Man, everytime I remember how Kurohyou was sidelined by Sega and never released outside Japan makes me so mad, that game was one of those games that even with limitations due to the console it came out at you can tell was made by people who had passion and wanted to make a great game that people could play, learn and enjoy. 

Unironically Kurohyou was the first peak of Yakuza before 5 and 0 came out, it had the most well written and deepest story up to that point, staying solid and grounded through most of it, the writting was great with metaphors to violence, abuse, depression and neglecting to represent how cruel the streets of Kamurocho can be for the normal person or for an outcast like Tatsuya, who probably was the best written character up to that point and still is one to this day, unlike the characters of Mixtape who are annoying and act like rebel assholes, Tatsuya had actual reasons to be who he was, act the way he did and yet through it all he actually developed and grew by the end of the game, something Mixtape couldn’t do, it also had a gritty and great manga animated cutscenes that helped the writting further.

Even with limitations, Kurohyou added 20 fighting styles, each with their own gimmick and playstyle, made them challenging to unlock by gaining exp to make the game more playable, made money actually important and useful rather than something you use to buy healing items by helping you train and become stronger at the dojo, added jobs as minigames to gain money and gain some extra exp, included around 50 to 70 substories that helped expand the world of Kamurocho, showed us how Tatsuya seemed the world around how he grew and changed his pov in life as each chapter of the story passed, not gonna mention the OST, which slaps harder than la chancla of youre mom.

Overall, what a shame games like Kurohyou get forgotten or sidelined while mid industry plant games like Mixtape are being called GOTy but I’m also glad people who have played Kurohyou realize the potential this game had and how its one of those games in the franchise that the word peak can actually be applied to.

An actual 10/10 gem that was forgotten vs Industry Plant slop