I saw it yesterday for 10 bucks. Is it worth that?

I bought Yakuza 2 a while ago and just now started to play it. I really like it, but is it worth getting Yakuza 1 even though the story has been spoiled for me? It's getting quite rare over here lately with the price increasing from 10 euros to 30 for a used copy.

You can actually just buy Yakuza 3 and have the game re-cap the story for you through cut-scenes.  You don't REALLY have to play 1 and 2 unless you want to.

The original Yakuza has an English voice cast and the controls aren't so hot. For $10, you can't go wrong, but my advice would be to pick up Yakuza 2, which has a very thorough recap of Yakuza 1s story, while also eschewing the English VO for the original and more authentic Japanese VO with English subtitles. Also, the fighting mechanics feel a lot better in 2. The story line is great, and the plethora of side missions are super addictive if you're into to those sort of things. Yakuza 3 for the PS3 is also another game I'd highly recommend.

I'm playing through it now. I'm about 6 hours in. The game is alright. The mission progression is rather linear but it lets you explore a bit between missions. The combat is enjoyable enough, which is good because there are random battles. The voice acting is bad, so I would recommend turning on the subtitles and muting the sound. For a five year old playstation 2 game it holds up okay.

I'm at chapter 7 I think in Yakuza 2. Will the game open up at some point? I want to go back to Kansai to do stuff I could not afford when I was there during the early game.

"I'm at chapter 7 I think in Yakuza 2. Will the game open up at some point? I want to go back to Kansai to do stuff I could not afford when I was there during the early game. "

Almost 2 years late, but I thought Yakuza was pretty lame. Had some potential, but all in all, I didn't think it was very good. And the background noise looped the same sound over and over again every couple seconds in the city, which was certainly migraine-inducing.

" Almost 2 years late, but I thought Yakuza was pretty lame. Had some potential, but all in all, I didn't think it was very good. And the background noise looped the same sound over and over again every couple seconds in the city, which was certainly migraine-inducing. "