Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6286 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Sega
• Released on: 2006-09-15
• Rating: To Be Announced
• Platform: PlayStation2
• Number of items: 1

Manufacturer's Description
YAKUZA invites the player to step into the shoes of the notorious Japanese underworld and experience the darker side of Tokyo like never before.  As Kazuma Kiryu, you fast get drawn into the dark and seedy underworld of the Yakuza facing brutal hand-to-hand combat with everyone that gets in your way.  Having been paroled after ten years for a crime you didn't commit, you return to find that your childhood friend, Yumi, is missing, your closest ally Nishikiyama has become your greatest enemy and the entire Japanese underworld is searching for 10 Billion yen which has mysteriously disappeared.

Caught between your search for Yumi, a young girl Haruka, who you feel honour-bound to protect, and the Yakuza's hunt for the key to a 10 billion payday, you quickly end up caught in a vast network of violence and mistrust as the entire Yakuza rises up against you∧ they will stop at nothing to find their mark.

Set in the fictional Kamura-cho, a spectacularly authentic, seedy neon district, you'll find yourself facing off against thugs, punks and rivals using a fully-fledged, and evolving battle system. For a touch of reality you will even find the popular Japanese Suntory beverages and retail stores that have been replicated even as far as in the in-store layout and accompanying background music.  The game offers a complex and extraordinary storyline which delivers richness and depth through cinematic cut-scenes as well as including gambling, batting practice, nightclubs and other mini games along the way. 

YAKUZA offers you the opportunity to fully experience the darkness of the Japanese underworld &in all its glorious brutality.

Customer Reviews

A Little Gem
I bought this game totally blind , i read no reviews and took a chance, I have to say im pleasantly surprised . Ok the fights are repetative but the story is very involving and well thought out, the best thing about this game though is Yakuza himself,he is a beast, a fighting machine, hes great if you learn all the moves, overall a good buy for me ,hope you enjoy as well...

Welcome back Sega
Back in the dreamcast days Sega really was just about the best developer out there, they made creative fun games that took big risks and although it didnt always pay off for them it always payed off for gamers but since going 3rd party the quality of there games had decreased drasticly to the point of sonic riders and shadow the hedgehog, but with reacent releases such as yakuza(and the sequal out in japan), sonic Wii, monkey ball 3 and virtua fighter 5 there seems to be hope.

The basic story goes your charicter(kazuki i think his name is?) covers up for his mate and takes the fall for killing his boss he is sent to prison for 10 years and when he comes out there is a war going on between different yakuza families and 10 billion yen missing kazuki and a detective start investigating and this is where you start off.

The game is set in large open city lit up by awsome looking neon lights there are shops and people every where and side missions all over the place, you want to get drunk and see a striper just go to one of the strip bars or howabout play some baseball? just go to the batting cage i spent ages just running around the place checking out different shops and such.
But back to the main game there will always be a clue telling you where to go next and ultimatly it will lead you to fighting.

Fighting is a big part of yakuza the fighting system is simple but fun where in shenmue you have a fighting system more like virtua fighter or something yakuza feels more like streets of rage you gan grab your opponent and throw/punch/smack him in to a wall, different punch and kick combos, stamp on them and pick just about anything up(bike's,bats,golf culb,advertising boards,bins,chairs etc) and beat them with it its great fun and the more people you beat up the more you can upgrade your self to become faster and stronger.

The graphics and sound are excelent some of the best graphics on ps2 the city looks amazing neon lights everywhere it simply looks stunning the charicters look and move well also,cool sounding electric gitars lead the way for the music and really hype you up for fights, voice acting is also very well done on the whole.

There are a few issues i have with this game however mostly loading times, as the whole city loads up in one go when you are running around the game will stop for a few seconds as you move in to a new street, you get used to it after a while but it is a bit annoing but the main problem is the amount of random battles you are throwen in to there is no option to get out of it you have to fight and towards the end of the game it becomes tedious but thats not the worst part, for every random battle you have to endure 15 seconds of load time this is highly irritating because firstly you dont even want to be part of the fight and secondly it really breaks up the game play.

but overall this is a excelent return to form for sega anyone not buying this game especially since it has a buget price dose not deserve to be a gamer, i just hope enough people buy it for the sequal to get released over here.

Terrible...
If you took the five star game Shen Mue, and then removed everything which made it a great game, you would get Yakuza. The main part of this game is the fighting aspect, which takes place in tiny enclosed arenas when the game allows it, with about 5 different attacks and awkward controls i.e. its not fun in the slightest. The rest of your time is wasted walking around a small and highly uninteractive Japanese environment, hoping that you won't have to watch a boring cutscene, with excessive swearing added just to make the game an 18. I strongly recommend that you do not buy this, but instead get a Shen Mue game, or another beat 'em up such as Urban Reign, or even a 2D SEGA beat 'em up such as Streets of Rage because even thats infinitely more fun.