isamu scares the mercenary by nearly killing him, but instead leaves him alive. It is unknown what becomes of Tsuyoshi after the fight.
Tatsuya gets some time off before his 9th fight and this is when he takes the time to hangout with Saki and learns more about her past, along with learning how she used to be a judo student, that and that she has an exboy friend who conned her out of money. During this we actually see the boyfriend at an icecream shop, attempting to scam a new girl, only for Tatsuya to obliterates him and tell him to never come near Saki or any girl ever again.
The 9th fight is against an "undefeated" boxer named Tetsuji Shima, and Taizan decides to try to help Tatsuya by giving a hint about Shima's weakspot, that being his eyes because of damage caused in the past. Tatsuya refuses to fight dirty and says he'll best Shima naturally and defeat him by going all out. Shima uses the Extreme God Hand/Boxing Style.
After being defeated Shima asks Tatsuya why he didn't go for the eyes, and Tatsuya says that for years he's been just ignoring rules and trying to finish fights as fast as possible while learning nothing from them. Tatsuya then explains that he wanted to go all out with Shima to naturally best him by pure feat of strength and not because of luck nor dirty tricks, but natural strength. Tatsuya's philosophy is now clear, to truly feel blessed and feel like something is achieved you need to go all out. Shima is impressed and happy that Tatsuya sees his view and philosophy as such and says it's reminds him of a fight he had in the past against, "Toru Nobi" and gets shocked when he sees Toru there at Dragon Heat, leaving Tatsuya confused and later shocked... as we come to find out Toru Nobi is... Taizen Amamiya.
The final 10th Dragon Heat match is against Tatsuya's philosophy mentor/doctor/friend Taizan Amamiya, who actually is Toru Nobi. Tatsuya both angry and respectful is actually happy to be fighting Taizan to see how strong he truly is. However Tatsuya also wants to know what happened years ago at the Champion district, if he really is the man who caused the fire, leaving Tatsuya and Saeko, and Cho orphans. Taizan Amamiya/Toru Nobi uses the Extreme Man/Taizen Style of fighting.
After finally winning his tenth victory in Dragon Heat, Tatsuya confronts Taizan and is about to punch him out cold until Saeko stops him. Tatsuya and Taizan are held off to the medicine bay and from there we learn the truth. Taizan Amamiya/Toru Nobi did not cause the fire that killed Tatsuya's mom and Cho's mom, he actually was framed for said incident by... Masatoshi Tsutsui, under the secret orders of the politician Tadashi Tsurumi who caused the fire for the land rights.
Before all of that, we learn Toru Nobi was actually an amazing fighter who was very strong and who was the only person who originally defeated Tetsuji Shima. Originally he was a middleweight fighting prospect who had a common-law housewife, he wanted to support her and their son by getting money, however he was only able to do so via joining Dragon Heat and being paid. After his fight with Tetsuji Shima which ended in a repectful and honorable way in Toru/Taizan's favor, he is ambushed by a jealous fighter... that jealous fighter being... Masatoshi Tsutsui. He hit Taizan with a very strong and impactful death blow that did cause permanent damage to Taizan, leaving Taizan unable to continue with his fighting career. We later learn after the incident that a fire broke out in an arson that killed Toru's wife, and left his son and adopted daughter without a mother, Toru decided to go out for revenge by getting the man responsible for his Wife's murder. We also find out that Toru's wife's name is... Naoko Ukyo... who is the mother of Tatsuya Ukyo, making Taizan Amamiya/Toru Nobi, Tatsuya's father. We learn also that Saeko Ukyo is not blood related to Tatsuya but still is his sister none the less.
Taizan lost his way after being trapped in Dragons Heat, feeling he would never be able to find and confront his wife's murderer, but now seeing his son reach new levels, gives him a new sense of justice. He's proud of how far and strong Tatsuya has become, from there Tatsuya shares a bonding moment with Taizan/Toru.
Tatsuya finally obtains the microchip but is later contacted by Isamu and Masa about giving the microchip as it contains vital and serious negative information about Masatoshi Tsutsui and that Toda was the one who originally caused the arson of the restaurant in the Champions district. This was done all for the sake of the ownership rights of that area, and that a fire would immediately lead to the Tojo Clan being blamed instead of Masa. Tatsuya agrees to meet with Masa and his assistant, along with his assistant Reiji Shinjo. Saki and Taizan go with Tatsuya to not have anything fishy or dangerous happen to him. Taizan confronts and is about to kill Masa before Tatsuya stops him and they all decide to head to the top of the Millennium Tower to have a final fight.
