Yakuza, originally released in Japan as Like a Dragon is an action-adventure game developed and published by Sega for the PlayStation 2. Yakuza was released in Japan in 2005, and outside Japan the following year. The story follows a yakuza named Kazuma Kiryu, who, after spending ten years in jail for a crime he did not commit, learns that 10 billion yen has been stolen from the Tojo clan, which the criminal underworld is searching for. He finds an orphaned girl Haruka who is being targeted, as she is believed to have the key for the Tojo clan's lost money, and he resolves to protect her. The game takes place in Kamurocho, which is a realistic recreation of Tokyo's Kabukicho.
Yakuza is an open world action-adventure game with RPG elements: the player gains experience from combat, which can be used to level up Kazuma's stats and increase his fighting capabilities. In order to finance the game's expensive production, Sega contracted a tie-in campaign with famous Japanese companies.
Yakuza was first announced in August 2005, although its genesis was in 2003, when Sega approached novelist Hase Seishu with the story of Yakuza, who was hired to help write the script. |