This review contains spoilers
Kurohyou 2: Ryu Ga Gotoku Ashura-hen (Yakuza Black Panther 2: Asura's Chapter/ Black Panther 2: Like a Dragon Ashura Chapter) is the sequel to Kurohyou: Ryū ga Gotoku Shinshō (Yakuza Black Panther: New Chapter/ Black Panther: Like a Dragon New Chapter).
The game features a 19 year old Tatsuya now, making this game take place 2 years after the events of the first.
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[Story] (Splitting this into 3 Parts, Final Battle, and Epilogue)
{PART 1}
Set 2 years after the first game, Tatsuya has traveled around the world as a rookie/prodigy boxer. Who's return to Kamorucho after a recent flawless victory knockout in Vegas.
We learn that since the events of the first game, Saki (Tatsuya's love interest from the first game) has moved to the United States for university and that her and Tatsuya had to let each other go, though we only really get this info about her whereabouts during a specific event that happens within the game.
When Tatsuya returns, he actually meets Tomoki, who has become an ex-fighter due to his lost against Tatsuya, but shows no ill-will towards him since Tatsuya taught Tomoki that ego and thinking you'll automatically win a fight will result in humiliation, Tomoki leaves after helping Tatsuya from a gang jumping, before letting him know Kamorucho's changed.
Tatsuya has returned to Kamorucho to visit Saeko, his sister, to let her know about how his boxing career is going, and what's next for him. Before he is available to visit her, he encounters a young teen getting beat up named Shinji Sakamoto, and his friends Yuta Mikami and Tamotsu Saito, Tatsuya helps them and they mention that they're apart of Dragon Heat, and Tatsuya is surprised it's running and operational. Tatsuya isn't exactly mad that Dragon Heat is still active, and decides to go visit it with them, since Shinji is fighting. This is where Tatsuya meets Ryusho Kuki, son of Ryutaro Kuki, who is now the new patriarch of the Kuki Family and runner of Dragon Heat. Tatsuya says that the way Ryusho is indoctrinating Shinji, Yuta, Tamotsu into Dragon Heat at such a young age. Ryusho then says, that Tatsuya helped save Dragon Heat in the past, and most of the teens look up to Tatsuya, and reveals in front of them that the person the teens met, is the Tatsuya Ukyo, the Mad Dragon of Kamuro.
The teens are all in awe, except for 1, Shinji's other friend, Makoto Yashiro, blonde delinquent who actually feels cut from the same clothe as Tatsuya, who currently doesn't have a fighting philosophy. Tatsuya leaves saying that he's not concerned with what happens now with Dragon Heat, after hearing the issues Ryusho has put it in, so much so it might be sold to the Omni Alliance/Ashura Group in Sotenbori.
Shinji curses Tatsuya saying that he's hiding and is scared.
As Tatsuya leaves and meets with his sister, we then see that Ryusho has to meet with Ashura's leader Yasuto Akita and Kozo Nioka (head of the Nioka Family from the first game). We find out Ryusho can't keep Dragon Heat open with it's lack of fighters and income, so they'll have to sell it to Ashura. Shinji curses them and gets beat up by Akita's hired fighter Shinobu Okita, and gets put in the hospital.
Tatsuya finds out later via heading to the hospital to check on Shinji with Makoto letting him know what happened, with Tatsuya later returning to Dragon Heat and agreeing to help save Dragon Heat for the sake of Shinji and those who came before.
Tatsuya agrees to fight for Dragon Heat, and meets with his fighting manager and says that he's quitting professional boxing for the sake of protecting the place that made him. Saeko immediately calls Tatsuya and asks if he's crazy, but Tatsuya responds saying it's for the sake of Dragon Heat and those who came before (specfically talking about Taizan/Toru, their father).
The first fight takes place against Shinobu Okita, who is a strong kick boxer and uses the Kickboxing Style of fighting. Okita is responsible for putting Shinji in the hospital, so Tatsuya destroys him during their fight with an axe kick.
We later learn that for every fight that Tatsuya has, he has to switch between fighting in Dragon Heat, and later having to travel to Sotenbori to fight in Ashura's Arena.
Makoto gets angry after being told to do nothing, and to let Tatsuya handle Ashura, that he immediately leaves for Sotenbori and take revenge against Ashura, however after Ryusho and Tatsuya discover this, they immediately follow him. When they both arrive and find Shinji we encounter that Makoto has been shoot, luckily the person who did it was a young adult who did it because he was ordered to under Ashura. We find out that Ashura are selling non-lethal weapons to individuals but picking and choosing whether the weapons are lethal or non-lethal to cover their tracks. We see that a top seller of the weapons is a famous Lucha Libre wrestler named Meteor Suzuki
Tatsuya's second fight is against Meteor Suzuki, which ends with Tatsuya knocking him out with a mean right punch to the face knocking him out.
After the fight, Tatsuya is taken to Ashura's infirmary to get checked up and healed. This is when Tatsuya meets a mysterious blind doctor named Ryo Nozaki. Ryo tells him that fate will work against Tatsuya and that the more he faces Ashura, the more angry he'll become. Tatsuya says he doesn't believe in fortune telling and gets back to Ryusho and the others after being treated. Ryo tells Tatsuya not to take what he says personally but that fate is set and there's nothing Tatsuya can do to change it.
Tatsuya's next fight is against Shosuke Oba, who is an extortionist who deals with money, and human trafficking. The reason Tatsuya has to fight him is because Tamotsu wants to protect this hostess he met named Ruri who got into trouble of extortion by Shosuke Oba. Tamotsu decides he wants to fight against Oba, to protect Ruri. Before the fight Tatsuya hypes up Tamotsu and tells him to not give up and push on through until the end. However before the actual fight, Tatsuya and Ryusho suspect foulplay and that Ruri is actually in kahoots with Oba, but Ryusho shows her the error of her ways by watching the boy she swindled and played, get beaten to near death, all for the sake of protecting her. She realizes how badly she messed up and in the Dragon Heat infirmary she visits Tamotsu. Ryusho and Tatsuya keep it a secret that Ruri was involved, allowing Tamotsu to continue believing she was a country-bumpkin good hearted girl. Tamotsu is sad he couldnt protect her, but Ryusho reassures him by saying a deal was struck so Ruri wouldn't be forced into anything, and that she's moving back to the countryside.
Ruri's about to reveal the truth of her involvement, but Tatsuya tells her not to, so that she wouldn't destroy her image to Tamotsu. Later in a dinner we find out that Ruri is moving to Hokkaido and that Ryusho made the debt up however she will still have to pay him to keep his mouth shut about her involvement.
Tatsuya then goes to the fight against Oba and fights Oba who uses Sumo Wrestling, with Tats winning via neck submission. Tatsuya encounters Ryo again who says "if you continue fighting, someone will die, that is the next prediction."
Tatsuya and co meet with Yuta who decides to go and meet with his father, only to get into an argument about how Yuta's dad constantly was working, and that he's the reason Yuta's mom died, and never connecting/bonding with his son.
Yuta's father has an encounter with an old friend named Nobu, who is actually here to buy out the pachinko parlor Yuta's dad owns, but he refuses to sell it.
Ryusho and Tatsuya go to Shangri-La to rest up, but there Tatsuya meets with Ryo again, who makes bets at the Roulette table by predicting them via FATE. Tatsuya can't believe it, and still doesn't believe in what Ryo is saying. Ryo predicts someone will die due to Tatsuya's constant battle with Ashura.
We see later that for collateral, the Ashura group end up blowing up the parlor, hospitalizing Yuta's dad. Yuta says he doesn't care especially since he didn't care to raise Yuta and focused more on working. Tatsuya confront Nobu who admits to have been ordered by Ashura into buying the parlor however he never ordered to have it blown up. Nobu walks with Tatsuya to the destroyed parlor but is killed by a mysterious, hobo looking assassin. Before his death, Nobu decides to give Tatsuya a key to a locker, and tells him it has something important within it for Yuta.
Ryusho and Tatsuya head to Sotenbori to confront the killer/assassin named Tanaka Inchiro. Inchiro says he did it for 2 reasons: 1. Under the order of Ashura and 2. Because he gets joy out of pain and death.
Tatsuya and Ryusho attempt to fight him within the homeless lot of Sotenbori but are stopped by Kozo Nioka who tells them if they want to fight, they need to fight properly in the rules set. That means... yes, Tanaka Inchiro is the next fight that Tatsuya has to face. Before that we cutback to the Kamurocho hospital where Makoto and Tamotsu tell Yuta that they found a letter in the locker and that letter states that because of financial troubles, Yuta's asked for a loan that he knew he couldn't pay, but he begged for Nobu to never go after his son Yuta, begging and pleading. We find out that Yuta's dad worked so hard because he wanted to make a childrens playground area so a family can be happy, for the sake of Yuta. We also learn that Yuta spent most of the money to help people like Nobu start their own business out of the goodness of his heart. Nobu's letter ends by saying, not to worry about the contract and to go be with his wife and son. We also learn that Yuta's dad was giving up everything to protect his son. Yuta burst into tears as the screen cuts to black.
