messy non-proof checked review of yakuza 1 ps2 let's go So I'm just gonna make a simple review on my most recent game that wasn't resident evil survivor because that game was too short for me to dedicate this sudden burst of energy, Yakuza 1
for background, I played Yakuza 0 over the course of 3 years, I thought it was like, alright? I didn't like the story or the gameplay, but I loved the character interactions, and that's where the strength of Yakuza is to me
this was before I realized that remakes are the devil and that I should probably play everything release date ( that will be explained in a future post ) , which is why I started with 0, but after that I went to Yakuza 1 on the PS2, I tried to play it with japanese dub but unfortunately there was no option for that so I just had to bear with the result
it had resident evil fixed cameras, which I absolutely love resident evil and fixed cameras so I don't mind actually, but what I did mind that the combat was uh…. not flowing well, your animations lasted too long, and bosses would randomly get invulnerability frames while you were attacking them resulting into a near guaranteed hit, maybe there's something I'm missing here but it was just eh
I have to say the english dub wasn't actually as bad as people made it out to be….. for the first half of the game, then the second half came by and it genuinely felt like the budget ran out so the voice actors were just saying whatever, a lot of the lines in the game though are iconic for how bad they are, you can consider it like resident evil 1 on the PS1 in a sense, sure it's bad but resident evil has always been a rollercoaster of emotions, you're walking through the mansion in horror ( well I didn't think the game was scary but I think they were intending it to be scary ) only to randomly find a note that reads "Fever gone but itchy. Hungry and eat doggy food. Itchy itchy Scott came. Ugly face so killed him. Tasty."
but the issue with that is that the cutscenes felt like part of the goofy relief from the tense moments, whereas in yakuza ps2, these WERE the tense moments, that's when the voice acting had to be good, from the little I've played of Yakuza 2, the voice acting in japanese while on average better, still has its issues, Daigo Dojima is constantly emoting in a way that makes me feel like his lines should have more emotion, which is sad because I fucking love how Daigo sounds, he's this sexy bad boy who distances himself from others, but the issue is that there's just no emotion behind the lines during moments where there is implied to be emotion through the animations
Is it fair to judge a game over a poor localization? I don't think so, but it is still something to take into consideration as this is still how many people played the game before kiwami 1 way, way, way later.
but honestly I am someone who can overlook many production errors, so I judged the writing as is and honestly? it was pretty damn engaging, I feel like if I spent more time thinking on it I could find plenty holes in it, but it's a pretty cool story about Yakuza doing Yakuza things, I will complain that as having played Yakuza 0 ( something that the OG ps2 game has no fault over ), I expected a lot of the characters there to be more relevant, only to be shocked as Nishiki, Shintaro ( called Fuma for some reason in the PS2 ) and Shimano all fucking die by the end of the game, even Kashiwagi which I assumed to be more relevant barely had any screentime, this is definitely my fault and not the games fault, this would be like playing kingdom hearts birth by sleep and complaining that you barely see any of aqua terra and ventus in the games after. prequels while they can be made as an entrypoint, in the case of yakuza, 0 was pretty bad in this regard as it made my expectations for characters too high
I will say though, Kiryu felt like he changed a lot pre and post prison, almost like 10 years in the joint made him a fucking pussy
….sorry I had to
so the gameplay is lame, the story and character interactions are better here even if the voice acting sucks in english, there are substories but they're not as deep as substories in 0 which is annoying to me, but again you can't judge a game by what it's sequel did better, that's like judging metal gear 1 for not being as good as metal gear solid 5 or 3,
oh yeah the story I didn't even talk about it!
I am a sucker for the type of story that they went with, brothers to enemies, fighting for their own beliefs and goals, a battle built on jealousy and envy and miscommunication, some Vergil vs Dante type shit, I just wish Nishiki had more screentime ( which kiwami 1 allegedly does???? that's cool, still a remake though ), the story excited me in that confrontation with jingu, where Kiryu becomes the fourth chariman of the tojo clan, the emotions that the story wanted to convey were always felt, and treating it as a completely emotional experience, this rocks, and I hope to see more of this.
also I would like to complain that kiwami soundtrack just feels like it misses the point several times, and electrifies what doesn't need to be electrified do I reccomend this game to anyone?
well unfortunately as much as I am an absolute hater of remakes, kiwami 1 and 2 added story elements that are considered canon for future entires as I hear from my friends, so playing the original PS2 is more so being done as a history lesson and not as a reasonable way to play the series nowadays, I played it because I wanted to compare it to the remakes so I can have better ammunition for why remakes suck ( but honestly a new development in my way of thinking has made playing the remakes unnecessary for that ), also there's the unfortunate part that I am not actually a big enjoyer of the series so far, I'm just playing it so I can reach yakuza 7 because the turn based gameplay appeals to me, like yakuza 1 definitely boosted my opininon in comparison to yakuza 0, but I still need to keep going, from what I've done of yakuza 2 so far I think I'm gonna end up hating this franchise with how repetitive the brawling is getting.
then again there are a lot of people who are into the yakuza series so my reccomendation is honestly? if you wanna be the cool kid who knows the difference between remakes, start with this one, even though it won't have the extra cutscenes that kiwami will have, I still think that knowing the series roots can bring you a greater appreciation for how it evolves, and also considering that you will have less of an evolution jumpscare when you go from kiwami 2 to 3 remastered.
If you like Japanese honor-code stories, you'll probably enjoy your time with yakuza…. just stock up on staminan royales.
