So I took note of all my games from this generation that I have not played, in an attempt to at least catch up on the current backlog. What do I do? See Yakuza and start playing it.
I'm in Chapter 4 right now. I'm won't say what's happening in the story, because I know Idol wants to play through it. But a few things:
The story does a good job of kiting you along in the game. At no point is there ever a lull. You're always headed somewhere. The downside to this is that it makes it incredibly easy to miss out on what the city has to offer.
The combat is pretty bad. It's very rigid, and more often than not i've found myself in the middle of an uninterruptable attack going in the wrong direction. So I whiff right by the guy i'm trying to strike, only to have him kick me in the back for my trouble. It may get better as I unlock more moves and flesh it out some, but at the very least a lock on button would have been nice.
It holds up surprisingly well for a PS2 game. It still looks presentable, and I think the game's small focus allows it to develop the limited setting. Just judging by the chapters I'm roughly a third of the way through it. And I figure I will probably see it through to the end. I just hope I can track down a complete copy of Yakuza 2 by then.