Before the fight in the area, Tatsuya states that if he wins the fight, Tanaka has to tell him everything and why he killed Nobu, however if Tanaka wins, he can kill Tatsuya.
Tatsuya defeats Tanaka by knocking him into the Area's electric fence electrocuting him, which really only knocked him out. However as Tanaka is taken to the infirmary, Tatsuya immediately follows, only to find out that Tanaka is unconsious and needs the rest, says Ryo. We cut away in Sotenbori where Ryusho receives a call from Akita that Tanaka is dead, Tatsuya immediately grabs the phone from Ryusho and yells at them claiming that Ryo killed Tanaka, Ryo responds saying that Tanaka had a weak heart so that electricity killed him, however Tatsuya believes none of it. Ryo apologies for not allowing Tatsuya speak with Tanaka, however warns him that if he continues, Tatsuya will end up killing a friend with his own 2 hands.
What happens next is that the group find out that Shinji has left the hospital and is more unhinged. A website pops up where random civilians are being asked to assault others for bounty, and at the top 5 of the list are: 5. Tamotsu, 4. Yuta, 3. Makoto, 2. Ryusho, 1. TATSUYA. The website called KARMA is created by an unknown person, until the group find out later it was actually Shinji! The reason being is that he's angry that Tatsuya is the cause for all of this and that even though Tatsuya is trying to help, he's hurting everyone in the process. Shinji's injury, Tamotsu almost being scammed, Yuta's Dad nearly dying, and Dragon Heat in a tug of War between the Tojo Clan and Ashura, all of it due to Tatsuya's negligence. Shinji has healed up somehow, but infact he isn't as all he was given was temporary medicine that after a while will wear off and if he were to get hit buy someone like Tatsuya, he would die.
Tatsuya allows Shinji to beat him up without attacking back, causing Shinji to break down into tears and cry asking "I don't understand!" And Tatsuya asks if he's done and calmed down. Ryusho steps in and punches Shinji in the chest unconscious.
We arrive back at the infirmary of Dragon's Heat for Tatsuya's next fight, before that Tats confronts Ryo and accuses him of brainwashing and lying to Shinji, while Ryo has no idea what he's talking about. Makoto shows up letting Tatsuya know the next fight is about to begin, but stairs at Ryo almost as if he knows who he is, like a memory, but ignores this feeling to remind Tatsuya and walks away. Ryo says that fate is still saying a friend is bound to die. Tatsuya says fate and destiny can always be changed.
Tatsuya's next opponent is Kaz Kazaki, aka "Grizzly" who's been healed up by Ashura to be more powerful than he was before. Kaz Kazaki is a MMA fighter, one who was put in a position where he could never fight again do to an injury. Tatsuya claims and confirms that he is the one who tricked and manipulated Shinji into taking the drug to "heal him" and later telling him to create KARMA to attempt to get Tatsuya and co killed.
Kazaki denies this by taunting Tatsuya, and heads into battle.
Kaz Kazaki fights in the MMA fighting style.
Tatsuya defeats Kazaki with a left leg Roundhouse kick to the head, and later a axe kick to the top of Kazaki's head knocking him out cold.
Back at the infirmary, Tatsuya is treated and healed up with Shinji coming to visit Tatsuya and apologies for everthing that happened. Shinji says that Kazaki told him a lie that back in Kurohyou 1 Kazaki was suppose to fight Tatsuya but was given money to lose, but because he refused, Kuki's family beat up Kazaki injuring him and ruining his MMA career. Shinji back then believed it for the amount of emotion he had built up he created the KARMA website. Shinji breaks down in tears apologizing, with Ryusho saying it's all in the past, and not to worry. Tatsuya tells Shinji there's no need, because together they need to stand united against Ashura.
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{PART 2}
Later in a Mahjong Parlor, Saeko is playing with a father figure for Makoto, named Minegi who runs said parlor. We later see police storm in and arrest Minegi, Saeko, and Makoto since a new order has requested every gambling area to be purged under the new rule of Tadashi Tsurumi [Returning Villian and true Culprit of Kurohyou 1 who was never brought to justice] banning gambling locations.
Shozo Takenaka gets Saeko and Makoto off scott free, however Minegi is still being held captive and will continue to be until the next day. The next day comes and Takenaka informs that Minegi committed suicide within the prison, shocking everyone. Makoto says it's a lie and that Minegi would never do something like that, and clearly someone killed him.
Ryusho and Tatsuya head around Kamorucho to ask about Minegi, and we find that most locations know Minegi very well, however they have no leads as to who could've killed Minegi. Ryusho calls off the search because Ashura is calling for the next battle. Tatsuya and co head off to Sotenbori with Makoto staying behind to investigate more.
Saeko is later assaulted and kidnapped by an unknown assault as Tatsuya arrives to Ashura, Tatsuya is in a pickle because he needs to defeat his next opponent in less then 10 minutes, and later returning to save his sister before a bomb goes off.
Tatsuya remembers Makoto is still in Kamorucho and asks him to please save Saeko. [This is the only part of the game that let's you play as Makoto and it's pretty limited as he fights in a standard street fight style]
Before heading to the location, Makoto in the back of his head is still thinking about Ryo Nozaki, and later contacts an old friend from a orphanage named Takashi to investigate about a boy from the Orphanage who was blind, however Takashi tells him that he was never blind and all he did was read and hangout with a girl Shizuka. Makoto asks Takashi to investigate Ryo and to give information about him later to Tatsuya.
Back at Ashura, Tatsuya is ready for his next fight, but is warned by Ryusho to be careful of the next opponent since he's known for playing dirty, where he got disqualified for breaking opponents arms when in tought positions. The next fight is against a dirty fighter named Shinahara Masaru, who uses Brazilian Jiu Jitsu fighting style. Masaru taunts Tatsuya for how strong he is, but Tatsuya doesn't care for idol chit chat and needs to defeat him as fast as possible, this angers Masaru as the both battle.
At the end of the battle Tatsuya throws a left arm punch and Shinahara grabs his arms and breaks it, it hurts Tatsuya, but he doesn't care as he knocks out Masaru with a mean punch to the face.
Tatsuya is taken to the infirmary and has his arm broken back into the correct place, Ryusho asks if he's alright and Tatsuya says he's fine but they need to return quickly to Kamorucho. Before they leave Tatsuya sees that Shinahara is threatening Akita and... Ryo. We find out here Akita is the not the head of Ashura... it's actually Ryo who runs everything.
We cut back to Kamurocho where Makoto goes to the abandon building to rescue Saeko. He successfully does so but before he is able to save her, he has to fight the main culprit of Minegi's death, Futa Kinjo, a red head afro wearing asshole murder. Makoto successfully defeats Kinjo and rescues Saeko, but before escaping Makoto is confronted by Kinjo and he tells him he wasn't strong enough and pulls out a gun. Kinjo successfully shoots Makoto who is now bleeding out from his injuries.
Tatsuya and co arrive safely back at Kamurocho and find the abandon building. Saeko comes out of the building and tells Tatsuya that Makoto saved her, but that he's dying. Tatsuya rushes in and finds Makoto. Makoto says he's happy to have met someone like Tatsuya and that he finally understood Tats philosophy. Makoto is happy to see that only 2 fights remain in order to save Dragon Heat, and tells Tatsuya,
"POWER is something you use to help others, I think I finally understand what you said...I know it's too late now... but I'm glad I got to tell you... Thank you... Tatsuya." As Makoto dies, the building explodes.
After the loss of their friend, Tatsuya heads to the next fight in Ashura, but before that meets up with Tenma who says that Makoto's friend Takashi shows up and shows them both the picture of Ryo Nozaki, and the girl named Shizuka. Tatsuya asks Tenma if he can locate Shizuka and see what's going on with Ryo and why he's doing all of this and Tenma agrees to do so, as Tatsuya heads for his next fight at Dragon's heat.
The second to last battle for the Dragon Heat vs Ashura agreement is against... Makoto's Killer... Futa Kinjo. Futa fights in the RyuKyu Karate style. Before the fight, Kinjo taughts Tatsuya about Makoto's death by saying that it was prophesized that he would die, using the same words Ryo Nozaki uses, making Tats angry. Tatsuya says he's going to destroy Kinjo, and at the end of the fight Tatsuya grabs Kinjos head already falling and smashes a mean left hook knocking Kinjo out cold.
Ryo shows up and congratulates Tatsuya, but Tatsuya is angry saying Ryo ordered for Makoto's death. Makoto says not to be ridiculous and that fate works in mysterious ways. Tatsuya asks what Ryo's purpose is, and Ryo responds that it's to help people realize they can never change their destiny nor fight against it. Tatsuya responds saying he'll never give up dragon heat to them.
After all of this a bunch of government shenanigans happen with more of the police force coming in to Kamurocho and we find out that Kozo Nioka and Akita are working with Tadashi Tsurumi.
Tatsuya get's ready for his final fight at Ashura against Yasuto Akita, before the fight begins, Tatsuya tells Akita that he has a lot of questions for him after he wins. Akita responds by saying if Tatsuya will be even able to ask them if he's dead. Tatsuya says he still has time left in this world as he charges into the final battle against Akita.
