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Yakuza Kiwami = Review Thread -

Not much I can do about that when there are three games that are better than it.
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Boke1879

Member
Got into the series with Zero. Loved it! Story really drew me in. Going to pick this up and at that price it's a steal.
 

Kilrogg

paid requisite penance
Wasn't there a rumor recently that SEGA was thinking of porting the Yakuza games to PC? If so, it's probably time I gave them a try.
 
Reviews looking good like I thought. Seems to be about what I expected out of reviews.

Already had this preordered when it showed up and I knew I was getting it when it was revealed to be $30 ($24 with GCU/Prime)! Loved 0 (one of my favorite games of the year for sure) and can't wait to get my hands on this and I'll be getting 6 when it's out next year too.
 
Wasn't there a rumor recently that SEGA was thinking of porting the Yakuza games to PC? If so, it's probably time I gave them a try.

Yes and no. Sega Europe mentioned that like to do it, and Yakuza 0 was missing the "Only on Playstation" tag on the box which sorta suggests it might happen. But I've not seen the Japanese team mention it at all, all they've said is that they might do remakes/remasters of previous games on the PS4 one day but that's about as much as I've heard.

Though they do have a Yakuza event this Satuday in Japan so its not outside the realms of possibility that it could happen. Sega are just damn slow to get their console stuff on PC :( If/when they get announced its my cue to finally fix my PC.
 

MYeager

Member
Haven't had enough time put into it to review and I'm not going to read reviews until I'm done, but in case reviews don't mention it if you've played the first game already you should absolutely still play Kiwami. Not just because it looks better, but they've added scenes to provide additional context to events that it feels like the game the first was meant to be.

Well that and it's so good to play the first and hear the Japanese voice actors instead of Michael Madsen.

I don't know if this will be in the final version but it was super annoying that the game kept needing to download data sets between chapters.
 

Gen X

Trust no one. Eat steaks.
For newcomers, this game represents the best place to jump in- it’s a far better product than Yakuza 0, which was great in and of itself to begin with.

How can this be? Zero is the GOTY.
 

Danny Dudekisser

I paid good money for this Dynex!
Curious to see what the commercial response will be like. Was kind of awesome to see Yakuza finally getting its due with 0.
 

Sarek

Member
Got into the series with Zero. Loved it! Story really drew me in. Going to pick this up and at that price it's a steal.

Same here. Zero is still easily the game of the year for me. Playing 3 on PS3 at the moment. I think I'm about half way through and it is a good game so far, but not quite on 0's level. The story especially is kinda all over the place.
 
Solid review scores. I'm a little worried about how I'll receive this after the GOTY frontrunner that is Zero, but excited to continue Kiryu's story.
 

convo

Member
Kiwami adds so many instances of Majima and Kiryu talking to each other about the past game, it honestly adds so much more to me than i thought. Sure the constant fights could get annoying but the two of them talking about their dumb jobs in Yakuza 0 and general catching up is pure gold to me.
 

Brandon F

Well congratulations! You got yourself caught!
Though I have only played Y1-3, I would easily rank Y1 as the worst of the bunch. It certainly had the most intense and incredible opening, but everything past that went deep into sappy and cringey cliche territory. Not really sure the Kiwami upgrades can fix any of that.
 

Bizzquik

Member
Solid review scores. I'm a little worried about how I'll receive this after the GOTY frontrunner that is Zero, but excited to continue Kiryu's story.

Push Square - 6

Yakuza Kiwami finds itself in a strange position. A remake that's technically a sequel to a much better game in Yakuza 0, it struggles to offer anything besides another engaging crime-drama storyline. Best described as a kind of expansion, Kiwami really shows its age in terms of narrative structure and gameplay design, but it's still worth playing through if you just can't get enough of Kaz

I kept hearing that it wasn't as interesting as Zero, and I guess these reviews kind of confirm it. And I'm okay with viewing it as an expansion; I really am.

I have something like have a dozen side quests left to do in Zero. I think I'll wait to finish them off until the remake hits next week, and then literally jump right into the remake - really treating it like an old-school expansion pack.
 
I just checked bestbuy and I have this preordered for $23.00, thats a steal. Now to wrap up zero.

Thanks for this. I thought it was full price and was going to wait until it down to 20 bucks. I have to keep the collection going, and I'm ready for another playthrough of 1, but I just finished zero. I need to do other things occasionally.
 
Despite my avatar, I'm not sure if I'll start playing Kiwami as soon as it comes out. Still addicted to Sonic Mania, and I finally got my hands on a Switch as well.

Still eager to play it though, since I've never played 1 or 2.
 

NewDust

Member
How's kiwami on the rhytm minigames? I'll probably never 100% Y0 because of the disco minigame... Finished the story yesterday though, so right on time.
 
They be making these Yakuza games fast. I thought it wasn't that long ago when 0 and 5 came out.
These games are released first for Japan then released at a minimum of a year later for the West.

Though yeah, they do indeed pump out these games fast since the Japanese releases aren't THAT further apart either.
Stop overreacting luce, you knew about that lol
I will write to Nagoshi-san to Kiwami-ify Yakuza 2 for your sake!
 

Brandon F

Well congratulations! You got yourself caught!
I kept hearing that it wasn't as interesting as Zero, and I guess these reviews kind of confirm it. And I'm okay with viewing it as an expansion; I really am.

I have something like have a dozen side quests left to do in Zero. I think I'll wait to finish them off until the remake hits next week, and then literally jump right into the remake - really treating it like an old-school expansion pack.

The original PS2 game was novel, but even then the story was just bad(very excellent introductory 30m though!) It was predictable, illogical, nonsensical, and is practically the worst example of terrible soap-opera plots seeping into game narratives. Motivations that are cringe-worthy and tangential padding that felt like it was just wasting the player's time. Unless you crave sappy melodrama and endless flashbacks to sequences you just watched, you will likely walk away a bit disappointed.

I would guess the PS4 game will fix up other issues like the derpy combat(mostly flailing at air) and the minigames/sidequests issues as many of them were somewhat hidden and/or a bit frustrating.
 

Bizzquik

Member
Reminder that RGG Studio is announcing their new project this Saturday too. We could be having potentially 4 games from the team in the span of 2 years!

This announcement of an announcement was what you were referring to, right...?

And Nagoshi-san's statement that one of the company's titles revealed will "includ[e] something expected" is expected to mean...what? Any guesses? Yakuza 7? A PS4 release of past Yakuza titles?
 
The original PS2 game was novel, but even then the story was just bad(very excellent introductory 30m though!) It was predictable, illogical, nonsensical, and is practically the worst example of terrible soap-opera plots seeping into game narratives. Motivations that are cringe-worthy and tangential padding that felt like it was just wasting the player's time. Unless you crave sappy melodrama and endless flashbacks to sequences you just watched, you will likely walk away a bit disappointed.

The review scores don't really reflect a terrible story, though I haven't haven't read all of them yet. Did they rewrite some of it for Kiwami?
 
The review scores don't really reflect a terrible story, though I haven't haven't read all of them yet. Did they rewrite some of it for Kiwami?

Kiwami wasn't rewritten. It just had a couple of new scenes added to it and one scene extended (Majima's first appearance) alongside some really good new Nishiki story scenes in the beginning half of the game to explain his motivations more. The rest is basically a word for word reshoot of the original game. The voice acting I believe was re-recorded though? I remember a couple of people pointing out that Hanaya (Kage) actually didn't sound bored out of his skull this time!
 
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