i'll cut to the chase and spare you some prose and witticisms you'll read either through glazed eyes or gritted teeth: six and a half years ago i was in a real bad way and i wasnt enjoying a single one of my hobbies the way i had used to. i had made plans to try to get into this series from its inciting incident just to have something to do that day, and it was around that time that yakuza 5 was serendipitously announced for localization, an unprecedented miracle that blindsided its then-largely isolationist and niche fanbase. felt like a sign, to me - i was playing this game the very next day, and within four months had completed all hitherto localized titles in the franchise, eagerly anticipating the fifth game. i was having fun with games again.
since then the series has received widespread recognition, often for better or worse (usually for very cynical reasons, attracting a specific kind of crowd that i would like to stay very, very far away from, and yet still needlessly spurring on several inane culture wars because no one knows how to react to media with good sense, tact, or nuance anymore) but im still here playing this franchise for reasons im not sure i'll ever be able to adequately articulate. and despite all this - this is the entry i return to the most. it's a kind of ritual homecoming. certainly, yakuza 2 is the more refined title. it's a successor which embraces its cinematic lineage and nagoshis directorial flavourings; it is pulpy and jettisons any sense of restraint, it sports a combat system arguably better than the roughness of its predecessor, it is more cognizant of how to utilize its living and breathing world and array of denizens to capture the frivolities of the human experience. but it's also the establishment of something formulaic, a pattern. a mold for a franchise aided by the careful supervision of fan-feedback and by the business acumen necessary to pilot an initiative that transformed yakuza into a yearly asset-flip series (this is undoubtedly in addition to a shitton of crunch. there is no doubt in my heart that y2 worked its employees to the bone.)
when so many of yakuza and yakuza 2s strengths in atmosphere and design tend to overlap, it's not hard to see why im kind of enamored with the guts this specific project displayed in a way that yakuza 2 does not. and when looking at the overarching path the series has taken - in which entries felt increasingly hurried and fraught until learning to respect restraint in 0 - this becomes especially clear. it's bold, it's risky - researching it, it becomes clear that it required a lot of attitude, finesse, trust, and collaboration to see a unique vision like this to the end and there are still flashes of that experimental tendency to be found in this specific entry. i love how punishing the games central heat mechanic is because it forces you to expend it desperately which often resulted in greater xp gain, i love how abilities are often tied to exploration, i love the overhead camera angles of this gritty and noirish red light district as opposed to the bog-standard third-person view the rest of the series employs, i love how its heat actions are absolutely brutal but orchestrated around brevity so as not to interrupt the flow of combat (something which later entries completely miss the point of), i love how its perhaps the only yakuza that doesnt necessarily characterize kiryu as a rogue paladin or a saint, i love that the substories are all grunt-work, assisting normal-ass people who often dont have much vested interest in you, the player, or kiryu, the supposed paragon of humanity, i love that there are cursory glances of what the series could have become in its structure had it not been turned into an asset-flip series, hell i even love the awkward english dub which tried to endear itself to the cult of rockstar and GTA. it's not very good, but much of that is attributable to script rewrites and voice acting direction as opposed to the fault of the actors themselves, and even at its very worst it is infinitely preferable to parse when contrasted against some localization decisions in the recent remastered collection which, at least at launch, frustratingly changed instances of dialogue in substories to include insular online lingo as the punchline. these are minimal in number, but they tie into what i stated earlier about how i fear this series is perceived, and it's often not in a very sincere or affectionate way. say what you will about the english dub wherein kiryu uses a slur or two, but he actually sounds like a former gangster, at the very least. keep in mind that i'm more than a little bitter that impassioned fans could not get people to play this series, but a single screenshot of a chicken did, no doubt influencing the direction of marketing, teaching profit-driven suits the value of the snapshot and altering franchise perception for the rest of time.
and while the series has continued to take risks, trying their hands at ideas various other studios would never consider because of RGG Studio's unique developmental approach (spin-offs as experimental grace periods developed for reprieve or to test new technology, each mainline entry's narrative being set in the year in which it was released, a greater than the sum of its parts design approach largely centered around content density), no title has ever been as uncompromising experimental as this one. its janky and its rough, but its unapologetic and totally committed - that's why im such an ardent fan, and probably at least subconsciously why i return every now and again. helps that 'tis the season, and it's a peak christmas game too.
in fact, even with the series transitioning to the turn-based genre, when so much of the post-0 output is so utterly reliant on incessant callbacks and fanservice relating to that one moment the western discovered this franchise existed in 2017, i'd without hesitation wager it still hasn't been anywhere near as risky as the first yakuza!
