Kurohyō: Ryū ga Gotoku Shinshō (クロヒョウ 龍が如く新章, lit. "Black Panther: Like a Dragon New Chapter") is a PlayStation Portable spin-off entry in the Yakuza series, following protagonist Tatsuya Ukyo.
Plot[]
September 22 2010, 17 year old violent street punk Tatsuya Ukyo attempts to rob a local loan shark company run by the chinese mafia, attempting to introduce himself as a member of the Tojo Clan tin order to scare them into giving him money. Things go wrong however when it turns out the man behind the loan shark company, Naoki Toda, is a Tojo Clan member himself. Realising his plan has gone wrong, Tatsuya attempts to flee, but is cornered and forced to fight his way out. Toda pulls a knife on Tatsuya, and Tatsuya accidentally kills him with a kick to the head.
Realising he'd just commited a murder, Tatsuya attempts to flee Kamurocho, but is knocked out with a stun gun whilst attempting to drop money off to his sister, and kidnapped. He is brought before Tojo Clan patriarch, Ryutaro Kuki, who has the entire murder on tape, threatening Tatsuya in facing jail time unless he does something for him. He takes him in an elevator, and they arrive at an underground fighting arena known as Dragon Heat.
Kuki, who was friends with Toda in the past, see's Tatsuya's fighting ability and offers him a deal; if Tatsuya can win 10 rounds in the underground, he will destroy the tape, Toda will be said to have simply gone missing and Tatsuya will win his freedom. If he doesn't, he hands the tape to the police and Tatsuya faces ten years jailtime. Tatsuya refuses, but Kuki leverages the deal further in his favour by threatening to not only kill him, but his sister if he refuses. Tatsuya still attempts to flee after beating up a few of Kuki's men, but is easily caught again thanks to a GPS on his phone and the sheer amount of men under Kuki's command.
With no other choice, Tatsuya is forced to compete in brutal underground fights against Kuki's fighters for the entertainment of the rich in an attempt to win his freedom.
Gameplay[]
Uniquely, this game utilises a fixed camera angle perspective around Kamurocho, similar to games such as Resident Evil during the exploration aspects. Like in all Yakuza titles there are many side missions to be found around the town, and many street brawls with punks to be had.
Unlike in the maingame Yakuza titles, this title focuses more on 1 vs 1 (or 1 vs 3 at most) brawling. There are no visible health bars during combat, so players must pay attention to the animations displayed by Tatsuya and his opponents to gauge how their health is. The player can, however, pause to view Tatsuya's health and use a health item at any point.
Additionally, Tatsuya and his opponents also have individual invisible health bars for their head, torso, arms and legs, with Tatsuya able to accumulate damage to these and it having an adverse effect on how battles go down.
- Head: Will cause dizziness. Occasionally characters who have head damage will hold their head as they try to correct this, leaving them vulnerable.
- Torso: Drains stamina. Being attacked in the chest will wind characters, making their stamina drain far faster in batte.
- Arms: Broken guard. Characters with arm damage won't be able to keep a solid guard against their opponents and their guard will break more easily.
- Legs: Knocked over easier. It takes less powerful blows to knock an enemy with damaged legs to the ground.
These injuries are separate from Tatsuya's health bar and must be fixed via First Aid items or levelling up which heals all injuries and fills his health bar to max.
Like other Yakuza protagonists, Kiryu, Majima and Kasuga, Tatsuya is capable of learning multiple fighting styles across the game. Tatsuya learns twenty martial arts techniques during the game starting with Street Brawling, but picking up Boxing, Ancient Martial Arts, Karate, Jiu-Jitsu, Professional Wrestling, Muay Thai, Lucha Libre, Military Kenpo, Ba Ji Quan, Mixed Martial Arts, Weapons Mania, Chinese Kenpo, Extreme God Hand, Extreme God Leg, Extreme Flexibility, Extreme Fortitude, Extreme Wild Dance, Extreme Awakening and Extreme Man, all of which can be levelled up through using the style repeatedly in street brawls or in the ring.
There are missions to learn additional secret abilities for each style by defeating a master in the particular martial arts. These can be levelled up to more useful and powerful versions at the Training Dojo for a fee.
Other media[]
A live-action adaption and a 3 volume manga were released in Japan in December 2010.
Trivia[]
- As Tatsuya is underage, he is only allowed to drink non-alcoholic beverages at hostess clubs.
- Kurohyō: Ryū ga Gotoku Shinshō and it's sequel Kurohyō 2: Ryū ga Gotoku Ashura hen never released in the west, although fan translations were released for both titles allowing western fans to experience the titles.
- The cutscenes are all done in watercoloured motion graphic novel style.
- In an interview with thegamer.com[1], Hiroyuki Sakamoto stated they have no plans to remake either of Tatsuya's games, stating they'd rather focus on the future of the Yakuza series instead.
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