Yakuza is the new Shenmue. (Smilebit lives!)

[Dyne]

Damn, there's absolutely no denying it.

So, in my intense love for Sega, I just had to figure out what Smilebit was doing. I loved the big three Xbox games they made. Jet Set Radio Future, Panzer Dragoon Orta, and GunValkyrie. Yet they were absorbed into Amusement Vision, the Monkey Ball guys. What the heck were they doing?

Well it turns out they've only been making Yakuza games. I totally overlooked them because I thought they were just another lame brawler series.

I found a copy of Yakuza 1 for PS2 for $6.99 and I'm dead certain this is the result of "How can we make Shenmue better". It's a much more streamlined experience, but they're still plenty of shit to do like go see hookers and shit. And you find a dog you only have to feed once, instead of that kitty you constantly have to play with in Shenmue. The fighting system is also really similar.

You can definitely tell that it's Smilebit though. You're not exactly grinding off of the walls and stuff, but they've got an insane level of detail in the city. As well, they've got a highway-shooting portion of the game and I could almost swear it was ripped straight out of a Panzer Dragoon Orta game. Press L2 and R2 to change direction? That is straight-up Panzer style.

Anyways, if you guys ever played any Smilebit games or Shenmue games, you'd be doing yourself a favour in finding a copy of this. It gave me 14 solid hours of play. It also has some really big names behind it for voice acting - Eliza Dushku, Mark Hamill, Murdoch (from the A-Team), Rachel Leigh Cook, and the other standard fare in animes and games such as Raiden from MGS2, and Travis from No More Heroes.

8/10 is my rating that I'm tacking on to the end. It's too bad it was released in 2006 in america, because the Wii and PS3 totally overshadowed it. Not to mention the 360.

Next up is Yakuza 2 of which I barely found a copy of for $30. They didn't bother with english voice-acting so it's going to be pretty different. It was released in November 2008 so no wonder it was ignored!

And it looks like this series won't be making it to this shore anymore. I just bought the PS3 version where they TRAVEL BACK IN TIME. Ryu Ga Gotoku: Kenzan! I'm waiting for that to hit my doorstep any time now.

Ryu Ga Gotoku 3 also came out for PS3 just last month so I'm working up to that. They have a guide for Kenzan but not for 3 yet.