Yakuza Kiwami Reviews part 2 by Sarah Valentine

[Sarah Valentine]

What is Yakuza Kiwami 2?
Yakuza Kiwami 2 is a remake of Yakuza 2, the sequel to Yakuza. You play once more as Kazuma Kiryu, an ex-ex-ex-Yakuza with a heart of gold who gets caught up in a complex plot involving the whole Japanese underworld.
What I did:

• Played the game on easy mode.
• Tried every activity at least once. (even Mahjong this time!)
• Completed the main story.
• Any side story I encountered by chance.

Breakdown of the Game:

• Controls – Much better than Yakuza Kiwami 1. Now Kiryu slides across most surfaces instead of catching on them. The world is more cluttered but thanks to the addition of physics to the game, Kiryu now knocks things out of his way instead of getting stopped cold. There are still places where I had better luck grabbing the mouse than with using the control stick (aiming during Yakuza Kiwami 1’s Batting minigame for a previous example), but nothing crucial to completing the game. Getting Kiryu drunk has a much more pronounced effect on the controls, causing him to steer all over the place, which I appreciated.

• Graphics – The graphics are another step up from Kiwami 1’s remaster. Geometry and textures look even better. Faces are less anime-zany and more lifelike, but returning characters are still recognizable. The cityscape is more complex and there are better lighting/reflection effects in play. Kiryu looks better than ever!
  
• Combat – Kiwami 2 does away with its predecessor’s multiple combat styles, paring it down to just one. You’d think this would greatly simplify combat at the cost of variety and strategy, but Kiryu’s new unified fighting style has been expanded to make up for it. There’s a greater emphasis on picking up and using weapons found on the battlefield or dropped by enemies. In fact, you can choose to shove a scavenged weapon into your pocket to be used later!
  Combat EXP is now separated into five different currencies which are spent either separately or in combination to unlock new combat moves or improve Kiryu’s stats. Upgrades that were previously found elsewhere (such as Kiwami Bob’s CP upgrades in YK1) are now part of this expanded EXP system, meaning you can now pop into the menu from anywhere to upgrade your sprint stamina instead of having to go visit Kiwami Bob. One really fantastic change from YK1 is the addition of ragdoll physics. YK1 used canned animations which, while hilarious at first, got stale after a while. In YK2 you never know how a dude’s gonna go flying when you brain him with a hotel ashtray!
• Story – It picks up a year after the end of Yakuza 1. There’s a new underworld conspiracy power play plot going on, and with the way Yakuza 1’s plot held my attention I’m here for this one from the start. The story now takes place across two fictionalized Japanese districts rather than just Kamurocho, with Sotenbori standing in for IRL Japan’s Dotonbori. The towns have very distinct aesthetics, giving the scenery a variety Yakuza 1 lacked. The plot also involves criminal gangs from other countries now, adding to the scope of the conflict.
  I did not care for the Osakan cop lady Sayama at first. She had some charm that kinda wore off and left me feeling annoyed at her, but her star rose again in later chapters, when she got promoted from nosy interloper to being actually relevant to the plot. The story has some twists and turns before the end. It was a pretty good ending too, but it didn’t hit as hard as Yakuza 1’s.

• Music – I didn’t make a category for this in my YK1 review because there was only one track I found to be noteworthy. Yakuza Kiwami 2 is pretty much the same, but this time there were two good songs used in street fights. One is a bassy heavy metal song and the other a more lively jazz jam.

• Side-stories – I didn’t find any of them as surprising or compelling this time around, but I did just get done with Yakuza 1 so that’s not to say they weren’t good stuff. Yakuza 1 is just a hard act to follow. I enjoyed defending a trans bartender from a regular customer, but I enjoyed it even more when the customer confessed that he just had an immature, playground-level ability to express his interest in someone. I also liked that some side-stories had interlocking bits, such as getting a corrupt construction company’s card from one story then using it to call in a construction favor in another story. But there wasn’t anything on the same level as – for example – the Pocket Circuit storyline from Yakuza 1.

