literally soul vs. soulless. every single bit of the original's presentation has been crushed into some sloppy paste. whatever it can't recycle from yakuza 6 is recycled from yakuza 0 and then recycled from the PS2 game, and everything else that's actually original is horrifically unpolished even by this series' standards.
if slapping PS2 animations on 2017 models, gutting set pieces, substituting Norihiko Hibino's score (MGS2 and 3 composer) for dull song loops, and awkwardly crowbarring in uninteresting side content into the main story is your idea of a good remake then you should probably be put out back and shot
if slapping PS2 animations on 2017 models, gutting set pieces, substituting Norihiko Hibino's score (MGS2 and 3 composer) for dull song loops, and awkwardly crowbarring in uninteresting side content into the main story is your idea of a good remake then you should probably be put out back and shot
I wish I gave the game 5 stars. It was for a while, but I can still confidently say it's a benchmark of the genre. Kiwami 2 rejects its modest PS2 origins and manages to embrace its spirit in the process. Playing this gave me the feeling that what I played the day before was something I had done 20 years ago beat by beat, little by little. This mirrors what Kiwami 2's story is about. Kiryu is pulled back in to be a criminal syndicate's wheelchair, and finds a fitting end, only for... yknow, there are sequels, so it's not gonna be a conclusive ending. I've managed to do all substories but the cabaret ones, speaking of it's absurd of much that mode pulled me in. For, like, an hour.
It's a long game, so I should have a lot to say... a lot of it was whopping ass. There's great joy in managing the skill tree almost as much as the fighting in itself. And huh, the ending does similar mistakes the original did, but I'm under NDA I can't reveal further. Yakuza once again a gold mine of screenshots. The quirky and the silly, their stocks are through the roof. What's even better is how they sometimes make you stop and accept profound wisdom from the mentally deranged. At some point, Kiryu even blurts out that some thing or other is, that's right, like a dragon and I couldn't help but clap. Tell it how it is, Dame Da Yakuza! (I'll never be able to make a Yakuza review without alluding to da dame joke)
It's a long game, so I should have a lot to say... a lot of it was whopping ass. There's great joy in managing the skill tree almost as much as the fighting in itself. And huh, the ending does similar mistakes the original did, but I'm under NDA I can't reveal further. Yakuza once again a gold mine of screenshots. The quirky and the silly, their stocks are through the roof. What's even better is how they sometimes make you stop and accept profound wisdom from the mentally deranged. At some point, Kiryu even blurts out that some thing or other is, that's right, like a dragon and I couldn't help but clap. Tell it how it is, Dame Da Yakuza! (I'll never be able to make a Yakuza review without alluding to da dame joke)
Kiryu and Sayama really should have fucked
This one’s fine, I guess.
I do understand why older fans probably don’t like the Kiwami games. Certain moods aren’t carried over when you compare cutscenes, whether through presentation or sound choice. Sotenbori in the Dragon Engine (an engine I’m also mixed on in general) has to be made with the intent to reuse that version of the city for the next ten years of Yakuza games. That means they don’t have the time or the interest in capturing the original Yakuza 2’s noir vibe. I understand that from a production standpoint. Still a bummer.
But also, I just really did not enjoy this story. For how much Ryuji Goda was hyped up, other games have just done… better antagonists since then. Kaoru starts as a strong new addition to the cast before rapidly losing her speak. And beyond that, there’s only so many “Secret Korean Mafia” plot twists this game can handle before you really have to sit back and go. Goddamn. What’s going on there.
But on the other hand, I still played 70 hours of it, so Yakuza is still working it’s charms on me.
I do understand why older fans probably don’t like the Kiwami games. Certain moods aren’t carried over when you compare cutscenes, whether through presentation or sound choice. Sotenbori in the Dragon Engine (an engine I’m also mixed on in general) has to be made with the intent to reuse that version of the city for the next ten years of Yakuza games. That means they don’t have the time or the interest in capturing the original Yakuza 2’s noir vibe. I understand that from a production standpoint. Still a bummer.
But also, I just really did not enjoy this story. For how much Ryuji Goda was hyped up, other games have just done… better antagonists since then. Kaoru starts as a strong new addition to the cast before rapidly losing her speak. And beyond that, there’s only so many “Secret Korean Mafia” plot twists this game can handle before you really have to sit back and go. Goddamn. What’s going on there.
But on the other hand, I still played 70 hours of it, so Yakuza is still working it’s charms on me.
This review contains spoilers
Majima and Yuki coming back to help with Club Sunshine might be my favorite character callback in gaming history
This review contains spoilers
Ryuji Goda (Japanese: 郷田龍司, Hepburn: Goda Ryuji), is a fictional character from Sega's action-adventure game Yakuza series, first appearing in 2006's Yakuza 2, and also appearing in its 2017 remake, Yakuza Kiwami 2. Goda also appears as one of the main characters in the sixth installment of the series, Yakuza: Dead Souls, which does not follow the series' canon and is set in an alternate timeline where Goda survives his wounds at the end of Yakuza 2. Goda is most recently featured as the protagonist of a prequel story arc in Ryu ga Gotoku ONLINE, a freemium collectible card game spin-off exclusive to Japan.
Within the series, Goda is the patriarch of the Go-Ryu Clan, an organized crime yakuza group that is a subsidiary of the Omi Alliance, the dominant yakuza association based in Osaka. Ryuji is the adopted son of Jin Goda, chairman of the Omi Alliance, and is often referred to as the "Dragon of Kansai" (関西の龍, Kansai no Ryū) due to the tattoo of a golden yellow dragon on his back. He expressed dissatisfaction towards the sobriquet however, as he believes that there could only be "one true dragon" in Japan. To this end, his primary motivation in Yakuza 2 is to defeat series protagonist Kazuma Kiryu, the "Dragon of Dojima", who is presented as his premier rival. Goda is voiced by Masami Iwasaki in all media.
Within the series, Goda is the patriarch of the Go-Ryu Clan, an organized crime yakuza group that is a subsidiary of the Omi Alliance, the dominant yakuza association based in Osaka. Ryuji is the adopted son of Jin Goda, chairman of the Omi Alliance, and is often referred to as the "Dragon of Kansai" (関西の龍, Kansai no Ryū) due to the tattoo of a golden yellow dragon on his back. He expressed dissatisfaction towards the sobriquet however, as he believes that there could only be "one true dragon" in Japan. To this end, his primary motivation in Yakuza 2 is to defeat series protagonist Kazuma Kiryu, the "Dragon of Dojima", who is presented as his premier rival. Goda is voiced by Masami Iwasaki in all media.
Confesso que eu estava esperando esse jogo ser bem mais ou menos, só que minhas expectativas simplesmente mudaram ao decorrer que fui jogando. Podemos dizer que dos Yakuza que joguei até agora, só perde para 0.
A história desse jogo é muito foda ta, é plot atrás de plot, eu senti muita falta de lutas marcantes que tem nos outros que joguei, e uma coisa que notei dos outros e que me fez abaixar um pouco a nota é que sistema de combate apesar de não ter tanta mudança nos outros eu achei aquela tela de tu fica colocando os ponto bem chatinha, prefiro o modo antigo. Mano, os mini games de tu administrar cabarés são muito foda kkkkkkk eu passo horas nisso.
Resumindo, apenas joguem essa belezura.
A história desse jogo é muito foda ta, é plot atrás de plot, eu senti muita falta de lutas marcantes que tem nos outros que joguei, e uma coisa que notei dos outros e que me fez abaixar um pouco a nota é que sistema de combate apesar de não ter tanta mudança nos outros eu achei aquela tela de tu fica colocando os ponto bem chatinha, prefiro o modo antigo. Mano, os mini games de tu administrar cabarés são muito foda kkkkkkk eu passo horas nisso.
Resumindo, apenas joguem essa belezura.
The story is cool, the graphics are beautiful imo (especially in osaka) and the dragon engine is just super funny.
Absolutely dreadful
I haven't seen a group of people hate a tower this much since the early 2000s
Shiny grease covered facsimile of a a pretty good game, disintegrated into a semi-hollowed shell that sparkles with shaders and bleeds out most of the atmosphere and function of the game that it is built upon.
Some quests are cut, and instead of being pleasant discoveries that you find and find solutions to as you explore are linear fetchquests with markers for every step, the essence of Yakuza 2, where Kiryuu gets better at combat and things by simply living, watching VHSs, and engaging with the world, is almost entire gone.
Even things like rain are gone from regular gameplay, and entire, beautiful area was cut and instead replaced by extremely hap-hazard running around quest, instead of the original's simplistic attempt at Detective work.
And probably the most obvious change, the perfect jazz score, was stripped away and replaced by really poorly chosen pop rock that devours any semblence of feeling that the scenes had.
Finishing this game gives me a distinct feeling of needing to take a shower.
Some quests are cut, and instead of being pleasant discoveries that you find and find solutions to as you explore are linear fetchquests with markers for every step, the essence of Yakuza 2, where Kiryuu gets better at combat and things by simply living, watching VHSs, and engaging with the world, is almost entire gone.
Even things like rain are gone from regular gameplay, and entire, beautiful area was cut and instead replaced by extremely hap-hazard running around quest, instead of the original's simplistic attempt at Detective work.
