The second and last entry in the "Yakuza Games Are Doing Great Let's Outsource a PSP Title" list. Does a lot of things better and a lot of things worse, so it ends up with the same rating for me.
Most of this review will be gameplay focused.
The music is just as good, if not better, than the first game. The combat is much more entertaining, and the boss fights are a lot better. However... the start of the game is awful. They nerf you to hell, and don't communicate any of the actual important changes to the core gameplay.
Stamina is a MUCH bigger deal, dodges are unreliable, parry got moved from block to grab, targeting is worse, moving around feels worse, your styles have no combos, arenas are tighter, enemies WILL kill you in ten seconds, you get stunned and downed much easier, grabs are worse (to counter the first game where they were OP), yakuza enemies are deadlier than actual killers, and the game doesn't explain how combos ACTUALLY work.
The injury system is much harsher in this, and combined with all of the above, it's impossible to enjoy the game before you learn what it actually wants you to do and how it wants you to play. The first two chapters are nothing but suffering. Styles get combos as you level but nothing gives you enough XP at the start, so you're stuck eating dirt for hours until the game opens up and lets you actually have the movesets the enemies have been stomping your ass with.
Everything after that is smooth sailing... for the most part. Navigation is still horrible, the pre-rendered backgrounds are somehow worse, and the Sotenbori segments are infuriating. There are several areas where the camera angles will send you back and forth repeatedly and the rest of the areas are impossible to see anything in. This combined with some instant-encounters that trigger like trainer eyesight in Pokemon makes you waste A LOT OF TIME. At least it's XP?
The story barely has any reason to exist. Tatsuya doesn't have any reason to do this but he's not a smart guy, so whatever. It gets more interesting near the very end, but then there's more "dumb RGG choices" that made me groan. But the final boss is the main reason to play this anyway, and that absolutely delivers.
I was going to rate it a 2/5 before the combat opened up and let me actually play the game because it's seriously upsetting and frustrating to be combo'd to death 10 seconds into a fight because you missed a punch they dodged mid-combo somehow.
So it's a 3/5.
But I added an extra 0.5 because the final boss is the fucking best and NEO-FRANTIC made farming the Style XP fun to the point where I actually maxed everything.
They explicitly said they'll never give these a remake and I can see why, but it would be interesting. But if they can't get BORN TO BE WILD again and we suffer like Kiwami2's song then I don't want anyone to touch this ever.
Most of this review will be gameplay focused.
The music is just as good, if not better, than the first game. The combat is much more entertaining, and the boss fights are a lot better. However... the start of the game is awful. They nerf you to hell, and don't communicate any of the actual important changes to the core gameplay.
Stamina is a MUCH bigger deal, dodges are unreliable, parry got moved from block to grab, targeting is worse, moving around feels worse, your styles have no combos, arenas are tighter, enemies WILL kill you in ten seconds, you get stunned and downed much easier, grabs are worse (to counter the first game where they were OP), yakuza enemies are deadlier than actual killers, and the game doesn't explain how combos ACTUALLY work.
The injury system is much harsher in this, and combined with all of the above, it's impossible to enjoy the game before you learn what it actually wants you to do and how it wants you to play. The first two chapters are nothing but suffering. Styles get combos as you level but nothing gives you enough XP at the start, so you're stuck eating dirt for hours until the game opens up and lets you actually have the movesets the enemies have been stomping your ass with.
Everything after that is smooth sailing... for the most part. Navigation is still horrible, the pre-rendered backgrounds are somehow worse, and the Sotenbori segments are infuriating. There are several areas where the camera angles will send you back and forth repeatedly and the rest of the areas are impossible to see anything in. This combined with some instant-encounters that trigger like trainer eyesight in Pokemon makes you waste A LOT OF TIME. At least it's XP?
The story barely has any reason to exist. Tatsuya doesn't have any reason to do this but he's not a smart guy, so whatever. It gets more interesting near the very end, but then there's more "dumb RGG choices" that made me groan. But the final boss is the main reason to play this anyway, and that absolutely delivers.
I was going to rate it a 2/5 before the combat opened up and let me actually play the game because it's seriously upsetting and frustrating to be combo'd to death 10 seconds into a fight because you missed a punch they dodged mid-combo somehow.
So it's a 3/5.
But I added an extra 0.5 because the final boss is the fucking best and NEO-FRANTIC made farming the Style XP fun to the point where I actually maxed everything.
They explicitly said they'll never give these a remake and I can see why, but it would be interesting. But if they can't get BORN TO BE WILD again and we suffer like Kiwami2's song then I don't want anyone to touch this ever.