Yakuza Kiwami Review (WibbyOne)
Yakuza Kiwami is an amazingly good follow-up to Yakuza 0, blending both a lot of elements from the original game on Playstation 2, as well as a ton of new stuff that makes it feel fresh. Though the game's a lot smaller in scope to Yakuza 0, this game removed a lot of the fat that the previous game had, while adding a lot of quality-of-life features. Simplified progression systems makes it a lot easier to focus on what to do next, and there isn't a whole lot of grinding. I'll now go further in-depth into what makes this game worth your time.
If you don't want to read the rest, just know that this game's very much worth your time if you liked Yakuza 0.
Kiwami means Extreme!
Yakuza Kiwami's combat is a step up from Yakuza 0, demanding more from you early on while providing you with quality-of-life combat features that make the combat dynamic, interesting, and rewarding to get good at. The Majima Everywhere system fast-tracks your power increasing, and while some people have issues with it I find it incredibly rewarding. With this being the remake to the first game in the series, it finally introduces the iconic Tiger Drop move, rewarding good timing with an incredibly powerful counterattack. Basically, it's a much more extreme version of what you'd be used to in Yakuza 0!
Return to Kamachuro
Being able to see the map of the old Kamachuro from Yakuza 0 at the beginning of the game, only to have it morph as you spend 10 years in prison, makes it feel like a character of its own. The setpiece of the Empty Lot has been replaced with the iconic Millenium Tower, Little Asia has been completely paved over, and other small changes make it feel like it's changing as you do. It also heavily rewards you for knowing the layout of Kamachuro in the first game: while the map changes, a lot of the layout stays the same, allowing your memory from Yakuza 0 to carry over pretty much directly.
Putting the "sub" in substory
While I enjoyed a lot of the substories in Yakuza 0, a lot of them were very long, with lots of dialogue or random sidetracks that made a one-off gimmick go on for way too long. In Kiwami, most substories are very short, with usually 1 fight and/or talking part before it's over. What would be a single substory in 0 is instead spread out across like, 4, which makes completing all of them a lot less tedious, so you can get to that coveted Jo Amon hidden boss much easier.
For Who's Sake?
I'm aware that the story is almost unchanged from the original Yakuza on PS2, but it's incredible how much it plays off of Yakuza 0. Between chapters in the story (which there are fewer of compared to Yakuza 0), you'll get flashback cutscenes of Nishikiyama between the events of the games, showing you how he became who he is. Combined with the events of Yakuza 0, he feels like much more of a significant character in the overall story, filling in the missing link that the story needed to feel more complete.
Overall, I liked this game more than Yakuza 0, though that's probably just down to personal bias. Some people don't seem to like this game, which I can understand, but it's a fantastic remake of a PS2 game that brings it to current-generation hardware that's an incredible time! I don't think I could recommend this game enough.