Yakuza 2 (2006) Review — (Year) Old Haunts
A year has passed since the back-to-back succession and resignation of the Tojo Clan’s Fourth Chairman. Now a foster father to his love’s child away from the seedy underbelly of Kamurocho, another Asian faction enters the fray, dried blood on its hands and thirsty for more…
Released in 2006, Yakuza 2 is the first and direct sequel to the previous year’s Yakuza and was the second and final game in the series released for PS2. It was also the first entry to ship with a Japanese dub in the west. When English dubs were reintroduced in 2018, Japanese audio remained an option. Like the first game, a Kiwami remake was released in 2017, again with its own set of pros and cons compared to the original.
A Tale Of Two Dragons
Kamurocho, 1980. In the backrooms above a thriving disco scene, a trail of death. Koreans murdered by gunfire, evidence left to burn. The killer? Kiryu’s adoptive father, Shintaro Kazama.
Kamurocho, 2006. Tojo Clan Fifth Chairman Yukio Terada is attacked and killed by Omi Alliance. Fourth Chairman Kazuma Kiryu tracks down a delinquent boy, Daigo Dojima, bringing him to Kansai to form a truce between the Tojo and the Omi.
The reality? Kidnapping, betrayal, succession, revenge, terrorism and corruption. The Jingweon mafia want revenge for 1980. The Go-Ryu Clan, lead by the “Dragon Of Kansai” Ryuji Goda, will crush those who oppose them in their march to claim Tojo turf as their own. Kamurocho, the Tojo Clan, and the “Dragon Of Dojima” Kazuma Kiryu are backed into a corner with multiple foes in tow.
In other words, war.
The story’s pacing starts off fast and steady; it’s very strong until around chapter 9, where it starts to really unravel. The game decides around this point to throw lots of unclear objectives (such as “I should wait” or “I should walk around” with no objective markers) into the mix. The action halts with the continuation of the Takashi/Kyoka arc that should’ve been side content in the last game too and a wild goose chase in a new, third city.
By the endgame, the story is juggling more than it can handle. The threat of the bombs disappears pretty much as quickly as it’s introduced, which honestly might be for the better given that it stands in the way of the more important Go-Ryu march anyway. Other plot developments, such as pulling back the curtain on what really happened in 1980 and the several twists too many in the lead up to the final boss, start to feel a bit contrived and unnecessary, especially once it tries to encapsulate certain aspects of Yakuza’s story as merely ‘part of this game’s bigger picture.’ Nonetheless, right before and after the final boss, the game is instead focusing on the relationships between him, Sayama and Kiryu, and it makes for a much more emotional action-flick close to the game.
Haruka appears at the start of the game to show that she’s now under Kiryu’s care, but just as quickly is written out again, spending time at Kiryu’s childhood orphanage until her kidnapping (yet again) in chapter 12 brings her back. The player can lead her around the playable cities like last time, but ultimately her presence in all this is an afterthought. It’s kind of a shame that this is all they had for her after she was a main focus last game, and she’ll continue to be far less important for the next few games as well. Even though Yakuza was just finding its feet last time and wasn’t a hit yet, this complete and total lack of planning ahead is somehow still a massive issue with Yokoyama’s writing even as the series has grown to massive heights in and out of Japan.
On the other hand, Majima is still only a supporting character, but they understand far better now what to do with him. He gets his times to shine, his whimsical side really shows now and besides the coliseum introduction, he doesn’t stop the story just to battle Kiryu. Scenes such as his struggle to access the original Purgatory camera room and cutting the bomb wires are every bit as Majima as every clip you’ve seen from later games of his silliness.
