With the recent price drop, I finally picked up Yakuza: Dead Souls :D.
When I heard that there was a big emphasis on shooting in the game, I was pretty worried. I mean, there were guns in the other games, but the mechanics were pretty basic, and not really a replacement for a good old fashioned jump kick. The Japanese demo didn't really make me feel much better about the emphasis on shooting either. That mixed with the mixed impressions online, left me with some pretty low expectations.
That said, I'm loving the game. The default controlls in the North American version work really well. The strafe and shoot works really well for groups of Zombies/ charging through in a hurry. The stopping for precision shots works just as well as in RE4/5. It adds that sense of urgency when a zombie suddenly charges at you.
One of my favourite parts about the game is a pretty little touch. The zombies don't bite you to hurt you. It's one of those things that's always bugged me about zombie games. If the zombie bites you in Resident Evil, or Dead Rising for example, it hurts you, but you don't have to worry about turning into a zombie, unless it happens in a cutscene. In Yakuza: Dead Souls, the zombies will swipe at you, and knock you around, but when they go to bite you, it shows you struggling to not let them do it, while your health wears down. I thought it was such a perfect way to fix that problem.
Another small thing that sticks out is the way the game will warn you of zombies that are behind you. If you're fighting a swarm in front of you, you'll see their glowing eyes on the bottom of your screen. Not a huge deal, but it does wonders to combat the problem of needing to worry about the camera position.
The story's been pretty awesome so far. I'm about halfway through Majima's story. His reaction to the whole situation is just perfect.
