Open World Action RPG Review: Yakuza

Before the release of Yakuza 0, Yakuza was the beginning of Kazuma Kiryu's story. Yakuza 0 proved to be one of the best games in the whole series. Its controls are stiff compared to modern standards yet the core story holds up quite well.

The game begins in 1995, seven years after the events in Yakuza 0. Kazuma Kiryu, a twenty-seven-year-old member of the Dojima family within the Tojo Clan, has climbed the ranks within the clan. He is just about to become the patriarch of his own family when he takes the blame for the murder of Patriarch Shimano, although he was not the one that killed him.

Ten years later, Kiryu is paroled and he is released from prison. He now has to deal with members of the Tojo clan that want him dead, as well as the usual violent thugs that wander around Tokyo's Kamurocho district. A decade in prison has made his skills rusty, so he has to gain experience so that he can regain his former strength.

Kiryu's story picks up steam when he comes across a young girl, Haruka, that is somehow tied to the one billion yen that has been stolen from the Tojo clan. The Kiryu saga of the Yakuza franchise has always been about family, and that is true here as well. Yakuza 0 had Kiryu protecting his adopted father, Shintaro Kazama, and his sworn brother, Akira Nishiyama. Yakuza picks up that trend, as Kiryu does everything he can to protect Haruka, the little girl that ended up in his custody.

The Japanese voices are only included in the original Japanese version, in the western versions of Yakuza for PlayStation 2, the English voices were dubbed by famous voice actors. It pains me to recommend the Japanese voices, as the English cast was amazing. Among others, it included Mark Hamill giving Joker vibes as Majima and Bill Farmer doing his best Sam the Canine Shamus as Detective Date. The English voices are actually really good. It's just the janky script that let them down. Not only is the dialog in the original English PlayStation 2 version clunky. but names of places and people have been shortened or even changed for little reason. To this day, no one but the translator knows why the Florist of Sai was given the name of Kage in English. He certainly never received a given name in the original Japanese version.

Unlike later games in the series, in the original Yakuza, the minigames were regulated to the UFO catcher, visiting with six cabaret club hostesses, hitting baseballs at the batting center, blackjack, pachinko slot, and roulette.

All of the minigames are fun diversions, but the best part of any Yakuza game outside of the main story is the side missions. There are many sidequests, and like any Yakuza game, some of them can be quite off-the-wall hilarious. There's nothing like the adult baby gangsters seen in later games, but the wackiness the series is known for definitely started here. As with any Yakuza game, the last side mission is an extremely hard fight with a member of the Amon family.

Yakuza is a great game regardless of which game you are playing, from the PlayStation 2 version to the Japan-only Wii U and PlayStation 3 high-definition versions. The original game remains one of the best games in the series.

Final verdict:

4 out of 5

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