And probably the most obvious change, the perfect jazz score, was stripped away and replaced by really poorly chosen pop rock that devours any semblence of feeling that the scenes had.
Finishing this game gives me a distinct feeling of needing to take a shower.
Was playing a fun game of "Where's Daigo?" in the finale, sadly I didn't win that round. Which is ironic, because that's exactly what Daigo would do.
I'm not qualified to say whether this is a faithful interpretation of the material present in the original Yakuza 2, but boy is this a treat for those who started the series with 0.
Just about everything here is an improvement over Kiwami 1 with the sole exception of the combat: the physics are satisfying in a goofy way, but the stripped-down combat (one fighting style) removes a lot of the dynamism the fighting could have in 0 or K1 if you bothered to swap styles mid-fight. It's still funny throwing people through the windows of a restaurant though and having all the employees at, uh, "Wild Jackson" get mad at you.
The new engine is incredible - some of the face rigging is brought over wholesale and can look kinda weird if you're inclined to notice that kinda thing, but everything else is incredible. People say this kind of thing a lot but every time I revisit this game I actually get chills walking through Sotenbori at night. Walking around in first person, entering buildings without a loading screen, it pushes the game over the edge from "a lovingly crafted diorama of Kabukicho" into being a real place that you can visit just by firing up the game.
The story? It feels very mid 00's, and I don't mean that as a criticism. Every game in the Yakuza series is a little corny, the protag stumbling into these moments of superhuman triumphs a little too earnestly, and the plot here shows its age because they haven't scaled back the camp as much as they have in games with newer plots. It's done very well though - it starts off fairly self-serious before taking a turn about halfway through into hammy medium-budget-action-movie-with-drama-elements, and the characters are strong enough to prop up cutscenes that might otherwise be rather dry.
I love this game to death. It's not perfect by any means, but even its flaws are charming.
Just about everything here is an improvement over Kiwami 1 with the sole exception of the combat: the physics are satisfying in a goofy way, but the stripped-down combat (one fighting style) removes a lot of the dynamism the fighting could have in 0 or K1 if you bothered to swap styles mid-fight. It's still funny throwing people through the windows of a restaurant though and having all the employees at, uh, "Wild Jackson" get mad at you.
The new engine is incredible - some of the face rigging is brought over wholesale and can look kinda weird if you're inclined to notice that kinda thing, but everything else is incredible. People say this kind of thing a lot but every time I revisit this game I actually get chills walking through Sotenbori at night. Walking around in first person, entering buildings without a loading screen, it pushes the game over the edge from "a lovingly crafted diorama of Kabukicho" into being a real place that you can visit just by firing up the game.
The story? It feels very mid 00's, and I don't mean that as a criticism. Every game in the Yakuza series is a little corny, the protag stumbling into these moments of superhuman triumphs a little too earnestly, and the plot here shows its age because they haven't scaled back the camp as much as they have in games with newer plots. It's done very well though - it starts off fairly self-serious before taking a turn about halfway through into hammy medium-budget-action-movie-with-drama-elements, and the characters are strong enough to prop up cutscenes that might otherwise be rather dry.
I love this game to death. It's not perfect by any means, but even its flaws are charming.
Yakuza Kiwami 2 is a Yakuza game through and through, meaning that a S tier mob story that is topped with fantastic interpersonal dilemma and nuance is also coupled with a downtrodden combat system that made me sing "Baka Mitai" everytime I got into a boss fight.
Kiwami 2 is a great story, following up on the events of Kiwami 1 while also carrying over key narratives and characters from 0. Kiryu is back as multi-faceted protagonist we grew to know and love in the previous two games, but this time we see a different side of him; the romantic. I like the time that RGG Studio takes in setting up Kiryu in a style that is almost unheard of in the gaming industry. In his first (canonical) journey he's a hungry hatchling in the mob world, growing up around the Kazama family as a strong and respectable man, but not quite there in all the facets of a true leader. In Kiwami 1, we see Kiryu really become the Dragon of Dojima and an honored man amongst his comrades. In Kiwami 2 he takes another leap into becoming the effective Patron Saint of Kamurocho and unlocks the ability to love. I personally believe that a lot of games (and media in general) fumble romance, either jumping into it too quick or taking on an awkwardly juvenile angle at it, but Kiwami 2 made it feel authentic.
The story jumps the player between the familiar locations of Sotenbori and Kamurocho with a fairly even mix until the later stages of the game. Even though Kamurocho is fun and teeming with life, the changing of scenery is appreciated to ensure that the game's pacing feels fresh throughout. There are new foes and familiar faces abound, with characters from the storied Omi Alliance and Tojo Clan taking center stage for the entierity of the game. It's pretty much unecessary to talk about the excellence that RGG holds in creating a narrative that excels this well in establishing conflict and consquence between criminal organizations, but boy do they do it again. Kiwami 2 has the player analyzing and second guessing everybody they come across, learning piecemeal over the sixteen chapters who can be trusted and which people really sowed the seeds of war. This story brings a plethora of new characters into the mix and merges their stories in with those that are already involved in the series, another element that long running franchises outside of Yakuza seem to not be able to grasp fully. I loved being able to piece together and guess at where the story would be, practically at the edge of my seat through each story cutscene and conversation because I knew it would add some serious gravity and impact to the narrative at large. I was very glad that Kiwami 2 resolves itself quite well, both in the game's main story and addtionally provided Majima Saga, the latter of which provides some great context to Goro Majima's relationships in Yakuza 0.
To that point, one of my major qualms with Kiwami 1 was the discredit it did to what was a very in depth and captivating Majima in Yakuza 0. While still slapstick a bit (see scene of him slamming his head into a desk ad nauseum,) Goro brings back some of that 0 swagger and intrigue that he used to have. He's not really an ally of Kiryu per se, but he is cognizant of the need for a united Tojo Clan, Kamurocho, and the implications that an imbalance would bring to the world of the Yakuza. His intelligence and cunning reappears and I was greatly happy to see that.
Okay, it's now time for my tidbit on the combat which is uh, yikes. I figured that the jump from the Yakuza 0 engine to the Yakuza 6 engine might re-fresh the combat to make it feel better... and it kinda does? No longer do you switch styles and level up a skill tree like in the previous two titles in favor of a massive stat book and a single brawler stance. On paper I like that because I pretty much only used the brawler in 0 and Kiwami 1, but I felt like the experience gain and cavernous depth to skills in Kiwami 2 left a lot to be desired. I put most of my experience gained into raw skills (defense, heat, health, damage) when I could, but I had no idea on the legitimacy of doing so instead of jumping into upgrading the other skills. Why is that really so? Because weapons are so extremely broken that I bypassed using or learning new skills in favour of just executing heat actions on swords, bats, and police batons that would nuke boss health bars. I learned quickly bosses felt cheap and way too difficult like they did in Kiwami 1 so I consulted the internet for tips. Once I beat the first "real" boss after hording weapons in the room previous I felt like the devs got a little lazy in crafting a captivating combat experience. Yakuza is a series with swagger dripping at the seams, why can't they just make boss combat... kind of fun? It feels more like a chore, especially with how much you are tasked to go through it as the player. in Yakuza 0 (which I speak on in my review,) combat is boring but at least it's quick to learn and the enemies feel mostly fair. In Kiwami 1 and 2, bosses neglect hit stun, knock Kiryu across the arena plenty (thanks to the ragdoll effect in the new engine,) and deal crazy damage. I didn't stress boss fights yet I did shrug my shoulders each time because I knew it was just an item check.
Music is again great in a Yakuza title, with the recurring main theme by SiM becoming a great vehicle for emotional scenes and moments within the game. I'm going to listen to that track a loooooooooooooooooooooooooooot for the foreseeable future, and I was glad to see it was by a band still making great tunes (like the Rumbling for Attack on Titan.)
Kiwami 2 is absolutely stunning from a visual perspective, I spent a decent amount of time in the first person camera just walking around Kamurocho staring at all the pretty neons and other citizens walking by. When a game succeeds in making a city feel alive and real, it does a number into making that experience feel memorable. I'll forever remember the sights, sounds, and characters I witnessed as I waltzed around Tokyo and Osaka.
I would recommend Kiwami 2 for fans of the series or newcomers (like myself) looking to continue Kiryu's saga. It's a very good story with more middling combat, but the former is so so so so worth it that it is warranted to stomach the latter.
PS: Any final boss fight that has a closing moment in which you can fail due to spontaneous QTE, is a bad final boss fight.
Kiwami 2 is a great story, following up on the events of Kiwami 1 while also carrying over key narratives and characters from 0. Kiryu is back as multi-faceted protagonist we grew to know and love in the previous two games, but this time we see a different side of him; the romantic. I like the time that RGG Studio takes in setting up Kiryu in a style that is almost unheard of in the gaming industry. In his first (canonical) journey he's a hungry hatchling in the mob world, growing up around the Kazama family as a strong and respectable man, but not quite there in all the facets of a true leader. In Kiwami 1, we see Kiryu really become the Dragon of Dojima and an honored man amongst his comrades. In Kiwami 2 he takes another leap into becoming the effective Patron Saint of Kamurocho and unlocks the ability to love. I personally believe that a lot of games (and media in general) fumble romance, either jumping into it too quick or taking on an awkwardly juvenile angle at it, but Kiwami 2 made it feel authentic.
