is an action-adventure video game developed and published by Sega for the PlayStation 2. The second installment of the Yakuza series and the sequel to Yakuza, it was released on December 7, 2006, in Japan and in September 2008 in North America and Europe. The game focuses on the former yakuza Kazuma Kiryu who receives a request for help from his former group, the Tojo Clan yakuza of eastern Japan, to stabilize relationships with the Omi Alliance group of western Japan. Across Kiryu's journey, he learns of a Korean mafia group linked with both the Omi and his own past, and becomes the rival of the Omi's "Dragon of Kansai", Ryuji Goda.
Yakuza 2 introduced several new gameplay features. Sega wished to improve the fighting engine based on fan input to provide a more rich experience. The story was aimed to feature a deep adult love story, something not seen in the previous game. Additionally, for the western versions the original Japanese audio was kept in contrast to the previous game which contained English audio.
Critical reception to Yakuza 2 was positive, with reviewers praising the presentation and fighting system. Yakuza 2 was followed up by a spinoff, Yakuza Kenzan, in 2008, and then by a direct sequel, Yakuza 3, in 2009. A PlayStation 4 remake of the game that utilized the engine of Yakuza 6: The Song of Life, named Yakuza Kiwami 2 (a sequel to the remake of the original Yakuza), was released in 2017, and later ported to Windows and Xbox One.
Plot
Setting
Half of the game takes place in Tokyo's Shinjuku ward, most noticeably a recreation of Shinjuku's red-light district Kabukichō renamed Kamurocho.
The other half takes place in Osaka, with the fictitious Sotenbori and Shinseicho areas modeled after Osaka's respectively Dōtonbori and Shinsekai districts. Although these areas were recreated as fictionalized versions, many real life landmarks remain such as Dōtonbori's Sammy Ebisu Plaza (サミー戎プラザ) and Shinsekai's Tsutenkaku Tower (通天閣) and Billiken (ビリケン).
Story
In December 2006, Kazuma Kiryu and Haruka Sawamura are living a peaceful life, but Tojo Clan chairman Yukio Terada appears and asks for his help in preventing a war between the Tojo and the Osaka-based Omi Alliance. The group is ambushed by Omi assassins and Terada is fatally shot, asking Kiryu to negotiate peace in his place. Kiryu recruits former comrade Daigo Dojima to become the new chairman, and the two travel to Osaka, where Kiryu forms a rivalry with the Omi chairman Jin Goda's son, Ryuji. Ryuji refuses the idea of a truce between the Omi and the Tojo and attempts to stage a coup, but they are interrupted and arrested by the Osaka police, led by Detective Kaoru Sayama. Sayama makes a deal with Kiryu to help him stop the Omi threat in exchange for information on the Tojo, as she believes they are connected to her parents' disappearance as a child.
Kiryu and Sayama discover that Omi patriarchs Ryo Takashima and Toranosuke Sengoku have placed hits on them, and that Daigo and Jin Goda have been kidnapped. The two escape to Tokyo, where they find Detectives Makoto Date and Jiro Kawara investigating a bombing of the Kazama family offices by the Jingweon Mafia, a Korean syndicate thought to have been massacred by the Tojo in 1980. Fearing an invasion by the Omi and Jingweon, Kiryu recruits former allies Goro Majima and the Florist of Sai for help and rescues Daigo as well as preventing a coup staged by Koji Shindo, the second patriarch of the Nishikiyama Family. During Terada's funeral, Ryuji warns the Tojo that he will give them three days to mourn, after which his men will attack Kamurocho.
Kiryu and Sayama learn that three Jingweon men survived the massacre and went into hiding. The two find a survivor in Osaka, who claims that the Jingweon will not stop until either they or the Tojo are destroyed. The survivor also reveals that the Jingweon boss's wife Sueyon and her child survived the massacre thanks to Kawara, but is assassinated before he can reveal more. Sengoku kidnaps Haruka to trap Kiryu, but Kiryu defeats all of Sengoku's forces. Sengoku attempts to flee, only for Ryuji to kill him, out of disgust for Sengoku's willingness to hurt children.