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Yakuza Kiwami 2 (2019) Review
5 months ago
"Kiwami 1 was great so how do we make Kiwami 2 better?"
"What if we gave Kiwami 2 immersive FPS / Source Engine physics?"
"You get your own title card"
___________________________________________________
*Rex the sergal walks in; camera goes into black and white*
REX - PATRIARCH OF THE SERGAL CLAN - A THICC FAMILY SUBSIDIARY
Yakuza is a game that doesn't disappoint and Kiwami 2 continues to show why the Yakuza / LAD series deserves all the acclaim it gets. If you love any yakuza game, you will love this one as RGG pulled out all the stops with this one.
The story is honestly mixed this time around, Kiryu gets dragged into a clan civil war that leads to finding the true instigators of the civil war and finding out just how deep the conspiracy goes. It is however a story with highs where the highs are high but the lows are really low as it fleshes out the characters of Y1 but then introduces multiple throwaway plots that would be best suited as substories. The ending was honestly decent and touching right until the end where they throw it all away in a scene of Kiryu doing something he would never do.
The main villain Ryuji Goda needs MUCH more screen time as does the conspirators. There's just so much filler chapters that really should have been replaced with scenes and arcs of dealing with Ryuji seizing control following the start of the civil war and establishing how he is a force to be reckoned with during Yakuza business. Its a key part of gangster movies, seeing the many thugs and goons go at each other while dropping civilians and destroying property just to drive the brutality of the Yakuza home.
As you know, the next part is story spoilers so click at your own risk.
I appreciate the game for going the extra mile to help flesh out why Kiryu looks up to his adopted dad as well as establishing the consequences of trying to escape your past. The main point of content is Sayama, the Yakuza Huntress introduced as a badass detective who later becomes Kiryu's love interest. She started out great but the whole game kept knocking her down so many pegs including her making rookie mistakes, not defending herself, and letting the other male leads order her around turning her into a damsel in distress. It felt like I was watching her devolve in the story with no chance of self-reflection or improvement. Sure, she fights with you during the random encounters but she;s unable to hold her own in cutscenes and even in the final boss rush. I would have loved to see her get some more fight scenes including in the final boss where she shows her determination to arrest the true culprit of the Omi civil war. Instead, all we get is a gut punch between Sayama and Ryuji but then she gets locked out of every fight leading up to the most bullshit ending. Kiryu and Sayama go down on each other expecting to die in the blast next to a bomb. Yes, they fuck in front of a bomb. Kiryu was perfectly OK with leaving Haruka alone instead of hauling ass to make sure he lives for Haruka who sees Kiryu as a uncle. That is just not something Kiryu would do. I get the secret ending but again, this is not Kiryu. Imagine being Kiryu having to console Haruka, who thought you left her all alone again.
Overall, the story had good highs but has too many filler chapters and an embarrassing ending
Now for the gameplay.
Kiwami 2 is basically two games in one; the beat-em up battling that drives the main game and the immersive tokyo simulator experience where you eat food and play minigames including two major minigames. Kiwami 2 ditches the style system in 0 and Kiwami 1 in favour of a single style instead while combining various aspects of the style system into a unified dragon style. It works fine so far since you get a versitaile combat system with new moves and weapons to use to beat up foes. Its basically a mashfest anyways so you can just brute force most fights.
The best part howeever, are the heat actions in which you get to destroy people with your firsts and weapons capable of breaking arms while being made of rubber. there are badass ones and then you get the obligatory silly heat actions such as the fluted pole heat action. Yes, i used the pole in every single final boss rush fight.
The substories are actually an improvement from 0 and Kiwami 1 as substories that require you to win obscene amounts of chips from gambling for completion points are reduced down to manageable amounts. This simple change actually made me appreciate minigames a lot more and pushed me to do so well that I gain completion points which I did for most of them. I even got into playing Koi Koi online just because the hanafuda deck was so stylish and the game was just that fun. Oicho-Kabu (Japanese baccarat) was interesting to play and I suck at Shogi (japanese chess) and Mahjong (gin rummy on asian difficulty). Point is that I spent so much time completing and 100% all the minigames including the Cabaret Club & Majima Construction so you know they did so well with the side content.
So in short, I honestly had fun throughout the game, 100% the bouncer missions, Haruka's requests, etc. and I think thats really where Yakuza also shines by giving you so much meaningful side content that it puts other open world games to shame. The beat-em up is still fun but got boring once you maxed your stats out which is fair, it is what it is. Story still has the narm charm of Yakuza but has some moments that leave your head scratching. The dragion engine;s jank does make the game better though.
Again, this is from a series that is best experienced by starting with Yakuza 0 and going in chronological order but Kiwami 2 is such a fun game that I recomend it.
