I was at my local Gamestop picking up The Force Unleashed the other day, when I decided to splurge a bit (a month in Sri Lanka without anything to do but play Utawarerumono can do that to you) and look for some used games to buy (Armored Core: For Answer wasn't there yet and they somehow lost all the copies of Armored Core 4 in the course of a week).

I headed over to the PS2 section, as I had gone on an ATLUS/NIS America-supporting spree, wanting to replace all the...ahem..."backups" acquired back in Manila with legit copies and play them on my PS3 (60gb BC go!).

Anyway, lo and behold, I found a load of rare games: ICO, Way of the Samurai (!), Ring of Red, Phantom Brave, SMT: Digital Devil Saga 1 ($100+ on eBay! And new too!!!).

And lo, in a lonely corner of the lowest shelf, hidden behind a copy of Lifeline (got that too), was Yakuza 2. "Wait, what?" I thought. "I didn't know they were gonna release this." But hey, don't look a gift horse in the mouth, especially if it has Kazuma Kiryuu's face on it. It had the "new!" sticker on it, so I took the plunge, especially since I spied an old copy of Yakuza 1 nearby.

And lucky day, the counter drone didn't know they even had it, giving me a 10% discount on a $19.99 game, just for clearing space they could use to drop returned copies of Def Jam: Icon.

Anyway, the review:

In a phrase, Yakuza 2 is more of the same. It is still a surprisingly deep beat-em-up with an engaging, well-written storyline and a huge, stony-faced protagonist. It deviates from formula not one bit, and if you didn't like it then, you won't like it now.

A year after the events of Yakuza Kazuma Kiryu is still on his neverending quest to Do The Right Thing, this time preventing an all-out east-versus-west gang war from erupting, with some Koreans thrown in for good "kekeke". This apparently involves beating all involved senseless, and we can actually be happy for that fact, because Yakuza was a pretty good beat-'em-up. A cum laude graduate of Kratos' School Of Senseless Simple Satisfying Slaughter, Kazuma sends his foes to hospital with a mass of upgradeable combos, environmental objects, and ridiculously painful-looking "Heat" takedown maneuvers.

Despite being 4 years old at this point, the game delivers a brawling experience equal to or surpassing that of many much newer games, including Viking, Conan and The Bourne Conspiracy, all with a better story to boot. Frankly speaking, this game seems to be as close as we'll ever get to having a Shenmue 3.

Best of all, the terrible English voice-acting is gone. That's right moon-fans, Yakuza 2 is subtitles all the way. It's like the Criterion Collection on your PS2! With curb-stomping!



Low points for the game include some compulsory free-exploration periods that leave you without much to do...unless you liked how Shenmue had loads and loads of time-wasting minigames and side activities to have fun doing. There are dice games, UFO catchers, and quirky fun in spades...if only they were optional.

The game is impressively detailed for a PS2 title, which brings me to the sad point in this review: that it's a PS2 title. Yakuza 2 is one of those fun and enjoyable titles that sadly only come at the end of a platform's lifespan, putting to shame the next-gen whippersnappers that claim to be bigger and better than all that came before.

Then again, it's articles like this and games like Persona 4 that help me continue believing that there is some life left our sassy black box. Which is why I'm so grateful that my PS3 has perfect BC, and why I'll be buying a new PS2 (my 3rd), once I get back to Manila.

So get Yakuza 2 and convince SEGA that the totally awesome-looking Yakuza 3 is worth bringing over.

And while you're at that, help me convince SEGA that Sakura Taisen is worth bringing over, too. Please!