This review contains spoilers
For most of this game I was thinking "yeah this is good! I like it a bit better than Kiwami 1 :)" and then that last act happened. I was literally ready to give it the same score, but those last 2 hours...We'll get there.
2017 isn't that long ago, but even so Kiwami 2 is gorgeous for its time. Kamurocho is cosy and charming as ever, but Sotenbori is awesome too - the riverside area is just stunning, I'm never not floored by the detail put into these dense game worlds, some of my favourite locations I've ever been in any video game ever. Think I've said it before but I fucking love neon, and the lighting in this game is absolutely incredible. Seeing the bright city lights bouncing off puddles and shimmering in the rain gets my goddamn nuts off bro, I love love love just walking around in these places
Kiwami 2 is a lot less frustrating than Kiwami 1 in gameplay too, a lot less lame bosses (looking at you, Jingu) a lot less obnoxious blocking and projectile weapons. Its substories are also a decent step up, I'm particularly a big fan of the substory that's basically just The Ring where this guy hands you what you believe to be a porno, only for it turn into the plot of a horror movie with a fake priest who's just trying to scam you and where the ghost is actually real(?) I also loved "Kiryu Kazuma, Professional Voice Actor" where Kiryu's roped into voice acting for what he believes to be a video game, and it turns out to be a fucking gay porn, lmao, great shit.
Unfortunately, this is where the cliches and trope-y-ness of Yakuza's substories start to wear on you, I think! It becomes increasingly obvious as you get some way into your 2nd or 3rd Yakuza game that like 80% of these game's substories revolve around Kiryu getting scammed, chasing down the scammer and then beating them up. There are still some diamonds in the rough, but this shit gets old! Also, I didn't quite like combat as much! What was wrong with the different styles? I liked styles! I know Kiryu's "the dragon" and re-learned all his old skills now but like, I liked the feeling of customisation and choice in my playstyle! Why not come up with something new? Why actively regress?
Okay, enough beating around the bush. The story. Firstly, I do not think Ryuji Goda is a particularly good villain, and I don't really get why he's plastered all over the game's promotional material and key art like he's such a big deal. I'm never convinced that he's as much of a threat as the game wants me to think. Okay, he beat up Daigo. Anything else? Kiryu beats him 1-on-1 in like the first few hours of the game, granted it's not painted as a hugely fair fight but still - Ryuji then goes on to not really do anything particularly scary or impressive for the rest of the runtime. Also, I just don't really think he and Kiryu's conflict is that compelling! Kiryu's only fighting him as a proxy for the Tojo clan and to prevent war, he doesn't really have much investment in it on a personal level. Why is Kiryu so obsessed with giving him a fair fight? He's been like, mildly honourable in a few scenes. That's it. He's also been a huge dick on multiple occasions. It particularly doesn't make sense to me why Kiryu's so intent on participating in this "fight to the death" with him in the game's final act once it's known that he's Sayama's brother. Kiryu emphaises with Sayama, he's seen all that she's been through and knows how traumatised she'd be if either of them died - yet insists on fighting to the death anyway, when they're under the impression that a FUCKING BOMB is about to go off. Why? You already beat him, bro! Save your woman the trauma and run! Or try and offer him an ultimatum! Fight at a later date! Idk! Some shit! Anything other than this! It comes off stupid and prideful and selfish and out of character for Kiryu.
I also don't get why Ryuji, who apparently is so insistent on having a fair fight with Kiryu to test himself - uses a fucking sword in the first fight with him in the final chapter when Kiryu is using his bare hands? And why he refuses to kill him with said sword after Kiryu's fought through a bunch of mafia guys at the end of Chapter 15 - yet sends the entirety of his forces at Kiryu before their climactic fight in the final chapter??? The one where he uses the sword???
