In all honesty, it's probably more about honor and integrity, acceptance, and stopping to lend a fellow hand to those in need. Or maybe it's all about sitting back and accepting that it's super fun to play games at urinals that force me to be mindful of the strength of my pee stream. Not to mention you’ll also probably clear them out rather quickly anyway thanks to an early ability that marks all available Substories on your map.If being a member of the yakuza means that, at one point in my life I'll find myself squaring off against a room of diaper-clad adult men, I could toatlly rock the job, because that seems like cake. And even if they weren’t, they’re unlikely to burn you out since the game does a good job of spacing them out and not throwing too many at you at once. Fortunately, the ones that play out this way aren’t as numerous and they’re usually shorter in length too. Hilarity ensues.Īs you might have noticed, a common trend among many Substories is that their plots are often resolved through more fighting - a criticism I raised during my Kiwami review. He tries to leave, but the boss, offended by Kiryu’s unwillingness to accept his goodwill, picks a fight with him. After a disagreement with some yakuza, their boss attempts to make things right by inviting him to his “favorite place” which turns out to be a parlor dealing in psychosexual infantilism. Meanwhile, another one reveals his crippling lack of knowledge when it comes to most things not concerning the underworld. Unfortunately, he didn’t read the fine print and learns all too late about the ridiculous surcharges attached and high cancellation fee, leaving him with little choice but to opt out using his fists. For instance, one pokes fun at Kiryu’s technological illiteracy when a sale representative tricks him into buying what he believes is a high-quality modem. Regardless of the tone, these Substories make total sense within the world of Yakuza and are ones that a player is likely to come across in their own. These aren’t stories devoid of context either. The only downside is that many of the stronger techniques have inflated costs to compensate - they’re worth it, though. Not only can all five be obtained from street fights by default, but some restaurants can give as much as 90 exp in a single attribute (this doesn’t even take food combos into account).

The same exp system from 6 is used here, but it’s far easier to amass the various attributes needed to buy the skills you want. With all these techniques at his disposal, Kiryu feels like a genuine powerhouse and it’s not hard for him to reach that point either. Throwing them through the window of the closest convenience store and sticking their head into a microwave oven is always an option (and my personal favorite), but why not mix things up by using some ancient martial arts taught to you by Komaki or Granny White, or maybe play dirty by using some pliers or a stun gun? However, thanks to the numerous heat actions and techniques in general that Kiryu can unlock, along with the ability to not just use various weapons in battle, but also stash away the ones he “finds” for future use, you’ll eventually find that there are still plenty of ways to dispatch whatever thugs, nouveau rich or yakuza come his way. It’s a bummer, but there’s still only one combat style.

Yakuza 2 game