Yasuto Akita uses Pankration fighting style. Tatsuya defeats Akita in a tough battle and secures victory for Dragon Heat. Here we learn Akita's tragic backstory, where we learn that Ashura was originally like Dragon Heat, where a bunch of young teenagers who came from broken homes came to relieve their stresses, since Akita was in juvie in and out.
While in Ashura, Akita worked at a factory and was one day falsely accused of killing his manager just because he had a previous record and because of no alibi. Akita explains that he would never kill an innocent good hearted man, but because of his previous record he was still booked. Akita went to jail but was later saved by... Ryo Nozaki by lying by giving Akita an alibi. Ryo tells him that he paid a random witness to spot Akita at a different location. Both Ryo and Akita were screwed by the system, and that together that can become an unstoppable force to overpower the authority, as both of them form the new Ashura.
Akita asks and begs of Tatsuya to stop Ryo, as he's shot in the chest by a sniper. Before he dies, he tells Tatsuya to go to Cabaret Rouge... as Akita dies.
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{Part 3 - FINAL}
After Akita's death, Tatsuya asks Tenma to locate Cabaret Rouge and see if anyone knows someone connected to Ryo Nozaki.
Tatsuya goes to a grave yard and later sees Ryo who says he's visiting the grave of a woman he knew in the past who had a man. She was in hospital for 3 years waiting for a liver transplant, but died before she recieved it. The man who was with the woman saved every penny to save her, but the day she was suppose to recieve the liver, it was instead given to someone else leading to her death. Ryo made a prediction that Dragon Heat would be lost, but Tatsuya says he overcame that prediction... or did he.
When returning to Kamurocho Tatsuya finds out that Dragon Heat is under the ownership Kozo Nioka. Ryusho tells Tatsuya that while they were in Sotenbori, Nioka had the metropolitan police rushed into Kuki's office and found the title of ownership of Dragon Heat and had it change at the registry so that Nioka is the owner now. Tatsuya has more questions for Ryusho but he asks Tatsuya to give him a day.
Ryusho leaves and calls Nioka to have a meeting, the good news is that Ryusho had planned for Nioka to do this so he came up with a trap. Ryusho knows that Nioka is in cahoots with Tadashi Tsurumi and knows he's been buying locations, and assaulting the previous employees and owners afterwards, and that if Nioka attempts to kill Ryusho all of the public would know and release the info that a Top Yakuza officer is in cahoots with politician Tadashi Tsurumi. Ryusho tells Nioka to cut ties with Tsurumi and takes all important files of wrongdoings and misdeeds of Tsurumi via flash drive.
Later Ryusho meets up with Tats, who's a little annoyed of Ryu being late, but Ryusho tells him he's a busy and popular man, however later is shot in the back by an unknown assailant. Ryusho immediately give's Tatsuya the flash drive and tells him to give it to Takenaka as it reveals all of Tsurumi's misdeeds, Tatsuya says he won't leave Ryusho to die, but Ryusho urges before pursers attempt to steal it from him.
Tatsuya at Cafe Alps looks into the flash drive and sees the connection of all of Tsurumi's misdeeds from both his deals with Ashura and even the incident of the fire in the Champions district. He gets a call from Tadashi Tsurumi's assistant claiming that Tsurumi wants to trade the flash drive for whatever Tatsuya wants, Tatsuya agrees to meet at the top of the Millennium Tower in exchange with the flashdrive. However Tatsuya specifically demands for Tsurumi to come with the deeds to Dragon Heat, or the deal is off.
Tatsuya is about to go to the Millennium Tower but is contacted by Tenma who tells him he found someone in connection with Ryo Nozaki, Yasuto Akita, Ashura, and Shizuka.
At Cafe Alps, Tenma introduces Mirai who is an ex-hostess due to the knew law against gambling and cabaret clubs by Tadashi Tsurumi. Mirai tells Tatsuya she was Akita's girlfriend and that she was friends with Ichikawa Shizuka, who worked with Mirai at the same Cabaret club, Cabaret Rouge. She saw how more and more Shizuka took days off until Mirai visited her at the hospital and learned her condition, this is where she met Ryo Nozaki.
After a few weeks Mirai received a text of Shizuka's death and rushed to the hospital to find Shizuka's dead body with Ryo touching her face. Ryo being broken, says "This is the reality of our society."
Mirai demands to know why she didn't receive her transplant, Ryo refuses to respond, but thanks Mirai for being a good friend to Shizuka.
Tatsuya now knows why Ryo is the way he is, but then asks... why is Ryo involved with Tadashi Tsurumi.
We cut to Shangri-La where we meet a fat nasty guy named Daisuke, who is actually Tsurumi's son, and Ryo confronts him and asks him to come with him.
Tatsuya leaves for the Millennium Tower, lying to Tenma about seeing his girl, when in reality he's confronting Tadashi.
Tatsuya battles through forces of police all the way to the top of the Millennium Tower where he meets Tadashi and another assistant of his named Saeki. Tatsuya knew they were going to try to dupe him and take the flash drive by force.
This is when Tatsuya fights against Saeki who fights using the Ancient Japanese Martial Arts Fighting Style, and a sword. Tatsuya defeats Saeki, and shocks Tadashi, who pulls a gun out on Tatsuya and demands for the flash drive. Tatsuya says he'll be a murderer but Tadashi says he can just say it was a member of Ashura who did it. We also learn that Tadashi Tsurumi wants to cleanse Kamurocho by screwing over 70% of the people there because "This is the reality of Society" and later taunts Tatsuya about Makoto's death, only for Tatsuya to rush and kick Tadashi down, and point the gun inside Tadashi mouth. Tatsuya's about to pull the trigger, but stops himself saying Tadashi has to repent and be brought to proper justice.
However they're both interrupted by Ryo Nozaki who's impressed by Tatsuya who didn't kill Tadashi Tsurumi even after all he's done in both Kurohyou 1 with Tatsuya's family, and even now with the deaths of Nobu, Minegi, and Makoto. We see Ryo brought with him a beaten up and bloodied Daisuke. This is when Tadashi Tsurumi angeredly asked who Ryo is, and this is when Ryo reveals he was never blind and opens his eyes full of rage, saying he'd never forget the face of the man who murdered Ichikawa Shizuka.
We flash back to 2 years ago where we see the fully story of Shizuka and Ryo. They grew up together in the orphanage and fell in love, later as older Shizuka needed a liver transplant, and Ryo saved a lot of money for the transplant. Before Shizuka received it, Tadashi Tsurumi stopped the transplant from being given to Shizuka, and payed off the doctor to give it to his son Daisuke.
Ryo is angry that the tub of lard payed for his useless disgusting son to have the liver that was meant for Shizuka and now that he's gotten him where he wants him, he's going to kill him, however he himself won't kill him. Ryo gives the gun to Daisuke and tells him if wants to continue living his wreckless garbage life, he has to kill his own father. Daisuke is about to, until Tatsuya steps in.
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{FINAL BATTLE}
Tatsuya tells Ryo this not the way to do this and that Tsurumi needs to be brought to justice properly, he even tries to hit home with Ryo by telling him that Shizuka wouldn't want this. Ryo says he knows and he's envious of Tatsuya's will to change fate/destiny but that it will lead to his death.
Ryo states that if Tatsuya wants to stop him he can feel free and try since he's now stronger than ever, removing his top. Tatsuya responds saying he won't be beaten and removes his top, claiming he will avenge everyone that died trying to bring Ryo down.
They both have an epic Yakuza final battle with the "BORN TO BE WILD!" playing the final battle.
Ryo Nozaki uses the CHINESE MARTIAL ARTS FIGHTING STYLE! (IMO it's best to use the KIWAMI FIGHTING STYLE ang going all out against Ryo).
Tatsuya successfully defeats Ryo in a difficult and tough battle, as Ryo seems... at peace. Ryo tells Tatsuya he was right, he won against fate. However Tadashi Tsurumi picks up the gun aiming it at Tatsuya, however Ryo takes a bullet for Tatsuya saving him. Tadashi says he's had enough and is going to kill them both, only for Ryo to tell Tadashi he's finished, revealing the entire confrontation at the Millennium Tower is being live streamed to the public. Ryo finally won and destroyed Tadashi's entire reputation, but still wants more.
Ryo picks up the gun to attempt to kill Tadashi, but Tatsuya tells him not to, Ryo angerly replies it's all Tatsuya's fault. Joining Ashura and teaming up with Akita, making fortunetelling predictions that came true, all of that changed after he met Tatsuya. Ryo says he was happy to meet someone as motivated as Tatsuya to move against fate, it motivated Ryo more to put an end to Tadashi Tsurumi.
Tatsuya reasons with Ryo by saying he knows what it's like to want Revenge, and knows Ryo doesn't forgive himself.
Ryo gets angry and shoots at Tatsuya which graces Tatsuya's cheek. Tatsuya understands but says if he's going to shoot, he better shoot him in the head.
Ryo... puts lowers the gun and says he wishes he would've met Tatsuya sooner and that even at a time like this, he feels he could change his destiny.
Ryo finally understands theres always a chance to change your fate/ your destiny no matter how far we go.