For the final part of the game we learn that Shinjo is responsible for Kuki's death and was actually taught by Masa the death blow techniques, Tatsuya throws the microchip at Masa since Taizan/Toru has the gun and they have a final agreement, Tatsuya wants to go all out against Masa's assistant, Reiji Shinjo, and if he wins then Masa has to give back the microchip and go to jail and be exposed by everything within the microchip, however if Tatsuya loses, he agrees to return the gun and allow Masa to shoot both him and Taizan, and allow him to destroy the microchip, they all agree.
The final fight begins with Shinjo revealing a strong powerful form and uses the Extreme Man・Shinjo Style of fighting. During the fight the song "THE MUPPET" plays giving an epic final fight.
After his defeat, Tatsuya confronts Masa as he destroys the microchip shocking everyone except Saki, because Takenaka shows up after receiving the microchip info via text from Saki. She knew Tatsuya would do something as drastic as give the microchip to Masa, however she thought ahead and texted the info to Takenaka's police issues phone. Even with the microchip destroyed Takenaka has all the information that immediately allows for the exposing of Masatoshi Tsutsui and Reiji Shinjos involvement. However before they're arrested Shinjo springs forward and hits Taizan with a powerful death blow to the head.
Tatsuya is utterly sadden by this, since Taizan/Toru is dying but he tells him not to worry since his purpose/goal has finally been fufilled and is so happy he got to see his son succeed and become a strong new good-hearted man. He tells Tatsuya:
"Don't Lose... keep on fighting... living is a battle... surpass it... embrace your destiny and take hold of something...[Tatsuya's fighting philosophy]"
As Taizan Amamiya/Toru Nobi... dies in his son's arms.
We cut to a couple of days later with Tatsuya walking with Takenaka where we learn that Tsutsui and Shinjo are being charged with murderer and everything exposed within the information on the microchip. We also learn that Shinjo confessed to a bunch of things, but Takenaka feels like Shinjo did that on the orders of another individual. From the audio recording, we hear "someone headquarters needs the arson job done" which makes Takenaka and Tatsuya realize that the individual who caused all of this is working for the police. They see a sign that says that the politician Tadashi Tsurum has won an election, and Takenaka says " an elite among winners eh?"
Tatsuya says, "it's not about being a winner or a loser... you have to fight and win to understand."
Takenaka responds before leaving telling him, "Exactly... Don't lose"
Tatsuya ends the game with a final response looking up at the sky with the sun shining down on him, "There's no way I'm going to lose."
As the game cuts to credits!
...
a post credit screen shows us the man responsible for everything Tadashi Tsurumi... as the game cuts to the black leading into Kurohyou 2.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Gameplay:
[Fighting]
The fighting gameplay consists of fighting via getting into a sideways 2.5D fighting style with Tatsuya being able to learn and use different fighting styles to best his opponents.
Tatsuya will always fixate on a particular enemy depending on if you want him to fixate on him. A lame aspect of the fighting is that while it does feature Iconic heat moves, they can only be performed when grabbing opponents, unlike mainline games where heat moves can activate in different ways.
The game has a limit of a max of 3 enemies being on screen, but will always have a extra enemies appear via a mini ingame cutscene of them running at you. The game has a stamina system where the more you attack without resting, the more tired Tatsuya gets, which leads to more damage being caused to Tatsuya's face, chest, legs, arms, or all of them, so preserve your stamina.
The gameplay is fun at first when fighting, but later gets receptive and is only really fun again when facing against main bosses.
[Traversal/Substories/Kamorucho]
Travesal in the game is annoying due to how the camera has a fixed position and it can disorient you when you move to a new screen, it can even mess you up in terms of substories and main missions when you get to the following missions (oh boy my favorite... said no one). Where the camera can legit screw you over when it changes positions.
Substories are a mixed bag with some being funny and others feeling like a waste of time. There is also a collectathon you have to go through where an old dojo master who is found in the Poppomart and Medicine vacant lot who can teach you/ allow you to refine and improve your abilities and techniques for each of your fighting styles. However he has a substory where you have to collect a total of 101 cats scattered throughout Kamorucho that are only indicated via a cat icon on the map and you have to collect 10 every chapter, the only thing is the cats themselves never appear ingame and are only indicated via a soundbite of a cat meowing. Which can be annoying to collect so I suggest using a guide.
