Yakuza Kiwami : Days 1 and 2

When I started Yakuza Kiwami on Day 1 late at night, I told myself “I’ll just play the tutorial and head to bed.” Biggest lie I told myself as I ended up playing through to Chapter 4 at 3AM in the morning on a work day. The short — it was good.

First impressions:
The story drops you right in the middle of major problem: you are arrested by police for a murder. How did it all lead to this? Chapter 1, which serves as the tutorial, walks you through the two days leading up the opening scene, in which we discover why Ryu, the main character who has a big sense of justice, ended up in jail for the crime. The story was pretty exciting as we get to meet (again) Majima, Nishitani, Mama-san, and even the little girl within the first few chapters. The street rumours about Mama-san and her bar, Serena, was a very heartwarming touch to the world of Yakuza. What makes Yakuza stand out is the series of substories that Ryu encounters. Often time, they serve as comedic effect with wholesome life lessons. You also get to play as a legendary and seemingly unbeatable yakuza who is not above punching his way in the name of his own sense of justice and moral duty.

Some concerns:
While the story and characters are what makes this game so great, I felt that this game was rather clunky. True, this game is a remake and most likely reuses the same game engine and assets from Yakuza 0. But I feel that some aspects could be improved on. 1 — I find myself having difficult time aiming my attacks at enemies that keep weaving around you as there isn’t a camera lock or lock on system. 2 — how does a random street mob eat my punches without staggering while Ryu falls to the ground after getting hit once? 3 — quests and mission objectives can be ambiguous as there is no obvious mission log to remind you where you need to go.

Final initial verdict:
I believe that Yakuza Kiwami is going to show me some brilliant story writing with heavy focus on the characterization of the main and side characters. I am excited to see what is in store for me. Despite the somewhat clunkiness of movement and combat, I feel that its story will make up for it entirely.

This is it for my first thoughts on the actual gameplay! There shall be plenty more to come. Perhaps I will jump back into Nier Automata, or maybe do another run as Portugal in EU4… I’ll make sure to give my thoughts again when I find time to game next.

Stay tuned.

Cer.