Suddenly raises the gun to his head and thanks Tatsuya for opening his eyes to changing your fate. Tatsuya tells him to stop. Ryo responds:
"You can always change your fate... I just forgot..." BANG
As Ryo shoots himself and dies... he's finally back with Shizuka.
Takenaka, Shinji, Tamotsu, and Yuta arrive to the top of the Millennium Tower with a punch of the police force. Tadashi Tsurumi jumped off committing suicide not wanting to face the repercussions of everything he did... died as he live... a true COWARD.
We cut back to Tatsuya staring and saying... "it's over"
As the game cuts to black and credits role with one of the worst songs I've ever heard in my life.... it's a song that sounds like a mimic of Louie Armstrong in japanese, and the song is genuinely hot garbage regardless if the lyrics are saying something nice.
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{EPILOGUE}
We cut to a week later after the exposing of Governor Tadashi Tsurumi and everything he had done is reported on the news. We cut to Saeko sadly wandering in Minegi's Mahjong Parlor, remembering Minegi and Makoto. We then cut to Dragon Heat who's back in the hands of Ryusho (who didn't die by the gunshot and recovered successfully), and we see fighting is a new and improved stronger Tamotsu who wins his fight and celebrates with Shinji and Yuta cheering him on!
Finally we cut to Tatsuya with Takenaka who reveals to Tatsuya that he found Ryo's Journal and reveals that at Shangri-La all of the betting and predictions were all fabricated and design by Ryo to make it seem like "FATE" by using Ashura to make it come true. It was never fate, it was executing plans by Ryo.
Takenaka responds "Prophecies it's so easy to fool people... Humans are so weak and fragile..."
Tatsuya agrees, and Takenaka lets him know throughout several pages, Tatsuya is mentioned. Takenaka thinks either Ryo was afraid Tatsuya would overcome Ashura, or that he actually was a fortuneteller. Takenaka wonders if Ryo lost his way so badly. Tatsuya says no... in the end he finally remembered.
Tatsuya says he's happy Ryo reminded him never to forget that you can always change fate. Takenaka asks "what do you mean"
The camera cuts to a full shot of Tatsuya saying:
"Nothing happens by chance...I'm gonna see how far I can take these fists... and change the future... it's the only way."
Takenaka responds tells him he understands but for Tatsuya not to push himself too hard. Tatsuya says he wants to push himself to overcome the obstacles coming his way, otherwise you can't obtain what you truly want.
Takenaka responds " That's Ukyo Tatsuya for you..."
The game ends with a final shot of Tatsuyas fist in the air with him saying:
"Of course! My destiny is my own... I'll make of it what I can!"
As the game cuts to black.
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[Gameplay]
The gameplay has a more unique system of combat where now you are able to customize different fighting styles, along with different heat moves. So say you choose the Wrestling style, you are able to choose whatever other heat move attacks that probably don't correspond with wrestling, but it still makes the experience unique and fun.
The camera still has an issue of angling as of course like I said for the first game, it a psp game, and the orignal psp didn't have joysticks, it only had a thumbslider. However here it does seem more manageable than the first.
An annoying aspect of the overworld is that now you have 2 types of random encounters, regular random encounters, and "QUEST" random encounters, where essentially a green arrow will highlight someone getting mugged, a dine dasher, a near on assault, a woman being harassed by 2 dudes, etc.
The worst one is always the woman being harassed by 2 dudes because there's a 1/2 a chance she'll reward you or lead you into another QUEST random encounter that has you fight 4 dudes. I don't understand the logic of this one:
Girl gets harassed by 2 dudes -> Guy saves her -> She says she'll reward him a date or something -> Leads him to secluded area -> Leads guy to get jumped by 4 other guys.
The other example is 3 dudes bullying one dude, but like the girl above, theres 1/2 a chance that the bullied dude is also in on it so you'll either have to fight 3 dudes if the dude legit is getting bullied, or 4 dudes if the "bullied" individual is in on it, Most of the time it's the ladder.
The game also features another returning element of the first game where it has you enter a tournament that has a ranking of 30 fighters and you fight each of them until you reach the top 10 where you fight against the main fighters/villains of the game.
Here however they've introduced in Sotenbori a tag partner system where you can recruit random encounter fighters or ingame fighters to help you in a tag tournament that also has a 30 rank system of it own.
What sucks is you'll probably lose motivation to do it only because unlike in Kurohyou 1, where you can just continuously fight here you can't, you have to wait for one of the 2 tournament helpers to text you letting you know a new fight has come up, but what's even worse is the game randomizes when you fight the next rank.
For example you're rank 21, you're trying to fight Rank 20 to move up, but the dudes will probably recommend you Rank 29 for some reason instead of moving to the next rank fighter. It can make the gamemode feel convoluted and taxing to have to wait for.
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[Minigames]
The minigames are overall fun with only 2 of them being complete ass.
Karaoke got a major improvement with allowing for actual timing and rhythm like in other Yakuza/Like a Dragon Games, instead of just "SPAM X TO FILL A METER" still I do wish the VA for Tatsuya was allowed to sing a song instead of playing the main theme/final boss theme of the game "BORN TO BE WILD".
The only 2 genuinely bad games are: Golf as you have to guess whether you're going to hit the ball in the right direction. And Slots due to how randomized everything is.
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[Cabaret Clubs]
Cabaret Clubs are improved upon in terms of still giving you 3 options to choose from when the girls ask, along with asking for drinks and food. 1 thing I really liked is they added a random romantic moment to happen where a QTE happens to the girl that if you perform correctly gives you extra hearts.
1 thing that was a bad addition was the "decision moment" added where at 1 point you have to collect 5 girl flags by either answering a question about the girls favorite food or drink, or looking at their appearance and pointing something out about an item or body part of theirs. The problem is if you're already maxed or 1 heart away from obtain 15 hearts (you need 20 hearts in order to complete the Hostess and unlock their special Substory - 6 total, this flag system always happens at the 13-15 mark). You can't get anymore until you fulfill all of the flags, and for no reason they show a cutscene where the hostess makes a decision between you and a random Host, and She will always pick the host if you have not gotten all the flags, however once you do, she'll always pick you and you can continue your expedition of hearts. After the 20 hearts are complete you'll get a text from the girl, go on a date, then later get contacted for a substory that usually ends up having Tatsuya beat someone up.
So yeah, it's overall more complex, but it is an improvement, even if the flag system is stupid.
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[Substories]
The substories themselves have major improvement with some of these actually being very memorable and fun. The storyline of the original Gang substory is expanded upon and has a returning fighter from the first game as the primary antagonist of the storyline substory.
There's only 1 genuinely bad story and thats the slot machine substory which is completely random chance since you have to get a jackpot, and because it's a PSP SLOT MACHINE MINI-GAME it's completely randomized and completely unfair, that it's impossible to actually win without trying over and over and praying you actually get a jackpot.
There's also the Cat Master again who needs you to collect 102 cats because they're actually from his daughter's cat cafe and he lost them all again, with now you need to collecting 11 cats per chapter, with 1 of them being a special cat (total 10 special cats in the entire game, 92 regular), what's cool is though the game actually allows you to see the cats if you talk to the old man's daughter who's a caretaker for the cat cafe. Cats are marked on the maps with Cat Icons (not actually appearing in game, apart from in the cat cafe option), and rare cats are indicated by the Cat icon being violet.
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[Characters]
All characters are fantastic with their own backstories and complexity that makes the game fantastic. The only characters who are awful and I'm happy remain awful are Tadashi Tsurumi, Futa Kinjo, Kaz Kazaki, and Daisuke Tsurumi only because they don't deserve any complexity because they're what they're written to be as... shallow, detestable, horrible monsters.
Ryusho, Shinji, Yuta, and Tamotsu are all amazingly written great additions to Tatsuya's crew. Ryo Nozaki is very complex and an interesting character. Yasuto Akita is a mixed bag as he sort of represents that meme of villains with sad backstories, however his works very well that overall I like what they did with him, but you can absolutely hate how he goes from extreme villain to tragic villain.
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[FINAL THOUGHTS]
This game, along with the first is a masterpiece, yes it does have gameplay issues, but I do feel they improved on most of the issues from the previous game.
I think as well, the story here is much better than in Kurohyou 1, but I also think that it's better to look both as 2 parter of the same story. Sort of like how Persona 2 has 2 parts to it:
Innocent Sin and Eternal Punishment. This game is a second part to a bigger story, and wraps up all loose ends perfectly.
If you're wondering if there will ever be a Kurohyou 3, probably not unless they remake both Kurohyou 1 and 2, but if they do, they probably will make a 3rd game, but it's not needed since 2 wraps up everything perfectly.
I absolutely loved my time with this mini spinoff franchise of Yakuza/Like a Dragon/Ryu ga Gotoku, I absolutely recommend Kurohyou 1 and 2, it's a shame SEGA and RGG STUDIOS haven't remade/remastered these 2 amazing games, but since ISHIN! was remade, hopefully that means Kurohyou/ Yakuza Black Panther/ Like a Dragon: Black Panther can be too!
100% if you are a Yakuza fan play Kurohyou 1 and 2!
