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