The story jumps the player between the familiar locations of Sotenbori and Kamurocho with a fairly even mix until the later stages of the game. Even though Kamurocho is fun and teeming with life, the changing of scenery is appreciated to ensure that the game's pacing feels fresh throughout. There are new foes and familiar faces abound, with characters from the storied Omi Alliance and Tojo Clan taking center stage for the entierity of the game. It's pretty much unecessary to talk about the excellence that RGG holds in creating a narrative that excels this well in establishing conflict and consquence between criminal organizations, but boy do they do it again. Kiwami 2 has the player analyzing and second guessing everybody they come across, learning piecemeal over the sixteen chapters who can be trusted and which people really sowed the seeds of war. This story brings a plethora of new characters into the mix and merges their stories in with those that are already involved in the series, another element that long running franchises outside of Yakuza seem to not be able to grasp fully. I loved being able to piece together and guess at where the story would be, practically at the edge of my seat through each story cutscene and conversation because I knew it would add some serious gravity and impact to the narrative at large. I was very glad that Kiwami 2 resolves itself quite well, both in the game's main story and addtionally provided Majima Saga, the latter of which provides some great context to Goro Majima's relationships in Yakuza 0.
To that point, one of my major qualms with Kiwami 1 was the discredit it did to what was a very in depth and captivating Majima in Yakuza 0. While still slapstick a bit (see scene of him slamming his head into a desk ad nauseum,) Goro brings back some of that 0 swagger and intrigue that he used to have. He's not really an ally of Kiryu per se, but he is cognizant of the need for a united Tojo Clan, Kamurocho, and the implications that an imbalance would bring to the world of the Yakuza. His intelligence and cunning reappears and I was greatly happy to see that.
Okay, it's now time for my tidbit on the combat which is uh, yikes. I figured that the jump from the Yakuza 0 engine to the Yakuza 6 engine might re-fresh the combat to make it feel better... and it kinda does? No longer do you switch styles and level up a skill tree like in the previous two titles in favor of a massive stat book and a single brawler stance. On paper I like that because I pretty much only used the brawler in 0 and Kiwami 1, but I felt like the experience gain and cavernous depth to skills in Kiwami 2 left a lot to be desired. I put most of my experience gained into raw skills (defense, heat, health, damage) when I could, but I had no idea on the legitimacy of doing so instead of jumping into upgrading the other skills. Why is that really so? Because weapons are so extremely broken that I bypassed using or learning new skills in favour of just executing heat actions on swords, bats, and police batons that would nuke boss health bars. I learned quickly bosses felt cheap and way too difficult like they did in Kiwami 1 so I consulted the internet for tips. Once I beat the first "real" boss after hording weapons in the room previous I felt like the devs got a little lazy in crafting a captivating combat experience. Yakuza is a series with swagger dripping at the seams, why can't they just make boss combat... kind of fun? It feels more like a chore, especially with how much you are tasked to go through it as the player. in Yakuza 0 (which I speak on in my review,) combat is boring but at least it's quick to learn and the enemies feel mostly fair. In Kiwami 1 and 2, bosses neglect hit stun, knock Kiryu across the arena plenty (thanks to the ragdoll effect in the new engine,) and deal crazy damage. I didn't stress boss fights yet I did shrug my shoulders each time because I knew it was just an item check.
Music is again great in a Yakuza title, with the recurring main theme by SiM becoming a great vehicle for emotional scenes and moments within the game. I'm going to listen to that track a loooooooooooooooooooooooooooot for the foreseeable future, and I was glad to see it was by a band still making great tunes (like the Rumbling for Attack on Titan.)
Kiwami 2 is absolutely stunning from a visual perspective, I spent a decent amount of time in the first person camera just walking around Kamurocho staring at all the pretty neons and other citizens walking by. When a game succeeds in making a city feel alive and real, it does a number into making that experience feel memorable. I'll forever remember the sights, sounds, and characters I witnessed as I waltzed around Tokyo and Osaka.
I would recommend Kiwami 2 for fans of the series or newcomers (like myself) looking to continue Kiryu's saga. It's a very good story with more middling combat, but the former is so so so so worth it that it is warranted to stomach the latter.
PS: Any final boss fight that has a closing moment in which you can fail due to spontaneous QTE, is a bad final boss fight.
it’s just not that fun
Possibly my least favorite game ever made. Maybe I'm biased because I played the original first which is my second favorite game of all time but nothing about Kiwami 2 works for me. The game uses revamped combat from 6, a combat system I already disliked, and throws it into a lame copy paste of random assets from other RGG games while labelling itself as the definitive Yakuza 2 experience. I guess I can give RGG credit for remaking all of Sotenbori for this game, but to be honest it was obviously just so they could paste it into a future Dragon Engine game with no worries.
The presentation is significantly worse, using the rather flat photorealistic Dragon Engine aesthetic as 6, losing all semblance of atmosphere from the original. Rain, a common weather motif that added to the Neo Noire vibe of the game, simply doesn't exist. Cutscenes are also presented in a worse fashion, with significantly weaker cutscene music to enhance this gloriously shitty remake. The two cutscenes with the added SiM music are already notorious enough but to cut it short- they're terrible. They don't fit the jazzy vibes of the original game and ruin one of my favorite moments in a video game ever.
The soundtrack is abhorrent, only reusing select tunes from the original while also having new music that is extremely forgettable. Not helping this is the fact that the remixes aren't very good either. Phenomenal tracks like Evil Itself and The Grudge arent present either which is super disappointing.
The cut shopping district is another example of Kiwami 2's rampant laziness, and instead just inserts a pointless Majima side story as a substitute. Shinseicho worked because it was a relatively small district that had everything tightly knit together which made discovering the clues very fun. That doesn't exist here.
There's no reason to play this when Yakuza 2 is one of RGG's best games ever. Nothing about this remake is superior to the original, in my opinion anyway. If you prefer this game that's fine but I'm simply tired of hearing that Kiwami 2 is better because it's less dated and blah blah bla-... Shut up!!! The Dragon Engine combat was far more dated than the original when it first came out. The fact that RGG is insistent on saying this is a superior product while refusing to make the original accessible outside of reprints of the PS2 game they did years ago is infuriating. Overall one of the most corporate games I've ever experienced, don't play this.
The presentation is significantly worse, using the rather flat photorealistic Dragon Engine aesthetic as 6, losing all semblance of atmosphere from the original. Rain, a common weather motif that added to the Neo Noire vibe of the game, simply doesn't exist. Cutscenes are also presented in a worse fashion, with significantly weaker cutscene music to enhance this gloriously shitty remake. The two cutscenes with the added SiM music are already notorious enough but to cut it short- they're terrible. They don't fit the jazzy vibes of the original game and ruin one of my favorite moments in a video game ever.
The soundtrack is abhorrent, only reusing select tunes from the original while also having new music that is extremely forgettable. Not helping this is the fact that the remixes aren't very good either. Phenomenal tracks like Evil Itself and The Grudge arent present either which is super disappointing.
The cut shopping district is another example of Kiwami 2's rampant laziness, and instead just inserts a pointless Majima side story as a substitute. Shinseicho worked because it was a relatively small district that had everything tightly knit together which made discovering the clues very fun. That doesn't exist here.
There's no reason to play this when Yakuza 2 is one of RGG's best games ever. Nothing about this remake is superior to the original, in my opinion anyway. If you prefer this game that's fine but I'm simply tired of hearing that Kiwami 2 is better because it's less dated and blah blah bla-... Shut up!!! The Dragon Engine combat was far more dated than the original when it first came out. The fact that RGG is insistent on saying this is a superior product while refusing to make the original accessible outside of reprints of the PS2 game they did years ago is infuriating. Overall one of the most corporate games I've ever experienced, don't play this.
Probably the most contentious game I've played so far in this series, and I can absolutely understand why. A lot of what it does undermines the original game so massively in both aesthetic and tone that I can't overlook it (seriously, the music choice during the beginning of chapter 12 and near the end of chapter 16 are honestly laughable). Kiwami 1 was a flawed remake for sure, but I can easily see why this is by far the most "you either love it or hate it" game I've seen in the series yet.
The Dragon Engine looks immaculate visually and the combat has a nice, free flow to it that I really dig, but it still feels like RGG's still in the early development phase with it. It's incredibly janky, not as mechanically rich as either 0 or Kiwami 1, and it can feel a bit too easy at times. I'm sure later Dragon Engine games (the Judgment series, essentially) will do this better, but it still feels like we've got a bit to go before it's truly ready.
That all being said, I still thoroughly loved my time with this game from start to finish. Call it brainrot, call it dickriding, call it stockholm syndrome, call it whatever the fuck you want, I can't help but love Yakuza, it's my new addiction, really.