Though rarer than the last game, the story does suffer from occasional padding again. The first requires the player to run a side quest, winning a crane machine toy and rescuing a pet cat before finally making it into the mahjong parlour and spending 100,000 yen to continue. From here, the player has to either scrounge up 300,000 yen or run around the city counter-clockwise to get info from NPCs to avoid it. The second case is a follow-up on The Florist’s son Takashi, whose arc in the first game similarly had no relevance to the story and should’ve remained side content. Shortly after this, Kiryu finds himself talking to the artist behind Ryuji’s tattoo and the lineage of his name. Again, there’s nothing wrong with this mini-arc, it just has no reason to be a main objective.
Electric Boogaloo
Yakuza 2’s streetfights are largely the same as its predecessor’s, only much smoother and refined. Combos start with 1–5 light attacks and end with heavy attacks, with other flourishes such as counters available to learn through skills or from Komaki, Kiryu’s combat mentor from the last game. Items and objects can also be picked up and used for an advantage. Building up momentum (called “heat”) past a certain point gives Kiryu a blue aura, allowing the player to pull off more powerful and uninterruptable attacks in certain situations, or offer buffs such as stability *unlocked through the skill trees.) L2 centres the camera again, but the player now has limited, inverted left/right camera control in combat. R2 is again used to taunt enemies, which raises the heat gauge.
Speaking of which, new to Yakuza 2 is the Feel The Heat mechanic, where the player has to mash the R2 button to build the heat gauge up to deliver a power heat action against nearly-defeated bosses. It’s not only a bit confusing that this almost never actually ends the fight itself, but also why R2 is the button to mash when the fight stops to give the player this time anyway. It’s as uncomfortable as it sounds. Load times between adventure and battle modes were significantly reduced at least, with the option to skip certain battle intros as well. All in all, you’re no longer spending more time getting into battle than you’re spending during the fight itself, which is a big plus.
Skill unlocks were moved around, meaning the player has earlier access to important abilities like the heat action against supine enemies. As the game awards you small amounts of EXP for performing heat actions, and a further bonus for defeating enemies with them, it’s a handier way of setting up for this bonus than relying on weapons and enemies escaping as you drag them near walls.
Levelling up is largely the same as the last game, with some minor tweaks, the best of which by far is seeing what exactly the next ability you’re investing in is before you commit to it. Experience and level numbers were also simplified. You still need increasing amounts of levels for each upgrade level, but the numbers are smaller. Skills can also be learnt from Komaki training, VHS tapes, books and the Granny White substories.
Speaking of streamlined, Komaki training is a lot quicker and there’s also less of it. As early as Kiryu’s return to Kamurocho after the Kansai trip, Komaki can be found in the Champion District offering training exercises. The most useful by far is the Drop Shot, a free heat action on gun enemies. The process is different too, being thrown straight into learning the manoeuvre rather than fighting without and then fighting with the new ability. This also drops the upgrade requirement for further training present in the last game. In addition, certain Komaki abilities like Dodge Shot are relearned specifically through the skill tree than from Komaki himself.
My biggest gripe with training and coliseum entry is that it forces you to go out of your way to unequip any gear rather than programming the game to just ignore it. This was the case for the last game, and unfortunately the case for at least one more game as well. You only have 9 item slots and 3 slots for equipment, and with the only Item Box in Kamurocho (in the PS2 version) on the other side of the map, you may have to deposit items temporarily or even sell or discard items just to take your equipment off for training/coliseum battles.
QTEs were added to boss fight setpieces and certain heat actions, with a fairly generous window on the timed button presses but stricter requirements on mashing and enemy grab inputs. There are also three timed sections in the story, like the dying child substory in Yakuza. These three events require bringing someone, or Kiryu himself in one instance, to help before time runs out, which can be wasted by passersby, police or thugs still picking fights with Kiryu. I personally don’t really see why these needed to exist besides the occasional short break from regular gameplay, especially as the only cost for failing is replaying the section and they’re short anyway, but it at least beats the chase sequences coming in later games. *shudders*
Yet another new mechanic is the friendship system, where helping out certain civilians on the streets will develop a friendship with them. Friends have a chance to throw an item to Kiryu at the start of a battle taking place near them. If the QTE is successful, the player gains an advantage as Kiryu uses the weapon on them automatically. This system was cut, brought back for Yakuza 4 and cut again, only to inexplicably return 8years later in Judgment. In that game, some friends are combatants who will join and battle with protagonist Yagami, while non-combatants such as store owners will throw items for him to use, just like Yakuza 2.