#BringKurohyoutotheWest / #BringYakuzaBlackPanthertotheWest
#BringKurohyou2totheWest / #BringYakuzaBlackPanther2totheWest/
#BringKENZANtotheWest
The game features a 19 year old Tatsuya now, making this game take place 2 years after the events of the first.
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[Story] (Splitting this into 3 Parts, Final Battle, and Epilogue)
{PART 1}
Set 2 years after the first game, Tatsuya has traveled around the world as a rookie/prodigy boxer. Who's return to Kamorucho after a recent flawless victory knockout in Vegas.
We learn that since the events of the first game, Saki (Tatsuya's love interest from the first game) has moved to the United States for university and that her and Tatsuya had to let each other go, though we only really get this info about her whereabouts during a specific event that happens within the game.
When Tatsuya returns, he actually meets Tomoki, who has become an ex-fighter due to his lost against Tatsuya, but shows no ill-will towards him since Tatsuya taught Tomoki that ego and thinking you'll automatically win a fight will result in humiliation, Tomoki leaves after helping Tatsuya from a gang jumping, before letting him know Kamorucho's changed.
Tatsuya has returned to Kamorucho to visit Saeko, his sister, to let her know about how his boxing career is going, and what's next for him. Before he is available to visit her, he encounters a young teen getting beat up named Shinji Sakamoto, and his friends Yuta Mikami and Tamotsu Saito, Tatsuya helps them and they mention that they're apart of Dragon Heat, and Tatsuya is surprised it's running and operational. Tatsuya isn't exactly mad that Dragon Heat is still active, and decides to go visit it with them, since Shinji is fighting. This is where Tatsuya meets Ryusho Kuki, son of Ryutaro Kuki, who is now the new patriarch of the Kuki Family and runner of Dragon Heat. Tatsuya says that the way Ryusho is indoctrinating Shinji, Yuta, Tamotsu into Dragon Heat at such a young age. Ryusho then says, that Tatsuya helped save Dragon Heat in the past, and most of the teens look up to Tatsuya, and reveals in front of them that the person the teens met, is the Tatsuya Ukyo, the Mad Dragon of Kamuro.
The teens are all in awe, except for 1, Shinji's other friend, Makoto Yashiro, blonde delinquent who actually feels cut from the same clothe as Tatsuya, who currently doesn't have a fighting philosophy. Tatsuya leaves saying that he's not concerned with what happens now with Dragon Heat, after hearing the issues Ryusho has put it in, so much so it might be sold to the Omni Alliance/Ashura Group in Sotenbori.
Shinji curses Tatsuya saying that he's hiding and is scared.
As Tatsuya leaves and meets with his sister, we then see that Ryusho has to meet with Ashura's leader Yasuto Akita and Kozo Nioka (head of the Nioka Family from the first game). We find out Ryusho can't keep Dragon Heat open with it's lack of fighters and income, so they'll have to sell it to Ashura. Shinji curses them and gets beat up by Akita's hired fighter Shinobu Okita, and gets put in the hospital.
Tatsuya finds out later via heading to the hospital to check on Shinji with Makoto letting him know what happened, with Tatsuya later returning to Dragon Heat and agreeing to help save Dragon Heat for the sake of Shinji and those who came before.
Tatsuya agrees to fight for Dragon Heat, and meets with his fighting manager and says that he's quitting professional boxing for the sake of protecting the place that made him. Saeko immediately calls Tatsuya and asks if he's crazy, but Tatsuya responds saying it's for the sake of Dragon Heat and those who came before (specfically talking about Taizan/Toru, their father).
The first fight takes place against Shinobu Okita, who is a strong kick boxer and uses the Kickboxing Style of fighting. Okita is responsible for putting Shinji in the hospital, so Tatsuya destroys him during their fight with an axe kick.
We later learn that for every fight that Tatsuya has, he has to switch between fighting in Dragon Heat, and later having to travel to Sotenbori to fight in Ashura's Arena.
Makoto gets angry after being told to do nothing, and to let Tatsuya handle Ashura, that he immediately leaves for Sotenbori and take revenge against Ashura, however after Ryusho and Tatsuya discover this, they immediately follow him. When they both arrive and find Shinji we encounter that Makoto has been shoot, luckily the person who did it was a young adult who did it because he was ordered to under Ashura. We find out that Ashura are selling non-lethal weapons to individuals but picking and choosing whether the weapons are lethal or non-lethal to cover their tracks. We see that a top seller of the weapons is a famous Lucha Libre wrestler named Meteor Suzuki
Tatsuya's second fight is against Meteor Suzuki, which ends with Tatsuya knocking him out with a mean right punch to the face knocking him out.
After the fight, Tatsuya is taken to Ashura's infirmary to get checked up and healed. This is when Tatsuya meets a mysterious blind doctor named Ryo Nozaki. Ryo tells him that fate will work against Tatsuya and that the more he faces Ashura, the more angry he'll become. Tatsuya says he doesn't believe in fortune telling and gets back to Ryusho and the others after being treated. Ryo tells Tatsuya not to take what he says personally but that fate is set and there's nothing Tatsuya can do to change it.
Tatsuya's next fight is against Shosuke Oba, who is an extortionist who deals with money, and human trafficking. The reason Tatsuya has to fight him is because Tamotsu wants to protect this hostess he met named Ruri who got into trouble of extortion by Shosuke Oba. Tamotsu decides he wants to fight against Oba, to protect Ruri. Before the fight Tatsuya hypes up Tamotsu and tells him to not give up and push on through until the end. However before the actual fight, Tatsuya and Ryusho suspect foulplay and that Ruri is actually in kahoots with Oba, but Ryusho shows her the error of her ways by watching the boy she swindled and played, get beaten to near death, all for the sake of protecting her. She realizes how badly she messed up and in the Dragon Heat infirmary she visits Tamotsu. Ryusho and Tatsuya keep it a secret that Ruri was involved, allowing Tamotsu to continue believing she was a country-bumpkin good hearted girl. Tamotsu is sad he couldnt protect her, but Ryusho reassures him by saying a deal was struck so Ruri wouldn't be forced into anything, and that she's moving back to the countryside.
Ruri's about to reveal the truth of her involvement, but Tatsuya tells her not to, so that she wouldn't destroy her image to Tamotsu. Later in a dinner we find out that Ruri is moving to Hokkaido and that Ryusho made the debt up however she will still have to pay him to keep his mouth shut about her involvement.
Tatsuya then goes to the fight against Oba and fights Oba who uses Sumo Wrestling, with Tats winning via neck submission. Tatsuya encounters Ryo again who says "if you continue fighting, someone will die, that is the next prediction."
Tatsuya and co meet with Yuta who decides to go and meet with his father, only to get into an argument about how Yuta's dad constantly was working, and that he's the reason Yuta's mom died, and never connecting/bonding with his son.
Yuta's father has an encounter with an old friend named Nobu, who is actually here to buy out the pachinko parlor Yuta's dad owns, but he refuses to sell it.
Ryusho and Tatsuya go to Shangri-La to rest up, but there Tatsuya meets with Ryo again, who makes bets at the Roulette table by predicting them via FATE. Tatsuya can't believe it, and still doesn't believe in what Ryo is saying. Ryo predicts someone will die due to Tatsuya's constant battle with Ashura.
We see later that for collateral, the Ashura group end up blowing up the parlor, hospitalizing Yuta's dad. Yuta says he doesn't care especially since he didn't care to raise Yuta and focused more on working. Tatsuya confront Nobu who admits to have been ordered by Ashura into buying the parlor however he never ordered to have it blown up. Nobu walks with Tatsuya to the destroyed parlor but is killed by a mysterious, hobo looking assassin. Before his death, Nobu decides to give Tatsuya a key to a locker, and tells him it has something important within it for Yuta.
Ryusho and Tatsuya head to Sotenbori to confront the killer/assassin named Tanaka Inchiro. Inchiro says he did it for 2 reasons: 1. Under the order of Ashura and 2. Because he gets joy out of pain and death.
Tatsuya and Ryusho attempt to fight him within the homeless lot of Sotenbori but are stopped by Kozo Nioka who tells them if they want to fight, they need to fight properly in the rules set. That means... yes, Tanaka Inchiro is the next fight that Tatsuya has to face. Before that we cutback to the Kamurocho hospital where Makoto and Tamotsu tell Yuta that they found a letter in the locker and that letter states that because of financial troubles, Yuta's asked for a loan that he knew he couldn't pay, but he begged for Nobu to never go after his son Yuta, begging and pleading. We find out that Yuta's dad worked so hard because he wanted to make a childrens playground area so a family can be happy, for the sake of Yuta. We also learn that Yuta spent most of the money to help people like Nobu start their own business out of the goodness of his heart. Nobu's letter ends by saying, not to worry about the contract and to go be with his wife and son. We also learn that Yuta's dad was giving up everything to protect his son. Yuta burst into tears as the screen cuts to black.
Before the fight in the area, Tatsuya states that if he wins the fight, Tanaka has to tell him everything and why he killed Nobu, however if Tanaka wins, he can kill Tatsuya.
