Reviews for Yakuza

Yakuza

Strengths: Great visuals, story, character development

Weakness: None

Yakuza is a great game that deserves its Mature rating. It's filled with violence and swearing that is in the world of Yakuza or Japanese mafia. The selling point here is the depth of the story with great character development, as well as the solid gameplay. Battles are typically hand-to-hand combats and the system is pretty well designed in that aspects. Visuals are detailed and do a good job of recreating the atmosphere of the Tokyo metro city. It has a free environment in which you can explore and talk to people to find out clues and other information.

Yakuza is a very well crafted game for adults. It is similar to the GTA series but has a complete difference experience. Well worth a try.

Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Yakuza for Playstation 2

Strengths: Fun gameplay with a good combat system. Several side missions and mini-games with free roaming in a cityscape environment.

Weakness: Excessive use of expletives makes the script feel like a teenager wrote it. Excessive random encounters makes combat boring very quickly.

This game is definitely deserving of its Mature rating, with gratuitous violence and excessive swearing. The storyline is interesting, but gets convoluted towards the end but the gameplay and combat are done well, although frequent random encounters wear down on the player very fast. The game takes place in a Japanese cityscape and allows the free player to roam around the city. With plenty of side missions and mini-games to occupy the player, this game provides a solid gaming experience to the mature gamer.

Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Great game from Sega

Strengths: cool graphics, great player involvement

Weakness: load times and some repetitive actions

This game contains mature features and violence. This game is based on a Japanese Mafia culture. The game itself is pretty good with a outstanding story line. The game battle system is kind of like a beat'em up game. You can use whatever item at you disposal to get rid of the people. The game has awesome graphics and violence.And also is a free open environment that makes you want to explore all around the Tokyo setting and streets. This game is a must have for those who like Grand Theft Auto and games of similar type. Recommended A+++

Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Tokyo finally gets a mostly-realized Mafia game. . .

Strengths: Solid hand-to-hand combat system, good graphics, lots of side missions and mini-games, frequent adult language

Weakness: Needlessly complex/predictable storyline, frequent backtracking, repetitive combat, load times, repeating enemies

The US has seen a lot of American crime family-based games in recent years but not many of the Japanese variety. Yakuza takes your basic 3D beat-em-up and drops it into one small Tokyo district. This means a lot of backtracking for players, but the solid game play holds up well enough.

The plot takes a lot soap opera-style melodramatic liberties, so much of the story seems unrealistic. The enemies you'll frequently encounter also repeat quite a bit, and you'll fight them repeatedly as you backtrack over the same small areas and deal with annoying load times.

Fortunately, the combat itself is solid enough, and a variety of side missions and mini-games are available as well. Fighting genre and crime family game fans should consider picking this up for $20 or less. The frequent use of adult language means little kids should stay away though.

Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Yakuza

Strengths: Depth of story, character development, gameplay

Weakness: None

Yakuza is a mature rated video game with a setting in the Japanese mafia crime world. It has some elements and themese borrowed from the Grand Theft Auto series. Its story revolves around a guy trying to climb the ladder in the crime world.

The game features a realistic recreation of the city of Tokyo. There are many ways to explore the city, picking up hints and clues along the way to achieve your goal. Once a while you get to street fight other crime lords with your martial art skills and weapons.

Yakuza is an entertaining game for the adults. It seems like Grand Theft Auto with a different story and settings. There are lots of things to do and fight in the game. It's definitely a worth game to pick up to play.

Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

live the life of a Yakuza!

Strengths: + excellent storyline + mini games included

Weakness: - no extra unlockables - no Japanese voice over options - swearing may seem tedious

In Yakuza you are a mobster, the game reminds me of good old days like Final Fight, while others may think this is a GTA clone, but it is not at all. There are some nice cut scenes as you progress throughout the story. The background setting is realistic as you can see there are many pawn shops, bars, arcades, as well as noodle shops. There are a couple of side-missions but other than that once you complete, it that is all. Yakuza 2 is on its way to USA shores soon. Who knows what will happen next...

Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

A superfun jounrney into the world of Yakuza

Strengths: Nice recreation of the city of Tokyo, good mix of rpg and action elements

Weakness: voice acting too over the top, repetitive enemies

Yakuza is a cool game. It throws you into the role of a Japanese mafia man just out of jail and seeking to discover what the world you once knew has turned in to.

Mixing a little action, a little rpg and semi-free roaming style, Yakuza is a unique game all its own.

The only bad thing is the voice acting is a little annoying and over the top and the enemies repeat too often. Also the city seems like it should be as open as Grand Theft Auto, but its not.

But in the end this is a fun game with lots of do and fight, so check it out if it even remotely interests you.

Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Story, Fighting And More!

Strengths: Depth, Story, Character Growth

Weakness: Can't Think of Anything In Particular

Yakuza is a game in which you will get an idea of what it's like inside the organization and how life would be in it.

Yakuza in a sense could just be considered a brawler but it really does offer so much more as it has a very good back story, lots of extra things to do along with customization on how your character grows.

I would highly recommend Yakuza as the fighting system is well done and when you throw that in with a good story with lots of extras to do around the world that feels alive you get a well done game with a highly polished feel to it.

Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

A good game if you're looking for something a bit...

