All I rememeber is one or more game reviewer going "If you whine about this and don't get the game you're an idiot." but to this day I have no interest of playing Yakuza 3 in it's current form. You could send me the game and your PS3 right along with it and I'd be like "Oh! Thanks!" but put it away in the basement right away.
Yeah I remember that. I'm conflicted. On the one hand, I saw no reason not to buy it since I really wanted to play it in English, and I'd waited quite a while for it. On the other hand complaining is what the fans should have done (and did do) and its resulted in 4 not getting cut to pieces (its only missing the opening song and AnswerXAnswer, though that'd have been a translators nightmare to do!)
But I see 3-5 getting remasters on the PS4, and assuming they get released outside of Japan (and why not?) we'd get the complete version of 3 this time which would be excellent. Plus just thinking about a version of 5 not constrained by the hardware - so a much better frame rate (it was the weakest of the bunch frame rate wise), and much better texturing (it was rather bad on the PS3) topped off with a res boost would be glorious.
Anyway, back to fantasizing over Yakuza 2's remake potential:
The map in 6 removed certain places (like Purgatory and the fighting arena). Both play a strong part in the main story for 2 so no way they can cut them this time. Plus a fully explorable Osaka in the dragon engine? Yes please!
Combat is the other "?" for me - as 6's felt great but just lacked the moves and heat moves to make it as great as 0-Kiwami which had huge moves lists. Originally when 2 was released it boasted far superior combat to 1 - it got a ton more heat moves among other things so I'm really hoping this will be the case for Kiwami 2 as well. Also, bring back weapon modding, wasn't a fan in 3-4 but loved it in 5 and up so it needs to happen. At least give me tons of weapons again.
Also, I can't imagine playing 2 with all the benefits of the dragon engine. The lack of loading, seamless nature to explore the game world, many of those boss fights and encounters... I really hope that December date is accurate, as I'm totally importing day 1 if true as I can't wait for a translation even if its only a few months away (seeing as things have gotten way better in that department lately).