What the hell am I rambling on about? Am I a Japanophile running wild on the loose? Well, maybe, but what I’m doing my best to explain is how incredibly awesome Yakuza is for the Playstation 2.

In Yakuza you follow the exploits of former tough guy Kazuma Kiryu, fresh out of a 10-year prison stint, who finds himself tossed into a gang war that has him pitted against a former friend, and teamed up with the Detective that landed him in jail 10 years ago. You’ll accomplish your goals and uncover more and more clues as to what exactly is going on by traversing thru a large city map that gradually unlocks itself to you the more you play. You have the option of barreling straight thru the story mode, or taking your time to check out the sites and experience a vast multitude of side story options and other distractions.

Combat is handled a bit differently than your average beat em up. As you travel thru the city streets, (all on foot, no car jacking here folks), random people, whether street thugs, pissed off citizens, or opposing yakuza, will approach you and begin a fight. You’ll switch perspectives to a much closer view and contained area, with each area being littered with various items you can use as weapons (and hold on to if you don’t use them up during your fight). Combat at first seems a bit simple, but it becomes evident later on that things get much more complex. As you gain experience you can start using it to unlock new moves, better health and heat bars (Heat allows for Kazuma to unlock special moves), and much improved defensive techniques. Enemy AI also begins to improve, and you’ll find that the combo’s you were using a few chapters back aren’t nearly as helpful as they once were. There are some issues with combat that could do with improvements, like the ability to lock on to an opponent, and hopefully these are things we’ll see addressed in the sequel. However, for the most part, it’s all a lot of fun.

Yakuza’s visuals aren’t exactly awe-inspiring works of art, outside of the massive detail put into the city. Character models are pretty much what you expect from current generation games, and they’re definitely not going to blow anyone away. That said, little touches manage to add a lot, like the design work of the back tattoo’s, and even though the game only uses English voices, all the other bits of Asian culture seem to be intact (signs, etc.). Feel free to marvel at how busy all the streets seem to be while you’re walking thru them, its definitely one of the visual aspects I was most impressed with.

Yakuza’s audio work is a love it or hate it experience. Is the voice acting any good? Nah, its pretty bad, but it does grow on you, and you find yourself getting used to it quickly. Some voices aren’t bad at all, while others, like Haruka for instance, will definitely grate on your nerves. It’s still beyond me why games that incorporate voice acting don’t just leave in the original Japanese audio track as well. Especially in Yakuza, where the subtitles run right along side the English voices. Seems like it would be easy enough to do, but what do I know? The music of Yakuza isn’t anything outstanding either, there’s a few tracks that I enjoy (I think the hideout music is particularly tranquil), but for the most part you’re not going to pay a great deal of attention.

Yakuza presents a pretty large storyline, and quite a few lengthy cut scenes. The story is generally straight forward, and most of the “twists” are predictable, but it’s still very enjoyable to work your way thru. I definitely suggest picking this one up, the main game sans side stories will put you somewhere around the 12-hour mark, but finding and doing everything will definitely propel you much further. Most places seem to be carrying the title at $40, and I’d say that’s a pretty good price for the amount of gameplay and fun you’ll have with this one.