"Yakuza is a neon-soaked gem. Welcome back, Sega."

Sega, what the hell happened to you? This once amazing company shocked the world when it moved to 3rd party development in 2001, and while the games at first were just as great as the stuff they had done in the past, it seems like Sega's been doing nothing whatsoever for the past couple years. All their imagination and innovation seems to be gone as we receive one mediocre and mainstream effort after another. After the complete travesty that was Shadow the Hedgehog, I was ready to give up on this company for good.

Then, though, Yakuza was released.

Graphics; Visually, this game is extremely impressive. As you walk through the neon-drenched streets of Tokyo, you can't help but feel immersed in the world. Hundreds and hundreds of people walking around, very bright and vibrant lights, plenty of stores to enter, very good character models with really great facial expressions, nice use of light bloom effects, and very little framerate drops all round out Yakuza's graphics. The use of light bloom, although it may seem a big jarring at first, (think of the first time you played GTA; Vice City with trails on,) really begins to grow on you after a while. You really begin to appreciate the fantastic detail that went into these environments. Parts of this city, with the bright neon lights, look completely amazing. When you enter a super market, it looks like a real super market. (The excellent sound effects also contribute to the atmosphere.) I haven't been this amazed by a video game world since Final Fantasy 10 and the Shenmue series. Visually, Yakuza looks completely stunning.

Unfortunately, there are some issues graphically. Well, one issue, mainly. Load times. Unlike Shenmue, where the cities are broken up into sections, Yakuza only features 1 BIG area. Every few feet, though, the game has to stop for a second or two to load. It's really not a huge problem and you get used to it after a while. However, what IS a big problem are the load times when entering battle, which happens ALL THE TIME and the load times approach 15 seconds. It's really a big problem that makes the battles (already somewhat disruptive,) even more of a pace-killer. There's nothing like having your immersion in the game ruined by sitting through 15 seconds of load times on a regular bases.

There's also some Shenmue-like issues of characters popping up out of nowhere, (mostly only when you enter restaurants, though) but otherwise, the only really big graphical flaw is the loading. At first I was willing to let it slide (it is, afterall, the PS2, and what probably should have been a game held for next gen systems was released this gen,) but Sega's recently started showing off Yakuza 2, (that was fast...) with these load times gone. Which begs the question; Why weren't these load times eliminated the first time around!?

Gameplay; Let me just get this out of the way; the random battles in Yakuza are annoying. When walking through the city, you will frequently be stopped by gangsters challenging you to a fight. You are not given a choice of fighting or avoiding it, and you are put into a battle. After waiting 15 seconds for the load times to end, you then get to fight the enemy. Although the combat system is excellent, by the end of the game, the constant battles simply wear you out. The last couple hours of the game simply weren't that fun to play (the length, by the way, is at about 13 hours WITHOUT sidequests,) because the gameplay just started to get very repetitive, unfortunately. The great combat system really begins to lose its thrill towards the end of the game as a result of the many battles you have to fight over the course of the game. I'm not exactly sure why the thought never occured to any of the developers that having random battles in an immersive, sandbox-style game would be disruptive, but I can think of PLENTY of other ways leveling up could have been handled that wouldn't need to involve extremely frequent battles. I'm not sure what the developers were thinking there.

That huge gameplay flaw out of the way, though, Yakuza is really a blast to play. Somewhat similar to how Shenmue's played, you wander through a big, immersive world, and you can enter stores and talk to people. Unlike Shenmue, you can't enter ALL stores and you can't talk to EVERYBODY but there's still much to do in this city. Lots and lots of sidequests. You can also go into a restaurant and buy food. You can go to a super market and buy food. You can go to a drug store to get HP recovery items. You can go to a bar and get drunk. You can participate in an underground fighting match. You can go to strip clubs. There are even several arcades (called "Club Sega") where you can go into. Disappointingly, though, unlike Shenmue, there aren't any games to play, just a claw machine. But you can't have everything, I guess. Everything feels so real and immersive and you just feel like you are IN this world. Exploring this world is extremely fun and is what makes Yakuza so great. No, this isn't GTA and doesn't try to be. You can not hurt any NPC's, you can't drive a car, you can only use a gun in certain fights, (if you steal it from an enemy,) the game is very linear....yet...it doesn't try to be GTA, or even Shenmue. Yakuza tries to be its own game and it succedes in feeling entirely original.

Combat is fun. You can use anything you see, (bikes, signs, knives, swords, chairs, tables,) to hit the enemy with. You frequently fight multiple opponents at once and the controls feel very solid and comfortable. The camera can be an issue in tight spaces and there are some problems with locking onto enemies when trying to hit them with something, but otherwise, the combat in Yakuza is nearly perfect. It's a brawler, and it's all about smashing the enemy with anything you can grab or using your most powerful moves to finish the enemy off and watch them make contact in slow motion at the end of battle. When you hit someone, particularly with an object in the environment, it hurts. You can practically feel the force from it. Extremely well done.

