GAME CLEAR No. 6 -- Yakuza Kiwami 2

Yakuza Kiwami 2 (2017, Multiplatform)

Remake of: Yakuza 2 (2006, PS2)
Developer: Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio
Publisher: SEGA
Clear Date: 11/29/2020
Clear Platform: PS4

Moving right along, I managed to knock out Yakuza Kiwami 2 just 10 days after finishing Kiwami. There’s no end in sight to my enjoyment of the series, so I expect I’ll pick up with Yakuza 3 Remastered in the near future. That’ll be interesting, since that will be the third engine in as many games. Yakuza 0 and Kiwami shared an engine, but Kiwami 2 shared an engine with Yakuza 6. Yakuza 3, of course, predates them all, and the remastered version is mostly a port, unlike the significant overhauls of the Kiwami games. Sure to be a bit weird!

Because I’m playing the games in chronological story order, I played Kiwami 2 before Yakuza 6, so I had no frame of reference for its engine. Kiwami 2 is quite pretty, partially by virtue of not being simultaneously released on PS3 like its predecessors. Although it runs at 30fps, it looks awfully good, so I find that easy to forgive.

Like the first Yakuza, I had not played Yakuza 2 before playing this, so I have no ability to compare the two. However, I can at least say that Kiwami 2 is very good. It’s got a solid story that doesn’t overstay its welcome, it’s got two vibrant cities to explore, and it has plenty of side content for players to enjoy. It even throws in a brief playable story mode for Goro Majima, fan favorite and co-protagonist of Yakuza 0 that offers a bit of closure for one of the loose ends left from that game. This is all the same good stuff from the previous games. There’s a formula here, and it works.

Having said that, I’m not sure the new fighting engine is actually better than what came before it. While environments are much more interactable (and breakable), and characters now ragdoll for a more exaggerated combat experience, something about it feels mushy. It’s possible that I’m just used to the previous engine from ~60 hours of Yakuza 0 and Kiwami, but something felt a little off about this one. But who knows, maybe it’ll feel great once I get around to Yakuza 6 and start the game with some experience under my belt. And in any case, it’s still pretty good! It starts to click a bit by the end. I just think it might be a slight downgrade in terms of feel.

Anyway, pretty good game. No reason not to play it if you enjoyed the previous titles.