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}}'''''Yakuza''''', originally released in Japan as '''''Like a Dragon''''' (龍が如く, ''Ryū ga Gotoku'') is an action-adventure beat'em up video game developed and published by Sega in 2005 for the Sony PlayStation 2.
 
}}'''''Yakuza''''', originally released in Japan as '''''Like a Dragon''''' (龍が如く, ''Ryū ga Gotoku'') is an action-adventure beat'em up video game developed and published by Sega in 2005 for the Sony PlayStation 2.
   
A remake of the game was announced, called ''[[Yakuza Kiwami]]''. The remake first released for the '''''PlayStation 3'''''.
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A remake of the game was announced, called ''[[Yakuza Kiwami]]''.
   
==Game preview==
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== Plot ==
==='''Plot summary'''===
 
 
Yakuza promises to drop you in the middle of a crime drama. It also promises a lot of back alley street brawling. Above this, it wants to grant Yakuza outsiders a taste of what the organization's all about. It may not be accurate, of course, but Sega's rendition of the notorious society is, if nothing else, an immersive one.
 
Yakuza promises to drop you in the middle of a crime drama. It also promises a lot of back alley street brawling. Above this, it wants to grant Yakuza outsiders a taste of what the organization's all about. It may not be accurate, of course, but Sega's rendition of the notorious society is, if nothing else, an immersive one.
   
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After ten years in lockup, Kazuma leaves jail on parole to find [[Masaru Sera|the third chairman]] of the Yakuza murdered and 10 billion yen missing from the treasury. He's still a wanted man in the eyes of his former family members, and his good friend [[Yumi Sawamura|Yumi]] has vanished. Kazuma teams up with the very [[Makoto Date|detective]] who interrogated him 10 years earlier, who is now assigned to the organized crime unit, to see if they can figure out what is going on. Throughout the story, you meet a huge cast of characters, each with their own well-defined personalities and story arcs.
 
After ten years in lockup, Kazuma leaves jail on parole to find [[Masaru Sera|the third chairman]] of the Yakuza murdered and 10 billion yen missing from the treasury. He's still a wanted man in the eyes of his former family members, and his good friend [[Yumi Sawamura|Yumi]] has vanished. Kazuma teams up with the very [[Makoto Date|detective]] who interrogated him 10 years earlier, who is now assigned to the organized crime unit, to see if they can figure out what is going on. Throughout the story, you meet a huge cast of characters, each with their own well-defined personalities and story arcs.
==='''Gameplay'''===
 
   
 
== Gameplay ==
 
In a way, Yakuza feels like an adventure game with a heavy dose of street brawling. This isn't because of puzzles, though it has a few, because of how immersed you become in the game world. That and the fact characters do actually matter here. As for Kazuma himself - he's the kind of character everyone loves. He's a man of integrity and compassion, yet if you cross him, he'll snap your spine and throw your ass through the window. Then he'll run outside and kick your face in, just to make sure you never walk again. He's a badass, in other words, one that just happens to have his heart in the right place. Having said that, there's a whole lot of fighting going on in Yakuza.
 
In a way, Yakuza feels like an adventure game with a heavy dose of street brawling. This isn't because of puzzles, though it has a few, because of how immersed you become in the game world. That and the fact characters do actually matter here. As for Kazuma himself - he's the kind of character everyone loves. He's a man of integrity and compassion, yet if you cross him, he'll snap your spine and throw your ass through the window. Then he'll run outside and kick your face in, just to make sure you never walk again. He's a badass, in other words, one that just happens to have his heart in the right place. Having said that, there's a whole lot of fighting going on in Yakuza.
   
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== Behind the Scenes ==
 
== Behind the Scenes ==
 
 
==== Demo ====
 
==== Demo ====
 
[[File:Ryu Ga Gotoku (Yakuza) PS2 Demo - -Yakuza Fan Plays-|thumb|330x330px]]
 
[[File:Ryu Ga Gotoku (Yakuza) PS2 Demo - -Yakuza Fan Plays-|thumb|330x330px]]

Revision as of 06:38, 26 April 2019

Template:GameSubpages Template:GameYakuza, originally released in Japan as Like a Dragon (龍が如く, Ryū ga Gotoku) is an action-adventure beat'em up video game developed and published by Sega in 2005 for the Sony PlayStation 2.

