Yakuza 2

[Lothars]

lol otaku had an epic fail. i think i'm going to get this on thursday i have the first one and love it.

Not Necessarily, maybe he is buying a PS3 for backwards compatibility but I dunno, It just might be something that pushed him over the top.

[Iroquois Pliskin]

Not Necessarily, maybe he is buying a PS3 for backwards compatibility but I dunno, It just might be something that pushed him over the top.

thanks for raining on my parade

[josekortez]

SPOILER ALERT!

If you already beat the first Yakuza and start a new Yakuza 2 game with the same memory card inserted, you get 50,000 yen as a bonus!

Maybe I won't have to go through so many random battles with various thugs to make money now...

[roushimsx]

9 chapters in and money hasn't really been an issue at all yet. I'm sitting on at least 100k that I've never touched and that includes a few trips to the hostess bars, buying health drinks and getting a massage (twice!). Spent 25k playing majhong before I realized that it doesn't terribly interest me, so I went back to playing YF6 and UFO Catcher.

My luck on slots has been shit, too

[josekortez]

9 chapters in and money hasn't really been an issue at all yet. I'm sitting on at least 100k that I've never touched and that includes a few trips to the hostess bars, buying health drinks and getting a massage (twice!). Spent 25k playing majhong before I realized that it doesn't terribly interest me, so I went back to playing YF6 and UFO Catcher.

My luck on slots has been shit, too

Yeah, money was my biggest complaint with the original Yakuza game, even moreso than the loading times. I collected most of the weapons hidden in the lockers, but I couldn't figure out what I needed to sell so I could buy more health drinks. By the time I noticed I had completed the game, I was still stuck with all those extra weapons and I couldn't figure out what the point of having all that stuff was.

And I'm actually looking forward to playing mahjong in a localized game with English instructions for once.

[Sudo]

I just finished the game now, and WOW, was it amazing. Ten times better than the first one, IMO. Not that Yakuza was a bad game, it's just that this one was such a quality title. The only issue I had with it was the camera. At times it was a pain in the ass, especially during close-quarters fighting indoors, but other than that the game was excellent. Definitely one of the best stories in any PS2 game I've played, maybe in any game ever. My completion time was 18:41, for those of you who are interested.

[josekortez]

My completion time was 18:41, for those of you who are interested.

I'm just curious to find out if you did all the sidequests and mini-games to get that time. I didn't unlock every single thing in the original game because I got tired of looking for small sparkles on the ground that were supposed to represent the locker keys.

[Sudo]

I'm just curious to find out if you did all the sidequests and mini-games to get that time. I didn't unlock every single thing in the original game because I got tired of looking for small sparkles on the ground that were supposed to represent the locker keys.

Didn't do all of them, no. I found roughly half of the locker keys, but didn't go out of my way to search for them or anything. I did some sidequests, though I focused primarily on the main story because it was so damn compelling that I had to see what happened next.

[Aussie2B]

It's so fucking awesome it makes me sad to know that so many people are going to miss out on it. ... it just reeks of maximum fucking quality on every level. Let's hope it sells well enough to convince Sega to bring over Yakuza 3 and possibly even Kenzan (which they'd pretty much have to bring over to help recoup their development costs).

That about sums up everything I want to say here.

Yeah, I know I'm bumping up this topic around 6 months after its release, but I don't think I've ever felt so compelled to promote a game. I only just recently bought it myself, on a whim since Amazon was doing a $15 lightning deal, but I actually feel guilty that I didn't pick it up at launch and give Sega the full MSRP, as they truly deserve every penny (especially considering it was budget-priced to begin with).

I usually consider a game's plot as a nice little bonus at best, but this is one game where the story alone is enough to make the experience remarkable. I doubt it had the budget of something like Metal Gear Solid 3, but they could've fooled me as the production values are just through the roof. The design and development of the characters, the script (and its localization), the direction, the voice acting, and the beautiful subtly of all of the above results in one of the most captivating gaming experiences I've ever had. I've never played the original (and after experiencing Yakuza 2 in Japanese, I almost don't want to as I can't imagine anyone on earth could be a better Kiryu than Takaya Kuroda) and I hear it has its issues (which are also supposedly remedied in Yakuza 2), but, seriously, anyone would be a fool to pass up on this gem for the paltry sum of $20 on Amazon or elsewhere. If this series ever catches on in America as it truly should (it doesn't help that several publications didn't "get" the series at all and ended up only talking about it on terms "lol those Japanese are wacky" acting like you gotta be some "weaboo" to enjoy them which is certainly not the case, nor did Sega's pathetic marketing help, confusing people into to thinking it's just like Shenmue or Grand Theft Auto when it's its own beast), I guarantee that prices will rise on this one someday, especially if the print run was as conservative as it appears to have been.

But most importantly, everybody needs to buy Yakuza 2 if they haven't already because Yakuza 3, which looks amazing (and is amazing according to importers and the Japanese populace), isn't looking so good in terms of getting a US release. Yakuza 2 wasn't either, and we're damn lucky that Sega brought it out anyway, despite the long delay.

So yeah, I'll end my gushing and my pitchman spiel by saying: I don't care if you're male, female, straight, or gay, you WILL want to have sex with Kiryu by the time you beat the game. He's THAT fucking awesome of a video game lead.