With the sequel, though, novelist Seishu Hase and producer Toshihiro Nagoshi are aiming to right some of the wrongs in the first game. It's a theme that actually carries over into the story of Yakuza 2, and thanks to a much-improved translation (albeit with perhaps a few too many instances of "yer" and "ya") that actually looks like it respects and aims to give the source material a solid foundation in English instead of peppering it with excessive expletives.
Much of that comes from the fact that the game is entirely without dubbing. It's presented in Japanese (and, at times, Korean because the story apparently deals with the Korean mafia -- or at least that's what the game's brief 1980s flashback introduction seems to indicate) and subtitled as needed, but otherwise untouched. It's a wise move, and helps steep the characters and story details in the already rich backdrop that was introduced in the first game.
Much has changed since the events of Yakuza, though. The year has meant some differences in characters from the first game; people are older, fatter, more mature, less mature and some are just complete wrecks. It's one of the more impressive ways a sequel has been handled in videogames, and to help bridge the gap between the two, an option to recap everything is available in bite-size chunks (so that it doesn't spoil everything or take up hours of disposition). At a few preset intervals, the flashback from the first game will break and, after popping back into the present day, we were given the option to "continue to reminisce" if we wanted to keep watching things.
If you haven't played the first game, you'll be filled in rather quickly (well, relatively quickly; it actually took us about an hour before we got into the story proper). If you have played the first game or even just have a game save from the first one on your memory card, the file unlocks a special item in your inventory. That said, you probably should play the first game to get the full back story, as Yakuza 2's takes up a full two DVDs -- a rather rare occurrence on the PS2.
As mentioned before, the game opens in Kamurocho, in the early '80s. A detective bears witness to a screaming Korean man being gunned down. The "mystery" assailant looks an awful lot like Kazuma's foster father, and after quietly leaving the scene, the detective scurries over to the dying man who tells him to rescue his child. The detective races upstairs to find the whole floor in flames and, after bursting through a few doors, finally discovers the child being held by a Korean woman who nearly takes her and the child's life by leaping out the window. Thankfully, the detective stops the crazy lady (by slapping her across the face, no less; yes, his pimp hand is strong) and apparently brings them to safety.
It's an interesting setup, and it's one that quickly jumps into the present to help link the end of the last game to the beginning of this one. Returning leading man Kazuma and his rescued gal pal Haruka have arrived at a graveyard to pay their respects to their friends slain a year ago. It's here in the graveyard that the game's initial tutorial level starts, playing out almost identically to the original game (a series of control "challenges" are issued and we merely had to complete them a few times in a row before moving on to the next one). This time around, though, things felt quicker, more responsive and with some slight differences (the Heat Gauge tutorial, for instance, insta-fills instead of having to power it up each time).
The controls, too, are more or less identical: Square attacks with a quick strike; Triangle hits with a harder, slower one; L1 blocks; R1 locks onto enemies; and R1 plus a direction on the left analog stick along with X issues a dodge. Mixing up to four hits with Square and then capping off the move with Triangle finishes things with an extra-hard hit that can do things like stun, uppercut and injure nearby enemies. Circle lets you grapple enemies, pick up objects and throw both. Again, it's much like the first game but seemingly more responsive and a little less clunky. Another nice little bonus we noticed was that experience is now displayed on screen during special events, in addition to filling the usual exp bar.
One of the more impressive bits of introductory scene-setting offered some cinematic fades/dissolves between "sets" (for instance, a transition between the familiar Tenkaichi Street area seen at the beginning of the first game and a meeting with the head of the Tojo Clan, seamlessly links what at first seems to be a present-tense conversation but turns it into a flashback). The "new" Tenkaichi has seen some improvements; nearby people comment on events, now with little connecting lines so it's not just disembodied voices apparently being heard by Kazuma, and the translation has made for some nice bits of humor this time around including a wanna-be comedian that says "badum-ching" after jokes, and his friend that makes fun of him for it.
Upgrades to the engine itself are subtle but there; info is streamed in faster, resulting in a slightly less jerky experience; load times are cut down in places where they would normally interrupt things (though pre-battle fights are still fairly lengthy); and models sport slight changes and improvements with things like wrinkles and more detail in faces. The environments are adorned with more things like soft glows, more interactive elements, more people on screen (though you'll sometimes catch them fading in/out when getting near) and more detail in just about everything. It's not a PS3 game or anything, but for a game that came out in December of 2006 in Japan, it still looks surprisingly good.
The sound remains just as impressive as ever. The ambience seems to have been boosted a little -- particularly on Tenkaichi Street where the increased numbers of passers-by create a pleasant sort of din that makes things feel more... alive. Even the sound of falling rain sounds solid. The fact that SEGA oh-so-wisely left out the oft-times deplorable dialogue from the first game and apparently decided that dropping f-bombs right before other f-bombs was probably a little stupid means the cutscenes actually have more gravity to them. They're still dropped, but they make a lot more sense now.
The first thing we had to do after taking control of Kazuma again was run around the Tenkaichi Street area looking for a certain Daigo Dojima, son of the very man slain at the beginning of the first Yakuza. While tailing him, we followed a trail of breadcrumbs, which of course led to a handful of small-time brawls with local street thugs that served as Dojima's posse. See, Daigo didn't take the death of his pops too well, and after going after a rival gang and getting caught, he was thrown in the clink for five years and went a little... well, crazy. He also apparently likes his booze. A lot. Just like us! It also meant as a Yakuza member, he and his group of drunk-buddies had free reign of the area to drink, carouse and annoy however they wanted.
It was a perfect example of just how much the Tojo Clan had fallen apart in the year since Kazuma had last seen it. If he'd had it his way, after the conclusion of the events in the first game that we'll avoid spoiling, he never would have gone back to the yakuza, but the death of a friend pulled him back in just when he thought he was finally out. That friend's final request? Approach a rival clan in Kansai with the promise of a truce. It's the only real step left to them, with Tojo left in such a shambles without a proper leader. That was supposed to be why Kazuma was looking for Daigo, but it would seem he still has some unfinished business to attend to.
Yakuza 2 already looks like it could be one of the best games released for the PlayStation 2 this year. Granted, the pickings for high-profile releases are rather slim compared to previous years, but it still says plenty about the efforts SEGA is taking to improve the first game's reception and presentation. So long as our impressions of the first few hours of the game hold up, we could be looking at an honest-to-goodness adventure through the Japanese underground that finally hits with as much force on this side of the Pacific as it did nearly two years ago in Japan.
