Yakuza Kiwami 2

Right off the bat, this is a major upgrade from Kiwami 1. Story, music, combat & side activities, all are working in tandem because of the Dragon Engine that was utilised. Heck, I've clocked a total of 81 hours just because the side content kept me distracted as long as it did (which is quite a bit more than what I had in 0). Be prepared for a lot of tragedies to come swinging during the later half of the game. It certainly ups the drama to such a degree that I was already trying to think two steps ahead of pivotal story moments that it ended up going in a different direction than anticipated. The main antagonist steals the spotlight as far as their backstory and final fight goes. So far, this villain has turned out to be the most memorable to me. Free-roaming around the city felt super smooth as I was able to have a consistent framerate of 120FPS which really made me feel more immersed. There is an issue with some mini-games not working past 30FPS (i.e. Toylets) so I'd either recommend getting SilentPatch or capping it to 30FPS during those gameplay moments. Onto the Remastered Trilogy (3rd mainline entry), which is going to be pretty interesting and already tempering my expectations on them, lol.

This series is gorgeous and unique, full of funny mini stories, sincerity, trust, sacrifices and even drama. After you've finished the whole series, you will feel sorry that the story of Kazuma Kiryu's doesn't continue anymore. A few months ago I bought all the Yakuza series on Steam. I played the entire Yakuza series on PSN and I have the original PS3 and PS4 discs as collection. I won't miss the chance to buy Yakuza on Gog as well. For the new gamers ( I wish I didn't know the story to play them for the first time as you), here it is the playing order of the games: Yakuza 0 Yakuza Kiwami Yakuza Kiwami 2 Yakuza 3 Yakuza 4 Yakuza 5 Yakuza 6: The Song of Life Yakuza: Like a Dragon and get ready for… Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name (November 2023) Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth (2024)

This game ties with Yakuza 0 and Yakuza: Like a Dragon for my favorite entry in the series. A remake of the PS2 game with the Y6 engine, its one of the best playing games in the series. If you are like me and played up to this game from Y0, you will know what I mean when I say how smooth everything feels from the graphics, walking around the world, and the combat. And out of all the main storylines, this one remains my favorite with a great villain Ryuji Goda, a great supporting cast in both the returning and new characters, a lot of good twists and scenarios Kiryu has to navigate, and, of course, Majima Construction Company. And that's before we get into the Sub-Stories and the Cabaret side story, the latter being a fantastic wrap-up I didn't think I needed from Yakuza 0. But there are some weak parts: 1) the Majima Saga because its fairly short unless you do some of the minigames to get money that unlocks items in the main story and Majima uses a fighting style reminiscent of his Mad Dog style in Y0 that I didn't like using. The best part and maybe the only reason to play it is it provides a nice epilogue to his arc in 0. 2) The Majima Construction Mini-game. This is basically this game's Cabaret mini-game that's apparently a lot like Clan Builder in 6 (I haven't gotten to that game) but more so as a tower defense game. And it's not great. It also features cameos from Japanese wrestlers that are gonna go over your head unless you are REALLY familiar with that scene. But besides that, it's one of the best games you could play in the series largely thanks to the Dragon Engine running extremely well. And it's also one of the easier games you can 100% if you care about that. Worth getting at full price and is a steal during a sale. Recommended.

The first time I played this, it took me a while to get into it, because the Dragon Engine just looks and feels wrong at first. This review comes after a replay, which makes this the third time I've played through a Dragon Engine game, and it finally feels natural, and one thing that helps a lot is mastering Dragon Style from Kiwami. You only have one style this time, and the moves you learn are bought by five different types of experience, which you get from all kinds of activities, not just fights. If you can't get used to the fighting style, it's fairly easy to get strong weapons with infinite durability. Completion isn't too bad, either, because when it comes to minigames, Yakuza likes to keep it casual, and this is no exception. Where this game won me over as one of my favorites in the series is the incredible setpieces and writing. Some of the areas you fight your way through are very exciting, and some even have a bit of verticality to them. The drama is over-the-top, as usual, but beyond just that, the characters, new and old, are very well-written; even that mysterious someone ever lurking in the shadows becomes extremely compelling here. It's hard to pick who my favorite new or returning character would be here, but the climax is unbelievable. Oh, and fear not, Majima fans: he does get his own short side story that unlocks once you've finished the main game.

RECOMMENDED. If you play Yakuza / Ryuu ga Gotoku / Like a Dragon games for the plot, this is 5/5. The plot is practically perfect, maybe besides the usual ham-fisted romance scenes and the Ryuji Goda having the exact same scenes and outcomes as Nishkiyama in the previous game. If you like real twists, this will be your favorite game ever. The sub par aspects of the game involve the stiff and not creatively reasoned combat and the sub-content design, especially the tying of substory completion and the unlockable skills to annoying and grindy minigame challenges. The new Dragon Engine (the previous ones used the Yakuza 5 one) means fights are no longer limited to any place. You can even run out of fights now. This means you can always go fetch a bicycle to demolish the attacking goons with even if there is none around. You want to do this as it makes the fights super fast. Kiryu does not have good or reliable group damage moves, so using weapons and objects is what you will be doing. Especially with the gang sizes starting with 5 and sometimes the game featuring scenes with dozens of them at once. Luckily, the game now has charged light attacks to break blocks for the continuing combo, ending the Fortress Disease of the previous games. Also, the enemies are less aggressive and block-happy as in Kiwami 1. No load times when entering shops and stuff - it is all conveniently on the same map now. F the minigame unlockable skills. To use the heat action of bats and golf clubs - some of the most common weapons in the game - you have to grind golf and baseball challenges A LOT. Like hours on end. Those weapons are super risky to use without those abilities. This is a problem because Kiwami 2 emphasizes weapon combat. For example, bullets commonly go through objects and some of the walls. The batting minigame sucks. You basically have to take notes where the curve balls are going to go now and hit it next time when the pattern repeats. Nerdy af. Darts aim not stable sucks