• Minigames – Shogi, mahjong, karaoke, batting, darts. UFO catcher, and more return from Yakuza 1, with new additions like indoor golf, Virtual On, Virtua Fighter 2, even “Toylets”, a pissing minigame. Batting is very different compared to Yakuza 1. Now instead of aiming for home run zones while timing your swing, you have to move a cursor across a grid to follow the pitch of a ball. It took some getting used to. I had a lot of fun with the golf minigame, which has two modes that both provide unique challenges. Unfortunately pool, bowling, dating, and pocket circuit did not return. That last one hit me hard.
  Two big newcomers are the cabaret club manager sim and the Clan Builder minigame. The former plays much like an “[Insert Genre Here] Tycoon” style game, but those tend to aggravate my anxiety so I’m not into them. I played the introductory part then never went back to it. I did invest a bit of time into Clan Builder. In this mode you use collectible character cards found throughout the rest of the game to build a small army. That army then stands guard over your clan’s construction equipment to defend it from waves of attacking goons. The waves progress in real time, and you have to move your defenders strategically throughout the missions to intercept the goons. It’s a simple RTS game that’s fun to play and rewards you with both money and EXP. It wasn’t hard to collect a bunch of SSR-rarity character cards and build an unstoppable defense, but it was still a good challenge to micromanage them in battle.
  Finally, I mentioned above that I actually played Mahjong this time. I was talked into it during a short side-story, so I thought what the hell, why not? I had a Peerless Tile on me and used it before the game. The game then dealt me an instant winning hand that let me call Tsumo at the start. Whoopsie! Still counts though.

Top 3 Things:

1. As it turns out, I CAN PET THE KITTY!
   
2. The inventory system has been overhauled! Now you can carry up to 10 of every non-equipment item in the game at the same time! A huge improvement.
3. Gotta give another shoutout to the new ragdoll physics. The only thing funnier than a cartoonishly brutal decking is one followed by the victim careening through a loaded bike rack.

Top 3 Complaints:

1. Again with the interesting-looking restaurants you can’t eat at! Why does this series hate taste?!
2. Goro Majima gets relegated almost entirely to being the launchperson for the Clan Builder minigame. He was so ubiquitous in Yakuza 1, such a fixture throughout the game, that it hurt to see him suddenly step almost completely out of the picture in the very next game. He only showed up twice! I’ve seen enough Yakuza in the media to know he’s more present in later games, but I wasn’t prepared for this. My boy Majima didn’t deserve this.
3. Jim Beam sponsorship and subsequent product placement everywhere in the game. I did some research and found out that Jim Beam enjoyed a startling level of popularity in Japan, but I still don’t like it when a game series introduces product placement where it didn’t exist before.

Other Details:

• Rina, the pervy lesbian hostess from Yakuza Kiwami 1, shows up as one of the models you can photograph in one unlockable minigame. I did the minigame once just to say I tried everything once, and I picked her! :3c
• Honorable Mention: Kazuma Kiryu’s brief stint as a yaoi game voice actor.
• No comment, just this screenshot with no context:
  

Conclusion:
It looks and plays better than Yakuza Kiwami 1, but is it a better game? I don’t think so. The main plot and side-stories didn’t have the same emotional draw as before. Some of the minigame changes were nice but they took away others, including one of my surprise favorites from YK1. Combat is smoother but in YK1 I relied on Beast Mode, not weapons, to win hard fights. That style is gone now and In YK2 they really want you to use weapons. YK2 just can’t seem to give without taking. That doesn’t make it a bad game either, but it’s okay to expect more from a direct sequel, especially when it’s been remade and had a chance to fix the original version’s blunders. In the end I still give Yakuza Kiwami 2 a solid 7/10 and recommend it to anyone who enjoyed Yakuza Kiwami 1. Just don’t go in expecting this game to top that one.