The story of Yakuza 2 is preserved here in all (or most of) its glory. Kiryu is just as strong of a character as he's always been, and I love seeing his ideology being tested at every turn. It's great to see some pushback to his sense of honor, and watching him overcome all of that in the end and come out a stronger person will never not be heart-wrenchingly satisfying. Ryuji is the biggest contributor to this, as he's an amazing foil to Kiryu (probably the best in the series), boasting his own unique sense of honor that clashes perfectly with Kiryu's, as he's more vain and greedy, having yet to understand Kiryu's more pure and true sense of honor.
Also speaking of Ryuji, can I just say that he's honestly one of the most entertaining characters in this franchise. From his phenomenal voice performance, to his arrogant, RAW personality, every scene he showed up in had my full attention throughout. And I loved when the game blew past his arrogance and badassery and allowed me to genuinely sympathize with and understand him on a closer, more personal level, which only added to the INCREDIBLE finale this game contains (seriously, that final boss was insane).
I'm not sure if I prefer him or Yakuza 1's villain more yet, but I'm absolutely delighted that the series has failed to disappoint with its major villains so far, and I hope that continues.
Also really loved Sayama's character. Following her as she learned about her past and developed a genuinely touching, heartfelt bond with Kiryu served to be the surprising emotional core of this story, and I loved it. Her personality's got that signature Yakuza rawness with a feminine touch, but she was nuanced in her writing to where it felt like more than just flash without any substance (and fighting with her was always cool as hell), and her arc is just great.
And yeah, despite my grievances with the combat, what I said about the Dragon Engine's visuals is still totally true. The cutscenes and dynamic intros have never looked better, to be honest (final boss's dynamic intro and final QTE were especially phenomenal) and they always succeeded at getting me hype, or immersing me in the moment.
So overall, while I do absolutely understand why someone would find this remake to be vastly inferior to the original (I would probably end up agreeing with that notion myself if I ever do get to playing it), and disliking or even hating it as a result, I'm so glad that I finally played this game. It provided me with enormous joy as I experienced this story and saw these characters unravel once more. I look forward to what the rest of the series has to offer, but I can safely say that the Kiwami games, while not perfect by any means, helped continue my unwavering love for this series and I could not be more thankful for that.
The Dragon Engine looks immaculate visually and the combat has a nice, free flow to it that I really dig, but it still feels like RGG's still in the early development phase with it. It's incredibly janky, not as mechanically rich as either 0 or Kiwami 1, and it can feel a bit too easy at times. I'm sure later Dragon Engine games (the Judgment series, essentially) will do this better, but it still feels like we've got a bit to go before it's truly ready.
That all being said, I still thoroughly loved my time with this game from start to finish. Call it brainrot, call it dickriding, call it stockholm syndrome, call it whatever the fuck you want, I can't help but love Yakuza, it's my new addiction, really.
The story of Yakuza 2 is preserved here in all (or most of) its glory. Kiryu is just as strong of a character as he's always been, and I love seeing his ideology being tested at every turn. It's great to see some pushback to his sense of honor, and watching him overcome all of that in the end and come out a stronger person will never not be heart-wrenchingly satisfying. Ryuji is the biggest contributor to this, as he's an amazing foil to Kiryu (probably the best in the series), boasting his own unique sense of honor that clashes perfectly with Kiryu's, as he's more vain and greedy, having yet to understand Kiryu's more pure and true sense of honor.
Also speaking of Ryuji, can I just say that he's honestly one of the most entertaining characters in this franchise. From his phenomenal voice performance, to his arrogant, RAW personality, every scene he showed up in had my full attention throughout. And I loved when the game blew past his arrogance and badassery and allowed me to genuinely sympathize with and understand him on a closer, more personal level, which only added to the INCREDIBLE finale this game contains (seriously, that final boss was insane).
I'm not sure if I prefer him or Yakuza 1's villain more yet, but I'm absolutely delighted that the series has failed to disappoint with its major villains so far, and I hope that continues.
Also really loved Sayama's character. Following her as she learned about her past and developed a genuinely touching, heartfelt bond with Kiryu served to be the surprising emotional core of this story, and I loved it. Her personality's got that signature Yakuza rawness with a feminine touch, but she was nuanced in her writing to where it felt like more than just flash without any substance (and fighting with her was always cool as hell), and her arc is just great.
And yeah, despite my grievances with the combat, what I said about the Dragon Engine's visuals is still totally true. The cutscenes and dynamic intros have never looked better, to be honest (final boss's dynamic intro and final QTE were especially phenomenal) and they always succeeded at getting me hype, or immersing me in the moment.
So overall, while I do absolutely understand why someone would find this remake to be vastly inferior to the original (I would probably end up agreeing with that notion myself if I ever do get to playing it), and disliking or even hating it as a result, I'm so glad that I finally played this game. It provided me with enormous joy as I experienced this story and saw these characters unravel once more. I look forward to what the rest of the series has to offer, but I can safely say that the Kiwami games, while not perfect by any means, helped continue my unwavering love for this series and I could not be more thankful for that.
This review contains spoilers
I think I liked this one more than Kiwami 1. I don't know if it was just because I had some familiarity with the main cast to ground me, but I was able to follow the plot of this one a lot better and keep track of the twists and turns (more or less).
This time I threw myself fully into the main two side activities, of which I liked Cabaret Club Grand Prix way more. The Clan Creator weird RTS-like minigame just didn't seem fleshed out enough; I didn't find it very fun at all. Fortunately Cabaret Club was super addictive. Initially, I didn't really understand the activity, and found it a little uncomfortable because it seemed a little bit like low-key pimping. But the more I learned about host clubs, the less skeezy it felt. It helped that across the board, every single woman that you recruit gives their explicit and enthusiastic consent, and the story shows that the success of the club is a positive influence in the workers' lives.
My initial hesitation about the activity didn't come out of nowhere, though. My understanding of Tokyo culture is essentially zero. This game is full of references, parodies and homages to media that have never crossed my radar. There is so much context I'm missing that I wouldn't even know how to analyze what's in here. But I do know how it makes me feel, and when it comes to this game's treatment of women my feelings range from concern to nausea.
The women at the margins of the game seem to get the worst of it. I've never felt grosser playing a game than the photography model minigame. I'm not a prude about sex work, but the fact that sex is never explicitly mentioned just makes it seem so much skeevier. If Kiryu would just say, "I like your breasts, will you show them to me" or "Your body looks great, here's a nice tip" or "Are you a victim of sex trafficking and would you like me to call the authorities" it would feel so much less icky. Instead, we're stuck in the zone of PG-13 entendre and it's just so unbelievably uncomfortable.
The whole game is like this. It's like they figured since they can't show actual nudity, they have to fixate on the boundary of what they can show. The women in the main and supporting cast get it too. Every woman in the main cast has her sexuality pointlessly dragged in as a plot point. When the game introduced a female cop I was optimistic at first, but then the first thing she tells you to do after taking you into custody is buy her underwear. It's a fetch quest; you have to actually go to the store and purchase an item called "ladies underwear" that has a little icon showing a bra and panties, and then bring it back. To the cop in charge of your case. It's like the whole thing is infused with the essence of a hormonal 12-year-old boy.
The absolute lowest point of the game, though, involves my old bestie Haruka. She's back, and just as bright and fun as ever. Also, I have to guess, unimaginably traumatized. She's been kidnapped so many times and witnessed so many murders at this point I really worry for her emotional health. That's why we did everything she wanted during the part of the game where I got to just hang out with her. It's also why I was absolutely horrified, mouth agape, when I realized the game was railroading me into literally selling her to a shady movie producer, into a life of debt and hardship, against her explicit wishes! Haruka saw through the guy right away; she said "Mister, who are you and what are you trying to get from me?" Smart as a whip; I love Haruka. Then Kiryu goes completely behind her back and makes the absolute worst decision I've seen anyone make in two of these longass games full of people making terrible decisions. Of course it was a setup for Haruka to tell Kiryu off and set him straight, but wow did it really make me hate Kiryu so much it kinda pushed me out of the game for a while.
I really liked Ryuji. I hope the series continues to have more charismatic villains like him. He wasn't, like, an absolute raving lunatic (like the real villains turned out to be), he had a little class, a little restraint. I felt like all the villains and other supporting cast were a lot more distinct and memorable this time around and that helped me keep a lot of momentum going on the story, which is usually the hardest part of any game for me to connect with. I'm very much a mechanics and "gameplay"-focused gamer, and found Kiwami 2's to be largely satisfying.
Combat felt a lot flatter than in Kiwami 1, but also I felt like I had more useful tools at my disposal. That is, after some upgrades. I'm a big fan of progression as a general thing; start me off as a weakling with nothing and give me a thousand little presents as I climb the ladder please. But in Kiwami 2 I felt like Kiryu might be just a little too handicapped out the gate. There were some abilities, like dodge cancel, that are such game changers that it felt rude to let me go so long (especially that first boss fight, ugh) without those basics. Once I got powered up the combat started feeling a lot better, but never really gained any depth. It's kind of disappointing that the combat in such a late entry to a combat-focused series isn't, like, amazing? I'll be very interested to see how 3 plays (unless I play 0 next) because I'm guessing it's going to be a step backward which would be a real bummer. All that said it did keep me entertained; I never got sick of going to the colosseum and beating down a bunch of weirdos.
