Man, or Animal
Not much people have heard of this game, like in general. Which is not surpring by any means since it got stuck in Japan. Which is a shame since I found to be one of the most round origin stories in the Like a Dragon series. This is a spin-off totally unrelated to Kiryu.
Ukyo Tatsuya is our protagonist, a kid that lives with his philosphy of lone survival with his group of friends, that for the looks of it can barely stand him as it is. Nothing but violence comes and goes out from him, like an enraged animal. After one of his many violent incidents, he comes across of one of his worse. One that will change his life forever. Slowly he starts to change as a person, see the world from different perspectives which are represented by the people he ends up fighting. The more he experience a challenge, the more he gets better at fighting and learns some valuable life leassons. By the end he's another version of himself, his own evolution.
Combat is wildly different from the classic Yakuza games. Whereas Yakuza in essence was a 3D beat 'em up, Kurohyou shifts to a more classic fighting game style of combat. In fact, the Def Jam series are the bones of Kurohyou and the Yakuza mix in was the meat. Kurohyou also differs in how to approach to enemies, since is really focused on making 1v1 battles the best they can be while in Yakuza it focus it's gameplay on battling as many enemies as possible. There is no real HUD while fighting, not at all. All you get are indications of your current health and stanima state, most of which are indicated through Tatsuya himself; if he gets tired his attacks and running animations will be slower, if he gets injured a different idle animation will play, etc. Head, Chest, Legs and Arms take a big role in combat as well. Tatsuya and the enemies themselves are prone to get injured in one of these areas in combat, for better or for worse it gives the battles more complexity.
This, to my knowledge works with various other systems in conjuction. For example, in case you keep blocking heavy attacks your arms will start to debilitate overtime in the fight and deal less damage or if you keep getting hit in the head Tatsuya will be dizzy for a couple of seconds and take more damage to the head. It's a simple system that either the enemies or yourself can exploit to your advantage, specially on bossfights which they really love using certain moves that can attack either part of the body to KO you in a matter of seconds. Fighting Styles are important, more than in any RGG previously made. You got plenty to choose, up to 20 to unlock throughout the game. Yeah, 20 in total. Ever played any Yakuza game and give some attention of how the enemies move? From Street Brawler to Ancient Martial Arts, it's all here from you to choose and work out. My personal favorites styles were the ones used kicks as it's main source of damage such as Muay Thai. Though, most of these styles are hidden on substories and such. Ended up unlocking 16 of the 20 that are in total.
Once again we hit the old but known streets of Kamurocho. Presentation takes a bit of a hit compared to what people were use to with Yakuza 3 and Yakuza 4 for obvious technical reasons. So the team opted to use the classic static camera angles, separated in screens from the PS2 Yakuza games. It doesn't feel bad honestly, but some specific camera angles may be confusing to navigate specially if you're running from someone. Substories, Minigames, Shops, you name it everything we've used to in the RGG titles is here, to some extent and with some obvious limitations due to hardware restrains. Talking about hardware limitations, the cutscenes are not in real time anymore. But they're better if they had to implement in that way honestly. The closest resembleance we have in the very same console can be found in Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, which uses the exact same method of providing cutscenes. Awesome artstyle, great voice acting it has everything.
What did surprise me were the ideas it bought to the table, some that later games will use and evolve. For example this is the first time we can see Trail missions incorporated in a RGG game. While a very primitive integration, still some of the ideas will end up being refined in Judgment and Lost Judgment. Yakuza 0 story also seem to took some notes to make Kiryu's portion of the story.
It still has some flaws here and there. For example, the combat can be easily exploited with some specific tricks. It's hard to not get into combat with randoms in the street, or get caught by the police. Substories aren't as develop as the console titles and so much more. Nonetheless, it's a solid entry in the Like a Dragon series. It's focus on the story, the intense combat and Tatsuya character development makes definitely worth a playthrough. Just loved to see the evolution of Tatsuya, his philosophy went on changing over time, all the time until he found his own. Started as a ruthless kid to become a strong man, while not throwing his possitives traits of the past away.
Almost forgot. Props to the English Translation team TeamK4L for making this game english version possible. Not so long ago, in August 2023 they released the 1.2 Patch which is a big overhaul of what was 1.0 in the past. Seriously, it's a big accomplishment that I believe RGG fans shouldn't miss out. Both for the team efforts and the game itself which is great.