There's also Kamorucho's strongest where a fat guy in an afro tells you about becoming the strongest fighter and lets you know how to do so by talking to him you're put in a 30 ranking system where every new rank you fight a new dude, until you get to the top 10 ranks, where you fight all previous fighters from the story.
In the game as you improve and obtain all fighting abilites you can finally unlock the Ultimate fighting style which is the strongest and fastest in the game which uses no stamina when fighting and has no drawbacks.
Once all substories are completed, you get 1 final showdown against a man named Gaia, who uses a stronger form of fighting like Taizan, Gaia is actually a reference to Baki the Grappler as Gaia uses a lot of grappling in his attacks. After you defeat him you're pretty much done and you've seen everything Kurohyou/Yakuza Black Panther has to offer.
[Minigames]
Cabaret clubs - Your standard romp of order drinks/food, talk to cabaret womens, and either guess right or wrong answers (in the English rom of this games, nearly all of the choices are broken as the translation team didn't bother to translate this mini game, so most responses are just a conglomerate of dots and an occasional kanji).
You have bowling and baseball which are preserved and a little harder than regular yakuza but are still fun to play through.
The saddest minigame is karaoke as it's straight up pathetic as it is not a rhythm game like in Ishin, 0, Kiwami 1 and 2, 3-5, 6, and 7 where there are different buttons to press, here literally all you do is fill a meter by spamming X on the PSP. They must've known this version of Karaoke was garbage so they went back to a traditional improved karaoke in Kurohyou 2.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
[Characters]
The characters within Kurohyou are all unique and amazing. Some you think start off generic but have so much depth to them like Sho Hyuga, Masumi Yuki, Nobumichi Fujimoto, Koumei Cho. You then have a tragic hero that is Taizan with his sad backstory. Saki is a great romantic interest with depth and is sometimes more intelligent then Tatsuya with her ideas and decision making. Ryutaro Kuki starts off as an antagonist who clearly is using Tatsuya for Tojo Clan means, but later learns to respect and care for Tatsuya like a son, so much so he becomes a tragic hero when he decides to destroy the robbery evidence but also pleads to Tatsuya to save Dragon Heat, he dies a good hearted honorable man. Tatsuya is a great character who we see improve himself and becomes a more philosophical and motivated good hearted person, like that of Kiryu, and learns of philosophy of never giving up and going all out until the end.
The only characters who really are garbage in terms of moustache wearing evil villains are: Masatoshi, Isamu, Shinjo, and Tadashi Tsurumi. As they're not given any depth and are just evil bastards, which in my opinion is fine, because I don't want to feel bad for dudes like this, they deserve the punishment they will receive.
I do find it a bit lame that Kurohyou did a Yakuza 5, before Yakuza 5 even existed, where the final fight isn't against the main antagonist, Masatoshi, but instead against his assistant Reiji Shinjo, and while the game does explain that Masa taught Shinjo everything he knows in terms of fighting, it would've been better to to have fought the old man. In my opinion I think having the old fat man fighting in a deadly style subverts expectation, similar to how Frieza's final form is short and not as intimating as his 2nd or 3rd form, but the power he unleashes is intimidating, they should've done the same here for the final boss, instead of making Reiji Shinjo the final boss, or even a character to begin with.
Shinjo doesn't talk or say anything, he's a essentially a strong plank of wood who has the abilities and fighting style of Masa but has no character what's so ever. He's a worse version of Yakuza 5's final boss, where atleast in 5, the final boss was somewhat likable, and the fight with the music in 5 was top tier amazing and remains imo the best fight in the entire franchise even with said boss being lackluster in terms of story. Here, Shinjo is a lackluster final boss who shows up at the end because the real final boss is an old fart, and even though we do get a great music theme during the final fight, the final fight is janky, making it less fun, and more lame.
So in my opinion, Shinjo shouldn't exist as a character at all, and instead Masa should have been the sole antagonist of this game, while still having ties to Tadashi Tsutsui in order to later connect to Kurohyou 2.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Overall I enjoyed my time with Kurohyou/Yakuza Black Panther/ Like a Black Panther, the story is great with a little bit of convolution towards the end, however it doesn't change how great the story overall is. Even with it's cliffhanger ending, this first game is a great spinoff, that wraps up amazingly in Kurohyou 2. The game is a great addition to the Yakuza franchise. The gameplay can be a bit repetitive and most of the time during the overworld the camera is what you'll be fighting the most against.
