Yakuza Kiwami: A Wild and Tearjerking Ride

Last month, during the middle of June, I spent almost an entire week playing one of my favorite games, Yakuza Kiwami. And I gotta say, not only did I have a lot of fun and had a lot of laughs from the game's substories, but I also shed a few tears from playing the game's main story. And I gotta say, it's been a wild ride. So... here's my journey through Yakuza Kiwami.

(Spoiler warning for those who haven't played Yakuza Kiwami yet)

Soon after shortly discovering the world of Yakuza on the internet, I decided to get myself a digital copy of one of the games. So, I decided to get Yakuza Kiwami, since Yakuza 0 kept crashing on my PC. Why Kiwami? Well, it has a similar combat system to 0, which is what I wanted.

So, I booted it up. As a started a new game, I started to get hyped by the story the moment the first cutscene played. You are greeted by Kiryu, with a gun in his hand, standing over the body of the Dojima family patriarch, Sohei Dojima, along with a ransacked room. You might wonder what happened in that room, but you'll learn soon enough.

Flashback to the previous night, where Kiryu and Shinji, Kiryu's underling, bounce a person in debt, along with his goons. As expected, things went smoothly (only if you define smoothly as Kiryu successfully beating the heck out of someone, hehe). So, Kiryu decides to take the money to the Kazama division of the Tojo Clan so he could finally lead his own yakuza family. But before he does that, he had to pay a visit to his sworn brother, Akira "Nishiki" Nishikiyama, down at their usual hangout, the Serena bar. 

Unfortunately, he had a run-in with one of the Majima Family's men, which resulted in Kiryu bumping into Majima again. Luckily, after a brief beatdown, Kiryu went on his way.

Then, the next night after, which brings us to the event of the first cutscene, Kiryu rushes to the Dojima Family office to see that Nishiki has murdered Patriarch Dojima in order to save Yumi, who is both Kiryu and Nishki's closest friend. Kiryu would offer to take the blame for Dojima's murder in order to save Nishiki. Soon after, all hell would break loose (just kidding, lol). Anyway, just find out for yourself what happens. But be warned, the last few chapters of the game are sure to make you shed some tears.

Now, for the review!

To be honest, Yakuza Kiwami is one of my favorite games in the Yakuza series. Firstly, it's because of the game's tearjerking story. I loved every bit of it! It's so well written! 

And secondly, I loved the combat system. If you wanna see my thought on the "styles" system, check out my review on Yakuza 0 over here. However, the system itself now differs from Yakuza 0. In Yakuza Kiwami, you already have all 4 styles by the time you start a new game. Unfortunately, later in the story, you lose all the skills on the styles, so you have to fight in order to earn skill points to level your attack, health, defense, and move set up. Though, there's an exception for the Dragon of Dojima style. To level this one up, you have to fight the infamous Goro Majima with the game's new mechanic, the Majima Everywhere System! For this mechanic, each time you fight Majima, you earn experience on your Majima Everywhere Rank. Not only that, but depending on what type of Majima you fight, or what scenario you encounter Majima in, you get to unlock new moves. Ain't that neat?

And finally, the minigames and the substories. Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of exciting minigames in Yakuza Kiwami. The only minigames that are worth playing are the well-known karaoke minigame and Pocket Circuit, which makes its return from Yakuza 0. Both of these are fun, not gonna lie. But the substories, oh boy, these substories sure are wacky and exciting!

My verdict? The game is great, but it has its flaws. Firstly, it's how the game hangs you to dry by leaving you with basic versions for Kiryu's styles, which leaves you having difficulty with the early game bosses. Not only that but from what I hear from Yakuza fans, it seems that the combat system, which was carried over from Yakuza 0, seems to be nerfed, especially the Beast and Dragon of Dojima styles. I didn't have much difficulty with either style, so yeah. Secondly, the lack of interesting minigames is just sad.

Overall, the game itself is pretty fun and amazing. I give it an 8/10 in my books.

That's it for now, guys. See you next entry! -JJ