November 14th, 2k19
whelp, that was certainly A Game!
i don’t advise anyone to play this without playing Yakuza 0 beforehand. if i hadn’t already experienced the context for the relationships and how everything fits together i wouldn’t have given a shit about any of this. granted, this is a remake of an old game, and the next one is supposed to be MUCH better– on par with 0 narrative, or surpasses it if the reviews are to go by– but on its own it’s a very blah experience that i wouldn’t have bothered to finish if not for three things:
- the aforementioned context from 0
- the Kiwami-added system of Majima Everywhere. very novel way to train you into the combat system if you just go for it. the combat is much more difficult than in 0, you actually have to learn to evade attacks else you’re not gonna make it far. but after i’d grinded it out on Majima (lol) to SSS rank i was having no issues.
- the story was relatively short. if this kind of blandness had gone on any longer i would have been sorely tested. as it was, despite things, it did not overstay its welcome which i greatly appreciate.
is this game worth the $20? if you go by the $1 for every hour spent then yes. if you go by exchanging money for an experience, then probably yes but only if you’re already invested. Sunk Cost Fallacy at its finest, folks.
i don’t feel like i wasted my time. the boss fights were a drag, i yelled at Kiryu a lot re: his life choices when i didn’t really feel the need to in the previous game, and if i never have to play a minigame that reuses the assets from the Japanese Catfight Club abomination again it would be appreciated, but my time was not tossed in the trash, it was worth it. only because i played the prequel first! but still, worth it.
now i get to eyeball Kiwami 2! i doubt my computer will run it cos apparently they’re using a new engine for the next remake and on, but if it shows up in a bundle you bet yer ass i’ll be snapping it up and installing it and then bitching to everyone who will listen about how it won’t even run so i won’t get another Majima fix oh woe is me.
Yeah my best friend loved 0, really disliked 1 in comparison and fell in love with 2 again. The way you described it is pretty much spot on to what he said to me after binging ‘em. It’s a shame, at least I’ll have an idea what to expect and lower my expectations. Which I should’ve done anyways but this was my first foray into the series so tend to forget just how old the original games are. Hopefully the next one is a lot more enjoyable for you! I’m amazed at how quickly they’re getting bundled, you probably won’t have to wait too long.
oof, can’t imagine actually wanting to continue with the series if Kiwami is the first one played. it’s a marvel that it did well enough to get a sequel in the first place, tho maybe the standards were different during its initial release, i was poor AF and not gaming back when it was first out so not really aware of what games had to be and accomplish to be successes back then. at least we have Majima Everywhere now!
they’ll probably put Kiwami 2 in Humble Monthly when they’re ready to put the third one on steam! i think that’s the timing they used for dumping Zero in there. and Kiwami just hit the Monthly in time for the third game to be released on PS4 apparently. their schedule has layyyyers. i hope they port Judgement eventually, it’s a spin-off where you play a lawyer-turned detective and apparently there’s a kid who sells porn in the most ridiculous of ways in it which i v much want to see for myself.
Ahh I had no idea about the different timings, that makes a lot of sense. That’s hilarious about Judgement, amazingly haven’t heard anyone talking about it before. Bizarro Yakuza meets Ace Attorney.
Not to be negative here, but there’s a video of someone playing Kiwami 2 on a Intel HD Graphics 4000 and, well… it doesn’t look good. It’s barely playable and the textures are glitchy. I don’t know if they fixed it or not. Fortunately Yakuza 3-5 received enhanced ports instead of remakes, so those games should be able to run better for you if they get ported to PC at some point.
I hated the catfight minigames as well, getting them done for 100% completion was a real pain. Fortunately Kiwami 1’s version wasn’t as bad as 0’s version.
lol yeah, that’s REALLY not playable is it? i’m gonna have to wait for a few years before i get to it then, cos that’s not even worth the download. thanks for looking it up for me, i had forgotten that CrysisGamer person had existed! his video of Deus Ex: Mankind Divided was what had me bypass bothering to try downloading that game, saved me time and frustration just by existing.
i had to get drunk to finish the JCC fights for the achievement. absolutely NEVER yell vindictive at games but when two fights in a row you defeat the opponent only for them to activate a comeback ability just to take you down and win anyway, gonna need whiskey to get through. silver lining: excellent drinking game! take a swig every time you need to bellow, and you’ll be on the floor in no time!