Like I said earlier, a big weakness in the game is the repetition towards the end, mostly due to the (way too frequent) battles you get into over the course of the game. But until those last couple hours, Yakuza is a complete blast. Sega has created an extremely immersive, and very fun game.

Cutscenes/audio/storyline; I might as well cover this all in this section since they're all linked and they're all what make Yakuza not just a very good game, but a great game. The storyline here is awesome. Not only is the dialogue extremely well-written, (really good job, Sega.) but the cutscenes are presented with such energy and such flair and high production values that it's impossible not to get into this story. Yes, the moments involving Haruka, the little girl that Kazuma (the main character,) has to look after, can be kind of corny and honestly feel a bit tacked on. Yet that doesn't matter, because the plot here is so compelling and so amazing to watch (thanks to these fantastic cutscenes,) that it doesn't ruin the story by any means. The game also never stops surprising you. Not just with twists (there are many, none of which I saw coming,) in the storyline, but with some great surprises. Purgatory, with its huge underground city, was really something to behold. I'll leave you to see that for yourself. I'm not going to describe the storyline too much, but I'll give you the gist of it. Kazuma takes the blame for a murder in order to save his friend. He's in jail for 10 years, and when he finally gets out, he is shocked to find the Yakuza at war with eachother and 10 billion yen gone missing. Taking refuge at his friend's bar, Kazuma and a detective try to make sense of the whole thing and try to protect a girl who may be the key to everything.

A great story. I admit, I was lost occasionally. There are lots of characters that are mentioned frequently yet get incredibly little screentime, and as a result, I sometimes lost track of who was who (and sometimes even forgot characters entirely,) and scenes involving Haruka seemed incredibly cliche'd. But what we have here is a fantastic story with only minor flaws. It was written by a Japanese crime novelist and it shows. This is really a quality storyline here.

And the characters are surprisingly well developed, too. Also bringing these characters to life is really good voice work. Some NPC's can sound a little off, but the main characters are (almost) all voiced very well and the voice actors (many of them TV actors and film stars,) do a great job bringing some personality to the characters. Particularly of note is Michael Rosenbaum, (Smallville) as Nishiki, as well as Eliza Dushku (Wrong Turn) as Yumi. These voices, in particular, add so much to their characters that I really ended up being glad that the game was dubbed in English. Many have complained about this and I think there should have been an option for Japanese voices but I'm glad this was dubbed. It's better to have a game in my own language, and with such great voice talent, I really have few complaints about the decision to dub the game in English.

The music is also fantastic. Aside from a (slightly) annoying random encounter theme, the battle music is really perfect, and the use of electric guitars really adds a lot to the combat. Event music is equally well done, and music when in bars, etc. works perfectly.

The dialogue is loaded with F-bombs and other curse words and while it may occasionally seem excessive, 90% of the time it fit in perfectly with what was going on and really added some gritty realism to the cutscenes.

I really hate to bring this up, but there's really only 1 problem with the voices; Haruka. The little girl, (voiced by Jimmy Neutron's Debi Derryberry) is really acted poorly. I've played so many RPG's with this voice actress in it, and she sounds the same in every role! She's always doing that Jimmy Neutron voice and as a result, Haruka ends up standing out in a really bad way. Everyone in this game has a realistic-sounding and very convincing voice and acting, yet Haruka sounds like a cartoon character! It just didn't work. Honestly, I'm disappointed, because she's got so much dialogue. This character (for me, at least) was basically ruined because of the voice acting.

But that's it. Aside from Haruka and some unimportant characters, Yakuza didn't go through Shenmue-syndrome in the localization department. The voice actors here knew what they were doing and really delivered. The story, dialogue, voice acting, and presentation (these cutscenes are amazing,) really make this game what it is. The excellent gameplay also helps, of course. Holding Yakuza back from excellence is some late-game repetition, an annoying decision to rely on random battles, and some nasty load times....but that's alright. Yakuza's really worth any Sega fan's time. This game feels like it was taken right out of the Dreamcast era; back when Sega used to make risky, innovative, memorable, and amazing games. Finally, Yakuza is another one of those games. Welcome back, Sega. Hopefully there will be many more like you next generation. And with this game having been such a huge success in Japan, (of course, it bombed in America since Sega did a horrible job advertising it here,) maybe the door can even be opened for a Shenmue III....well.... ok, probably not. Guess we'll have to settle for Yakuza II for the time being.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 10/16/06