Ryu Ga Gotoku (Yakuza)
Released by Sega for the PS2, Yakuza is a 3-rd person adventure game which has been said by many players, a spiritual sequel to Sega's previous Adventure franchise, Shenmue. The game itself takes place in the Japanese underworld, involving street gangs, drug trafficking, the sex trade and of course, the Yakuza. Our hero is Kazuma Kiryu, who willingly takes the fall for his best friend for killing their boss. After coming out of Prison, Kazuma is left putting together the pieces of the last 10 years to find out what happened to his friends.
This game even makes shopping for groceries look good!
Sega is one of the biggest names in Japanese gaming, and it's easy to see why this game has rapidly attained the same level of fame as Square-Enix's 'Dragon Quest'. The gameplay itself is a very deep beat-em-up affair with slight RPG elements such a building up skills and a multitude of sidequests which range from dating hostess girls to winning a game of Mahjong, the presentation, atmosphere and ambience work exceedingly well in telling the story of a hardened Yakuza on his quest for answers and subsequent revenge. As one of Japan's current most popular franchises, this lives up to the hype.
Hybrid Heaven
This game was released by Konami, another highly acclaimed Japanese developer famous for their Silent Hill, Metal Gear and Bemani franchises. What this game had going for it were the epic trailers of a fight scene followed by a man jumping over a ledge that were playing at gaming conventions in the late 90's, therefore sparking discussion on the further untapped potential of the Nintendo 64 as well as helping the masses of optimistic fanboys feel better for Nintendo continuing to make games on cartridges.
Not quite what you were expecting now, was it!?
Unfortunately in Hybrid Heaven's case, it was all a lie, as it turns out the trailer that was shown was CGI footage that the N64 would never be able to handle in real-time. And the game itself is hugely underwhelming. The combat was a mixture of real-time movement combined with menu-based combat choices which involved the player picking what side they were using (left or right), the height of the attack (high, middle or low) and the type of attack (punch, kick or grab). Everything else was conveyed by a clunky control scheme and messy camera angles. At the end of the day the only redeeming feature is if you're a 'Metal Gear' junkie as the main character, Johnny Slater, is a recurring joke character in the MGS series.
Thank you Konami, for realising the error of your ways and for keeping quiet about this abomination of a title.
Winner: Yakuza
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