living with yakuza for as long as i have, learning the ins and outs of its development process, appreciating it from afar and growing to love this specific entry in retrospect has oddly enough honed my creative ability and imbued me with a sharper edge, a specific sense of what endears me to any given work. it's forced me to challenge convention and to be confident in conveying my thought process - to say with defiance that this is what i, singularly, admire and respect about a work. this is undeniably a strange and alienating response to have to a 2005 JRPG brawler laden in machismo, but stranger things have happened. that's the power of art as it relates to the individual, i'd say. goes without saying but if you havent gotten the picture from the tone of this review yet i think kiwami is awful
since then the series has received widespread recognition, often for better or worse (usually for very cynical reasons, attracting a specific kind of crowd that i would like to stay very, very far away from, and yet still needlessly spurring on several inane culture wars because no one knows how to react to media with good sense, tact, or nuance anymore) but im still here playing this franchise for reasons im not sure i'll ever be able to adequately articulate. and despite all this - this is the entry i return to the most. it's a kind of ritual homecoming. certainly, yakuza 2 is the more refined title. it's a successor which embraces its cinematic lineage and nagoshis directorial flavourings; it is pulpy and jettisons any sense of restraint, it sports a combat system arguably better than the roughness of its predecessor, it is more cognizant of how to utilize its living and breathing world and array of denizens to capture the frivolities of the human experience. but it's also the establishment of something formulaic, a pattern. a mold for a franchise aided by the careful supervision of fan-feedback and by the business acumen necessary to pilot an initiative that transformed yakuza into a yearly asset-flip series (this is undoubtedly in addition to a shitton of crunch. there is no doubt in my heart that y2 worked its employees to the bone.)
when so many of yakuza and yakuza 2s strengths in atmosphere and design tend to overlap, it's not hard to see why im kind of enamored with the guts this specific project displayed in a way that yakuza 2 does not. and when looking at the overarching path the series has taken - in which entries felt increasingly hurried and fraught until learning to respect restraint in 0 - this becomes especially clear. it's bold, it's risky - researching it, it becomes clear that it required a lot of attitude, finesse, trust, and collaboration to see a unique vision like this to the end and there are still flashes of that experimental tendency to be found in this specific entry. i love how punishing the games central heat mechanic is because it forces you to expend it desperately which often resulted in greater xp gain, i love how abilities are often tied to exploration, i love the overhead camera angles of this gritty and noirish red light district as opposed to the bog-standard third-person view the rest of the series employs, i love how its heat actions are absolutely brutal but orchestrated around brevity so as not to interrupt the flow of combat (something which later entries completely miss the point of), i love how its perhaps the only yakuza that doesnt necessarily characterize kiryu as a rogue paladin or a saint, i love that the substories are all grunt-work, assisting normal-ass people who often dont have much vested interest in you, the player, or kiryu, the supposed paragon of humanity, i love that there are cursory glances of what the series could have become in its structure had it not been turned into an asset-flip series, hell i even love the awkward english dub which tried to endear itself to the cult of rockstar and GTA. it's not very good, but much of that is attributable to script rewrites and voice acting direction as opposed to the fault of the actors themselves, and even at its very worst it is infinitely preferable to parse when contrasted against some localization decisions in the recent remastered collection which, at least at launch, frustratingly changed instances of dialogue in substories to include insular online lingo as the punchline. these are minimal in number, but they tie into what i stated earlier about how i fear this series is perceived, and it's often not in a very sincere or affectionate way. say what you will about the english dub wherein kiryu uses a slur or two, but he actually sounds like a former gangster, at the very least. keep in mind that i'm more than a little bitter that impassioned fans could not get people to play this series, but a single screenshot of a chicken did, no doubt influencing the direction of marketing, teaching profit-driven suits the value of the snapshot and altering franchise perception for the rest of time.
and while the series has continued to take risks, trying their hands at ideas various other studios would never consider because of RGG Studio's unique developmental approach (spin-offs as experimental grace periods developed for reprieve or to test new technology, each mainline entry's narrative being set in the year in which it was released, a greater than the sum of its parts design approach largely centered around content density), no title has ever been as uncompromising experimental as this one. its janky and its rough, but its unapologetic and totally committed - that's why im such an ardent fan, and probably at least subconsciously why i return every now and again. helps that 'tis the season, and it's a peak christmas game too.
in fact, even with the series transitioning to the turn-based genre, when so much of the post-0 output is so utterly reliant on incessant callbacks and fanservice relating to that one moment the western discovered this franchise existed in 2017, i'd without hesitation wager it still hasn't been anywhere near as risky as the first yakuza!
living with yakuza for as long as i have, learning the ins and outs of its development process, appreciating it from afar and growing to love this specific entry in retrospect has oddly enough honed my creative ability and imbued me with a sharper edge, a specific sense of what endears me to any given work. it's forced me to challenge convention and to be confident in conveying my thought process - to say with defiance that this is what i, singularly, admire and respect about a work. this is undeniably a strange and alienating response to have to a 2005 JRPG brawler laden in machismo, but stranger things have happened. that's the power of art as it relates to the individual, i'd say. goes without saying but if you havent gotten the picture from the tone of this review yet i think kiwami is awful
2 Comments
it's hard for me to blame people for the situation but it is unfortunate the way the dice rolled, yeah - there's a great deal of benefit to starting this series in sequential order from this game, moreso than other franchises at least. i appreciate the kind words, nice to know someone else is in a similar boat! for what its worth there are some small shades of the original two games in judgment, which is part of why i hold that title in high esteem - if you're planning on checking out the rest of the series output i hope you can still enjoy them highly
Djungelskog
3 years ago