In summary:
+ Ryuji was great, more of that please
+ Haruka was amazing as always but I don't trust this series to take care of her; I'm a little terrified of what happens to her next
+ Cabaret Club is incredibly addictive, this was my Pocket Circuit for this game. It helps if you do all the substories, and if you just kind of pretend feminism isn't a thing.
+ Just walking around Kamurocho and Sotenbori with Haruka, holding hands and looking at the lights
- Just please, for fucks sake stop being shitty about women. I have a feeling this is going to be consistent throughout the series but hope springs eternal right
- I needed a way to tone down the random encounters; these were a real drag especially when I was trying to have special time with my girl
- Clan Creator seemed super undercooked
- I really don't understand Majima. I have to play 0.
This time I threw myself fully into the main two side activities, of which I liked Cabaret Club Grand Prix way more. The Clan Creator weird RTS-like minigame just didn't seem fleshed out enough; I didn't find it very fun at all. Fortunately Cabaret Club was super addictive. Initially, I didn't really understand the activity, and found it a little uncomfortable because it seemed a little bit like low-key pimping. But the more I learned about host clubs, the less skeezy it felt. It helped that across the board, every single woman that you recruit gives their explicit and enthusiastic consent, and the story shows that the success of the club is a positive influence in the workers' lives.
My initial hesitation about the activity didn't come out of nowhere, though. My understanding of Tokyo culture is essentially zero. This game is full of references, parodies and homages to media that have never crossed my radar. There is so much context I'm missing that I wouldn't even know how to analyze what's in here. But I do know how it makes me feel, and when it comes to this game's treatment of women my feelings range from concern to nausea.
The women at the margins of the game seem to get the worst of it. I've never felt grosser playing a game than the photography model minigame. I'm not a prude about sex work, but the fact that sex is never explicitly mentioned just makes it seem so much skeevier. If Kiryu would just say, "I like your breasts, will you show them to me" or "Your body looks great, here's a nice tip" or "Are you a victim of sex trafficking and would you like me to call the authorities" it would feel so much less icky. Instead, we're stuck in the zone of PG-13 entendre and it's just so unbelievably uncomfortable.
The whole game is like this. It's like they figured since they can't show actual nudity, they have to fixate on the boundary of what they can show. The women in the main and supporting cast get it too. Every woman in the main cast has her sexuality pointlessly dragged in as a plot point. When the game introduced a female cop I was optimistic at first, but then the first thing she tells you to do after taking you into custody is buy her underwear. It's a fetch quest; you have to actually go to the store and purchase an item called "ladies underwear" that has a little icon showing a bra and panties, and then bring it back. To the cop in charge of your case. It's like the whole thing is infused with the essence of a hormonal 12-year-old boy.
The absolute lowest point of the game, though, involves my old bestie Haruka. She's back, and just as bright and fun as ever. Also, I have to guess, unimaginably traumatized. She's been kidnapped so many times and witnessed so many murders at this point I really worry for her emotional health. That's why we did everything she wanted during the part of the game where I got to just hang out with her. It's also why I was absolutely horrified, mouth agape, when I realized the game was railroading me into literally selling her to a shady movie producer, into a life of debt and hardship, against her explicit wishes! Haruka saw through the guy right away; she said "Mister, who are you and what are you trying to get from me?" Smart as a whip; I love Haruka. Then Kiryu goes completely behind her back and makes the absolute worst decision I've seen anyone make in two of these longass games full of people making terrible decisions. Of course it was a setup for Haruka to tell Kiryu off and set him straight, but wow did it really make me hate Kiryu so much it kinda pushed me out of the game for a while.
I really liked Ryuji. I hope the series continues to have more charismatic villains like him. He wasn't, like, an absolute raving lunatic (like the real villains turned out to be), he had a little class, a little restraint. I felt like all the villains and other supporting cast were a lot more distinct and memorable this time around and that helped me keep a lot of momentum going on the story, which is usually the hardest part of any game for me to connect with. I'm very much a mechanics and "gameplay"-focused gamer, and found Kiwami 2's to be largely satisfying.
Combat felt a lot flatter than in Kiwami 1, but also I felt like I had more useful tools at my disposal. That is, after some upgrades. I'm a big fan of progression as a general thing; start me off as a weakling with nothing and give me a thousand little presents as I climb the ladder please. But in Kiwami 2 I felt like Kiryu might be just a little too handicapped out the gate. There were some abilities, like dodge cancel, that are such game changers that it felt rude to let me go so long (especially that first boss fight, ugh) without those basics. Once I got powered up the combat started feeling a lot better, but never really gained any depth. It's kind of disappointing that the combat in such a late entry to a combat-focused series isn't, like, amazing? I'll be very interested to see how 3 plays (unless I play 0 next) because I'm guessing it's going to be a step backward which would be a real bummer. All that said it did keep me entertained; I never got sick of going to the colosseum and beating down a bunch of weirdos.
In summary:
+ Ryuji was great, more of that please
+ Haruka was amazing as always but I don't trust this series to take care of her; I'm a little terrified of what happens to her next
+ Cabaret Club is incredibly addictive, this was my Pocket Circuit for this game. It helps if you do all the substories, and if you just kind of pretend feminism isn't a thing.
+ Just walking around Kamurocho and Sotenbori with Haruka, holding hands and looking at the lights
- Just please, for fucks sake stop being shitty about women. I have a feeling this is going to be consistent throughout the series but hope springs eternal right
- I needed a way to tone down the random encounters; these were a real drag especially when I was trying to have special time with my girl
- Clan Creator seemed super undercooked
- I really don't understand Majima. I have to play 0.
Bloated beyond belief. The worst leveling system in video games, terrible shit combat especially compared to the original. I never want to play this game again
Yakuza I love ya but we gotta talk about your addiction to having dudes with guns all over the place in the final stretch of every game, it's becoming a problem. If that was in the Kiwami 1 engine it'd probably be the most unplayable garbage in existence.
Also the main romance was fucking lame.
Everything else was peak tho.
Also the main romance was fucking lame.
Everything else was peak tho.
"Quem é você?"
Essa pergunta vale para os personagens de Yakuza, que frequentemente se encontram em conflito sobre sua identidade. Descobrem que são coreanos, depois que o pai é policial, depois que na verdade foram substituídos por sósias
e etc.
Mas também é uma pergunta para o jogo em sí, Yakuza está se levando a sério, ou é tudo pelo humor? Onde exatamente na indústria ele se encaixa? Em um momento o jogo nos entrega uma cena onde Kiryu discute a relação que tem com Kaoru, e depois nos entrega uma missão onde devemos ser dublador de um jogo pornô. Onde ele quer chegar e mais importante, importa saber (agora) onde ele quer chegar?
Apenas aproveito a jornada enquanto os personagens e a franquia se descobrem com o tempo. Em uma história sobre essas identidades, nada mais gratificante do que ver a diferença entre dois homens (Kiryu e Ryuji) que a principio...São iguais.
"Quem é você?"
Sou tudo aquilo que você não é.
Essa pergunta vale para os personagens de Yakuza, que frequentemente se encontram em conflito sobre sua identidade. Descobrem que são coreanos, depois que o pai é policial, depois que na verdade foram substituídos por sósias
e etc.
Mas também é uma pergunta para o jogo em sí, Yakuza está se levando a sério, ou é tudo pelo humor? Onde exatamente na indústria ele se encaixa? Em um momento o jogo nos entrega uma cena onde Kiryu discute a relação que tem com Kaoru, e depois nos entrega uma missão onde devemos ser dublador de um jogo pornô. Onde ele quer chegar e mais importante, importa saber (agora) onde ele quer chegar?
Apenas aproveito a jornada enquanto os personagens e a franquia se descobrem com o tempo. Em uma história sobre essas identidades, nada mais gratificante do que ver a diferença entre dois homens (Kiryu e Ryuji) que a principio...São iguais.
"Quem é você?"
Sou tudo aquilo que você não é.
While I would say its probably the weakest of the three i've played so far, but its still Yakuza so it was good. The combat was very fun especially with all the ragdolling, and I much prefer the upgrade system to the one in 0 and Kiwami. However, the story is where it falls apart a bit for me. Kaoru is a great character (which of course means she wont be returning) but the story feels kinda underwhelming compared to the high stakes of the two before it. Quite a few plot points that feel like they should have a bigger importance on the story are kinda just brushed over and solved like they're nothing. Thankfully the finale, despite the typical villain way overexplaining things giving the good guys time to win was honestly really great and that kinda made up for the rest. The side content I didnt do much of because I dont have time for that, but I will say Kamurocho looks really pretty in the new engine. Theres also the Majima Saga, a nice little prequel to the events of the game that gives some very welcome closure to 0. Majimas fighting style is very flashy but without upgrades lacks depth, thankfully the whole thing is like an hour long so its not really bothersome. Overall a really good game thats mostly underwhelming story holds it back from me loving it.
Nancymeter - 84/100
Nancymeter - 84/100
a real game... oughta be a little stupid.
