Yakuza 2 (Restored)

Now that my Game of the Year-fest is (just about) over, it's back to the grindstone for me, so that means another Yakuza post for you. 

I played this with the "Restored" patch on my PS2.

While this sequel wasn't dubbed like the first, making this patch less vital than the one for the first game, I also played this with a "Restored Content" patch by Sylwahan. This brings character names back in line with their Japanese originals rather than the localization's new names and adjusts subtitles, among other changes. If anything, I chose to play it this way for consistency's sake (and also because playing a modded ISO on original hardware is still very cool to me so I wanted to do it again).

Now, for the game itself, you'll once again spend the first few chapters going through relatively straightforward and linear sequences before the game opens up and lets you explore, though this time there's a new region to explore: the Sotenbori district of Osaka. It's smaller than Kamurocho, but it was novel to see a new location that felt just as dense and lived-in as the one from the first game.

While large segments of this game do take place in a new area, most of this game is located in Kamurocho. There are some changes to the city, most notably in the area surrounding Purgatory, but by-and-large this is the same city as the first game. They do a good job of establishing that time has passed, however, and characters from that first game return and are acknowledged when relevant.

This... interesting.... hoodie also returns from the first game.

Combat is also more of the same. There are some minor changes here and there, and thankfully Kiryu starts the game with many of the upgrades he attained from the first game, but fights occur and play out very similarly to what you would have seen in the first Yakuza. You still have weapons with durability to manage and things you can pick up within any given arena, though you can now equip multiple pieces of equipment. Frankly, if you've played the first this'll seem familiar, though the quality-of-life upgrades are appreciated.

You can once again beat people senseless with bikes.

Like the original game, the story and characters here are the highlight. The plot is another melodrama concerning the ins-and-outs of yakuza life. While the first game focused on Kiryu's personal relationships with those he knew before-and-after his time in prison, this game instead focuses on tensions between his Tojo clan and the rival Omi Alliance, as well as some mysterious outside interference.  The way some of this is presented is... questionable (Chapter 7 is called "The Foreign Threat") but it's a solid crime story and I greatly enjoyed watching it play out. 

Returning characters like Date, Haruka, and Majima are fleshed out by their inclusion here, but the new characters they've added are worthwhile in their own right. They've introduced a new villain in the form of Ryuji Goda who I greatly enjoyed watching, and there's a new cop by the name of Kaoru Sayama who's also a fun addition.

Ryuji Goda is a strong antagonist.

I thought it would be difficult for this game to stand up to the ending of the first one, but it all ends in an appropriately dramatic fashion with some very cool setpieces along the way. There's also a credits song that is, much like the first game, a bit of a tonal mismatch.  Still, I had a blast playing this and I was glad it had such a satisfying conclusion.

As I did with the first game, I've included my results screen below.

I've got no idea where the other 60% of the substories were.

In short, I loved this game. Sequels often have a bit working against them considering they're taking characters created for one story and making them star in a new chapter, but this manages to stand alongside that original, even if it is a very different sort of narrative. Revisiting Kamurocho was fun, and while there's a chance I'll get tired of it at some point, I'm personally pretty invested in the development of this little slice of Tokyo so I'm eager to see how it'll be changed when it appears in Yakuza 3.