Recent reviews by Buran

I don't usually write reviews but seeing the godawful remake leaks and reviews, and knowing this will get delisted in like 2 days, I decided to write a quick one whole-heartedly recommending this game if you got any sort of passing interest in the series. It's a decent entry point (being the oldest available Yakuza title on Steam) and in my opinion, one of the better games in the series despite the criticism you see online.

Heartwarming characters, and one of the best antagonists Yakuza has to offer. Combat it's not all that bad, yes it might be annoying how much enemies block but thankfully the game gives you ways around it, and honestly, worst case scenario you can just drop the difficulty down if you don't find yourself enjoying the combat that much. One of the better substories in the series too, yes I'm talking about the Cafe Alps substory, which by the way, for some godforsaken reason is getting cut in the demake (and a lot more too, remake goes from 100 to 31 substories, sasuga!). Story is decent too, has a few really emotional moments, but also a few dumb ones. And overall it feels... soulful? I know this word is overused these days but I can't find any other way to describe this game, specially when compared to the demake.

There's also the whole controversy with the sex pest actor they hired for the demake, don't wanna get too deep into it since I'd rather just talk about the games, but I'll mention it since I think it's important. Sega/RGG Studio hired a known sex offender (Kagawa) to play one of the characters (Hamazaki).

So yes, if you got any interest in this game, buy it quick before it gets delisted and replaced by the cheaply made, cash-grab demake, and this is like 20$ instead of the 60$ the demake is asking for, while possibly being superior in nearly every way, except maybeeeeee combat.