A remake of the game was announced, called Yakuza Kiwami.

Plot

Yakuza promises to drop you in the middle of a crime drama. It also promises a lot of back alley street brawling. Above this, it wants to grant Yakuza outsiders a taste of what the organization's all about. It may not be accurate, of course, but Sega's rendition of the notorious society is, if nothing else, an immersive one.

And it all starts by telling a good story. You play an up and coming Yakuza by the name of Kazuma Kiryu. After years of faithful service, and after a very lucrative assignment, he's ready to start his own family. Thing is, the day he receives his mentor's blessing everything goes to hell. His good friend kills the head of his Yakuza family, and being the loyal friend he is, Kazuma takes the rap and winds up in jail.

After ten years in lockup, Kazuma leaves jail on parole to find the third chairman of the Yakuza murdered and 10 billion yen missing from the treasury. He's still a wanted man in the eyes of his former family members, and his good friend Yumi has vanished. Kazuma teams up with the very detective who interrogated him 10 years earlier, who is now assigned to the organized crime unit, to see if they can figure out what is going on. Throughout the story, you meet a huge cast of characters, each with their own well-defined personalities and story arcs.

Gameplay

In a way, Yakuza feels like an adventure game with a heavy dose of street brawling. This isn't because of puzzles, though it has a few, because of how immersed you become in the game world. That and the fact characters do actually matter here. As for Kazuma himself - he's the kind of character everyone loves. He's a man of integrity and compassion, yet if you cross him, he'll snap your spine and throw your ass through the window. Then he'll run outside and kick your face in, just to make sure you never walk again. He's a badass, in other words, one that just happens to have his heart in the right place. Having said that, there's a whole lot of fighting going on in Yakuza.

Fights take place all over town, from bustling intersections to the calm of a Zen garden. In fact, the locations all help immerse you in the world of Yakuza, and it's undeniably one of the game's greatest assets. Were it not for the ability to run across the city, and to stop and linger whenever you wanted, Yakuza would be far less of an experience. You can walk around and talk to NPCs whenever you want, even buy privileged information from a number of street-corner informants. You can also visit a number of shops and parlors, too. Many of them have no ties to the main story, but you can visit a number of restaurants, such as sushi houses or burger joints, to buy food that recovers health and nets you a few experience points.

Each shop has several items for sale, and they all affect you in different ways. Discovering what item goes with what benefit is actually a satisfying pastime in Yakuza. In addition to grocery stores and fast food chains, you can also visit seedier locations such as strip clubs and pachinko parlors. It's an m-rated game, remember, and you can actually spend your time looking up specific strippers in specific clubs.

Or you can just blow your funds at Pachinko, or perhaps even at the UFO Cather Machine, located at Club Sega. Here, you can lose cash and try to win random stuffed animals. It's all part of Yakuza's elaborate network of side-quests. None of it's actually necessary, but damn if it doesn't make the game longer and, yes, more in-depth than your average brawler.

For all its peripheral factors, Yakuza still has the heart of a straightforward action game. It plays in the third-person, with you in control of the protagonist as he weaves through the crowded streets and alleyways of Japan. Between story segments, usually, when crossing town, you get jumped by random hoodlums or rival Yakuza. In a way, these encounters feel very RPG-like, in that avoiding them is near impossible and they seem to happen whenever you just want to reach someplace on the map. Unlike many RPGs, however, these fights end quickly.

You spend a lot of time in Yakuza throwing punches and smashing people's faces into walls, so it's a good thing the combat system handles the job well. It's not without a few glitches, though. Sometimes it gets rather difficult facing multiple opponents, simply because the engine lacks the kind of sophistication seen in pure 3D fighters. Thanks to the game's efficient block and strafe functions, this problem never spirals out of control. You can perform a number of simple combos just as easily as you can grab a nearby object (say, a bicycle) and break it over someone's skull. Regardless of the action, it never approaches the level of complexity seen in your average fighter. It's usually a simple matter of punch, punch and kick. In any other game this could have been an overly negative thing, but not here. And while three-hit combos may sound boring, plenty of other elements make brawling worthwhile.