This game definitely lives up to the hype it has been given. Everything I had heard about the game ended up being more than what I expected. Gorgeous game, Kamurocho and Sotenbori both look incredible at night time with all of the neon signs and the lively environment. I really enjoyed the switch to a fully rendered map: there are now only a few load zones for the entirety of both maps. It is something I didn't know I wanted until I played this game. The characters stand out in this game, they were able to keep the story engaging throughout the entirety of the game which I can't say was the case for Yakuza 0 and Yakuza Kiwami. The story was executed to near perfection and made for a really good finale that felt deserved. Soundtrack is once again very good. Oumi Attack, Worry, and Ryuji's final boss theme were my standout favorites. Combat felt rewarding and fun to play around with, my favorite addition was the regrab after the end of a combo. My only complaint with this game was it felt far too easy to level up with the EXP system being completely broken by eating meals and using the laxatives. A very impressive remake of the original that I highly recommend.
this game is essentially korean among us but it's also hard to hate 2 men trying to find meaning in themselves
really dig this one. The story is kinda weak in parts but the combat is very good and Ryuji is a great villain
Simplesmente uma das melhores experiências possíveis de se ter com a franquia
O combate eleva a dragon engine ao limite, e usa muito bem suas mecânicas como um todo, desde o parry, até cada hit action que estão mais brutais do que nunca!!!
O gráfico está lindo, contendo partículas simplesmente fabulosas, neons da cidade que estão simplesmente LINDOS e cada modelo de personagem está maravilhoso aqui, embora o jogo tenha aquele MALDITO FILTRO VERDE.
O jogo seria um remake perfeito se a rgg studio não tivesse cortado uma parte do jogo inteira, só pra colocar aquela merda chamada de majima saga (todo respeito a quem gosta, claro)
O combate eleva a dragon engine ao limite, e usa muito bem suas mecânicas como um todo, desde o parry, até cada hit action que estão mais brutais do que nunca!!!
O gráfico está lindo, contendo partículas simplesmente fabulosas, neons da cidade que estão simplesmente LINDOS e cada modelo de personagem está maravilhoso aqui, embora o jogo tenha aquele MALDITO FILTRO VERDE.
O jogo seria um remake perfeito se a rgg studio não tivesse cortado uma parte do jogo inteira, só pra colocar aquela merda chamada de majima saga (todo respeito a quem gosta, claro)
in a chronological play-through of the series this game serves as a little taste of what's to come for those who stick it out all the way to yakuza 6, and goddamn is it a convincing reason to keep at it. dragon engine has its hiccups for sure, but it runs perfectly fine on a ps4 pro or anything nicer, and it makes kamurocho pop in a totally new way to those used to the 0/kiwami engine, which had really run its course by the time most of us in the west got around to playing this series. the vibrancy of each city's neon skyline diffracts in such a lovely way as civilians realistically window shop and grab a bite to eat. kiryu smoothly walks into buildings now sans loading screens, and can even toss enemies through shop windows at will. yakuza games have always relied on the physical space of kamurocho and the other cities as a main source of appeal, and the technical upgrade further infuses life into these areas.
with the above in mind, I'm split between two interpretations of this game: a remake beset with the same issues as the original kiwami in a much better engine, or a legitimately more fleshed out remake in comparison to the original kiwami, just with a shorter tail than I would like for a yakuza game. either way it's quite a good game in its own right, and a revelation compared to the previous engine. however, as I'm writing this review after playing yakuza 6, I can say that game is functionally better in every way than kiwami 2, a bit like how my opinion of kiwami dropped significantly after playing 0. this puts it in about the mid-range of yakuza games for me: it doesn't excel in any particular way, but it has all the hallmarks of the series needed to make it a satisfying experience.
starting with the story, this game's plot attempts to develop new avenues to move kiryu and the tojo clan into with mixed results. the start of the game coyly admits to the series's proclivity for killing off characters en masse, as fifth chairman terada is killed and the organization faces a succession crisis. their solution to this, daigo dojima, really misses the mark... it's hard to see the pragmatic character of his later appearances here. he starts off as a punk and basically has no arc other than getting his ass kicked over and over again and sulking. part of this is because the story veers off track immediately to split its time between the oni alliance coup/ryuji goda's war against the tojo clan and the jingweon mafia subplot. I know goda is a fan favorite but as a main villain he's merely cartoonish, with little depth to his character and virtually nothing propelling him other than his drive to be a legendary yakuza; even at the end of the game when more of his character is revealed he doesn't seem to care at all. this game also attempts to give kiryu a love interest with detective kaoru sayama in a subplot that feels off even at this point in the series. there's a modicum of chemistry, but at the end of the day it makes sense that they immediately put her on a bus at the beginning of yakuza 3. her goal of uncovering organized crime is well-established but her investigation of the jingweon mafia massacre never makes the incident out to be anything more than an Exciting Reveals generator, rather than doing much interrogation into the effect of its events on all involved (basically the entire main cast, even kiryu, who seems entirely unfazed having remembered he was there). on top of all of the above, the plot is littered with filler that drags the game on far longer than it needed to be, though it at least sets up the later idol haruka premise in yakuza 5.
the combat here is derived from yakuza 6 with much of the missing mechanics from pre-dragon engine games restored. this includes ground takedowns and carryable weapons, the latter of which can now be permanently picked up from the ground rather than needing to be purchased or gifted. all the fun of dragon engine combat remains thankfully, and I think the purposefully-ridiculous ragdoll physics have been cranked up just a bit here. however, with the added mechanics, kiryu is unstoppable to the point of removing any remote challenge from the combat. if kiwami is the most difficult yakuza game, kiwami 2 is the easiest, as virtually nothing in the game poses a threat. the action stages are solid, though I can't say writing this a year later I remember any past the castle siege + double tiger fight. yakuza 2 also introduces dorky weapons expert and series mainstay kamiyama, who appears here as a backlot DVD bootlegger. his role would be expanded in later games, but you can still grab a bevy of top-notch weapons from him here, including an infinite pistol that's suprisingly easy to obtain.
kiryu gets two returning sidestories in this entry: clan creator from y6 and cabaret management from y0. clan creator in yk2 is functionally the reverse of its previous iteration, as you now have to defend majima construction from waves of encroaching yakuza. it's a more traditional tower defense structure, and not one I particularly enjoy. moving units around rts-style with a controller interface feels clunky, and the fun of overwhelming the opponent with numbers from the y6 version simply doesn't exist here. cabaret management is definitely better by comparison, but it's the same as its y0 iteration with a handful of minor QoL additions. it's got plenty of cheeky nods back to the y0 version's plot and characters, and one day I'll definitely come back to it, but after playing through all of y0's cabaret management it becomes difficult to retread such worn ground.
substories here suffer from the writers having not quite settled into their formula and normal story beats. there's standouts for sure, but many of the substories are half-baked and brief, and in my opinion the offering lacks the consistency of even the first. the friendship ones in particular lack any hook or fun moments, with the only reward being an extra contextual heat action when fights occur next to the friend. the combat sidestory fares a bit better thankfully: kiryu can receive freelance "bouncer" missions from the bartender at debolah. these are action stages that take place within kamurocho with plenty of inexplicable giant walls to break and portly minibosses to take down. my biggest qualm with it are the completion requirements, as you'll need to complete all 25 missions on three difficulties each to gain all the rewards. this is one of the biggest things that's kept me from returning to this game more often; it's just too boring and I don't feel like doing it!
minigames overall are the high point of the game, with plenty of returning ones from y6 and a couple new ones. virtua fighter 2 makes its reappearance from y5 along with oddball model 2 pick virtual-on, which is a weird-ass game but sort of neat at the same time. one of the most eye-raising additions are piss minigames you can access after raising an internal piss meter by drinking beverages. these "toylets" games apparently exist in real life as well? sort of dope honestly. understanding how to play some of these confused me a little bit, especially the one where you're trying to duel streams with an opponent, but the concept is rife with laughs the first couple times. karaoke makes a return in its superior dragon engine iteration, along with a much-appreciated driving range. coliseum also make a reappearance with giant multi-man battle royales that are a joy to clobber through. your opponents in these fights can be unlocked by encountering them as minibosses in each city as part of the "street boss" system, where unique assailants can be unlocked by clearing out a given group of delinquents in each area. compared to some of the other games in the series, the variety is solid and the fact that they all show up again in the coliseum is a nice touch as well. the final minigames other than these are the batting range and some horny photography thing that I didn't really have much interest in. there's nothing here that matches yakuza 6 levels of quality imo, but it's certainly on-par with or better than any of the other games in the franchise.
I've written this review in fits and spurts over the course of a couple months, and the longer I spend writing it the more I focus on the flaws of the game rather than its relative strengths. I really did enjoy this when I play it, and so I wanted to make sure I highlighted some of the best points of this game:
+sotenbori is an amazing city design, the perfect complement to kamurocho, no question. gotta give props to yakuza 2 for originating the area, and kiwami 2 does an excellent job modernizing it and filling out its nooks and crannies.