"What if we gave Kiwami 2 immersive FPS / Source Engine physics?"
"You get your own title card"
___________________________________________________
*Rex the sergal walks in; camera goes into black and white*
REX - PATRIARCH OF THE SERGAL CLAN - A THICC FAMILY SUBSIDIARY
Yakuza is a game that doesn't disappoint and Kiwami 2 continues to show why the Yakuza / LAD series deserves all the acclaim it gets. If you love any yakuza game, you will love this one as RGG pulled out all the stops with this one.
The story is honestly mixed this time around, Kiryu gets dragged into a clan civil war that leads to finding the true instigators of the civil war and finding out just how deep the conspiracy goes. It is however a story with highs where the highs are high but the lows are really low as it fleshes out the characters of Y1 but then introduces multiple throwaway plots that would be best suited as substories. The ending was honestly decent and touching right until the end where they throw it all away in a scene of Kiryu doing something he would never do.
The main villain Ryuji Goda needs MUCH more screen time as does the conspirators. There's just so much filler chapters that really should have been replaced with scenes and arcs of dealing with Ryuji seizing control following the start of the civil war and establishing how he is a force to be reckoned with during Yakuza business. Its a key part of gangster movies, seeing the many thugs and goons go at each other while dropping civilians and destroying property just to drive the brutality of the Yakuza home.
As you know, the next part is story spoilers so click at your own risk.
I appreciate the game for going the extra mile to help flesh out why Kiryu looks up to his adopted dad as well as establishing the consequences of trying to escape your past. The main point of content is Sayama, the Yakuza Huntress introduced as a badass detective who later becomes Kiryu's love interest. She started out great but the whole game kept knocking her down so many pegs including her making rookie mistakes, not defending herself, and letting the other male leads order her around turning her into a damsel in distress. It felt like I was watching her devolve in the story with no chance of self-reflection or improvement. Sure, she fights with you during the random encounters but she;s unable to hold her own in cutscenes and even in the final boss rush. I would have loved to see her get some more fight scenes including in the final boss where she shows her determination to arrest the true culprit of the Omi civil war. Instead, all we get is a gut punch between Sayama and Ryuji but then she gets locked out of every fight leading up to the most bullshit ending. Kiryu and Sayama go down on each other expecting to die in the blast next to a bomb. Yes, they fuck in front of a bomb. Kiryu was perfectly OK with leaving Haruka alone instead of hauling ass to make sure he lives for Haruka who sees Kiryu as a uncle. That is just not something Kiryu would do. I get the secret ending but again, this is not Kiryu. Imagine being Kiryu having to console Haruka, who thought you left her all alone again.
Overall, the story had good highs but has too many filler chapters and an embarrassing ending
Now for the gameplay.
Kiwami 2 is basically two games in one; the beat-em up battling that drives the main game and the immersive tokyo simulator experience where you eat food and play minigames including two major minigames. Kiwami 2 ditches the style system in 0 and Kiwami 1 in favour of a single style instead while combining various aspects of the style system into a unified dragon style. It works fine so far since you get a versitaile combat system with new moves and weapons to use to beat up foes. Its basically a mashfest anyways so you can just brute force most fights.
The best part howeever, are the heat actions in which you get to destroy people with your firsts and weapons capable of breaking arms while being made of rubber. there are badass ones and then you get the obligatory silly heat actions such as the fluted pole heat action. Yes, i used the pole in every single final boss rush fight.
The substories are actually an improvement from 0 and Kiwami 1 as substories that require you to win obscene amounts of chips from gambling for completion points are reduced down to manageable amounts. This simple change actually made me appreciate minigames a lot more and pushed me to do so well that I gain completion points which I did for most of them. I even got into playing Koi Koi online just because the hanafuda deck was so stylish and the game was just that fun. Oicho-Kabu (Japanese baccarat) was interesting to play and I suck at Shogi (japanese chess) and Mahjong (gin rummy on asian difficulty). Point is that I spent so much time completing and 100% all the minigames including the Cabaret Club & Majima Construction so you know they did so well with the side content.
So in short, I honestly had fun throughout the game, 100% the bouncer missions, Haruka's requests, etc. and I think thats really where Yakuza also shines by giving you so much meaningful side content that it puts other open world games to shame. The beat-em up is still fun but got boring once you maxed your stats out which is fair, it is what it is. Story still has the narm charm of Yakuza but has some moments that leave your head scratching. The dragion engine;s jank does make the game better though.
Again, this is from a series that is best experienced by starting with Yakuza 0 and going in chronological order but Kiwami 2 is such a fun game that I recomend it.