Lastly, one of my biggest gripes with the last game was its highway setpiece that wasn’t as fun as the concept sounded on paper. This time around, it’s a short gauntlet section across the back of some trucks. It’s simpler, less unique, and honestly, all the better for it.
Kiryu’s Oyster
Yakuza 2 boasts 8 minigames (baseball, golf, bowling, shogi, pachinko, mahjong, claw machines and the YF6 arcade machine game, a weird first-person VR swordfighting contest) alongside staple western casino and traditional Japanese gambling games.
Substories are tracked in the Missions menu with two checkmarks now; yellow for good endings and white for bad ending completion. It now seems less easy to accidentally fail substories by taking too long or doing something else, instead requiring the player’s input to determine the outcome. This can sometimes lock you out of seeing a substory progress, but to be honest, it felt good telling the comedian in the bar “there’s more to life than comedy” and not being dragged into that story.
In a big step closer towards Yakuza as we know it, Kiryu can help manage a hostess club back in Kamurocho. Unlike every future iteration however, this is specifically based on running the club itself. Gifts, bonuses and motivation can be given to the club’s staff but otherwise it’s more about setting prices and decor to the customers’ liking. As is the case with Yakuza minigames though, it overstays its welcome and becomes a bit demanding to see the story through considering its basic gameplay loop. Grinding this was a lot less fun than the hostess management minigame introduced in Yakuza 0 but a lot more fun than the slog of Yakuza 3’s hostess maker.
Outlaw Lullabies
In 2007, a 2-CD release of music from the PS2 Yakuza games was released in Japan. Disc 2 consisted of music from Yakuza 2.
Whereas Yakuza was primarily Shoji’s work, the soundtrack is heavily divided this time, with work split about 1/3rd between Shoji, Metal Gear Solid composers Norihiko Hibino and Takahiro Izutani, and 428: Shibuya Scramble co-composer Hideki Sakamoto. The game’s sound is still primarily trebly distorted guitars but most of the combat themes fell to Sakamoto. His sound is distinctively heavier, fuller and punchier, with fuzz as opposed to regular distortion and use of vocal samples (Block Head Boy samples Wu-Tang Clan, making it the first Yakuza track to date to drop an N bomb) further standing his tracks out from Shoji’s. Hibino and Izutani’s offerings are surprisingly diverse, from the electronic jazz noir of Emergency to historically Japanese Blaze and metal Face To Face. They too have a distinct musical voice from Shoji and Sakamoto.
Licensed music was thrown into the mix this time; two songs by Crazy Ken Band. Kuroi Kizuato no Buruusu plays during the knife scene on the bridge, while 12月17日 plays over the final pre-credits scene. Personally I find the former ill-fitting and can’t help but wonder why this scene didn’t just use an original score instead. Eri Kawai returns to perform another hymn for the credits, Silent Night, Holy Night.
Lastly, a substory in the game introduces the enka song Kamuro Setsugekka (known in English as Kamurocho Lullaby). This song would become a temporary staple of the karaoke minigame from its introduction in Yakuza 3.
Alpy’s Final Thought
Yakuza 2 beautifully utilised the last game as a base and spent its development time on refinement and adding features and content. The end result is not only much stronger, but I would tentatively say it’s actually one of the better entries in the series across the board. It’s kind of a shame they never localised the PS3 remaster collection of these first two games with the existing text localisations, because the higher resolution, faster load times and item box management from save points (taken from Yakuza 3 onwards) would make it more ideal to play these games in the west, rather than digging out an old PS2. Nonetheless, it’s a case study for how to recognise the faults and improve on your last efforts.
Score: 78%
