So yesterday I beat Yakuza Kiwami, and wow, I don't think I've ever played a sequel to a game, that does absolutely everything worse than it's predecessor. Like I know it's a remake, but still, I don't think there's a single aspect of this game that is done better or hell even on par with 0.
If I were to describe Yakuza 0, it'd be a game with an amazing story and mediocre gameplay. If I were to describe Kiwami, it'd be a game with an ok story and bad gameplay.
Let's start with the story, because it's the only redeeming quality about this game. And even then it's still a step down from 0's. I liked seeing Nishikiyama's decent into darkness especially considering how much of a friend he was in 0, and I like how the flash backs show just how much life hit him after Kiyru went to jail. One issue I did have is that he's pretty much sidelined for most of the game despite being the main antagonist. Especially towards the end when they introduce Jingu and he just takes all the focus away. It's like they completely forgot Nishki was the main villain till the final fight.
Now let's talk about the game play. Now I wasn't big on 0's gameplay either, but I thought it was at least serviceable. The gameplay loop here is honestly pretty trash. It mostly consists of you talking to someone in purgatory for a minute then running back to Serena's to talk to someone for a minute then back to purgatory rinse and repeat. The game also conveniently made both these two areas as far apart from each as possible. Yakuza 0 had the same issue but at least with that game you were frequently going to many different locations instead of just 2 primary ones.
Now for the combat. The combat is what really soured me on this game. It's straight up garbage imo. You do way too little damage. Weapons are annoying as fuck even with items like the bulletproof vest. and way too many attacks in this game cause hard knockdown. There's been situations in this game where every other hit has me on the floor mashing x. Also when fighting groups of enemies it's way to easy to be locked into constant hit stun with no way to break free. I also dislike the upgrade system as well.
Boss fights especially are fucking tedious as hell. They last way too long. Like most of the boss fights in this game took me upwards of 20 - 30 mins to beat. And this is with me pumping most of my exp into health/damage boosts and Heat moves. Also fuuuuck the Kiwami system. It's so stupid how bosses will regain health while doing it. It makes boss fights, which were already tedious and repetitive even longer. Not too mention that they can regain a nearly a full bar of health within a few seconds. So if you aren't ready, minutes worth of progress can be wiped out just like that. What's even worse is that on some occasions you can't even use a kiwami attack on a boss, so you have to sit there and watch them regen helplessly. This happened to me twice, once against Shimano in chap 3 (because the game never told me that you had to buy an upgrade in order to use a kiwami attack against a boss) and again against Nishkiyama, because his heat style was dragon and I didn't fight Majima enough to unlock the Kiwami attack for this apparently. I can safely say that this game has the worse collection of bosses in any game I've ever play. Whenever I get to a boss and think "this is the worst boss in the game" The game goes "hold my beer" and introduces an even shitter one in the next chapter.
I really wanted to like this game but it didn't do anything for me. In fact if I'm being honest, I think this is just straight up a bad game. A lot of shitty design decisions imo. I wasn't really a fan of Yakuza 0s gameplay either but it's amazing story kept me going. So for this game to not even have that good of story but with even worse gameplay mechanics, frustrated me to no end. Honestly this game's one saving grace was that it's pretty short. I was able to beat it in less than half the time 0 took me. I already own Kiwami 2 and am hoping that it plays nothing like this, otherwise I might have to cut my stint with the Yakuza series short here....
If I were to describe Yakuza 0, it'd be a game with an amazing story and mediocre gameplay. If I were to describe Kiwami, it'd be a game with an ok story and bad gameplay.
Let's start with the story, because it's the only redeeming quality about this game. And even then it's still a step down from 0's. I liked seeing Nishikiyama's decent into darkness especially considering how much of a friend he was in 0, and I like how the flash backs show just how much life hit him after Kiyru went to jail. One issue I did have is that he's pretty much sidelined for most of the game despite being the main antagonist. Especially towards the end when they introduce Jingu and he just takes all the focus away. It's like they completely forgot Nishki was the main villain till the final fight.
Now let's talk about the game play. Now I wasn't big on 0's gameplay either, but I thought it was at least serviceable. The gameplay loop here is honestly pretty trash. It mostly consists of you talking to someone in purgatory for a minute then running back to Serena's to talk to someone for a minute then back to purgatory rinse and repeat. The game also conveniently made both these two areas as far apart from each as possible. Yakuza 0 had the same issue but at least with that game you were frequently going to many different locations instead of just 2 primary ones.
Now for the combat. The combat is what really soured me on this game. It's straight up garbage imo. You do way too little damage. Weapons are annoying as fuck even with items like the bulletproof vest. and way too many attacks in this game cause hard knockdown. There's been situations in this game where every other hit has me on the floor mashing x. Also when fighting groups of enemies it's way to easy to be locked into constant hit stun with no way to break free. I also dislike the upgrade system as well.
Boss fights especially are fucking tedious as hell. They last way too long. Like most of the boss fights in this game took me upwards of 20 - 30 mins to beat. And this is with me pumping most of my exp into health/damage boosts and Heat moves. Also fuuuuck the Kiwami system. It's so stupid how bosses will regain health while doing it. It makes boss fights, which were already tedious and repetitive even longer. Not too mention that they can regain a nearly a full bar of health within a few seconds. So if you aren't ready, minutes worth of progress can be wiped out just like that. What's even worse is that on some occasions you can't even use a kiwami attack on a boss, so you have to sit there and watch them regen helplessly. This happened to me twice, once against Shimano in chap 3 (because the game never told me that you had to buy an upgrade in order to use a kiwami attack against a boss) and again against Nishkiyama, because his heat style was dragon and I didn't fight Majima enough to unlock the Kiwami attack for this apparently. I can safely say that this game has the worse collection of bosses in any game I've ever play. Whenever I get to a boss and think "this is the worst boss in the game" The game goes "hold my beer" and introduces an even shitter one in the next chapter.
I really wanted to like this game but it didn't do anything for me. In fact if I'm being honest, I think this is just straight up a bad game. A lot of shitty design decisions imo. I wasn't really a fan of Yakuza 0s gameplay either but it's amazing story kept me going. So for this game to not even have that good of story but with even worse gameplay mechanics, frustrated me to no end. Honestly this game's one saving grace was that it's pretty short. I was able to beat it in less than half the time 0 took me. I already own Kiwami 2 and am hoping that it plays nothing like this, otherwise I might have to cut my stint with the Yakuza series short here....
