So, this game should have been out a week ago, but it just came out this past Tuesday. I picked it up yesterday.

Kazuma is still pretty bad-ass, and the awesome combos don't need training to get. It feels a little bit slower, though; or, maybe I just over-hyped it for myself and ended up shooting myself in the foot.

Still an awesome game, though. Still full of enough creative spark to make me want to work some more on my Yakuza Gaijin screenplay.

Anyone who hasn't played the first game is already missing out. And it looks the same way with this game, too (I'm only four hours into it right now).

<3 Yakuza

I still have to beat the first one, but I'm loving every minute of it that I play. I'm still rather surprised that ALL those people walking in the city are rendered on a PS2.

I remember when I posted the Y2 screenshot of the double headkick, and you liked that screenshot. Did that inspire you to get the first game?

Anyway, I'm almost done with Y2; just three more chapters. And it's definitely gotten better as it went along. There were some formulaic elements which came from the first game (barging into the bad guys' main base in the third chapter and wrecking up on some stuff, fighting in the arena to get the guy to take your side, fighting some guy in the sports center, a level on the highway [which isn't a FPS this time; thank goddesses]), but a lot of it is more original and gets better throughout the game. There's also some references to the first game which are sorta funny.

Well, I beat it late last night/early this morning. I don't remember the last time I ever fought such a cheaterific final boss.

Hmm, I guess he's not so much cheaterific, so much as really annoying if you've never fought him before. Especially because he has a Final Attack which is instant death if you don't know what you're supposed to do.

All twenty-three of my continues were against him.

That sounds like the type of final boss I often long for.

Well, Gilgamesh, you can either find such final bosses in old school video games, or in Yakuza 2. Take your pick.

Well apparently the game got a European release, I've never seen it in stores here though. I'm not really interested enough to import it but if I find it I might give it a try.