Yakuza 2

Yakuza 2
Developer(s)	Amusement Vision
Publisher(s)	Sega
Designer(s)	Ryuta Ueda (director) Hase Seishu (writer)
Platform(s)	PlayStation 2
Mode(s)	Single player

Yakuza 2 (known in Japan as Ryū ga Gotoku 2 (龍が如く2)) is the sequel to the video game Yakuza (Ryū ga Gotoku) by Sega. The title was released on December 7, 2006, for the PlayStation 2 video game console in Japan, in North America on September 9th 2008, and on September 19th in Europe.

Story

The intro of the game starts in the early 1980s, a detective is chasing after somebody and witnesses a murder of a Korean mob boss who says in Korean "Even if you kill me, our organization will live on." And the murderer happens to be Kiryu Kazuma's foster father, Fuma Shintaro. After Fuma runs off, the mysterious detective checks on the man who tells him in Japanese that his child is in danger just ahead before he dies. The detective heads in that direction and notices a fire and finds the room where a Korean woman is along with a baby. The woman is contemplating suicide (in Korean) and taking the child with her. However, the detective successfully convinces the woman not to kill herself and the baby.

Then the game comes back to the present and the detective is still at awe at what happened.

The sequel takes place one year after the events of the first game. Since then, the Tojo-guchi has been falling apart and they are on the brink of war against the Osaka based gang, the Omi-rengo, the gang backing Nishiki in the first game. With no resort left, the Tojo requests their former leader, Kiryu Kazuma for their help. Kiryu and Haruka are living a peaceful life and they visit the graves of Yumi, Nishiki, and Fuma. There, the appointed Kumi-chou, Terada Yukio, a former member of the Omi-rengo, asks for Kiryu's aide. However, the Omi-rengo quickly act and assassinate their former family member Terada in front of Kiryu and Haruka's eyes and Kiryu heads out for Osaka to find a peaceful solution and prevent an all out Japan gang war from happening.

While in Osaka, Kiryu meets his Kansai equivalent and new rival, Koda Ryuuji, the son of the head of the Omi-rengou, Koda Jin. Ryuuji also has a nickname that he hates, "The Kansai Dragon." He hates the name because he doesn't like the Kansai part (that he wants to be the Dragon of all of Japan) and that he hates the idea of having two dragons with Kiryu around and feels that he'll be a true dragon once he eliminates Kiryu.

Audio

The music score to Yakuza 2 includes the participation of seven composers: Hidenori Shoji, Hideki Sakamoto, Norihiko Hibino, Sachio Ogawa, Keitaro Hanada, Fumio Ito, and Yuri Fukuda. A two-disc original soundtrack album (龍が如く 龍が如く2 ORIGINAL SOUND TRACK) was released in Japan on January 25, 2007 by Wave Master, also including songs from the first title. The catalog number for the album is HCV-0287.

Reaction

In Japan, Famitsu has given the game a score of 38 out of 40.

In America, IGN has given Yakuza 2 a score of 8.5 out of 10

In Europe, Eurogamer rated the game 8 out of 10.

In Australia, Hyper has given the game 8 out of 10.