I' ve just finished Yakuza for PS2 (I' ve been playing till 5 AM today - 8h straight) and I have to say I' m very impressed.



The Shenmue roots are very visible here.

While I keep bitchin' about imperfections in games - this one was a blast even though it had a lot of flaws.

First of all - it lasts about 12 h and the STORY is 10/10 - period.The best story since MGS1 and FF7,FF8 imo.



Visuals are very nice fo ra PS2 and some indoor enviroments are drop dead gorgeous (incredible use of textures makes them look 100% real).

There' s one way to describe this game - it' s a Spikeout mixed with Shenmue and jRPG.

I really liked fighting in this game (it' s not perfect though) and the city is so incredibly alive...

Some characters (Detective Date , Kazuma , Sera) faces look better than anything I' ve seen in any HD or SD game to date (except Gears of War and Mass Effect).

I totally loved this game even though I wouldn' t have scored it higher than 8.5/10 (very solid 8,5/10).I understand someone who can' t go past some flaws though.

It' s pretty fair to score it between 7 and 8,5 depending on reviewer.

Thank god I' ve checked it.The story alone kept me going and those realtime cutscenes were mindfuckinblowing.

A bit more polish here and there and this could' ve been the spiritual succesor to shenmue.A shame when you look at this wasted potential , but it was an awesome experience for me anyway.



I hate unpolished productions as you all can tell by now , but this game has such a great story that it kept me going anyway (and cutscenes ...oh god)

I' m very happy that I was able to taste a bit of shenmue style gameplay :)

A shame that they are making the sequel for PS2 - they did amazing things with PS2 hardware and I' d love to see this game in a photorealistic verision on PS3/360.




Voices are awesome too - I forgot to tell you that while some lines are better than others - it' s got a very well done voice acting and those voices have been picked to fit characters perfectly.



I was terribly impressed as you can tell by now.

Well written Gangsta!

I would love to get the sequal on my 360.
Since my big bro took my ps2 when he moved.

And i kept the xbox/gc.

I will probably get FF12 to my Ps3...or i buy a new ps2 in some months...

what a chance i just satrted yakuza this morning , and it made a good impression to me, i' m on the first save point, the phone in the office... but the cut scenes were really good, as well as graphics , i just hope its not boring later on ...

Yeah,aba didn' t like Shenmue so much,so it can be intresting on what he thinks about this Shenmue clone,since he isn' ät one of those huge shenmue fan.
And thus can see it from a diffrent perspective.

i liked shenmue but for me it' s not a master piece that' s all, i think yakuza is really diferent , i don' t think you go always looking for someone ...

This game looks really great, but I just cannot stand the main character... To me he looks like a Japanese Travolta. Yoshi Taravoluta... Grrr....

i just hope its not boring later on ...

It' s getting better and better all the time.

When you have frustrating moments like looking for dgo food and finding haruka later - just check some FAQ where to go - it' s stupid to walk around looking all over the city :)

Looking for dog food? Well that' s it, I' m buying that game pronto!

yeah that' s the single most stupid thing in it (it takes 5 min with faq though)

*removes prosthetic leg and swings it at everyone who compares this game to Shenmue*

I already sample the demo back from OPM(Official Playstation Magazine) I am really impressed with the visual and gameplay, and as of yet there had been some great review already. I really like what Yakuza have in stored mostly the Japanese Yakuza gang story, because I like Japanese movie and Drama, and I' m a huge fan of Shenmue so for sure I' m getting a copy today.

btw is the American release has both in Japanese-english voice over, because the Japanese voice over is more dramatic, thats what I want, if not then I' ll import one.

I agree with Terry, this game shouldn' t be compared with Shenmue. I' d sooner compare it with Streets of Rage than Shenmue.

I' m not comparing it - it' s just that it has some Shenmue influence.


Kaoru - US version has no Japanese Audio (but I love those english voices)

Dead Rising has the Shenmue influence as well. You can walk into stores and talk to people and stuff!

ORIGINAL: ]GaNgStA[

I' m not comparing it - it' s just that it has some Shenmue influence.


Kaoru - US version has no Japanese Audio (but I love those english voices)

Yakuza dose have some Shenmue influence comparison, but not graphical engine wise, it dosen' t matter if you compare between the two, its just base on you' re review.

Thanks ]GaNgStA[ for the info.
I was hopeing that they leave the Japanese audio, but oh well, I' ll just have to import me a Japanese one, but in the other hand American voice-over is still tight.

A shenmue clone on next gen that would kick some ass.

kaoru , does the jap version has text in english (the option) ? if it' s so that would be lovely... but i guess the voice of teh hero (english) was quiete good.

A Shenmue clone would NOT kick ass! Shenmue 3 on the other hand....

I' ll takje anything with even a bit of Shenmue flavour for now , since Shen 3 is just a dream right now.

But joe what if people said no more fps after wolfenstien?

:P

Shenmue serie is basically GTA but with focus on the story/adventure then the sandbox mode.
Instead in GTA you look at it as your own playground while in Shenmue it make up for the realistic feeling.