Yakuza Kiwami

I replayed this game a couple years ago and I think this entry gets way more hate from the Y0 fans than it deserves. I think a lot of it comes down to Kiryu being the less popular protagonist from the newbies to the series and you only play as him. It's also a weird callback to when the series tried to be this super-serious crime drama of the early 2000s and going for a more traditional RPG approach. But I really dug how the more grounded tone of the game and it was a nice throwback to how entertainment used to be back in the 2000s. It also made me appreciate the characters that appeared in Yakuza 0 like Nishki, whose character arc shown in flashbacks was insanely good storytelling. The Majima Everywhere system is also hilarious, particularly the Yakuza Deadsouls sequence. It was also nice to get the fighting moves from Y0 back and improved to make some stances feel better to play, particularly Kiryu's Dragon stance. The Tiger Drop move is hilariously broken and makes a lot of boss fights a joke and I love it. That being said, it's hardly flawless. I remember getting frustrated with unlocking all of the Dragon combat moves because to unlock some, you need to fight a certain version of Majima. And he would not always show up in the form I wanted. Also, getting the "Mister Master" achievement is a NIGHTMARE. Otametal MY LIFE is one of the hardest songs in the series until Truehearted Samurai (from Ishin!) came along. In conclusion, if you liked Yakuza 0 you'll love the follow-up to it. Recommended.

Coming from Yakuza 0, Yakuza Kiwami (a remake of the original Yakuza 1 on PS2), already felt very familiar from a gameplay perspective. Combat / skill upgrades are in the form of experience points instead of cash after each enemy encounter (which imo, makes you feel a lot more powerful quicker this way). You have 2 new mini-games introduced in Kiwami (i.e. MesuKing: Battle Bug Beauties & Photo Booth). The overall story (albeit shorter in length) & substory progression is much better paced and graphics have been done in a way to match 0's style so it's not a harsh aesthetic adjustment. I'll admit during the last act (Chapters 11-13), the team tried their best to show a more serious tone with politics and drama when wrapping things up but I felt the underlying villain ended up being a bit more cliche & over the top than I initially thought it was going to be (their maniacal laugh for one thing...). It still concluded well, but the villain was just kinda, meh. Major tip to get through some of the harder combat hurdles / side activities, upgrade a lot of the Dragon Style skill tree nodes from Majima Everywhere & Komaki's Training requirements, the earliest you unlock these, the better. I've only just begun to scratch the surface of Kiryu's story arc and seeing how many new characters get introduced / old ones return later. Please do check this one out and continue with the rest of the series. Next up is Kiwami 2!

This is a great Remake of the old Yakuza for the ps2, it adds a lot of additional content and improvements to the combat. 10/10

This is a remake of the first game on PS2, but plays more like Zero, down to the combat styles you have. There's a lot less to it, since it's a remake of a much older game, but given how long Yakuza games can be, compact isn't necessarily a bad thing. The biggest gameplay flaw, I'd argue is Dragon Style, which starts out very weak, but if you put in the time, it becomes excellent, and even overpowered; it's just a LOT of time you'll have to put in for it. Majima constantly stalks you as you traverse the city, too, which can be nerve-wracking, but equal parts funny for all the stunts he pulls. There aren't really any major side activities in this one, either; everything is either tied to substories or doesn't affect all that much, and that's not necessarily a bad thing, either. In terms of everything else, it's your usual Yakuza affair: the serious parts are so incredibly over-the-top that the goofy parts don't give you whiplash.