Strengths: Great story; Shenmue-inspired gameplay/world; feels different than many games

Weakness: Seems like it could've been a bit more polished

Yakuza follows your journey trying to break into the world of organized crime in Japan. But instead of following the Grand Theft Auto "Beat everyone that moves" style, Yakuza takes a slower and more deliberate pacing. It definitely owes a lot to Sega's own Shenmue in this way, and in many ways Yakuza feels like Shenmue (Which is both a good and a bad thing, depending on how you look at it). Possibly Sega was trying to use the Shenmue game play but spice it up a bit to get people to want to play it.

You're exploring the city, working your way up the Yakuza organization, and have to find various people/places/items along the way. In some way you could almost consider this game the "classier" version of Grand Theft Auto (While keeping in mind it's still a game about the seedy underworld! Definitely not for kids!). There is a lot of violence but the story is very compelling and in that way, it's not entirely gratuitous (think of The Godfather or the like).

If you liked Shenmue, or like the idea of the game, it's quite well executed in general with some small issues plaguing the gameplay (repetitive fighting, some clunky control issues), and worth checking out.

Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Is Yakuza a spiritual sequel to Shenmue 2?

Strengths: action, control, variety of gameplay

Weakness: city is kinda dull to explore, too much f bombs

Yakuza seems to be a spiritual sequel to Shenmue 2. You have a vast city to explore. You have kung-fu moves at your disposal. You have numerous cutscenes. However, unlike Shenmue heavy text dialogue and mundane gameplay, Yakuza focus more on the action. The controls are excellent and has the depth of a fighting game. So basically, Yakuza is Shenmue minus the boring talking and working and more action oriented.

Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Yakuza

Strengths: great gameplay, good storyline

Weakness: none

This game is based on the same genre as grand theft auto. You are a guy trying to go up the ladder in the Yakuza mob. It is a great game with a great story line. If you like grand theft auto you will love this game.

Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Yakuza (PS2)

Strengths: Good storyline, looks and sounds good

Weakness: Mature-themed game, somewhat repetitive gameplay, camera issues

Yakuza is the story of a man who is working his way up through the ranks of the Yakuza crime syndicate. With that storyline in mind, it is a very mature-themed game, with numerous colorful phrases laced throughout. The voice acting is good, which helps enhance the already good storyline, and the game looks pretty good. It has a deep, well-designed environment, though at times, the repetitive gameplay and odd camera angles can be a bit of a problem. Overall, for a good solid adventure game with a good story, this is one to look at.

Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Shenmue is still a much better product!

Strengths: Good story, decent graphics for a PS2 title

Weakness: Bad camera angles, repetitive fighting system

This title is first thought to be a Shenmue style adventure with Japanese gangster theme. To certain extent, it is but lacks depth. The camera angle is pretty annoying too while roaming around the city and during actual fight scenes (which happen every couple minutes; a bit overdone here). This causes players not wanting to roam around much because these repetitive fight scenes get triggered so frequently. On the good side, the story is pretty engaging. Then again, so is Shenmue series. One would expect the same company who brought us Shenmue on the Dreamcast would make a superior product several years down the road with another theme. Unfortunately, 5+ years old Shenmue series still win hands down.

Sega, Yu Suzuki, we are still waiting for Shenmue 3! Enough of excuses about budget. If you have budget to make two Yakuza games recently, that budget could have been better used to finish the Shenmue series, which is a far better series than Yakuza.

Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

A great game no one really played

Strengths: Decent story, unique and involving atmosphere, well directed cinematics, great room for a sequel (which is already out in Japan)

Weakness: Strange design choices in the combat engine, no optional Japanese soundtrack

This game is M rated, but you could guess that right away as the dialogue in the game is not for kids. The game is not gory, but the story is mature in tone and diction.

It's hard to believe that the Japanese crime world has rarely if ever been used as a setting for a video game, so on that point alone this game earns distinction. The world map creates a very vivid environment mirroring the average Japanese metropolis. The characters are designed decently, and fairly good voice acting for an English dub. Fighting is fun, albeit tedious at times. Regardless, you're playing this game to be a Japanese gangster. If that interests you, this game is for you. If not, look elsewhere.

Low points include the removal of the original Japanese spoken dialogue. Additionally, the combat aiming system is not very well designed compared to other modern brawlers.

Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Yakuza

TestSeek.com has collected 8 expert reviews for Yakuza and the average expert rating is 68 of 100. The average score reflects the expert community’s view on this product. Click below and use TestSeek.com to find all ratings, product awards and conclusions.

Read Full Review

Yakuza

Yakuza receives an overall TopTenREVIEWS rating of 3.07 out of 4.00. It is ranked the #2,345 game of all time, #52 game of 2006 for the PlayStation 2 and #477 PlayStation 2 game of all time. The rating and ranking is based on an average of 81 critic scores, awards and other criteria. To see a breakdown of the game ranking, read individual critic reviews, or see how other games ranked, click on...

Read Full Review

Yakuza

The crime genre in games has been, in the past, mostly centered on western urban gang members to the mafia crime syndicate. While the yakuza has made an appearance in crime-themed games as secondary threats, Sega’s Yakuza makes this organized crime syndicate the star of the show. It is in this game where we learn its many traditions in a story that will have you playing this game to the very...

Read Full Review

Yakuza

Criminal organizations have always fascinated the general public. Whether it's the strict and deadly brutality or the enigmatic shroud of underworld secrecy, they have an allure that make us all inquisitive and the Japanese yakuza is no exception. The Far East criminal syndicate is heavily influenced by feudal Japanese traditions and philosophies, which makes for one heck of a videogame.

Read Full Review