Tatsuya defeats Tanaka by knocking him into the Area's electric fence electrocuting him, which really only knocked him out. However as Tanaka is taken to the infirmary, Tatsuya immediately follows, only to find out that Tanaka is unconsious and needs the rest, says Ryo. We cut away in Sotenbori where Ryusho receives a call from Akita that Tanaka is dead, Tatsuya immediately grabs the phone from Ryusho and yells at them claiming that Ryo killed Tanaka, Ryo responds saying that Tanaka had a weak heart so that electricity killed him, however Tatsuya believes none of it. Ryo apologies for not allowing Tatsuya speak with Tanaka, however warns him that if he continues, Tatsuya will end up killing a friend with his own 2 hands.
What happens next is that the group find out that Shinji has left the hospital and is more unhinged. A website pops up where random civilians are being asked to assault others for bounty, and at the top 5 of the list are: 5. Tamotsu, 4. Yuta, 3. Makoto, 2. Ryusho, 1. TATSUYA. The website called KARMA is created by an unknown person, until the group find out later it was actually Shinji! The reason being is that he's angry that Tatsuya is the cause for all of this and that even though Tatsuya is trying to help, he's hurting everyone in the process. Shinji's injury, Tamotsu almost being scammed, Yuta's Dad nearly dying, and Dragon Heat in a tug of War between the Tojo Clan and Ashura, all of it due to Tatsuya's negligence. Shinji has healed up somehow, but infact he isn't as all he was given was temporary medicine that after a while will wear off and if he were to get hit buy someone like Tatsuya, he would die.
Tatsuya allows Shinji to beat him up without attacking back, causing Shinji to break down into tears and cry asking "I don't understand!" And Tatsuya asks if he's done and calmed down. Ryusho steps in and punches Shinji in the chest unconscious.
We arrive back at the infirmary of Dragon's Heat for Tatsuya's next fight, before that Tats confronts Ryo and accuses him of brainwashing and lying to Shinji, while Ryo has no idea what he's talking about. Makoto shows up letting Tatsuya know the next fight is about to begin, but stairs at Ryo almost as if he knows who he is, like a memory, but ignores this feeling to remind Tatsuya and walks away. Ryo says that fate is still saying a friend is bound to die. Tatsuya says fate and destiny can always be changed.
Tatsuya's next opponent is Kaz Kazaki, aka "Grizzly" who's been healed up by Ashura to be more powerful than he was before. Kaz Kazaki is a MMA fighter, one who was put in a position where he could never fight again do to an injury. Tatsuya claims and confirms that he is the one who tricked and manipulated Shinji into taking the drug to "heal him" and later telling him to create KARMA to attempt to get Tatsuya and co killed.
Kazaki denies this by taunting Tatsuya, and heads into battle.
Kaz Kazaki fights in the MMA fighting style.
Tatsuya defeats Kazaki with a left leg Roundhouse kick to the head, and later a axe kick to the top of Kazaki's head knocking him out cold.
Back at the infirmary, Tatsuya is treated and healed up with Shinji coming to visit Tatsuya and apologies for everthing that happened. Shinji says that Kazaki told him a lie that back in Kurohyou 1 Kazaki was suppose to fight Tatsuya but was given money to lose, but because he refused, Kuki's family beat up Kazaki injuring him and ruining his MMA career. Shinji back then believed it for the amount of emotion he had built up he created the KARMA website. Shinji breaks down in tears apologizing, with Ryusho saying it's all in the past, and not to worry. Tatsuya tells Shinji there's no need, because together they need to stand united against Ashura.
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{PART 2}
Later in a Mahjong Parlor, Saeko is playing with a father figure for Makoto, named Minegi who runs said parlor. We later see police storm in and arrest Minegi, Saeko, and Makoto since a new order has requested every gambling area to be purged under the new rule of Tadashi Tsurumi [Returning Villian and true Culprit of Kurohyou 1 who was never brought to justice] banning gambling locations.
Shozo Takenaka gets Saeko and Makoto off scott free, however Minegi is still being held captive and will continue to be until the next day. The next day comes and Takenaka informs that Minegi committed suicide within the prison, shocking everyone. Makoto says it's a lie and that Minegi would never do something like that, and clearly someone killed him.
Ryusho and Tatsuya head around Kamorucho to ask about Minegi, and we find that most locations know Minegi very well, however they have no leads as to who could've killed Minegi. Ryusho calls off the search because Ashura is calling for the next battle. Tatsuya and co head off to Sotenbori with Makoto staying behind to investigate more.
Saeko is later assaulted and kidnapped by an unknown assault as Tatsuya arrives to Ashura, Tatsuya is in a pickle because he needs to defeat his next opponent in less then 10 minutes, and later returning to save his sister before a bomb goes off.
Tatsuya remembers Makoto is still in Kamorucho and asks him to please save Saeko. [This is the only part of the game that let's you play as Makoto and it's pretty limited as he fights in a standard street fight style]
Before heading to the location, Makoto in the back of his head is still thinking about Ryo Nozaki, and later contacts an old friend from a orphanage named Takashi to investigate about a boy from the Orphanage who was blind, however Takashi tells him that he was never blind and all he did was read and hangout with a girl Shizuka. Makoto asks Takashi to investigate Ryo and to give information about him later to Tatsuya.
Back at Ashura, Tatsuya is ready for his next fight, but is warned by Ryusho to be careful of the next opponent since he's known for playing dirty, where he got disqualified for breaking opponents arms when in tought positions. The next fight is against a dirty fighter named Shinahara Masaru, who uses Brazilian Jiu Jitsu fighting style. Masaru taunts Tatsuya for how strong he is, but Tatsuya doesn't care for idol chit chat and needs to defeat him as fast as possible, this angers Masaru as the both battle.
At the end of the battle Tatsuya throws a left arm punch and Shinahara grabs his arms and breaks it, it hurts Tatsuya, but he doesn't care as he knocks out Masaru with a mean punch to the face.
Tatsuya is taken to the infirmary and has his arm broken back into the correct place, Ryusho asks if he's alright and Tatsuya says he's fine but they need to return quickly to Kamorucho. Before they leave Tatsuya sees that Shinahara is threatening Akita and... Ryo. We find out here Akita is the not the head of Ashura... it's actually Ryo who runs everything.
We cut back to Kamurocho where Makoto goes to the abandon building to rescue Saeko. He successfully does so but before he is able to save her, he has to fight the main culprit of Minegi's death, Futa Kinjo, a red head afro wearing asshole murder. Makoto successfully defeats Kinjo and rescues Saeko, but before escaping Makoto is confronted by Kinjo and he tells him he wasn't strong enough and pulls out a gun. Kinjo successfully shoots Makoto who is now bleeding out from his injuries.
Tatsuya and co arrive safely back at Kamurocho and find the abandon building. Saeko comes out of the building and tells Tatsuya that Makoto saved her, but that he's dying. Tatsuya rushes in and finds Makoto. Makoto says he's happy to have met someone like Tatsuya and that he finally understood Tats philosophy. Makoto is happy to see that only 2 fights remain in order to save Dragon Heat, and tells Tatsuya,
"POWER is something you use to help others, I think I finally understand what you said...I know it's too late now... but I'm glad I got to tell you... Thank you... Tatsuya." As Makoto dies, the building explodes.
After the loss of their friend, Tatsuya heads to the next fight in Ashura, but before that meets up with Tenma who says that Makoto's friend Takashi shows up and shows them both the picture of Ryo Nozaki, and the girl named Shizuka. Tatsuya asks Tenma if he can locate Shizuka and see what's going on with Ryo and why he's doing all of this and Tenma agrees to do so, as Tatsuya heads for his next fight at Dragon's heat.
The second to last battle for the Dragon Heat vs Ashura agreement is against... Makoto's Killer... Futa Kinjo. Futa fights in the RyuKyu Karate style. Before the fight, Kinjo taughts Tatsuya about Makoto's death by saying that it was prophesized that he would die, using the same words Ryo Nozaki uses, making Tats angry. Tatsuya says he's going to destroy Kinjo, and at the end of the fight Tatsuya grabs Kinjos head already falling and smashes a mean left hook knocking Kinjo out cold.
Ryo shows up and congratulates Tatsuya, but Tatsuya is angry saying Ryo ordered for Makoto's death. Makoto says not to be ridiculous and that fate works in mysterious ways. Tatsuya asks what Ryo's purpose is, and Ryo responds that it's to help people realize they can never change their destiny nor fight against it. Tatsuya responds saying he'll never give up dragon heat to them.
After all of this a bunch of government shenanigans happen with more of the police force coming in to Kamurocho and we find out that Kozo Nioka and Akita are working with Tadashi Tsurumi.
Tatsuya get's ready for his final fight at Ashura against Yasuto Akita, before the fight begins, Tatsuya tells Akita that he has a lot of questions for him after he wins. Akita responds by saying if Tatsuya will be even able to ask them if he's dead. Tatsuya says he still has time left in this world as he charges into the final battle against Akita.
Yasuto Akita uses Pankration fighting style. Tatsuya defeats Akita in a tough battle and secures victory for Dragon Heat. Here we learn Akita's tragic backstory, where we learn that Ashura was originally like Dragon Heat, where a bunch of young teenagers who came from broken homes came to relieve their stresses, since Akita was in juvie in and out.