+using acupuncture to remind yourself of old moves is so unorthodox and I love it. it also solves the issue of explaining how kiryu forgot so many moves in just a year's time
+the tiger fight is top-notch. really that whole osaka castle action stage is one of the best in the series
+there's a majima scenario that takes place before the events of the game and spotlights some of the top-level clan politics during the terada chairmanship. except actually it's mostly blatant y0 fanservice... and not really that interesting. sorry, not much of a positive but I had to put this somewhere
solid game overall, but I can't help but think that I don't like this game as much as I would otherwise because the blatant grind in the post-game turned me off. I happen to own a copy of the original on ps2, and I'd like to go back and play it at some point to compare notes and see if I prefer that version. it's absolutely a game worth checking out regardless, and in my view certainly a step up over kiwami 1 given the limited budget and dev cycle of each.
with the above in mind, I'm split between two interpretations of this game: a remake beset with the same issues as the original kiwami in a much better engine, or a legitimately more fleshed out remake in comparison to the original kiwami, just with a shorter tail than I would like for a yakuza game. either way it's quite a good game in its own right, and a revelation compared to the previous engine. however, as I'm writing this review after playing yakuza 6, I can say that game is functionally better in every way than kiwami 2, a bit like how my opinion of kiwami dropped significantly after playing 0. this puts it in about the mid-range of yakuza games for me: it doesn't excel in any particular way, but it has all the hallmarks of the series needed to make it a satisfying experience.
starting with the story, this game's plot attempts to develop new avenues to move kiryu and the tojo clan into with mixed results. the start of the game coyly admits to the series's proclivity for killing off characters en masse, as fifth chairman terada is killed and the organization faces a succession crisis. their solution to this, daigo dojima, really misses the mark... it's hard to see the pragmatic character of his later appearances here. he starts off as a punk and basically has no arc other than getting his ass kicked over and over again and sulking. part of this is because the story veers off track immediately to split its time between the oni alliance coup/ryuji goda's war against the tojo clan and the jingweon mafia subplot. I know goda is a fan favorite but as a main villain he's merely cartoonish, with little depth to his character and virtually nothing propelling him other than his drive to be a legendary yakuza; even at the end of the game when more of his character is revealed he doesn't seem to care at all. this game also attempts to give kiryu a love interest with detective kaoru sayama in a subplot that feels off even at this point in the series. there's a modicum of chemistry, but at the end of the day it makes sense that they immediately put her on a bus at the beginning of yakuza 3. her goal of uncovering organized crime is well-established but her investigation of the jingweon mafia massacre never makes the incident out to be anything more than an Exciting Reveals generator, rather than doing much interrogation into the effect of its events on all involved (basically the entire main cast, even kiryu, who seems entirely unfazed having remembered he was there). on top of all of the above, the plot is littered with filler that drags the game on far longer than it needed to be, though it at least sets up the later idol haruka premise in yakuza 5.
the combat here is derived from yakuza 6 with much of the missing mechanics from pre-dragon engine games restored. this includes ground takedowns and carryable weapons, the latter of which can now be permanently picked up from the ground rather than needing to be purchased or gifted. all the fun of dragon engine combat remains thankfully, and I think the purposefully-ridiculous ragdoll physics have been cranked up just a bit here. however, with the added mechanics, kiryu is unstoppable to the point of removing any remote challenge from the combat. if kiwami is the most difficult yakuza game, kiwami 2 is the easiest, as virtually nothing in the game poses a threat. the action stages are solid, though I can't say writing this a year later I remember any past the castle siege + double tiger fight. yakuza 2 also introduces dorky weapons expert and series mainstay kamiyama, who appears here as a backlot DVD bootlegger. his role would be expanded in later games, but you can still grab a bevy of top-notch weapons from him here, including an infinite pistol that's suprisingly easy to obtain.
kiryu gets two returning sidestories in this entry: clan creator from y6 and cabaret management from y0. clan creator in yk2 is functionally the reverse of its previous iteration, as you now have to defend majima construction from waves of encroaching yakuza. it's a more traditional tower defense structure, and not one I particularly enjoy. moving units around rts-style with a controller interface feels clunky, and the fun of overwhelming the opponent with numbers from the y6 version simply doesn't exist here. cabaret management is definitely better by comparison, but it's the same as its y0 iteration with a handful of minor QoL additions. it's got plenty of cheeky nods back to the y0 version's plot and characters, and one day I'll definitely come back to it, but after playing through all of y0's cabaret management it becomes difficult to retread such worn ground.
substories here suffer from the writers having not quite settled into their formula and normal story beats. there's standouts for sure, but many of the substories are half-baked and brief, and in my opinion the offering lacks the consistency of even the first. the friendship ones in particular lack any hook or fun moments, with the only reward being an extra contextual heat action when fights occur next to the friend. the combat sidestory fares a bit better thankfully: kiryu can receive freelance "bouncer" missions from the bartender at debolah. these are action stages that take place within kamurocho with plenty of inexplicable giant walls to break and portly minibosses to take down. my biggest qualm with it are the completion requirements, as you'll need to complete all 25 missions on three difficulties each to gain all the rewards. this is one of the biggest things that's kept me from returning to this game more often; it's just too boring and I don't feel like doing it!
minigames overall are the high point of the game, with plenty of returning ones from y6 and a couple new ones. virtua fighter 2 makes its reappearance from y5 along with oddball model 2 pick virtual-on, which is a weird-ass game but sort of neat at the same time. one of the most eye-raising additions are piss minigames you can access after raising an internal piss meter by drinking beverages. these "toylets" games apparently exist in real life as well? sort of dope honestly. understanding how to play some of these confused me a little bit, especially the one where you're trying to duel streams with an opponent, but the concept is rife with laughs the first couple times. karaoke makes a return in its superior dragon engine iteration, along with a much-appreciated driving range. coliseum also make a reappearance with giant multi-man battle royales that are a joy to clobber through. your opponents in these fights can be unlocked by encountering them as minibosses in each city as part of the "street boss" system, where unique assailants can be unlocked by clearing out a given group of delinquents in each area. compared to some of the other games in the series, the variety is solid and the fact that they all show up again in the coliseum is a nice touch as well. the final minigames other than these are the batting range and some horny photography thing that I didn't really have much interest in. there's nothing here that matches yakuza 6 levels of quality imo, but it's certainly on-par with or better than any of the other games in the franchise.
I've written this review in fits and spurts over the course of a couple months, and the longer I spend writing it the more I focus on the flaws of the game rather than its relative strengths. I really did enjoy this when I play it, and so I wanted to make sure I highlighted some of the best points of this game:
+sotenbori is an amazing city design, the perfect complement to kamurocho, no question. gotta give props to yakuza 2 for originating the area, and kiwami 2 does an excellent job modernizing it and filling out its nooks and crannies.
+using acupuncture to remind yourself of old moves is so unorthodox and I love it. it also solves the issue of explaining how kiryu forgot so many moves in just a year's time
+the tiger fight is top-notch. really that whole osaka castle action stage is one of the best in the series
+there's a majima scenario that takes place before the events of the game and spotlights some of the top-level clan politics during the terada chairmanship. except actually it's mostly blatant y0 fanservice... and not really that interesting. sorry, not much of a positive but I had to put this somewhere
solid game overall, but I can't help but think that I don't like this game as much as I would otherwise because the blatant grind in the post-game turned me off. I happen to own a copy of the original on ps2, and I'd like to go back and play it at some point to compare notes and see if I prefer that version. it's absolutely a game worth checking out regardless, and in my view certainly a step up over kiwami 1 given the limited budget and dev cycle of each.
Story isn't bad, but man, the combat just got so much worse compared to the first Kiwami. I swear they basically forced you to use weapons in this. Using weapons is lame, I wanna punch shit
If Yakuza Kiwami 2 was just an instance of a sequel tightening the bolts of the foundation of the first game then this would be way easier to make any sort of broader statements on, but both fortunately and unfortunately, this is very far from the case, both with Kiwami specifically, and with Yakuza 2 as a whole. The game is very much a give and take affair in a much more prominent way compared to the first, trading in a more consistent sense of being just decent to being an experience with towering highs and absolutely miserable lows. This was something that pervaded the majority of the game both mechanically and with its presentation. Despite that however, I'd also still say that I preferred this one over Kiwami 1, as the constant roughness that paves the way for some truly glorious heights makes for something that feels far more compelling and funnily enough also way more in line with the style of the games that so often fall back on the themes of stark juxtaposition as a lot of their appeal.
With this said however, there are a few aspects of the game that just feel strictly better to me, most of all the narrative. The way Kiryu's perspective has been so warped as a continuation of the previous game's events is really compelling to follow, showing the player someone who has become entirely disillusioned with the life that they'd devoted everything to for so long after tragedies upon tragedies began piling up. The theme of attempting to come to terms one's past further solidifies this along with being a constant driving force of basically every character featured prominently, with the attitudes they take on in regards to this largely being the deciding factor of their own sense of morality. This just happens to be especially compelling with Kiryu due to the way that it even seeps into a lot of the substories featured throughout, with him feeling far more frustrated and done with all the nonsense that he gets put through in them, very rarely feeling like someone who actually wants to go along with the absurdity and instead is just strung along time and time again. It ultimately adds a further sense of cohesion and consistency to his character that has always made him so great to follow along and see the way he feels the same regardless of how stupid or intense the moment happens to be.