The game is a great experience with a good story, with ok/meh gameplay, but I highly enjoyed my time with it.
If you love the Yakuza franchise, I 100% recommend playing this game!
Hopefully one day they decide to remake both Kurohyou 1 and 2 for the west, all I can say right now is either import it, or emulate it.
#BringKENZANtothewest
#BringKurohyoutothewest
#BringKurohyou2tothewest
Is a great spinoff taking place after Yakuza 4, where we play as a 18 year old serious prodigy fighter/delinquent named Ukyo Tatsuya.
The soundtrack for the game is top tier and is amazing, the gameplay is a fun however repetitive in terms of street fights being constant. The game comes with it's romp of substories and includes minigames (some certainly better than others).
The game also features cabaret clubs and cameos from characters from the main Yakuza series including Akiyama and Hana (only appearing in a ramen minigame), and featuring the Florist of Sai as a helpful all seeing eye that helps Tatsuya find answers. The biggest issues with the game are mainly the gameplay in terms of running around Kamorucho with it's camera being a fixed camera since this is a PSP game.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Story: The story starts with Tatsuya Ukyo, a 17 year old fighting prodigy delinquent, who attempts to rob a Tojo Clan hideout with 2 of his friends. However he get into an argument and decides to do the robbery on his own, he successfully does but accidently ends up killing a high ranking officer with a death blow that he didn't think would kill him.
Tatsuya is spotted by Ryutaro Kuki, Head of the Kuki family for the Tojo Clan and tells Tatsuya that in order to buy back his freedom and make sure he's not exposed for killing Naoki Toda, however the deal is that in order to do so, Tatsuya has to beat 10 different fighters in Dragon Heat.
The issue is that in the history of Dragon Heat, no one has actually won 10 matches in a row as it is explained that each family within the Tojo Clan who are apart of handling/running Dragon Heat select fighters to then get more money, however if 1 family were to consistently win, then it would cause an internal chaotic war because of the financial unbalance. Throughout the game we learn that Tatsuya is surviving by being forced to participate in Kuki's Tojo Clan's affairs all for the sake of not being arrested for Toda's death. However overtime appreciates the people he meets within Dragon Heat and the fights he learns from, forming bonds with people within Dragon Heat.
Tatsuya enters and fighter against Tomoki, a boxing prospect who has quite the ego in thinking he can easily defeat Tatsuya, and gets annihilated in his fight. Tomoki uses the Street Karate Style of fighting.
Tatsuya wins however is later asked by 2 individuals who help with the medicine and recovery side of Dragon Heat, an 17 year old girl named Saki, and a late 40s/early 50s year old "doctor" named Taizan Amamiya. Taizan asks if Tatsuya learned anything from his fight, and Tatsuya ignores him, and continues his way of being egotisitcal and uncaring.
Tatsuya finally learns something during his second fight with a powerful fighter named Sho Hyuga who is cocky but has a philosophy of fight, and Taizan explains to Tatsuya that in order for Tatsuya to truly improve, he must have a philosophy and positive motivation in order to improve. Currently Tatsuya fights only to destroy his opponent instead of equate their strength and overcome it. Taizan describes Tatsuya like a wild animal with 2 options: Fight or Flight, saying that Tatsuya sees an easy opponent and wants to immediately destroy them, however if an opponent were stronger than Tatsuya, he'd most likely flee and lose. Taizan says an important part about being strong and having a good offense is defense, which allows you to perceive your opponents true strength while defending, if Tatsuya never learns this, he will lose.
The game continues with Tatsuya fighting a strong willed teacher from his past named Masumi Yuki that endured constant ridicule and torment's from Tatsuya and other delinquents in high school, holding back his true strength. They both go all out and Masumi breaks down in shame and anger to Tatsuya for all the pain and suffering he endured, Tatsuya apologies and even says that Masumi is strong for putting with such torture and ridicule for so long. They both finally respect eachother when Tatsuya tells him he's sorry and respects his strength.
