The original “Yakuza” was one of last year’s hidden gems. While it was a standard beat-’em-up at heart, it turned out to be far more sophisticated and engrossing in its execution. As newly sprung from jail Yakuza Kazuma Kiryuu, you had to find out who set you up all those years ago and what became of your friends in a melodramatic, but still highly entertaing story played out in a meticulously re-created Japanese city.

JASON GLICK

Now, hot on the heels of the announcement of “Yakuza 3″ for the PS3, SEGA has announced that they’ll be bringing over the PS2 sequel to “Yakuza” in 2008. While I realize it’s hard to get excited about PS2 games in light of all the next-gen news coming out of the Tokyo Game Show, this is one to keep an eye out for. As this has been out in Japan for a while, I’ve heard my Japanese-speaking friends sing its praises in regards to its improved fighting system and even more engrossing story.

While the PS2 had a pretty strong 2007, no one will argue that its best days are behind it. All that’s left to determine is what will be the “last great PS2 game.” Me, I’m placing my money on this. I’ll let you know if I’m right once it ships next year.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 20th, 2007 at 9:18 pm and is filed under Playstation 2, SEGA, Yakuza 2. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.