Black and Blue Panther

First, since everyone else will be telling you the same thing, vote... preferably for someone without a vacuum for a soul. We could use far fewer sociopaths in our government right now.

Second, I recently received that PSP spin-off of Yakuza in the mail, and I've spent enough time with Kurohyo: Ryu Ga Gotoku Shinsho (we'll just shorten that to Black Panther from this point forward) to discuss it at length here on this blog. 

It's fascinating how much Black Panther strives to be like its big brothers on home consoles, while working just as hard to establish its own, darker tone. Yes, Kiryu from the main series is a made man, a yakuza member who's seen his share of fights and committed his share of dirty deeds. However, deep down he's actually a pretty nice guy. He's as likely to be caught doing favors for the residents of Kamurocho as he is busting heads, and he even retires from the mob in Yakuza 3 to raise a house full of orphans. 

On the other hand, Black Panther's lead Tatsuya is more likely to create orphans than care for them. He's a no-good punk with a gold-lined jacket and a disturbing fondness for violence. When that bloodlust gets the better of him and he kills a high-ranking member of the Chinese mafia, Tatsuya is cornered by the dead man's associates and given two options... either fight to earn his freedom in a series of underground matches, or get ratted out to the cops and spend the rest of his life in prison.

Streets so bustling with people they
might leave you agoraphobic.

For the rest of the game, Tatsuya is the mob's toy... and any attempts to escape their grasp are quickly thwarted. I worried that he was going to be stuck in that dank basement forever, but after his first victory in the blood-stained arena, the mafia loosens its grip on Tatsuya's choke chain and lets him explore the streets of Kamurocho. Pop into the Poppo for a C.C. Lemon and browse a few magazines, grab a bite at the fast food restaurant, even try your hand at the claw catcher in Club Sega... just be back later in the evening to shatter some bones in the octagon. We're watching you.

When strolling through Kamurocho, Black Panther feels a lot like Yakuza, albeit with some annoying caveats. It's pretty awesome that the streets are absolutely packed with people... you'll see a dozen or more tourists, drunk salarymen, and thugs wandering around, and if they get in your way, just keep running and you'll push your way through the crowd. On the down side, the backgrounds are all still images, and it's likely that you'll leave one static screen only to be facing an entirely different direction in the next. Even with the map on the bottom left corner, you will get disoriented, and that's not at all helpful when you're being pursued by rival gang members or cops.

The first of many, many... many fight scenes.

While stuck in the basement, waiting for your turn to flatten some noses in the ring, Black Panther alternates between hand-drawn, minimally animated cut scenes (way too lengthy, way too unskippable) and commendably deep, gorgeously illustrated fights. Tatsuya can charge up his punches and kicks, catch incoming fists for a punishing reversal, dodge attacks with a slick slow motion flourish, and in keeping with Yakuza tradition, "heat" up and end the fight with a devastating super move. Fights aren't just limited to the ring... you can also battle members of the D.I.S. and Diablo gangs in Kamurocho, but the load times are so long and the battles end so quickly that it's probably best to wait for the battles mandated by the storyline. At least in the easy mode, the punks on the street cave after just a few hits. Your opponents in the arena will offer a more satisfying scrap.

That's as much as I can tell you about Black Panther with my limited knowledge of Japanese. The game is thick with kanji, and you're going to have a hell of a time following the story or even reading item names if you're not a native speaker. It's certainly playable with a little practice, and you get the gist of each character's personality from the cut scenes (did I mention these were way too long...?), but it nevertheless leaves a lot of blanks that won't be filled in until a fan-made English translation is released. With all the kanji used in this game, you might be waiting a while for one.

What I've played of Black Panther strongly suggests that Sega shouldn't have slept on a Western localization. It's not just a solid off-shoot of the Yakuza series with the astonishing graphics you'd expect from a late PSP release... it strikes me as more appealing to Americans than the flagship series, thanks to its grittier setting, a younger protagonist, and a heavy metal soundtrack that adds impact to every crushing blow. Not that the game is hurting for impact, mind you... just check out some of the fine finishers you can perform, either on your own or with a computer controller partner. These look like they hurt... not as much as Sega's decision not to publish Black Panther and its sequel in the west, but still pretty painful.

Special thanks to Black Panther's Wikipedia entry and the Yakuza Wikia for clarifying the storyline in Black Panther and for providing a refresher on the Yakuza series respectively.