Now Playing: Yakuza Kiwami 2

Yakuza Kiwami 2 is set one year after the events of Kiwami 1. Kazuma Kiryu, once again, finds himself pulled back into his old life at the heart of a new struggle for control of the Tojo Clan. Whereas Kiwami 1 was built upon the Yakuza Zero engine, Kiwami 2 uses the more recent ‘Dragon’ engine of Yakuza 6.

The visual overhaul is impressive compared to Kiwami 1, and the maps of Kamurocho and Sotenbori, whilst instantly familiar in terms of layout, feel fresh to explore thanks to an expansion of indoor environments and alternative paths.

The combat can, initially, feel a little slow compared to Zero and Kiwami 1, but once you’ve upgraded several of Kiryu’s skills and unlocked new abilities, it’s as satisfying and enjoyable as ever. Like Kiwami 1, it doesn’t offer quite the same variety of combat styles as Zero, but I do like the changes to the way Kiryu earns and spends experience to unlock new skills.

 

The story of Kiwami 2 is engaging and fun. It’s better paced than Zero during the early stages and, thankfully, the irritating ‘Majima Everywhere’ mechanic of Kiwami 2 has been scrapped. The story builds to a satisfying conclusion and, honestly, I’d actually be okay if Kiryu’s story ended here. It feels like a nice ending for the character.

The main missions are all good, taking you from Kamurocho to Sotenbori and back again. There’s a good variety of environments and fights and I’m also glad they scrapped the boss health regeneration mechanic introduced in Kiwami 1. In fact, it feels like they took a good look at Kiwami 1 and improved upon everything that worked, whilst also scrapping everything that didn’t.

That said, Kiwami 2 does suffer from the same core problem that Kiwami 1 did – it’s not Yakuza Zero. There’s no escaping the fact that Kiwami 2 is a remake of a game originally released in 2006. I’d say this remake does a better job of bringing Kiwami 2 up to par with Zero than Kiwami 1, but it still falls short in a couple of key areas.

 

The first, as I’ve said, is the variety of combat styles compared to Zero. The other is side content and substories. The substories in Kiwami 2, like Kiwami 1, are nowhere near as enjoyable as those in Zero. They’re typically short, simple and often feel rather pointless. There are some good ones sprinkled throughout, but most of them are entirely forgettable.

Kiwami 2 does improve upon the ‘business’ side content, however, with the return of the hostess club, although I can’t give it too much praise because it is, aside from the characters and story surrounding it, exactly the same mechanically as it was in Zero. But Kiwami 2 does introduce a new – sort of – business mini-game called Clan Creator which is a fun little RTS style experience. I say ‘sort of’ because it was actually ripped from Yakuza 6, but as I’ve not played Yakuza 6, it was new to me.

 

I don’t have much more to say about Kiwami 2. I’d certainly rate it as a step up from Kiwami 1, but once again, it falls short of Yakuza Zero. At the time of writing, I don’t know if more of the Yakuza series will be coming to PC. In a way, I’m now kind of wary of playing more games in this series.

I’m pretty satisfied with how Kiwami 2 ends in terms of story, and I’m not sure if any of the subsequent games will ever live up to Zero in terms of content and mechanics. That said, if you’ve played Zero and Kiwami 1 then Kiwami 2 is worth picking up. It’s an excellent game with a great central story and an abundance of side content to explore.

8/10