ash's stash

once you play yakuza 2 ps2, you will never stop wanting to beat whoever the fuck did all that to kiwami 2 to death with your bare hands.

seriously. this game stands head-and-shoulders above the remake and it's not even remotely close to a contest.

it stands as a really good indicator for the industry at large, really.

in 2006, you could take one year to make a sequel that promised to be a larger, fuller-featured version of the predecessor, and have it be just that; improve on the old engine, re-visit a lot of the original's concepts, characters and locations, include everything from that original game and then make oodles more in such a relatively brief period.

in 2017, you can take a year on a remake, where the fundamentals are already laid out and you need merely to translate it into a newer form, and choose to spit in the face of that and hack out a shoddy, cheaply made imitation of the vague brushstrokes of what made the original so great.

this, however, is a review of yakuza 2 the original (believe me, when i get around to my kiwami 2 replay, i will have a lot more to say). so, that said, what do i think of yakuza 2, for the sony playstation 2?

holy shit, it's peak.

everything about this game is so fucking amazing, man. the combat is a glow-up from the previous outing, which i already admittedly thought felt pretty good, but it has been honed here into making kiryu start dangerous, and get lethal as you progress - nowhere to the point of overpowered against bosses, but you can wipe street fights if you know what you're doing pretty damn well.

on that subject, i played this game on legend (or sorry, that should be ex-hard). this game kicked my teeth in a fair few times, and you know what? i fucking loved every second.

this game made me genuinely think over my strategies of how i approach enemies, made me more considerate of their movesets before i chose how to approach and with what moves, sometimes even what weapons i should bring and equip - i usually steer well clear of weapons in these games, but they are such an invaluable asset to you in this game, whether they be just a bit more damage for a little bit, a ranged projectile, or even just a free heat move to score a large chunk of a health bar to make things a bit easier. it allows the depth of the combat to shine through as you have to genuinely consider every facet of it and use it to your advantage, in a way that makes you, and by extension kiryu, feel simultaneously like a shrewd fighter, but also one that is growing into those snakeskin shoes of the dragon of dojima.

when i beat a boss in this game, i rather routinely followed it up with a pop-off, which, as a rule, i don't really tend to do with these games, as i've usually played them on hard and breezed through them rather easily; no, this game had me on the edge of my damn seat because i got my shit pushed in a fair few times, even coming with a full diabetic inventory, stocked to the gills with as many staminan royales as i could carry. i had to genuinely learn how my opponents fought, what their next move was likely to be, and how exactly to evade and counter it.

truly, this game makes you feel the weight behind every punch you throw as kiryu, both with the aforementioned difficulty, but also with the returning wonderful sound design. what a true crunch to each blow, and a stunning thud to each throw. and speaking of sound...

fuck. fuck. this has gotta be one of the best soundtracks in this series, if not in all of gaming. the more rock-focused kamurocho, tokyo plays perfectly against the jazzier sotenbori, osaka, highlighting the difference in tone between the two; kamurocho is gritty, in-your-face about it's brashness, the red-light district housing many villains who have no qualms about what they do, sex workers stood boldly upon the streets, and the towering, cold millennium tower in the centre of it all, a symbol of the area itself with it's outward splendor and grace, whilst being home to hives of villainy and grey-hearted individuals at best. contrast this with sotenbori; it's a small, closely-knit town with districts separated by the beautiful sotenbori river, one half being densely packed with stores, restaurants and other attractions in the main plaza, where many colorful characters will get into lighthearted situations, often amusing, but always bright and cheerful, versus the other side of the river, where you'll find more seedy dive bars, pawn shops and most importantly, this side of town is where you're more likely to run into miscreants. the jazz plays on both ends of this perfectly; the loud brass echoes the welcoming hubbub of the crowds, where the piano and strings in the back paint somewhat of a more curious picture of this place, insinuating that perhaps all is not what it seems from this picturesque view.

and that's from two damn songs and somebody who doesn't even understand composition like that, man. this soundtrack is fucking beauty from beginning to end. several scenes are given rock and some of the tracks from the original game even make reappearances where appropriate, they always fit, but the true stars of the show are the beautiful striking jazz pieces, always perfectly tailored to the scene. seriously, this game singlehandedly made me seek out and become a pretty hardcore fan of crazy ken band just by virtue of how fucking amazing their work on this game is. truly legendary stuff that MAKES these cutscenes, and makes them hit all the harder.

and with cutscenes comes story; a large step-up from last time, in my opinion. where yakuza 1 was a plot that may have been somewhat simplistic, if action-packed, yakuza 2 takes everything up to an 11. there are far more moving parts to this game, such as the returning omi alliance, that we get to see more of after effectively just having scant mentions last game as a vague antagonistic force, getting to see it have equal dysfunction to the tojo, if not worse due to the overwhelming lack of unity between the far-too-many members of all of the branched off families, which leads to many internal conflicts, families tripping over themselves to best one another with wildly contrasting philosophies on a great many situations. one of these branches is the go-ryu clan, featuring the greatest antagonist this series has ever seen, ryuji goda.

ryuji is a true foil to kiryu, as he is the complete opposite of kiryu; kiryu is an often quiet, stoic individual who attempts to reason with people and sees his violent tendencies and yakuza ties as something to be ashamed of, to be used as a last priority, his overwhelming desire to be a simple citizen being thrown into turmoil by the plot being set into motion. ryuij, conversely, is a proud yakuza - he wears the dragon on his back with pride, boasting about how he will be the one true dragon when he defeats kiryu, and how he desires this life and to be an all-powerful yakuza, loudly indulging in booze and women surrounded by an entourage in the scene that we meet him, and frequently being escorted by a small armada whenever we meet him from then on. the one thing that they do share, however, is passion and a sense of moral right. kiryu fights fiercely to protect those he loves, and to keep things in order. ryuji brawls to be an agent of chaos in that precious order and to turn things upside down so that he may have his fun. he isn't heartless, however, frequently showing mercy, sympathy and even affection towards certain situations. he gives a mourning period during terada's funeral, even if mostly a warning and a mockery to the tojo themselves. he spares kiryu in stardust due to him being overtly weak in the moment, too weak to stand a proper fight and give ryuji a true challenge. he outright murders sengoku for the low blow of kidnapping haruka. and in his final sacrifice, he risks getting further damage done in order to kill takashima and save sayama. he spends his dying moments confessing both the futility of his fate, and yet simultaneously telling his sister that he would have loved her had he have known, and how much like their mother she is, his final words remarking on the joy her smile brings him. a parallel to kiryu once more; a woman died in his arms last game, so now ryuji dies in a woman's arms. a sister losing a brother, as opposed to kiryu losing a brother. a taciturn admission to stupidity being a blind shot that got him this far despite the odds, as opposed to nishiki's stupidity ending a decade of paranoid intelligence attempting to claw higher than he could handle.

this fucking game is beautiful, more than a brief review like this can shed justice on. it's a truly meaningful great piece of storytelling in the plot, a wonderful evolution from the first in gameplay, a sonic treat in the soundtrack, and still damn impressive today in the visual fidelity.

this game did not need a remake. it had already peaked here. there was never going to be any topping this.

yakuza 2 for the playstation 2 is a damn great masterpiece. i implore you to please play it if you haven't, and especially if your only prior experience is kiwami 2. truly amazing.