While in Ashura, Akita worked at a factory and was one day falsely accused of killing his manager just because he had a previous record and because of no alibi. Akita explains that he would never kill an innocent good hearted man, but because of his previous record he was still booked. Akita went to jail but was later saved by... Ryo Nozaki by lying by giving Akita an alibi. Ryo tells him that he paid a random witness to spot Akita at a different location. Both Ryo and Akita were screwed by the system, and that together that can become an unstoppable force to overpower the authority, as both of them form the new Ashura.
Akita asks and begs of Tatsuya to stop Ryo, as he's shot in the chest by a sniper. Before he dies, he tells Tatsuya to go to Cabaret Rouge... as Akita dies.
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{Part 3 - FINAL}
After Akita's death, Tatsuya asks Tenma to locate Cabaret Rouge and see if anyone knows someone connected to Ryo Nozaki.
Tatsuya goes to a grave yard and later sees Ryo who says he's visiting the grave of a woman he knew in the past who had a man. She was in hospital for 3 years waiting for a liver transplant, but died before she recieved it. The man who was with the woman saved every penny to save her, but the day she was suppose to recieve the liver, it was instead given to someone else leading to her death. Ryo made a prediction that Dragon Heat would be lost, but Tatsuya says he overcame that prediction... or did he.
When returning to Kamurocho Tatsuya finds out that Dragon Heat is under the ownership Kozo Nioka. Ryusho tells Tatsuya that while they were in Sotenbori, Nioka had the metropolitan police rushed into Kuki's office and found the title of ownership of Dragon Heat and had it change at the registry so that Nioka is the owner now. Tatsuya has more questions for Ryusho but he asks Tatsuya to give him a day.
Ryusho leaves and calls Nioka to have a meeting, the good news is that Ryusho had planned for Nioka to do this so he came up with a trap. Ryusho knows that Nioka is in cahoots with Tadashi Tsurumi and knows he's been buying locations, and assaulting the previous employees and owners afterwards, and that if Nioka attempts to kill Ryusho all of the public would know and release the info that a Top Yakuza officer is in cahoots with politician Tadashi Tsurumi. Ryusho tells Nioka to cut ties with Tsurumi and takes all important files of wrongdoings and misdeeds of Tsurumi via flash drive.
Later Ryusho meets up with Tats, who's a little annoyed of Ryu being late, but Ryusho tells him he's a busy and popular man, however later is shot in the back by an unknown assailant. Ryusho immediately give's Tatsuya the flash drive and tells him to give it to Takenaka as it reveals all of Tsurumi's misdeeds, Tatsuya says he won't leave Ryusho to die, but Ryusho urges before pursers attempt to steal it from him.
Tatsuya at Cafe Alps looks into the flash drive and sees the connection of all of Tsurumi's misdeeds from both his deals with Ashura and even the incident of the fire in the Champions district. He gets a call from Tadashi Tsurumi's assistant claiming that Tsurumi wants to trade the flash drive for whatever Tatsuya wants, Tatsuya agrees to meet at the top of the Millennium Tower in exchange with the flashdrive. However Tatsuya specifically demands for Tsurumi to come with the deeds to Dragon Heat, or the deal is off.
Tatsuya is about to go to the Millennium Tower but is contacted by Tenma who tells him he found someone in connection with Ryo Nozaki, Yasuto Akita, Ashura, and Shizuka.
At Cafe Alps, Tenma introduces Mirai who is an ex-hostess due to the knew law against gambling and cabaret clubs by Tadashi Tsurumi. Mirai tells Tatsuya she was Akita's girlfriend and that she was friends with Ichikawa Shizuka, who worked with Mirai at the same Cabaret club, Cabaret Rouge. She saw how more and more Shizuka took days off until Mirai visited her at the hospital and learned her condition, this is where she met Ryo Nozaki.
After a few weeks Mirai received a text of Shizuka's death and rushed to the hospital to find Shizuka's dead body with Ryo touching her face. Ryo being broken, says "This is the reality of our society."
Mirai demands to know why she didn't receive her transplant, Ryo refuses to respond, but thanks Mirai for being a good friend to Shizuka.
Tatsuya now knows why Ryo is the way he is, but then asks... why is Ryo involved with Tadashi Tsurumi.
We cut to Shangri-La where we meet a fat nasty guy named Daisuke, who is actually Tsurumi's son, and Ryo confronts him and asks him to come with him.
Tatsuya leaves for the Millennium Tower, lying to Tenma about seeing his girl, when in reality he's confronting Tadashi.
Tatsuya battles through forces of police all the way to the top of the Millennium Tower where he meets Tadashi and another assistant of his named Saeki. Tatsuya knew they were going to try to dupe him and take the flash drive by force.
This is when Tatsuya fights against Saeki who fights using the Ancient Japanese Martial Arts Fighting Style, and a sword. Tatsuya defeats Saeki, and shocks Tadashi, who pulls a gun out on Tatsuya and demands for the flash drive. Tatsuya says he'll be a murderer but Tadashi says he can just say it was a member of Ashura who did it. We also learn that Tadashi Tsurumi wants to cleanse Kamurocho by screwing over 70% of the people there because "This is the reality of Society" and later taunts Tatsuya about Makoto's death, only for Tatsuya to rush and kick Tadashi down, and point the gun inside Tadashi mouth. Tatsuya's about to pull the trigger, but stops himself saying Tadashi has to repent and be brought to proper justice.
However they're both interrupted by Ryo Nozaki who's impressed by Tatsuya who didn't kill Tadashi Tsurumi even after all he's done in both Kurohyou 1 with Tatsuya's family, and even now with the deaths of Nobu, Minegi, and Makoto. We see Ryo brought with him a beaten up and bloodied Daisuke. This is when Tadashi Tsurumi angeredly asked who Ryo is, and this is when Ryo reveals he was never blind and opens his eyes full of rage, saying he'd never forget the face of the man who murdered Ichikawa Shizuka.
We flash back to 2 years ago where we see the fully story of Shizuka and Ryo. They grew up together in the orphanage and fell in love, later as older Shizuka needed a liver transplant, and Ryo saved a lot of money for the transplant. Before Shizuka received it, Tadashi Tsurumi stopped the transplant from being given to Shizuka, and payed off the doctor to give it to his son Daisuke.
Ryo is angry that the tub of lard payed for his useless disgusting son to have the liver that was meant for Shizuka and now that he's gotten him where he wants him, he's going to kill him, however he himself won't kill him. Ryo gives the gun to Daisuke and tells him if wants to continue living his wreckless garbage life, he has to kill his own father. Daisuke is about to, until Tatsuya steps in.
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{FINAL BATTLE}
Tatsuya tells Ryo this not the way to do this and that Tsurumi needs to be brought to justice properly, he even tries to hit home with Ryo by telling him that Shizuka wouldn't want this. Ryo says he knows and he's envious of Tatsuya's will to change fate/destiny but that it will lead to his death.
Ryo states that if Tatsuya wants to stop him he can feel free and try since he's now stronger than ever, removing his top. Tatsuya responds saying he won't be beaten and removes his top, claiming he will avenge everyone that died trying to bring Ryo down.
They both have an epic Yakuza final battle with the "BORN TO BE WILD!" playing the final battle.
Ryo Nozaki uses the CHINESE MARTIAL ARTS FIGHTING STYLE! (IMO it's best to use the KIWAMI FIGHTING STYLE ang going all out against Ryo).
Tatsuya successfully defeats Ryo in a difficult and tough battle, as Ryo seems... at peace. Ryo tells Tatsuya he was right, he won against fate. However Tadashi Tsurumi picks up the gun aiming it at Tatsuya, however Ryo takes a bullet for Tatsuya saving him. Tadashi says he's had enough and is going to kill them both, only for Ryo to tell Tadashi he's finished, revealing the entire confrontation at the Millennium Tower is being live streamed to the public. Ryo finally won and destroyed Tadashi's entire reputation, but still wants more.
Ryo picks up the gun to attempt to kill Tadashi, but Tatsuya tells him not to, Ryo angerly replies it's all Tatsuya's fault. Joining Ashura and teaming up with Akita, making fortunetelling predictions that came true, all of that changed after he met Tatsuya. Ryo says he was happy to meet someone as motivated as Tatsuya to move against fate, it motivated Ryo more to put an end to Tadashi Tsurumi.
Tatsuya reasons with Ryo by saying he knows what it's like to want Revenge, and knows Ryo doesn't forgive himself.
Ryo gets angry and shoots at Tatsuya which graces Tatsuya's cheek. Tatsuya understands but says if he's going to shoot, he better shoot him in the head.
Ryo... puts lowers the gun and says he wishes he would've met Tatsuya sooner and that even at a time like this, he feels he could change his destiny.
Ryo finally understands theres always a chance to change your fate/ your destiny no matter how far we go.
Suddenly raises the gun to his head and thanks Tatsuya for opening his eyes to changing your fate. Tatsuya tells him to stop. Ryo responds:
"You can always change your fate... I just forgot..." BANG
As Ryo shoots himself and dies... he's finally back with Shizuka.
