Yakuza Kiwami 2

Y6 is the best game in the series. Judgement series is also great. Y0 is an acquired taste. Kiwami 2 is overrated. Kiwami 1 and the rest of the series is skippable.

Un more of the same divertentissimo con minigiochi ancora piu divertenti e coinvolgenti del primo.

Quase tudo à respeito do remake é muito bom. O conteúdo adicional é bem engajante, as substories só não são melhores que as do Yakuza 0 e o "novo" motor gráfico confere ao jogo uma exploração praticamente sem interrupções e um gameplay mais suave e moderno. Outro ponto alto são as cutscenes, especialmente em seus detalhes faciais.

Infelizmente, o enredo se perde um tanto no fim - e isto não é culpa do remake - ao tentar encadear uma sequência de plot-twists, um mais fraco que o outro. Além disso, o vilão, muito bem caracterizado, ficou subexplorado no meio da trama sobre a máfia coreana.

Again a pretty lazy remake: this is basically built on top of Yakuza 6 with some content recycled from Yakuza 0. Even though the plot aims higher than the first game, the Korean mafia storyline didn't click with me at all for some reason. Most plot twists felt either random or highly predictable. Goda is surely one of the most charismatic antagonists in the series, but the other characters felt quite forgettable in contrast. I'm not surprised they ditched Sayama in the sequels, as she is absolutely annoying.

Now THIS is a sequel. Again, the strangeness of playing the Yakuza games in their in-universe chronological order as opposed to their real world chronological order must be acknowledged - Yakuza 6: The Song of Life [龍が如く6 命の詩。] came out between the two Kiwami instalments, and I have to assume that a bunch of the great leaps forward seen here were originally made there - but I can only speak to my experience of playing them in story order, and so much about this feels like a major lurch into the future, almost to the extent that it feels like jumping up a console generation. (And then promptly dropping back down another three generations for Yakuza 3 [龍が如く3], but that's another story....) The combat feels more fluid, more dramatic, and more comedic thanks to some generous use of ragdoll physics; a friend used the word 'crunchy' to describe it, and that sums up the visceral immediacy of some of the heat actions in particular pretty nicely. The open world now feels genuinely open, despite the main map being no bigger; it sounds idiotically simple, but the moment when you realise you can walk in the front door of a shop and then walk straight out of the back door without any cuts or loading screens feels weirdly revelatory compared to its predecessors. And generally the word feels fuller and more alive, with more detail stuffed into the streets of Kamurocho right from the opening cutscene (which sets the tone for the cutscenes themselves to feel crisper and smoother to boot). The game is smart enough to know what it shouldn't change, too - the cabaret club minigame reappears completely untouched from Yakuza 0 [龍が如く0 誓いの場所] (though sadly there's no Pocket Circuit this time). And the story! Ryuji Goda, a callback to a blatant bit of foreshadowing in Yakuza 0 that I obviously didn't understand at the time, is a fabulous antagonist, wedding a truly villainous aura and stature with just enough complexity to make him compelling beyond that - and yet he's not even the finest addition to the Yakuza universe here. Kaoru Sayama is as central to the game as Kiryu is in her own way, and her journey from minor antagonist to partner to love interest for Kiryu, as well as the way her relationships with Ryuji and Haruka end up developing and unfolding, lends rich elements to the plot that didn't exist in the previous games. It is her presence that both ties the plot together as it starts to feel just a little too ambitious in the latter stages, and draws to the surface that giddy sense that the Yakuza franchise could do anything if it threw itself at it hard enough. After all, if it can do comedy and political intrigue and drama so well (and it should go without saying that there is plenty of all those things here), why not romance? Why not create a world that can have room for both Sayama and the connoisseur's comedic foil Goro Majima, who now runs a construction firm because why the hell wouldn't he be running a construction firm?

All the best things about Yakuza, enhanced with some key tweaks and fine additions; this is going to take some topping as my favourite game in the franchise. And yet my experience with it has been so good so far that I still have a sneaky gut feeling that one of the later instalments will manage it....

A gem of a game that i would put side to side to Yakuza 0 in terms of overal quality. Each of these two have some points in which they are stronger over the other, but as an overal experience i cant say that one is superior to the other.

Now in terms of visuals this is definitly a ig step up. The dragon engine is beautiful to look at, and its engine brings a much more visceral feel to the gameplay. The world is much more interactible, and the physics of objects are an important part of combat. It makes the settings of the game feel much more alive and immersive, which is a feat considering the time that you will walk these streets.

The gameplay on the other hand has seen several improvements as well, with a couple of steps back in some areas. The most noticeable step back is of course the stripping down of all the styles to just one, which reduces the variety of gameplay. There is a bigger focus on weapons though, and because of the upgrade path is limited on just one style by the end of the game you grow as a much more powerful character. Seriously some of the late game bosses become absolute pushovers if you dedicate a bit of time to completing side content and go often to restaurants. The actual fights like i mentioned feel more more violent and visceral due to the new engine, even 30 hours in i loved replaying colusseum fights because they were so enjoyable. There is a lot of depth you can explore in the combat system, or you can just mash your way through, the game isnt really hard nor is it intendend to be so.

The story is gripping, emotional and a bit silly japanese mafia drama, such is the best the series can be. There are some really emotive moments though, and the way that the cutscenes are directed makes it enjoyable to view them, at times feeling like Metal Gear Solid types of lenght. There are some dumb plot twists, but these dont really affect the emotional content all that much. Finally the substories are all about wacky fun and are very much worthy to hunt down. I had some genuine laughs with these, which is a very rare thing when it comes to videogames.
Minigames are plentiful, but i must say that i wasnt too interested in these apart from the two big ones, though being a return of the cabaret substory and majima construction. I didnt mind repeating the cabaret minigame all over again because it is so oddly addictive. The majima construction though feels like a weakass mobile RTS that feels a bit out of place.

Overal the game does a lot of things excellently, has a gripping story, laughable substories, enjoyable deep combat and a setting that has never been realised more beautifully. An obvious recommendation, even for people burnt out on western open world design.