Not much people have heard of this game, like in general. Which is not surpring by any means since it got stuck in Japan. Which is a shame since I found to be one of the most round origin stories in the Like a Dragon series. This is a spin-off totally unrelated to Kiryu.
Ukyo Tatsuya is our protagonist, a kid that lives with his philosphy of lone survival with his group of friends, that for the looks of it can barely stand him as it is. Nothing but violence comes and goes out from him, like an enraged animal. After one of his many violent incidents, he comes across of one of his worse. One that will change his life forever. Slowly he starts to change as a person, see the world from different perspectives which are represented by the people he ends up fighting. The more he experience a challenge, the more he gets better at fighting and learns some valuable life leassons. By the end he's another version of himself, his own evolution.
Combat is wildly different from the classic Yakuza games. Whereas Yakuza in essence was a 3D beat 'em up, Kurohyou shifts to a more classic fighting game style of combat. In fact, the Def Jam series are the bones of Kurohyou and the Yakuza mix in was the meat. Kurohyou also differs in how to approach to enemies, since is really focused on making 1v1 battles the best they can be while in Yakuza it focus it's gameplay on battling as many enemies as possible. There is no real HUD while fighting, not at all. All you get are indications of your current health and stanima state, most of which are indicated through Tatsuya himself; if he gets tired his attacks and running animations will be slower, if he gets injured a different idle animation will play, etc. Head, Chest, Legs and Arms take a big role in combat as well. Tatsuya and the enemies themselves are prone to get injured in one of these areas in combat, for better or for worse it gives the battles more complexity.
This, to my knowledge works with various other systems in conjuction. For example, in case you keep blocking heavy attacks your arms will start to debilitate overtime in the fight and deal less damage or if you keep getting hit in the head Tatsuya will be dizzy for a couple of seconds and take more damage to the head. It's a simple system that either the enemies or yourself can exploit to your advantage, specially on bossfights which they really love using certain moves that can attack either part of the body to KO you in a matter of seconds. Fighting Styles are important, more than in any RGG previously made. You got plenty to choose, up to 20 to unlock throughout the game. Yeah, 20 in total. Ever played any Yakuza game and give some attention of how the enemies move? From Street Brawler to Ancient Martial Arts, it's all here from you to choose and work out. My personal favorites styles were the ones used kicks as it's main source of damage such as Muay Thai. Though, most of these styles are hidden on substories and such. Ended up unlocking 16 of the 20 that are in total.
Once again we hit the old but known streets of Kamurocho. Presentation takes a bit of a hit compared to what people were use to with Yakuza 3 and Yakuza 4 for obvious technical reasons. So the team opted to use the classic static camera angles, separated in screens from the PS2 Yakuza games. It doesn't feel bad honestly, but some specific camera angles may be confusing to navigate specially if you're running from someone. Substories, Minigames, Shops, you name it everything we've used to in the RGG titles is here, to some extent and with some obvious limitations due to hardware restrains. Talking about hardware limitations, the cutscenes are not in real time anymore. But they're better if they had to implement in that way honestly. The closest resembleance we have in the very same console can be found in Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, which uses the exact same method of providing cutscenes. Awesome artstyle, great voice acting it has everything.
What did surprise me were the ideas it bought to the table, some that later games will use and evolve. For example this is the first time we can see Trail missions incorporated in a RGG game. While a very primitive integration, still some of the ideas will end up being refined in Judgment and Lost Judgment. Yakuza 0 story also seem to took some notes to make Kiryu's portion of the story.
It still has some flaws here and there. For example, the combat can be easily exploited with some specific tricks. It's hard to not get into combat with randoms in the street, or get caught by the police. Substories aren't as develop as the console titles and so much more. Nonetheless, it's a solid entry in the Like a Dragon series. It's focus on the story, the intense combat and Tatsuya character development makes definitely worth a playthrough. Just loved to see the evolution of Tatsuya, his philosophy went on changing over time, all the time until he found his own. Started as a ruthless kid to become a strong man, while not throwing his possitives traits of the past away.
Almost forgot. Props to the English Translation team TeamK4L for making this game english version possible. Not so long ago, in August 2023 they released the 1.2 Patch which is a big overhaul of what was 1.0 in the past. Seriously, it's a big accomplishment that I believe RGG fans shouldn't miss out. Both for the team efforts and the game itself which is great.