Tatsuya's next fight is against a Karate Master named Nobumichi Fujimoto, who wants revenge against Tatsuya because his son was beat up by Tatsuya after he claimed that Karate and the Karate his father taught was lame and weak. Tatsuya did beat up his son however after the fight Tatsuya explains his regret and shows his true self and is honest about what happened. You see Tatsuya did beat up his son however he never caused the severe neck injury that put his son in the hospital. The father receives a call from his son from the hospital and they let him know that he's finally going to be able to walk again after so long. The father cries and Tatsuya is happy he could make piece with that. Nobumichi Fujimoto fights using the Karate Style
The next fight is against Hayato Makabe, nicknamed the MAD DOG OF DRAGON HEAT, he was hired by Kozo Nioka
to try to defeat Tatsuya by going crazy and by any means necessary. Hayato Makabe fights using the Extreme Awakening Style.
Tatsuya finds out that Toda is actually alive as he sees him in an elevator at the Millennium Tower, seeing this Tatsuya immediately decides to go and confront Kuki since Toda being alive contradicts what's on the robbery tape and that Tatsuya would no longer need to fight for Kuki since there's no point in having said evidence. However the next day on the news, it's reported that Toda's body had been found and that the suspect is... Tatsuya. Tatsuya again goes and confronts Kuki but Kuki tells him that they never revealed nor sent the tape to the police, so someone is attempting to set up Tatsuya now.
Tatsuya is chased throughout the first half of the game by Shozo Takenaka, a police detective that handled Tatsuya's juvenile cases when he was in his delinquet schoolboy era, but now is chasing after Tatsuya since he's a suspect.
Tatsuya's next fight is actually a rematch against Hyuga who looks more angry and ready to kill Tatsuya, this is due to the fact that he was tricked by Kozo Nioka and businessman Masa into believing that Tatsuya had kidnapped and is holding Hyuga's sister, Chiaki Hyuga (reporter who helps Tatsuya figure out issues within the Tojo Clan and Dragon Heat) for ransom, when infact it's all a lie to try to defeat Tatsuya before Tatsuya breaks the 6 match win mark. Tatsuya and Hyuga make ammends and become friends, with Hyuga letting Tatsuya know that him and Chiaki are moving away from Kamorucho in order to not get involved with anymore Yakuza business, however as a thank you, Hyuga teaches Tatsuya how to Wrestle.
Ryutaro Kuki is assaulted by an unknown assailant at his Family office and has Tatsuya's bracelet planted on him at the scene of the crime. While not dead, Kuki is gravely injured and while at the hospital, he decides to contact Tatsuya to meet him at a safe location. Kuki explains to Tatsuya that the footage of the robbery has been destroyed, but also pleads and begs Tatsuya to win the final 3 matches for the sake of Dragon Heat that give an avenue for people like Tatsuya to let themselves go and entertain. Kuki also explains that he might know who the true culprit of all of this problems occuring and it can be found in a microchip that Kuki installed however he sadly dies before revealing the location, and only gets a few bits of the locations words out. Tatsuya sadly yet determinately agrees to fufill Kuki's wishes.
The 7th fight is against Koumei Cho, who is fighting on behalf of the Nioka Family in order to learn the truth about his mothers death during a fire in the Champions district. Cho is a very emotional, yet strong fighter who fights using Extreme Wild Dance Style.
After his defeat, Tatsuya becomes friends with Cho and helps him figure out what happened to Cho's mother as well as learning info from his sister Saeko. They also visit the Florist of Sai to find out more information as to the goings on at the Champions district and learn about a man named "TORU NOBI" who's supposedly responsible for a fire that occured when Tatsuya and Cho were kids.
The 8th fight is against Tsuyoshi Aramaki, who is a mercenary known for assassinating his targets who was hire by Nioka family in order to finally take out Tatsuya and stop the Kuki's family domination. He uses the Commando Sambo Style. After his defeat he's confronted by Isamu Washio, a businessman who works on the behave of Masatoshi Tsutsui who works for the politician, Tadashi Tsurumi. Isamu scares the mercenary by nearly killing him, but instead leaves him alive. It is unknown what becomes of Tsuyoshi after the fight.
Tatsuya gets some time off before his 9th fight and this is when he takes the time to hangout with Saki and learns more about her past, along with learning how she used to be a judo student, that and that she has an exboy friend who conned her out of money. During this we actually see the boyfriend at an icecream shop, attempting to scam a new girl, only for Tatsuya to obliterates him and tell him to never come near Saki or any girl ever again.