SPEAKING OF THE FINAL CHAPTER. What a load of hogwash, bro. Tomfoolery. Absolute malarkey, if you ask me. Shocks for the sake of it. TWO consecutive twist villains who go "ho ho, it was me all along!" and just totally throw Ryuji under the bus, and then get dealt with and fuckin swept under the rug in the same sequence of cutscenes anyway. The first one, Terada, didn't make a fucking lick of sense to me. Is it ever explained how he survived getting shot? Or faked his own death? Or what the fuck he did to achieve this asspull? Am I missing something or was this just not explained at all? Of course the post-credits scene then goes back around AGAIN to establish that he wasn't a villain after all, and was just trying to bait out and foil Takashima. Ugh. Whatever bro, very shocking. Well done. (By the way, same question for Kazuki. Wtf was up with the guy who looked just like him? Was that ever explained? Again, did I miss something? Do the Jingweon have some kind of amazing impersonator or something? I can suspend my disbelief but I feel like I'm going crazy here bro)
And then Takashima is just a total wet fart. Entirely unconvincing and unthreatening. I didn't buy him for one minute, and he'd been on-screen so little and his motivations were so fucking base and one-dimensional that the moment he started monologueing I just checked out. I didn't care much for Kiryu and Ryuji's conflict but I honestly wish they just played it straight with those two instead of this needlessly convoluted, unconvincing and mustache-twirling HORSEPLAY.
AND WHY DID DATE BRING KIRYU'S CHILD SURROGATE DAUGHTER WITH HIM IN A HELICOPTER TO SEE KIRYU FIGHTING A DANGEROUS CRIMINAL TO THE DEATH ATOP A TOWER. I ASSUME HE DIDN'T ALSO KNOW IT WAS RIGGED TO EXPLODE. STILL WOULDN'T MAKE IT LESS STUPID! LEAVE HER AT HOME BRO! PUT TELETUBBIES ON AND LEAVE HER LITTLE ASS AT HOME!!
Man, I didn't even get to complaining about the hamfisted and overly-long intros to the Cabaret Club and Majima Construction sidegames. Holy shit. My controller literally went to sleep, that's how long the cutscenes for these optional modes on the critical path are. I also didn't get to complaining about Haruka's shoehorned inclusion in the last couple chapters and how it kills the pacing and how the writers clearly had no idea how to include her in the story (aside from letting her get kidnapped midway through for the 4th time!!)
It's Yakuza. It's still good, it's still fun, I like it. But this game's closing act sucked the life out of me unlike anything I've played for a while. Kiwami 2's story bugged me a lot. I had a good time and I'm glad that time is over, I no longer feel the need to play any more of the Kiryu-saga Yakuza games. I think I can get what more I need from YouTube and Wikipedia, lol.
2017 isn't that long ago, but even so Kiwami 2 is gorgeous for its time. Kamurocho is cosy and charming as ever, but Sotenbori is awesome too - the riverside area is just stunning, I'm never not floored by the detail put into these dense game worlds, some of my favourite locations I've ever been in any video game ever. Think I've said it before but I fucking love neon, and the lighting in this game is absolutely incredible. Seeing the bright city lights bouncing off puddles and shimmering in the rain gets my goddamn nuts off bro, I love love love just walking around in these places
Kiwami 2 is a lot less frustrating than Kiwami 1 in gameplay too, a lot less lame bosses (looking at you, Jingu) a lot less obnoxious blocking and projectile weapons. Its substories are also a decent step up, I'm particularly a big fan of the substory that's basically just The Ring where this guy hands you what you believe to be a porno, only for it turn into the plot of a horror movie with a fake priest who's just trying to scam you and where the ghost is actually real(?) I also loved "Kiryu Kazuma, Professional Voice Actor" where Kiryu's roped into voice acting for what he believes to be a video game, and it turns out to be a fucking gay porn, lmao, great shit.
Unfortunately, this is where the cliches and trope-y-ness of Yakuza's substories start to wear on you, I think! It becomes increasingly obvious as you get some way into your 2nd or 3rd Yakuza game that like 80% of these game's substories revolve around Kiryu getting scammed, chasing down the scammer and then beating them up. There are still some diamonds in the rough, but this shit gets old! Also, I didn't quite like combat as much! What was wrong with the different styles? I liked styles! I know Kiryu's "the dragon" and re-learned all his old skills now but like, I liked the feeling of customisation and choice in my playstyle! Why not come up with something new? Why actively regress?
