Well, it isn't the actual beginnings of Kiryu since Yakuza 0 (prequel game released much later) exists, but it is the first game ever in the franchise and the original introduction of Kiryu to everyone around the world.

And truth to be told, with how this is the first time I actually get to see some of the story unfold with context rather than memes, as well as experiencing the combat, it was quite more interesting than I expected.

Funnily enough, I had started a playthrough around a month ago on the PC...but when the motherboard thing happened, I ended up going through a couple other games until I ended up trying Yakuza again...on the phone. I completed the whole thing there, but it is still nice to give it a spin once again on a proper controller afterwards.

The combat feels familiar

Wait a minute...

Shifting to lock in to a specific enemy?

Basic combos that can lead to moves for quick knockdowns, stuns and a big attack?

...Yeah, this definitely activated my neurons when I played around the controls the first time and realized that Yakuza's fighting system, at least in this first game, adapted stuff that Spikeout did before.

And that's no mere coincidence either, as Spikeout was directed by Toshihiro Nagoshi and made by Amusement Vision - with said studio (AV) rebranding later and working with Nagoshi on the Yakuza games. So not only the gameplay resemblance checks out, but also is why that game eventually appeared in Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth.

But this is no Spikeout, for better or for worse, as while the notions seem similar, the execution as well as your environment is pretty different.

For example, on this wide area, only enemies that take notice of you by approaching them at a distance will actually chase you, allowing you to bring them in waves to whittle them down.

Unless you have quite the experience already playing this and use your tools to your advantage [weapons, throwing enemies into each other, heat actions], you will want to take advantage of their short sighted nature if you don't want to be overwhelmed.

In Spikeout, besides the time limit forcing you to be more proactive, most if not all enemies in groups would give chase and beat you up badly. And while you'd have to time your Charge button press as you do a combo then let it go at the right time (say, hold Charge, punch three times then let go of Charge for the big knockout after the combo) in Spikeout, you just have to press the Triangle button after three punches in Yakuza for the big knockout move afterwards.

That said, your moves here aren't as quick and snappy as in Spikeout, as your combos feel slower and requiring more deliberate thought on attacking any enemy that happens to dodge often - being aware of enemies around you (mainly in small areas) is important to know when to save up on strong moves to avoid being combo'd from the side, because you can still get juggled like crazy by multiple enemies if unlucky.

I didn't mind this personally, but I'm aware some feel like the combat in this game is a bit rustic when future games would tweak and speed up the basics (including the also PS2 released Yakuza 2).

Level up (and eat) Like a Dragon

What makes this be a more casually palatable experience than Spikeout though is that you can stock up in items to help yourself stay afloat during fights. Whether it is food or healing items, if you are in need of more health during a long fight, the option is there if you made sure to stock up on them.

A little pet peeve I got here is that you only have 9 item slots, and you can store way more if you go to an Item Box or hideout - but the problem isn't with that amount, but rather how you may get your inventory filled up with other stuff from random fights (like items to sell or to use in cabarets) if you were counting on having all the space possible for heals. Weapons are the exception as they can be useful for more damage/range AND have three special slots dedicated for them.

And of course, you get EXP from fights, sometimes even more if you're doing boss fights or substories. These are essential to upgrade your stats to have more health, having heat drain slower, increase your damage during heat, increase heat when low on health, and my favorite part: New moves to have a field day fighting enemies.

Some of the stuff you get for moves is basic but useful, like a faster sidestep dodge or a charge kick, but then there's the extra moves from heat (pummeling with extra damage with Square, doing a stronger knockdown kick with Triangle, or my favorite: a Giant Swing with Circle that's both fun to watch and good to use with multiple enemies nearby), and the Finishing Hold move that lets you add a throw after your basic combos for big guaranteed damage - although that last one is only obtained after maxing out one of the stats.

Speaking of Heat, that's also a key mechanic here, as it can either be a passive buff (with the right upgrades) to your attack power or an active gateway into using a more powerful attack, like throwing a guy into a wall face first, hammering them with a bike or any other weapon, or stomping their face on the ground.

It is an incentive to fight actively in order to keep it up, and it's satisfyingly when you heat action an enemy into oblivion to then pummel another one and have it ready once again. It's particularly useful for bosses as you can go for stronger throws (if they let themselves be thrown), weapon heat action if they tend to dodge a lot (as you can use it without a combo - just by being at range with heat active and weapon at hand) or a stomp heat action.

Although from the very beginning, even just having an enemy on your hands to slam them into the nearest wall with a loud sound and visual effect emphasizing the pain is still quite satisfying to take around from time to time until you have way more versatile ways to crush them anywhere away from a wall.

There's also the moves that Sotaro Komaki can teach you whenever you have specific stats leveled up, and these can be quite useful, such as an attack that lets you attack behind you during a combo, being able to throw a punch after a dodge, and the legendary Tiger Drop that is essentially an on-reaction counter punch which is tough to use without practice...but is an INSTANT knockdown with good damage, which makes the price to use it pay off well.