Battle Techniques
Offense
Rush Combo
This determined by the character's use of throwing freestyle fists. It is not a strong impact to be reckoned with but it gives an opportunity for a counterattack towards the enemy, such as dishing out the "Uppercut" as a finishing blow.
Defense
Guard
To protect your character in unarmed combat, 'Guard' is deployed by drawing your hands back quickly. However, it is insignificant with rear or weapon confrontations. As such, situations need to be assessed.
Sway
An all-directions quick break away(left,right,forward,backward) that defends the character, when applied well could work favorably.
Heat Action
This option becomes available in the midst of a battle when certain conditions are met and when your character becomes stronger physically and has learned various techniques. This will be expanded below.

Take the upgrade system. You can enhance your character in three areas, including body, technique and soul, each of which affects your abilities as a bruiser. It's possible to create a unique fighter, too, though experience points earned through street fights is rarely scarce. You can often afford to upgrade every aspect of your character often, but the opportunity is there for players who crave technique over health, etc. As you upgrade, you earn new moves and counters. By game's end, you should be throwing lethal uppercuts at the end of your combos and devastating enemies with chairs, poles, boxes, bikes, signs and all sorts of items.

Behind the Scenes

Demo

File:Ryu Ga Gotoku (Yakuza) PS2 Demo - -Yakuza Fan Plays-

Released a few months before its proper retail distribution in December 2005, this test version of the (original Japanese) game starts with a couple of warnings that it is intended for mature audiences only, after which the player will talk with a man in a suit, known as the "Guide", if they want to sample the game proper.

The Guide will give you an overview of the demo's purpose, then present you with a set of options:

  • Sample part of the main story, which entails Kiryu returning to Kamurocho to look for Stardust to meet with its owner, so that he can meet with Kazama in secret (10 Years Later). On the way, the player can engage in a few sidequests, fight, and follow the plot until after the run-in with Shimano minions. Once the next cutscene ends, the player is taken back to the "talk" with the Guide.
  • The battle tutorial within the Peace Finance base
  • Several real battles against random enemies, (seemingly) ending with the Futoshi Shimano boss
  • Romance a girl at the hostess club
  • Look around the Batting Center, play baseball
  • Look around the Casino in Purgatory, gamble
  • Return to the title screen

A localized version of this demo was made, accessible only through obtaining a demo compilation disk distributed by Official U.S. Playstation magazine, also released a few months before the final localization. While mostly identical to the original demo (even using the Japanese audio), this demo starts out with its own trailer, the Shimano boss fight in the Battle Section was cut, and all the swearing, outside of "bastard", is censored. Like the other demos on the disc, but unlike the original demo, the player is only given 30 minutes to try out the Yakuza demo, after which they will be booted back to the disk's main menu.

File:Yakuza 1 - PS2 Trailer & Gameplay DEMO

The translation is also somewhat different in places, with the phrasing of certain things and names being changed in the actual product. For (a more minor) example, Reina is referred to as "Rina".

Regional Differences

  • Unlike all the other games in the series, the US and European versions of Yakuza came with a full English-speaking voice cast, including Star Wars actor Mark Hamill as Goro Majima.
  • In the Japanese version, Kiryu would be referred to as such, followed by an honorific (-san, -chan, etc.), very seldom being referred to as "Kazuma". The English version is about the same, only "Kiryu" is replaced with "Kazuma".
  • Instances of Kiryu calling Majima, "Big Brother Majima (Majima no nii-san)" was changed to simply "Majima-san" in the dub.
  • The Japanese version had chapter names displayed in read-right-to-left calligraphy. In the English version, the chapter names are displayed as normal. The latter would be the case for all Japanese versions moving forward, including Kiwami.
  • An English rendering of the abstract font used to display character names in the Japanese version was made for the International release.
  • The English dialogue is noticeably more vulgar than the original Japanese script, with instances of characters swearing where there wasn't anything of the sort originally.

Screenshots

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