while i found that yakuza kiwami 2 was able to overcome the feeling of being a repainted ps2 game like kiwami 1 was not - it comes at the cost of a lot of charm, and the introduction of more new stuff than i'd deem necessary. it is unclear to me why this game changes so much. i thought the story was a serious highlight with a massive improvement on yakuza 1 - but other than that? i really don't think that this game has that weird "Secret Sauce." if anything, it feels like the complete opposite of kiwami 1! they changed so much, that the game now feels stiff and sterile despite, on the face of it, doing a lot of things right.

i didn't hate this, and i enjoyed it overall - but the combat, the strange changes to an otherwise great story, the reintroduction of cabaret exclusive substories (the bane of my existence) and just the lackluster optimisation for PC users all come together to make a remaster that achieves the complete opposite of kiwami 1's inexplicable charm.