Ten years in the joint gave you a BIG STORY

For being my first time playing, the initial hook was quite the intrigue inducing one - you see Kiryu holding a gun in front of a man who was shot dead, turning with a concerned face as the police enters the place.

Afterwards, you get a flashback to the day before that, being called in a subordinate to help with getting the money off some stubborn guys at a building, this being your tutorial fight, and even having the chance to see characters like Akira Nishikiyama and Goro Majima interacting with Kiryu...

...And in case you are interested in trying out the game yourself, I won't explain in detail what happens, but the spoiler-less summary is that you somehow end up in that exact scene at the start of the game.

With your arrest and the consequences of who was the man who was killed in that building, Kiryu would spend 10 years in prison until someone gets him out on parole, and now he roams free once again in Kamurocho [based off the real Kabukicho], having to figure out what had happened with those important to him during those ten long years.

There's certainly an interesting hook to how you have a glimpse of normality with the first chapter until that happens, and now this man has to go back to fighting in 2005 [date of both the game's present day AND its release], between being chased by those affected by that last event, gangsters trying to take his head to aim for a bigger position in the food chain...and most amusingly, a lot of random dudes that aren't important to the story but will try to beat you up as much as you cross them on the overworld.

Something to appreciate here is that all cutscenes are voiced and animated, but not only this applies to the main story, but also a handful of substories that are given a surprising feel of importance because they happen to have that same luxury main cutscenes do.

I also have to mention that later on in the story, you can walk around Kamurocho with this small kid [Haruka] who's important to the main story so you're meant to take her to your next objective...but the moment you have her tagging along, you can also go for these mini objectives she brings up to increase her trust - most being related to buying her something on the nearest restaurant or store, but a few of them are connected to minigames, like hitting over 10 homeruns in a batting cage...

...Or having to roll the jackpot in the roulette machines. That last one took me a fair amount of minutes to pull off, but I eventually did it lol

Conclusion

I find funny how Kiryu here kind of reminds me of young Keanu Reeves - although at the same time its neat to see him so expressive overall when later games and the Kiwami remakes would have him keep a more unexpressive face most of the time.

I'd probably have way more praises about specific details whenever I get to revisit the game throroughly on a controller instead of a phone and then point out specific moments that stood out to me...as I could also point out some more pet peeves that came up from time to time [like enemies with guns, english dub being either usually hilariously hammy or hilariously flat delivered, some substories being easily missable or very hard to find out in the first place], but hey, I can't say I didn't have a fun time with this game.

Except for this guy. I hated fighting this guy.

And I enjoyed that the finishing blow against him was pummeling his face over and over and OVER AND OVER from a heat action. Not just satisfying...but also was quite a convenient moment that the pummeling just didn't stop for a good while until he was done for.

Also, if you want to play the game with a better translation and the original Japanese voices, there's also the Yakuza Restored mod that does exactly that for you, which I definitely recommend for the best experience with this game's story [unless you want to have a laugh at stuff like Mark Hamil swearing as Majima, which I wouldn't blame you for].

Thanks for reading, and see you next time.

Spanish translation with DeepL. All screenshots were captured by myself.

Español

Bueno, no es el verdadero comienzo de Kiryu, ya que existe Yakuza 0 (una precuela lanzada mucho más tarde), pero es el primer juego de la franquicia y la presentación original de Kiryu al público internacional.

Y, a decir verdad, al ser la primera vez que veo cómo se desarrolla parte de la historia con contexto, en lugar de memes, y al experimentar el combate, me ha resultado mucho más interesante de lo que esperaba.

Curiosamente, había empezado a jugar hace aproximadamente un mes en la PC... pero cuando pasó lo de la placa base, terminé jugando a otros juegos hasta que volví a probar Yakuza... en el teléfono. Lo completé allí, pero sigue siendo agradable volver a jugarlo con un control adecuado después.

El combate me resulta familiar

Un momento...

¿Usar un botón de Shift para fijar a un enemigo específico?

¿Combos básicos que pueden conducir a movimientos para derribos rápidos, aturdimientos y un gran ataque?...

Sí, esto definitivamente activó mis neuronas cuando jugué con los controles por primera vez y me di cuenta de que el sistema de lucha de Yakuza, al menos en este primer juego, adaptaba cosas que Spikeout había hecho antes.

Y tampoco es una mera coincidencia, ya que Spikeout fue dirigido por Toshihiro Nagoshi y creado por Amusement Vision, estudio que más tarde cambió de nombre y colaboró con Nagoshi en los juegos Yakuza. Así que no solo se confirma el parecido en la jugabilidad, sino que también explica por qué ese juego acabó apareciendo en Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth.

Pero este no es Spikeout, para bien o para mal, ya que, aunque las ideas parecen similares, la ejecución y el entorno son bastante diferentes.

