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The Good: Great premise that's gone untapped for too long; intense, great-looking hand-to-hand combat sequences are fun for a while; good-sized adventure complete with various side-missions and extras.
The Bad: Convoluted-but-interesting storyline hurt by one too many clichés; fetch-quest mission design results in a lot of running back and forth; combat gets very repetitive, no thanks to the small number of enemy types; noticeably lengthy and frequent loading times.
Yakuza is a commendable effort that doesn't quite coalesce into a completely satisfying experience. In the end, the simple and repetitive action would be easier to enjoy if the game's story were more focused and less contrived. Even so, and in spite of the English voice work, the distinctively Japanese setting and style of the game come across effectively and provocatively more often than not. Don't expect a one-of-a-kind gameplay experience from Yakuza, but the game captures enough cinematic drama and violence surrounding Japan's notorious organized crime families to be worthwhile.