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Those who played Yakuza 0 (and who completed the real-estate storyline in particular) will recognize the four fighting styles Kiryu employs in Kiwami. How do you feel about singing Eurobeat remixes at karaoke? Because I feel great about it. And fighting is one of many things that Kiwami has modernized rather than relying on Yakuza’s original systems. How do you feel about singing Eurobeat remixes at karaoke? Because I feel great about it.īut let’s be honest: Kiryu is going to spend more time punching people than singing.
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Kiryu is back at square one, relearning his abilities and simultaneously trying to take care of a lost child and unraveling all that’s happened in the lives of his friends and family during his absence.Īlso, he has to figure out how to use a cellphone, and all the schoolgirls are wearing those huge baggy socks that they have to glue on because it’s 2005. But as he spends 10 years in jail for the alleged murder of the Dojima family patriarch, these skills atrophy. He’s essentially come fresh off of someone’s 100 percent save of Yakuza 0, with every skill mastered and every move learned, tearing through his foes as if they’re wet paper. Things kick off with a true throwback: the “abilitease.” Before finding himself behind bars, Kiryu is at peak performance. If Yakuza 0 is the story of young men finding their places in society, then Yakuza Kiwami is the story of patriarchs and would-be patriarchs finding theirs. Life (and also prison) has hardened him somewhat, and the same can be said for those around him. Kiryu Kazuma, the series’ most prominent protagonist, is no longer the naïve young man he was in the late ’80s. My enjoyment of Kiwami often hinged on just how willing I was to overlook those problems.Ī scene from the PlayStation 2 original Yakuza compared to the same scene in Yakuza Kiwami. With its commitment to simultaneously preserve the old and squeeze in the new come some noticeable inconsistencies (not to mention familiar shortcomings). In fact it’s hard to talk about Yakuza Kiwami without also discussing its prequel, Yakuza 0, because they bleed into and reflect each other so much.īut this metamorphosis of a niche classic hasn’t happened smoothly or painlessly. Kiwami’s story has also been tweaked to fill in or completely overwrite some of its original inconsistencies, not to mention lace its new substories with ample feel-good throwbacks and foreshadowing alike. In addition to using current-gen assets for its world and its cast, it brings in contemporary mechanics to smooth out many elements of the source that otherwise wouldn’t have aged well. Yakuza Kiwami is anything but a straightforward remake of the original Yakuza for PlayStation 2. Yakuza Kiwami benefits tremendously from the games that came before (and technically after) it, but that doesn’t mean it surpasses them.
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