Por ejemplo, en esta amplia zona, solo los enemigos que se dan cuenta de tu presencia al acercarte a ellos te perseguirán, lo que te permite atraerlos en oleadas para ir reduciendo su número.

A menos que ya tengas bastante experiencia jugando a esto y uses tus herramientas a tu favor (armas, lanzar enemigos unos contra otros, acciones de calor), querrás aprovechar su naturaleza miope si no quieres verte abrumado.

En Spikeout, además del límite de tiempo que te obliga a ser más proactivo, la mayoría, si no todos, los enemigos en grupo te perseguirán y te darán una paliza. Y mientras que en Spikeout tienes que sincronizar la pulsación del botón de carga mientras realizas un combo y soltarlo en el momento adecuado (por ejemplo, mantener pulsado el botón de carga, dar tres puñetazos y luego soltar el botón de carga para el gran golpe de gracia después del combo), en Yakuza solo tienes que pulsar el botón triangular después de tres puñetazos para realizar el gran golpe de gracia.

Dicho esto, tus movimientos aquí no son tan rápidos y ágiles como en Spikeout, ya que tus combos se sienten más lentos y requieren una reflexión más deliberada a la hora de atacar a cualquier enemigo que se esquive con frecuencia. Es importante estar atento a los enemigos que te rodean (sobre todo en áreas pequeñas) para saber cuándo guardar los movimientos fuertes y evitar que te hagan un combo por un lado, ya que, si tienes mala suerte, varios enemigos pueden seguir golpeándote como locos.

Personalmente, no me importó, pero soy consciente de que algunos sienten que el combate en este juego es un poco rústico, ya que los juegos posteriores ajustaron y aceleraron los aspectos básicos (incluido Yakuza 2, también lanzado para PS2).

Sube de nivel (y come) como un dragón

Sin embargo, lo que hace que esta experiencia sea más agradable que la de Spikeout es que puedes acumular objetos que te ayudarán a mantenerte a flote durante los combates. Ya sean alimentos u objetos curativos, si necesitas más salud durante un combate largo, tienes la opción de hacerlo si te has asegurado de acumularlos.

Una pequeña molestia que tengo aquí es que solo tienes 9 espacios para objetos, y puedes almacenar muchos más si vas a una caja de objetos o a un escondite, pero el problema no es la cantidad, sino que tu inventario se puede llenar con otras cosas de peleas aleatorias (como objetos para vender o para usar en cabarets) si contabas con tener todo el espacio posible para objetos curativos. Las armas son la excepción, ya que pueden ser útiles para causar más daño o tener más alcance, Y tienen tres espacios especiales dedicados a ellas.

Y, por supuesto, obtienes EXP de las peleas, a veces incluso más si estás haciendo peleas contra jefes o subhistorias. Estas son esenciales para mejorar tus estadísticas y tener más salud, que el calor se agote más lentamente, aumentar tu daño durante el calor, aumentar el calor cuando tienes poca salud y, mi parte favorita: nuevos movimientos para divertirte luchando contra los enemigos.

Algunas de las habilidades que se obtienen son básicas pero útiles, como una esquiva lateral más rápida o una patada en carrera, pero también hay habilidades adicionales que se desbloquean con el calor (golpear con daño adicional con Cuadrado, realizar una patada derribadora más fuerte con Triángulo o, mi favorita, un Giant Swing con Círculo que es divertido de ver y útil contra varios enemigos cercanos). y el movimiento Finishing Hold, que te permite añadir un lanzamiento después de tus combos básicos para garantizar un gran daño, aunque este último solo se obtiene después de maximizar una de las estadísticas.

Hablando de calor, también es una mecánica clave aquí, ya que puede ser un potenciador pasivo (con las mejoras adecuadas) de tu poder de ataque o una puerta de entrada activa para usar un ataque más poderoso, como lanzar a un tipo contra una pared de cara, golpearlo con una bicicleta o cualquier otra arma, o pisotearle la cara contra el suelo.

Es un incentivo para luchar activamente con el fin de mantenerlo, y es satisfactorio cuando calientas a un enemigo hasta el olvido para luego golpear a otro y tenerlo listo de nuevo. Es especialmente útil para los jefes, ya que puedes realizar lanzamientos más fuertes (si se dejan lanzar), acciones de calentamiento con armas si tienden a esquivar mucho (ya que puedes usarlas sin combo, solo con estar a distancia con el calentamiento activo y el arma a mano) o acciones de pisotón.

Aunque desde el principio, el simple hecho de tener a un enemigo entre tus manos para estrellarlo contra la pared más cercana con un fuerte sonido y un efecto visual que enfatiza el dolor sigue siendo bastante satisfactorio de vez en cuando, hasta que tienes formas mucho más versátiles de aplastarlos en cualquier lugar lejos de una pared.

También están los movimientos que Sotaro Komaki puede enseñarte cuando subes de nivel ciertas estadísticas