Yakuza 2 -- Final Opinion.

Sixty hours and forty-six minutes was my after the credits cleared save file time for Yakuza 2. The original Yakuza took me roughly thirty-five hours. You can see the considerable difference in content. In both a larger main story and in a game packed to the gills with side missions and mini-game content. You could probably play through the story in under twenty hours if you just ignored everything else there was to do in the game. So how does Yakuza 2 measure up? Graphically it's much the same game with a little clean up here and there. It's a great looking game for a PlayStation 2 title, but it brings with it all the limitations of the PlayStation 2 itself. They did manage to improve the loading times considerably. The combat is almost entirely the same. It was lauded as much improved and new but that's not really the case. All the team did was balance the game by moving the order in which you earn moves around. And they started you with the ability to kick behind you right off to deal with being mobbed. The combat is still a blast, and it's as vicious as ever. The music is still a great mix of score and rock that really fits the mood. It underscores the drama of the story and provides you with great music to fight by. Something that probably isn't easy to pull off but Yakuza 2 manages it perfectly. The voice work here is great. Not only that it's in Japanese, but that it's clearly well done and appropriate. Japanese voice work tends to be cartoony to me. It always seems a tad over the top. Not so here. Everything feels dead on. The story of the original Yakuza was written by a famous Japanese author. The sequel was as well. It clearly shows that the games were done together. Well, not only because that's the known case, I mean they had the much larger sequel to a massive project out within a year, but because again everything just fits here. Except for a bit of chapter twelve where the game just takes a tiny misstep into inappropriateness. But it immediately rights itself and continues on toward the finish. And what a finish it is. Yakuza 2 has a genuine holy shit moment of a plot twist at the end I didn't see coming. And I was picking off what's what and who's who throughout the game. I had it all pegged until then. And that's great. Yakuza 2 is much improved over the original game in almost every respect. The only flaw I have with Yakuza 2 is probably in theamount of extra content crammed in there. It approaches overkill. And I'm not all that thrilled with how the completion aspect handles them. What counts for what isn't the most balanced system in the world. But those are minimal complaints at best. Yakuza 2 remains a must own PlayStation 2 experience.  I'm giving Yakuza 2 a 9. Now bring on Yakuza: Kenzan and Yakuza 3. And would you kindly be quick about it SEGA? No need for years in between this time around.