If you’re in trouble, he’ll try to help you (probably with his fists). He wears his unconditional respect for nearly every kind of person he meets on his sleeve: be they men or women, criminals or bystanders, sex workers or members of the general queer community.
Kiryu is still perhaps the most likable leading man in video games. Kiwami 2’s explosive action doesn’t completely overshadow the delightful heart of the franchise. It’s nice to see that layer of the character hasn’t been papered over this deep into the series.Īnd that’s really what you should be here for: the characters. That prequel revealed Majima as someone whose violent, eccentric persona is partly a means of dealing with emotional trauma. Mostly, though, the missions serve as a sweet little coda to Majima’s campaign in Yakuza 0. Instead, there’s an entirely separate “Majima Saga” where you play as the Mad Dog of Shimano himself. Speaking of Majima, this year’s game doesn’t feature the same “Majima Everywhere” suite of side quests found in the first Kiwami. Moments like when fan-favorite character Goro Majima defuses a bomb using “eenie-meenie-miney-mo” do tremendous justice to an already larger-than-life cast. Yakuza Kiwami 2 keeps up the series’ tradition of stellar voice acting and what’s quite possibly an even better localization. The emotion behind those battles is as strong as ever, though. Whatever the case, Kiwami 2 sports some sharp difficulty spikes that most of the game’s combat doesn’t prepare you for. Maybe it’s a way to drag out what was otherwise the least-dense entry in the series.
Maybe it’s because the remakes are translating much older theories of boss design than the more modern Yakuza 6 and Yakuza 0. That’s a problem that, for me at least, seems unique to the Kiwami remakes.
Combat is more physics-driven than most other games in the series, and the progression system forces you to engage with Kiwami 2’s fictional cities of Sotenbori and Kamurocho more than usual in order to level up. This time, it’s all running in Yakuza 6’s Dragon Engine-bringing with it the graphical bells and mechanical whistles of that most recent release. And it cleans up pretty well! Like the previous Kiwami, this is a full-on remake of the PS2 original. There’s a car chase, ticking time bombs, a lady love interest (the only one in the series), and enough revenge schemes to fuel a whole season of television.īut now Yakuza Kiwami 2’s slightly forgettable bombast has been cleaned up for the PlayStation 4. It drags series lead Kazuma Kiryu-the lovable, titular criminal-into a more straightforward action-movie plot. It doesn’t quite capture the accidental magic of the first game or the blend of soap-opera drama and zany side quests that were perfected when Yakuza went HD with its third chapter. Yakuza 2 is a slightly strange chapter in Sega’s charming crime drama series. Links: PlayStation Store | Amazon | Official website
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