Takenaka, Shinji, Tamotsu, and Yuta arrive to the top of the Millennium Tower with a punch of the police force. Tadashi Tsurumi jumped off committing suicide not wanting to face the repercussions of everything he did... died as he live... a true COWARD.
We cut back to Tatsuya staring and saying... "it's over"
As the game cuts to black and credits role with one of the worst songs I've ever heard in my life.... it's a song that sounds like a mimic of Louie Armstrong in japanese, and the song is genuinely hot garbage regardless if the lyrics are saying something nice.
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{EPILOGUE}
We cut to a week later after the exposing of Governor Tadashi Tsurumi and everything he had done is reported on the news. We cut to Saeko sadly wandering in Minegi's Mahjong Parlor, remembering Minegi and Makoto. We then cut to Dragon Heat who's back in the hands of Ryusho (who didn't die by the gunshot and recovered successfully), and we see fighting is a new and improved stronger Tamotsu who wins his fight and celebrates with Shinji and Yuta cheering him on!
Finally we cut to Tatsuya with Takenaka who reveals to Tatsuya that he found Ryo's Journal and reveals that at Shangri-La all of the betting and predictions were all fabricated and design by Ryo to make it seem like "FATE" by using Ashura to make it come true. It was never fate, it was executing plans by Ryo.
Takenaka responds "Prophecies it's so easy to fool people... Humans are so weak and fragile..."
Tatsuya agrees, and Takenaka lets him know throughout several pages, Tatsuya is mentioned. Takenaka thinks either Ryo was afraid Tatsuya would overcome Ashura, or that he actually was a fortuneteller. Takenaka wonders if Ryo lost his way so badly. Tatsuya says no... in the end he finally remembered.
Tatsuya says he's happy Ryo reminded him never to forget that you can always change fate. Takenaka asks "what do you mean"
The camera cuts to a full shot of Tatsuya saying:
"Nothing happens by chance...I'm gonna see how far I can take these fists... and change the future... it's the only way."
Takenaka responds tells him he understands but for Tatsuya not to push himself too hard. Tatsuya says he wants to push himself to overcome the obstacles coming his way, otherwise you can't obtain what you truly want.
Takenaka responds " That's Ukyo Tatsuya for you..."
The game ends with a final shot of Tatsuyas fist in the air with him saying:
"Of course! My destiny is my own... I'll make of it what I can!"
As the game cuts to black.
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[Gameplay]
The gameplay has a more unique system of combat where now you are able to customize different fighting styles, along with different heat moves. So say you choose the Wrestling style, you are able to choose whatever other heat move attacks that probably don't correspond with wrestling, but it still makes the experience unique and fun.
The camera still has an issue of angling as of course like I said for the first game, it a psp game, and the orignal psp didn't have joysticks, it only had a thumbslider. However here it does seem more manageable than the first.
An annoying aspect of the overworld is that now you have 2 types of random encounters, regular random encounters, and "QUEST" random encounters, where essentially a green arrow will highlight someone getting mugged, a dine dasher, a near on assault, a woman being harassed by 2 dudes, etc.
The worst one is always the woman being harassed by 2 dudes because there's a 1/2 a chance she'll reward you or lead you into another QUEST random encounter that has you fight 4 dudes. I don't understand the logic of this one:
Girl gets harassed by 2 dudes -> Guy saves her -> She says she'll reward him a date or something -> Leads him to secluded area -> Leads guy to get jumped by 4 other guys.
The other example is 3 dudes bullying one dude, but like the girl above, theres 1/2 a chance that the bullied dude is also in on it so you'll either have to fight 3 dudes if the dude legit is getting bullied, or 4 dudes if the "bullied" individual is in on it, Most of the time it's the ladder.
The game also features another returning element of the first game where it has you enter a tournament that has a ranking of 30 fighters and you fight each of them until you reach the top 10 where you fight against the main fighters/villains of the game.
Here however they've introduced in Sotenbori a tag partner system where you can recruit random encounter fighters or ingame fighters to help you in a tag tournament that also has a 30 rank system of it own.
What sucks is you'll probably lose motivation to do it only because unlike in Kurohyou 1, where you can just continuously fight here you can't, you have to wait for one of the 2 tournament helpers to text you letting you know a new fight has come up, but what's even worse is the game randomizes when you fight the next rank.
For example you're rank 21, you're trying to fight Rank 20 to move up, but the dudes will probably recommend you Rank 29 for some reason instead of moving to the next rank fighter. It can make the gamemode feel convoluted and taxing to have to wait for.
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[Minigames]
The minigames are overall fun with only 2 of them being complete ass.
Karaoke got a major improvement with allowing for actual timing and rhythm like in other Yakuza/Like a Dragon Games, instead of just "SPAM X TO FILL A METER" still I do wish the VA for Tatsuya was allowed to sing a song instead of playing the main theme/final boss theme of the game "BORN TO BE WILD".
The only 2 genuinely bad games are: Golf as you have to guess whether you're going to hit the ball in the right direction. And Slots due to how randomized everything is.
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[Cabaret Clubs]
Cabaret Clubs are improved upon in terms of still giving you 3 options to choose from when the girls ask, along with asking for drinks and food. 1 thing I really liked is they added a random romantic moment to happen where a QTE happens to the girl that if you perform correctly gives you extra hearts.
1 thing that was a bad addition was the "decision moment" added where at 1 point you have to collect 5 girl flags by either answering a question about the girls favorite food or drink, or looking at their appearance and pointing something out about an item or body part of theirs. The problem is if you're already maxed or 1 heart away from obtain 15 hearts (you need 20 hearts in order to complete the Hostess and unlock their special Substory - 6 total, this flag system always happens at the 13-15 mark). You can't get anymore until you fulfill all of the flags, and for no reason they show a cutscene where the hostess makes a decision between you and a random Host, and She will always pick the host if you have not gotten all the flags, however once you do, she'll always pick you and you can continue your expedition of hearts. After the 20 hearts are complete you'll get a text from the girl, go on a date, then later get contacted for a substory that usually ends up having Tatsuya beat someone up.
So yeah, it's overall more complex, but it is an improvement, even if the flag system is stupid.
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[Substories]
The substories themselves have major improvement with some of these actually being very memorable and fun. The storyline of the original Gang substory is expanded upon and has a returning fighter from the first game as the primary antagonist of the storyline substory.
There's only 1 genuinely bad story and thats the slot machine substory which is completely random chance since you have to get a jackpot, and because it's a PSP SLOT MACHINE MINI-GAME it's completely randomized and completely unfair, that it's impossible to actually win without trying over and over and praying you actually get a jackpot.
There's also the Cat Master again who needs you to collect 102 cats because they're actually from his daughter's cat cafe and he lost them all again, with now you need to collecting 11 cats per chapter, with 1 of them being a special cat (total 10 special cats in the entire game, 92 regular), what's cool is though the game actually allows you to see the cats if you talk to the old man's daughter who's a caretaker for the cat cafe. Cats are marked on the maps with Cat Icons (not actually appearing in game, apart from in the cat cafe option), and rare cats are indicated by the Cat icon being violet.
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[Characters]
All characters are fantastic with their own backstories and complexity that makes the game fantastic. The only characters who are awful and I'm happy remain awful are Tadashi Tsurumi, Futa Kinjo, Kaz Kazaki, and Daisuke Tsurumi only because they don't deserve any complexity because they're what they're written to be as... shallow, detestable, horrible monsters.
Ryusho, Shinji, Yuta, and Tamotsu are all amazingly written great additions to Tatsuya's crew. Ryo Nozaki is very complex and an interesting character. Yasuto Akita is a mixed bag as he sort of represents that meme of villains with sad backstories, however his works very well that overall I like what they did with him, but you can absolutely hate how he goes from extreme villain to tragic villain.
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[FINAL THOUGHTS]
This game, along with the first is a masterpiece, yes it does have gameplay issues, but I do feel they improved on most of the issues from the previous game.
I think as well, the story here is much better than in Kurohyou 1, but I also think that it's better to look both as 2 parter of the same story. Sort of like how Persona 2 has 2 parts to it:
Innocent Sin and Eternal Punishment. This game is a second part to a bigger story, and wraps up all loose ends perfectly.
If you're wondering if there will ever be a Kurohyou 3, probably not unless they remake both Kurohyou 1 and 2, but if they do, they probably will make a 3rd game, but it's not needed since 2 wraps up everything perfectly.
I absolutely loved my time with this mini spinoff franchise of Yakuza/Like a Dragon/Ryu ga Gotoku, I absolutely recommend Kurohyou 1 and 2, it's a shame SEGA and RGG STUDIOS haven't remade/remastered these 2 amazing games, but since ISHIN! was remade, hopefully that means Kurohyou/ Yakuza Black Panther/ Like a Dragon: Black Panther can be too!
100% if you are a Yakuza fan play Kurohyou 1 and 2!
#BringKurohyoutotheWest / #BringYakuzaBlackPanthertotheWest
#BringKurohyou2totheWest / #BringYakuzaBlackPanther2totheWest/
#BringKENZANtotheWest