The 9th fight is against an "undefeated" boxer named Tetsuji Shima, and Taizan decides to try to help Tatsuya by giving a hint about Shima's weakspot, that being his eyes because of damage caused in the past. Tatsuya refuses to fight dirty and says he'll best Shima naturally and defeat him by going all out. Shima uses the Extreme God Hand/Boxing Style.
After being defeated Shima asks Tatsuya why he didn't go for the eyes, and Tatsuya says that for years he's been just ignoring rules and trying to finish fights as fast as possible while learning nothing from them. Tatsuya then explains that he wanted to go all out with Shima to naturally best him by pure feat of strength and not because of luck nor dirty tricks, but natural strength. Tatsuya's philosophy is now clear, to truly feel blessed and feel like something is achieved you need to go all out. Shima is impressed and happy that Tatsuya sees his view and philosophy as such and says it's reminds him of a fight he had in the past against, "Toru Nobi" and gets shocked when he sees Toru there at Dragon Heat, leaving Tatsuya confused and later shocked... as we come to find out Toru Nobi is... Taizen Amamiya.
The final 10th Dragon Heat match is against Tatsuya's philosophy mentor/doctor/friend Taizan Amamiya, who actually is Toru Nobi. Tatsuya both angry and respectful is actually happy to be fighting Taizan to see how strong he truly is. However Tatsuya also wants to know what happened years ago at the Champion district, if he really is the man who caused the fire, leaving Tatsuya and Saeko, and Cho orphans. Taizan Amamiya/Toru Nobi uses the Extreme Man/Taizen Style of fighting.
After finally winning his tenth victory in Dragon Heat, Tatsuya confronts Taizan and is about to punch him out cold until Saeko stops him. Tatsuya and Taizan are held off to the medicine bay and from there we learn the truth. Taizan Amamiya/Toru Nobi did not cause the fire that killed Tatsuya's mom and Cho's mom, he actually was framed for said incident by... Masatoshi Tsutsui, under the secret orders of the politician Tadashi Tsurumi who caused the fire for the land rights.
Before all of that, we learn Toru Nobi was actually an amazing fighter who was very strong and who was the only person who originally defeated Tetsuji Shima. Originally he was a middleweight fighting prospect who had a common-law housewife, he wanted to support her and their son by getting money, however he was only able to do so via joining Dragon Heat and being paid. After his fight with Tetsuji Shima which ended in a repectful and honorable way in Toru/Taizan's favor, he is ambushed by a jealous fighter... that jealous fighter being... Masatoshi Tsutsui. He hit Taizan with a very strong and impactful death blow that did cause permanent damage to Taizan, leaving Taizan unable to continue with his fighting career. We later learn after the incident that a fire broke out in an arson that killed Toru's wife, and left his son and adopted daughter without a mother, Toru decided to go out for revenge by getting the man responsible for his Wife's murder. We also find out that Toru's wife's name is... Naoko Ukyo... who is the mother of Tatsuya Ukyo, making Taizan Amamiya/Toru Nobi, Tatsuya's father. We learn also that Saeko Ukyo is not blood related to Tatsuya but still is his sister none the less.
Taizan lost his way after being trapped in Dragons Heat, feeling he would never be able to find and confront his wife's murderer, but now seeing his son reach new levels, gives him a new sense of justice. He's proud of how far and strong Tatsuya has become, from there Tatsuya shares a bonding moment with Taizan/Toru.
Tatsuya finally obtains the microchip but is later contacted by Isamu and Masa about giving the microchip as it contains vital and serious negative information about Masatoshi Tsutsui and that Toda was the one who originally caused the arson of the restaurant in the Champions district. This was done all for the sake of the ownership rights of that area, and that a fire would immediately lead to the Tojo Clan being blamed instead of Masa. Tatsuya agrees to meet with Masa and his assistant, along with his assistant Reiji Shinjo. Saki and Taizan go with Tatsuya to not have anything fishy or dangerous happen to him. Taizan confronts and is about to kill Masa before Tatsuya stops him and they all decide to head to the top of the Millennium Tower to have a final fight.
For the final part of the game we learn that Shinjo is responsible for Kuki's death and was actually taught by Masa the death blow techniques, Tatsuya throws the microchip at Masa since Taizan/Toru has the gun and they have a final agreement, Tatsuya wants to go all out against Masa's assistant, Reiji Shinjo, and if he wins then Masa has to give back the microchip and go to jail and be exposed by everything within the microchip, however if Tatsuya loses, he agrees to return the gun and allow Masa to shoot both him and Taizan, and allow him to destroy the microchip, they all agree.
