Yakuza (The Dragon of Dojima)

[Seige]

I know this is an old game but my friend picked up two copies and gave me one, and we began to play.
It compelled me to play more and it eventually absorbed me, into the game untill I realized, I've been playing for 34 hours and still, on chapter 4. I just wanted to bring attention to the needle in the hay stack.

Gameplay
the game play is very mixed in a sense where it has flaws which are visible when you first play the game, such as locking onto an enemy, sometimes you just swing to the left of him, and fall flat on your bum. But this flaw is easily adjusted to once you have progressed through the game. (I found myself hitting everything on cue around the end of chapter 3) Overall this is really the one thing that people talk about. (I haven't noticed anything else.) (also Yakuza 2 improves on everything apparently, waiting for it to come out.) Other then explaining the bads, their is so much to do and building your mob slugging Dragon of the Dojima. You can see and date a hostess and other things that can amuse you.

Music des
The music in the game gives the right atmosphere if your in a bar, your hideout, walking the street (no music while exploring the city unless you go near a store with music ect.)

Storylineka?
The storyline is about the Yakuza and about a man named Kazuma, the Dragon of the Dojima Family(you control him.) and the run down is you talk the fall for your best friend and end up in jail, and while your there lots of things change, and rival families are trying to kill one another. To end it the Yakuza storyline is rather Deep and properly done.

Overall
The Game Yakuza in my opinion is, its a real mobster game with a real story, I could almost believe that these characters are real at some point. This is how GTA should have been. In the Sega Team they said this game is to Rival the GTA game, and they wanted to make it about the real Yakuza and the problems they might come across and how things are handled. I'm not saying GTA is good nor bad, but it is an average adventure game that could work on a better storyline, and extremely solve thier programing problems and major glitches that people expose within a day of retrieving the game.
My word to anyone, pick it up and give it a try, and if you do write back and tell me about your opinion about the game. And its only 15$ Canadian in Toronto.

[Kikumaru]

I REALLY enjoyed this game when I picked up the import, "Ryu ga Gotoku". I heard the sales bombed pretty hard in the States under the title, "Yakuza", but..that's SEGA's wonderful *insert sarcasm here* marketing skills for you.

I honestly doubt we will see a state-side release for the second installment. That's kind of sad too, really. I played through the second one as well and absolutely loved it, just like the first. Now that we have the third installment coming out so soon, "Ryu ga Gotoku: Kenzan!" where you play the role of Miyamoto Musashi, still addressed as "Kazuma-san", this is a VERY different spin on what we are used to, but really nice nevertheless.

I actually got to play the demo of it recently by downloading both parts on my PS3 from the Playstation Store and the game is PHENOMENAL. Everything is so fluid and the graphics have been enhanced (naturally), and it takes everything we loved about the last two installments, but puts us in Feudal Japan, which is just awesome.

I can't wait for it to come out. There has been word from SEGA that we might be getting this for PS3 in the States though. Still a rumor and nothing concrete, but a "might" is better than nothing I suppose.

Anyway, yes..I prefer the import to Yakuza, but if you can find a copy of the game for relatively cheap, I would suggest picking it up. The game is a pretty nice beat em' up and if you can get past all the foul language, then you'll have lots of fun

[Seige]

Lol Yakuza wouldn't be Yakuza without the swearing, its a big part of being a gangster and how much you can swear. XD