More bloated than the average midwesterner after 3 hours at the Chuck-a-Rama. Yakuza Kiwami 2 is a mess from the very beginning and it took some serious patience to finally finish this game after two previous attempts to do so in the past. How poorly scaled back the combat is from Kiwami 1, the extensive story deviations that go nowhere, and just too many characters are the tip of the iceberg regarding issues with this game. I could not imagine 100%'ing any of these Like a Dragon games. Still, Kiwami 2 would be miserable with all of the repetitive battles, a piss-poor upgrade system, and the inclusion of two high-maintenance mini-games with their own completion rewards/story beats. I have never yearned to play the original release before playing its remake.

I do not have the context surrounding the original PS2 version of this game to make a judgment call if this is a "faithful" remake, though from what discourse I've seen from longstanding fans, Kiwami 2 (and the remakes of the PS2 games in general) is quite controversial. It saddens me that SEGA doesn't seem to care to keep the original releases of these games going, say, for a few reprints they've had in the past, telling us these are the definitive versions of these experiences. SEGA making that call with something so bloated and boring as this has me even more curious to play the original releases of Yakuza 1 and 2 when I eventually make it through all these other games.

Ryuji is the only reason to see this through to the end.