The final fight begins with Shinjo revealing a strong powerful form and uses the Extreme Man・Shinjo Style of fighting. During the fight the song "THE MUPPET" plays giving an epic final fight.
After his defeat, Tatsuya confronts Masa as he destroys the microchip shocking everyone except Saki, because Takenaka shows up after receiving the microchip info via text from Saki. She knew Tatsuya would do something as drastic as give the microchip to Masa, however she thought ahead and texted the info to Takenaka's police issues phone. Even with the microchip destroyed Takenaka has all the information that immediately allows for the exposing of Masatoshi Tsutsui and Reiji Shinjos involvement. However before they're arrested Shinjo springs forward and hits Taizan with a powerful death blow to the head.
Tatsuya is utterly sadden by this, since Taizan/Toru is dying but he tells him not to worry since his purpose/goal has finally been fufilled and is so happy he got to see his son succeed and become a strong new good-hearted man. He tells Tatsuya:
"Don't Lose... keep on fighting... living is a battle... surpass it... embrace your destiny and take hold of something...[Tatsuya's fighting philosophy]"
As Taizan Amamiya/Toru Nobi... dies in his son's arms.
We cut to a couple of days later with Tatsuya walking with Takenaka where we learn that Tsutsui and Shinjo are being charged with murderer and everything exposed within the information on the microchip. We also learn that Shinjo confessed to a bunch of things, but Takenaka feels like Shinjo did that on the orders of another individual. From the audio recording, we hear "someone headquarters needs the arson job done" which makes Takenaka and Tatsuya realize that the individual who caused all of this is working for the police. They see a sign that says that the politician Tadashi Tsurum has won an election, and Takenaka says " an elite among winners eh?"
Tatsuya says, "it's not about being a winner or a loser... you have to fight and win to understand."
Takenaka responds before leaving telling him, "Exactly... Don't lose"
Tatsuya ends the game with a final response looking up at the sky with the sun shining down on him, "There's no way I'm going to lose."
As the game cuts to credits!
...
a post credit screen shows us the man responsible for everything Tadashi Tsurumi... as the game cuts to the black leading into Kurohyou 2.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Gameplay:
[Fighting]
The fighting gameplay consists of fighting via getting into a sideways 2.5D fighting style with Tatsuya being able to learn and use different fighting styles to best his opponents.
Tatsuya will always fixate on a particular enemy depending on if you want him to fixate on him. A lame aspect of the fighting is that while it does feature Iconic heat moves, they can only be performed when grabbing opponents, unlike mainline games where heat moves can activate in different ways.
The game has a limit of a max of 3 enemies being on screen, but will always have a extra enemies appear via a mini ingame cutscene of them running at you. The game has a stamina system where the more you attack without resting, the more tired Tatsuya gets, which leads to more damage being caused to Tatsuya's face, chest, legs, arms, or all of them, so preserve your stamina.
The gameplay is fun at first when fighting, but later gets receptive and is only really fun again when facing against main bosses.
[Traversal/Substories/Kamorucho]
Travesal in the game is annoying due to how the camera has a fixed position and it can disorient you when you move to a new screen, it can even mess you up in terms of substories and main missions when you get to the following missions (oh boy my favorite... said no one). Where the camera can legit screw you over when it changes positions.
Substories are a mixed bag with some being funny and others feeling like a waste of time. There is also a collectathon you have to go through where an old dojo master who is found in the Poppomart and Medicine vacant lot who can teach you/ allow you to refine and improve your abilities and techniques for each of your fighting styles. However he has a substory where you have to collect a total of 101 cats scattered throughout Kamorucho that are only indicated via a cat icon on the map and you have to collect 10 every chapter, the only thing is the cats themselves never appear ingame and are only indicated via a soundbite of a cat meowing. Which can be annoying to collect so I suggest using a guide.
There's also Kamorucho's strongest where a fat guy in an afro tells you about becoming the strongest fighter and lets you know how to do so by talking to him you're put in a 30 ranking system where every new rank you fight a new dude, until you get to the top 10 ranks, where you fight all previous fighters from the story.
In the game as you improve and obtain all fighting abilites you can finally unlock the Ultimate fighting style which is the strongest and fastest in the game which uses no stamina when fighting and has no drawbacks.