Okay, enough beating around the bush. The story. Firstly, I do not think Ryuji Goda is a particularly good villain, and I don't really get why he's plastered all over the game's promotional material and key art like he's such a big deal. I'm never convinced that he's as much of a threat as the game wants me to think. Okay, he beat up Daigo. Anything else? Kiryu beats him 1-on-1 in like the first few hours of the game, granted it's not painted as a hugely fair fight but still - Ryuji then goes on to not really do anything particularly scary or impressive for the rest of the runtime. Also, I just don't really think he and Kiryu's conflict is that compelling! Kiryu's only fighting him as a proxy for the Tojo clan and to prevent war, he doesn't really have much investment in it on a personal level. Why is Kiryu so obsessed with giving him a fair fight? He's been like, mildly honourable in a few scenes. That's it. He's also been a huge dick on multiple occasions. It particularly doesn't make sense to me why Kiryu's so intent on participating in this "fight to the death" with him in the game's final act once it's known that he's Sayama's brother. Kiryu emphaises with Sayama, he's seen all that she's been through and knows how traumatised she'd be if either of them died - yet insists on fighting to the death anyway, when they're under the impression that a FUCKING BOMB is about to go off. Why? You already beat him, bro! Save your woman the trauma and run! Or try and offer him an ultimatum! Fight at a later date! Idk! Some shit! Anything other than this! It comes off stupid and prideful and selfish and out of character for Kiryu.
I also don't get why Ryuji, who apparently is so insistent on having a fair fight with Kiryu to test himself - uses a fucking sword in the first fight with him in the final chapter when Kiryu is using his bare hands? And why he refuses to kill him with said sword after Kiryu's fought through a bunch of mafia guys at the end of Chapter 15 - yet sends the entirety of his forces at Kiryu before their climactic fight in the final chapter??? The one where he uses the sword???
SPEAKING OF THE FINAL CHAPTER. What a load of hogwash, bro. Tomfoolery. Absolute malarkey, if you ask me. Shocks for the sake of it. TWO consecutive twist villains who go "ho ho, it was me all along!" and just totally throw Ryuji under the bus, and then get dealt with and fuckin swept under the rug in the same sequence of cutscenes anyway. The first one, Terada, didn't make a fucking lick of sense to me. Is it ever explained how he survived getting shot? Or faked his own death? Or what the fuck he did to achieve this asspull? Am I missing something or was this just not explained at all? Of course the post-credits scene then goes back around AGAIN to establish that he wasn't a villain after all, and was just trying to bait out and foil Takashima. Ugh. Whatever bro, very shocking. Well done. (By the way, same question for Kazuki. Wtf was up with the guy who looked just like him? Was that ever explained? Again, did I miss something? Do the Jingweon have some kind of amazing impersonator or something? I can suspend my disbelief but I feel like I'm going crazy here bro)
And then Takashima is just a total wet fart. Entirely unconvincing and unthreatening. I didn't buy him for one minute, and he'd been on-screen so little and his motivations were so fucking base and one-dimensional that the moment he started monologueing I just checked out. I didn't care much for Kiryu and Ryuji's conflict but I honestly wish they just played it straight with those two instead of this needlessly convoluted, unconvincing and mustache-twirling HORSEPLAY.
AND WHY DID DATE BRING KIRYU'S CHILD SURROGATE DAUGHTER WITH HIM IN A HELICOPTER TO SEE KIRYU FIGHTING A DANGEROUS CRIMINAL TO THE DEATH ATOP A TOWER. I ASSUME HE DIDN'T ALSO KNOW IT WAS RIGGED TO EXPLODE. STILL WOULDN'T MAKE IT LESS STUPID! LEAVE HER AT HOME BRO! PUT TELETUBBIES ON AND LEAVE HER LITTLE ASS AT HOME!!
Man, I didn't even get to complaining about the hamfisted and overly-long intros to the Cabaret Club and Majima Construction sidegames. Holy shit. My controller literally went to sleep, that's how long the cutscenes for these optional modes on the critical path are. I also didn't get to complaining about Haruka's shoehorned inclusion in the last couple chapters and how it kills the pacing and how the writers clearly had no idea how to include her in the story (aside from letting her get kidnapped midway through for the 4th time!!)
It's Yakuza. It's still good, it's still fun, I like it. But this game's closing act sucked the life out of me unlike anything I've played for a while. Kiwami 2's story bugged me a lot. I had a good time and I'm glad that time is over, I no longer feel the need to play any more of the Kiryu-saga Yakuza games. I think I can get what more I need from YouTube and Wikipedia, lol.