Even with this stuff aside, I also just think that this is a way more fun story as well, playing far more into the vibe of a b-grade crime drama with utterly ridiculous moments of spectacle and a huge pile of twists that are thrown your way at basically any moment. The presence of most of these characters is especially more engaging, as for as disappointing as it is that Ryuji Goda doesn't have a ton of screentime, he still ends up stealing the show with his menacing personality. Things also just feel more focused in general, rather than a mishmash of ideas that have literally no time to be explored before moving onto the next one, instead largely having a consistent throughline without sacrificing too much in spontaneity to make it work.
It's really once you get to the pure gameplay side of things where the seams really start showing here, seemingly especially with the way the Dragon Engine is set up, though it's not all bad. The way the engine allows the player to seamlessly walk into stores and even up into certain other buildings adds a lot to the sense of liveliness to the locations that you explore, which works fantastically given how much time you'll obviously be spending in them, easily being my favourite thing about the engine on the whole. The light RPG mechanics added certainly have their positive qualities, especially with the way they reward you for messing about and eating at restaurants etc. to further encourage actually interacting with the world instead of approaching everything in the most "video gamey" way possible because of its comparative efficiency. With that said, the RPG elements also come with a problem when so many basic abilities that make the combat any fun whatsoever are now locked behind having to level them up with the exp points. So many of your capabilities feel absolutely pathetic for the first half of the game or so, with a lot of the more gradual upgrades not really doing enough to actually feel worthwhile a lot of the time, most notably the early quickstep being so horrifically bad that I genuinely thought it was a bug.
Mechanical progression issues aside, I also just think that the combat here sucks in general for the most part, particularly with the way that heat actions felt far less engaging to mess about with thanks to the far lower amount of fun contextual stuff to do. It all feels far more homogenous in here, with a lot of interactions being stripped back and replaced with more generic actions which ultimately takes away a bit from the world as a whole when it's no longer some strange, twisted playground of brutality. There's also just a certain overarching sense of the game lacking its visceral edge, with a lot of the basic attacks having utterly pitiful feelings of impact regardless of how much damage they actually can do. It leads to a very repetitive experience in a lot of places that's only really alleviated by the fact that the game is incredibly easy so you can at least breeze through it relatively painlessly.
The side content is something that I feel did take a pretty big step up here however, as while there are still quite a lot of them that are very dry and not even really a jazzed up objective to just beat up a bunch of guys, there's some really insane stuff that goes on too. There's some truly ridiculous and hysterical stuff that goes on here, but my favourite has to be the minigame that sees Kiryu having to piss with precise and variable amounts of force, which in itself is already pretty silly and out there, but when combined with the absolutely unhinged amount of determination he has to win at this pissing contest, it's just the perfect recipe to something that almost justifies the game in its own right. One other think that bothers me a bit is the decision to provide a little minimap icon to display where substories are so early into the game.
While it's an undeniable quality of life improvement to have, giving it to the player almost immediately has a tendency to cause these little side stories to feel closer to a bunch of boxes that the player needs to tick off rather than adding to the spontaneous nature of the world. A huge draw of these originally was the way it provided this chaotic quality to the world, where some weird, random nonsense could spring out at you at every turn, and while I do admit that the feature of being able to actually see where side quests are is a good one for being able to get through the content without a guide, adding it either in the premium adventure or near the end of the story would be a far more effective way of being able to provide atmosphere while still ultimately allowing you to pinpoint them on the map.
One other problem I really have with this is how much of the side content has the idea of repetition and tedium baked into it. There are a ton of neat ideas floating around, such as the top down tower defence construction game or the missions where you act as a bouncer and take out hordes of enemies, but a lot of them get bogged down by how often you need to go through basically the exact same motions to actually properly complete them. With a lot of bits and pieces being tweaked, so much of the tedium of exploring some of the side content would be solved and really go a long way in not having these absolutely painful stretches of nothingness. Overall though, despite the game sometimes having utterly cavernous low points of boredom and frustration, I still think this is a pretty cool game that once again embraces its absurdity in a lot of glorious ways. Definitely going to have to play the original at some point because I get the distinct feeling that this took some stylistic liberties that I wouldn't really agree with, but even with that lingering thought, this is still a cool game in its own right even with the way it ends up being pretty frustratingly messy in places.
With this said however, there are a few aspects of the game that just feel strictly better to me, most of all the narrative. The way Kiryu's perspective has been so warped as a continuation of the previous game's events is really compelling to follow, showing the player someone who has become entirely disillusioned with the life that they'd devoted everything to for so long after tragedies upon tragedies began piling up. The theme of attempting to come to terms one's past further solidifies this along with being a constant driving force of basically every character featured prominently, with the attitudes they take on in regards to this largely being the deciding factor of their own sense of morality. This just happens to be especially compelling with Kiryu due to the way that it even seeps into a lot of the substories featured throughout, with him feeling far more frustrated and done with all the nonsense that he gets put through in them, very rarely feeling like someone who actually wants to go along with the absurdity and instead is just strung along time and time again. It ultimately adds a further sense of cohesion and consistency to his character that has always made him so great to follow along and see the way he feels the same regardless of how stupid or intense the moment happens to be.
Even with this stuff aside, I also just think that this is a way more fun story as well, playing far more into the vibe of a b-grade crime drama with utterly ridiculous moments of spectacle and a huge pile of twists that are thrown your way at basically any moment. The presence of most of these characters is especially more engaging, as for as disappointing as it is that Ryuji Goda doesn't have a ton of screentime, he still ends up stealing the show with his menacing personality. Things also just feel more focused in general, rather than a mishmash of ideas that have literally no time to be explored before moving onto the next one, instead largely having a consistent throughline without sacrificing too much in spontaneity to make it work.
It's really once you get to the pure gameplay side of things where the seams really start showing here, seemingly especially with the way the Dragon Engine is set up, though it's not all bad. The way the engine allows the player to seamlessly walk into stores and even up into certain other buildings adds a lot to the sense of liveliness to the locations that you explore, which works fantastically given how much time you'll obviously be spending in them, easily being my favourite thing about the engine on the whole. The light RPG mechanics added certainly have their positive qualities, especially with the way they reward you for messing about and eating at restaurants etc. to further encourage actually interacting with the world instead of approaching everything in the most "video gamey" way possible because of its comparative efficiency. With that said, the RPG elements also come with a problem when so many basic abilities that make the combat any fun whatsoever are now locked behind having to level them up with the exp points. So many of your capabilities feel absolutely pathetic for the first half of the game or so, with a lot of the more gradual upgrades not really doing enough to actually feel worthwhile a lot of the time, most notably the early quickstep being so horrifically bad that I genuinely thought it was a bug.
Mechanical progression issues aside, I also just think that the combat here sucks in general for the most part, particularly with the way that heat actions felt far less engaging to mess about with thanks to the far lower amount of fun contextual stuff to do. It all feels far more homogenous in here, with a lot of interactions being stripped back and replaced with more generic actions which ultimately takes away a bit from the world as a whole when it's no longer some strange, twisted playground of brutality. There's also just a certain overarching sense of the game lacking its visceral edge, with a lot of the basic attacks having utterly pitiful feelings of impact regardless of how much damage they actually can do. It leads to a very repetitive experience in a lot of places that's only really alleviated by the fact that the game is incredibly easy so you can at least breeze through it relatively painlessly.
The side content is something that I feel did take a pretty big step up here however, as while there are still quite a lot of them that are very dry and not even really a jazzed up objective to just beat up a bunch of guys, there's some really insane stuff that goes on too. There's some truly ridiculous and hysterical stuff that goes on here, but my favourite has to be the minigame that sees Kiryu having to piss with precise and variable amounts of force, which in itself is already pretty silly and out there, but when combined with the absolutely unhinged amount of determination he has to win at this pissing contest, it's just the perfect recipe to something that almost justifies the game in its own right. One other think that bothers me a bit is the decision to provide a little minimap icon to display where substories are so early into the game.
While it's an undeniable quality of life improvement to have, giving it to the player almost immediately has a tendency to cause these little side stories to feel closer to a bunch of boxes that the player needs to tick off rather than adding to the spontaneous nature of the world. A huge draw of these originally was the way it provided this chaotic quality to the world, where some weird, random nonsense could spring out at you at every turn, and while I do admit that the feature of being able to actually see where side quests are is a good one for being able to get through the content without a guide, adding it either in the premium adventure or near the end of the story would be a far more effective way of being able to provide atmosphere while still ultimately allowing you to pinpoint them on the map.
One other problem I really have with this is how much of the side content has the idea of repetition and tedium baked into it. There are a ton of neat ideas floating around, such as the top down tower defence construction game or the missions where you act as a bouncer and take out hordes of enemies, but a lot of them get bogged down by how often you need to go through basically the exact same motions to actually properly complete them. With a lot of bits and pieces being tweaked, so much of the tedium of exploring some of the side content would be solved and really go a long way in not having these absolutely painful stretches of nothingness. Overall though, despite the game sometimes having utterly cavernous low points of boredom and frustration, I still think this is a pretty cool game that once again embraces its absurdity in a lot of glorious ways. Definitely going to have to play the original at some point because I get the distinct feeling that this took some stylistic liberties that I wouldn't really agree with, but even with that lingering thought, this is still a cool game in its own right even with the way it ends up being pretty frustratingly messy in places.