Once all substories are completed, you get 1 final showdown against a man named Gaia, who uses a stronger form of fighting like Taizan, Gaia is actually a reference to Baki the Grappler as Gaia uses a lot of grappling in his attacks. After you defeat him you're pretty much done and you've seen everything Kurohyou/Yakuza Black Panther has to offer.
[Minigames]
Cabaret clubs - Your standard romp of order drinks/food, talk to cabaret womens, and either guess right or wrong answers (in the English rom of this games, nearly all of the choices are broken as the translation team didn't bother to translate this mini game, so most responses are just a conglomerate of dots and an occasional kanji).
You have bowling and baseball which are preserved and a little harder than regular yakuza but are still fun to play through.
The saddest minigame is karaoke as it's straight up pathetic as it is not a rhythm game like in Ishin, 0, Kiwami 1 and 2, 3-5, 6, and 7 where there are different buttons to press, here literally all you do is fill a meter by spamming X on the PSP. They must've known this version of Karaoke was garbage so they went back to a traditional improved karaoke in Kurohyou 2.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
[Characters]
The characters within Kurohyou are all unique and amazing. Some you think start off generic but have so much depth to them like Sho Hyuga, Masumi Yuki, Nobumichi Fujimoto, Koumei Cho. You then have a tragic hero that is Taizan with his sad backstory. Saki is a great romantic interest with depth and is sometimes more intelligent then Tatsuya with her ideas and decision making. Ryutaro Kuki starts off as an antagonist who clearly is using Tatsuya for Tojo Clan means, but later learns to respect and care for Tatsuya like a son, so much so he becomes a tragic hero when he decides to destroy the robbery evidence but also pleads to Tatsuya to save Dragon Heat, he dies a good hearted honorable man. Tatsuya is a great character who we see improve himself and becomes a more philosophical and motivated good hearted person, like that of Kiryu, and learns of philosophy of never giving up and going all out until the end.
The only characters who really are garbage in terms of moustache wearing evil villains are: Masatoshi, Isamu, Shinjo, and Tadashi Tsurumi. As they're not given any depth and are just evil bastards, which in my opinion is fine, because I don't want to feel bad for dudes like this, they deserve the punishment they will receive.
I do find it a bit lame that Kurohyou did a Yakuza 5, before Yakuza 5 even existed, where the final fight isn't against the main antagonist, Masatoshi, but instead against his assistant Reiji Shinjo, and while the game does explain that Masa taught Shinjo everything he knows in terms of fighting, it would've been better to to have fought the old man. In my opinion I think having the old fat man fighting in a deadly style subverts expectation, similar to how Frieza's final form is short and not as intimating as his 2nd or 3rd form, but the power he unleashes is intimidating, they should've done the same here for the final boss, instead of making Reiji Shinjo the final boss, or even a character to begin with.
Shinjo doesn't talk or say anything, he's a essentially a strong plank of wood who has the abilities and fighting style of Masa but has no character what's so ever. He's a worse version of Yakuza 5's final boss, where atleast in 5, the final boss was somewhat likable, and the fight with the music in 5 was top tier amazing and remains imo the best fight in the entire franchise even with said boss being lackluster in terms of story. Here, Shinjo is a lackluster final boss who shows up at the end because the real final boss is an old fart, and even though we do get a great music theme during the final fight, the final fight is janky, making it less fun, and more lame.
So in my opinion, Shinjo shouldn't exist as a character at all, and instead Masa should have been the sole antagonist of this game, while still having ties to Tadashi Tsutsui in order to later connect to Kurohyou 2.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Overall I enjoyed my time with Kurohyou/Yakuza Black Panther/ Like a Black Panther, the story is great with a little bit of convolution towards the end, however it doesn't change how great the story overall is. Even with it's cliffhanger ending, this first game is a great spinoff, that wraps up amazingly in Kurohyou 2. The game is a great addition to the Yakuza franchise. The gameplay can be a bit repetitive and most of the time during the overworld the camera is what you'll be fighting the most against.
The game is a great experience with a good story, with ok/meh gameplay, but I highly enjoyed my time with it.
If you love the Yakuza franchise, I 100% recommend playing this game!
Hopefully one day they decide to remake both Kurohyou 1 and 2 for the west, all I can say right now is either import it, or emulate it.
#BringKENZANtothewest
#BringKurohyoutothewest
#BringKurohyou2tothewest