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Yakuza Kiwami


DisturbedSwan
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Started this earlier, got about 4 hours in.

 

It's pretty much what I expected really, borrows a lot from 0 in terms of the 4 fight styles available in battle (Brawler, Beast, Rush and Dragon), aesthetics and uses the same engine.

 

From what I've played so far the story seems much slower and more convoluted than 0, with 0 I felt that threw you right into the deep-end right at the beginning and had you assaulting the Dojima Family HQ within about 30 minutes of beginning the game, whereas with this for the first 30 minutes or so you're running around a heavily cordoned off Kamurocho (so great to be back) trying to buy a Ring for a Woman Kiryu's trying to impress, with the main thrust of the game taking place after that and featuring tons of time jumps between '95, '96 and 2000 back to Present (2005).

 

It just gets a bit hard to keep up at times, I think if I'd not of played 0 I wouldn't have a clue who most of the main characters are either, definitely helps playing that and having a backstory to people like Nishiki, Kazama-San etc., knowing what they used to be like before this game.

 

So yeah, typical Yakuza really, tons of glorious cinematic cutscenes and beating dudes' skulls in with Motorbikes, Scooters and signage in some lavish locales and office buildings.

 

Only after reaching Chapter 4  did I get full access to Kamurocho as well without any gates, felt so good to be able to run around and go exactly where I wanted to go after quite some time. Of course the first thing I did after seeing the unlocked map was find out where the naughty stuff was and head straight for the 'Gentlemen's Club' :lol: also noticed an Adult Video store on the map too which I'll have to explore tomorrow. The first two cutscenes with Majima were the funniest moments in the game so far, particularly when he's in disguise as a Policeman the second time and wants to search you to see if you've got any 'Smut DVDs' on you :lol:. Only done two side quests so far and they were cool and kooky but didn't stray too far into zany hilarity of Zero's just yet, but yeah, still very early days. 

 

Unsurprisingly then I really dig it so far. It definitely doesn't seem as expansive or grandiose as 0 in almost every way, definitely more of a focused lower-key story with only one area to play around in this time around, less mini-games and none of the cool distractions like Real Estate or Hostess Club Management but yeah seeing as I never played the original game back in the day I'm very happy with the way this is going and can't wait to dive into the open-world distractions more tomorrow.

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Another 4 hours with this yesterday.

 

Completely ignored progressing the story anymore and did side-quests the entire time.

 

Early on I traded some CP to get the 'Trouble Finder' accessory from Bob and all the side-quests appear on my map which saves a lot of time, and means you can't really miss stuff.

 

There's some cool stories in there, lots of them had me giggling away but none of them have really hit the heights of 0 as of yet, there's one really cool one where you meet a lady with F-Cup breasticles and the camera keeps zooming in on them and Kiryu's gaze continually meeting them which was fucking funny, another where you have to sneak up on (full on Pink Panther style) a speedy lady who's avoiding debt collectors and the Bikini-lady wrestling that was in 0 is in it too but now it's a card game and there's all these different moves and better wrestlers to collect scattered around Kamurocho, the quest you first do the mini-game is with a kid as well and then you find out the kid is playing this insect-lady wrestling game with women in incredibly skimpy bikini's and you're just like 'Oh, Yakuza, what are you like' :lol:

 

There's been some nice tie-in's to the Pocket Racer stuff from 0 too, a few old characters return and it feels like a bit of a reunion of sorts, proper nostalgia seeing all their faces again. Did some Karaoke too which is (unsurprisingly) unchanged from 0, tried to rent a XXX DVD in the store but they weren't available or something? So maybe I have to play some more of the story first before I can watch some. Not tried Shogi, Mahjong or been in any of the clubs yet so don't know what they're like.

 

Fought Majima a few times too, definitely feels very much like Kiwami's version of Mr. Shakedown, when he spots you you get a ! above your head MGS style and an audible alert can be heard. I have to say though that I've easily defeated him everytime without any hassle though, nowhere near as tough as Mr Shakedown but I guess as you go up through his 'ranks' the difficulty will increase and he'll start to carry more weapons etc.

 

So yeah, really enjoying it, it sounds weird to say but it almost feels like going home after a short 6 month break from 0 really, so great just being back in Kamurocho again, soaking up the atmosphere, teaching fools a lesson and making some cash.

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Played another 4 hours of this on Friday, 12 total.

Did an awful lot of side-quests again and 1 chapter of the story, messed around with some more mini-games too.

Got properly stuck into Pocket Racer, beat Huruki and won 3 of the starter cups, the 3rd gave me a few problems and I had to re-customise my car a lot though but I got there in the end.

There was this great side-quest where a scout attempts to recruit Kiryu to a male strip club :lol: very funny hearing another guy talking about Kiryu's hot bod and him just going along with it.

Had some major problems with a bowling side-quest, lost 30k Yen from losing to this former Pro, did well in 0 so was surprised I didn't do so well this time around, need to get the knack to it down again I think.

I don't remember ever having this much cash in Y3-5 either, got like 600k Yen already and have a shit ton of experience too, I guess its all the side-quest that do it. Picked up the endless stomach perk in the CP list too so I can complete all the restaurants, already finished a few of them off.

The story chapter I did was kind of slow still, still not quite got going really. The scene where you first meet Haruka is fantastic though and I really wanted to protect that puppy afterwards :(

Up to Chapter 5 now, didn't really have much left outside the Pocket racer and cat-fighting stuff but I'm sure more will unlock as I go on.

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Had a day off today so put another 6 hours into this earlier, 18 total.

 

The magic and charm of 0 has now definitely returned in spades, I was already enjoying it but that zany/mischievous/crazy side that I so adored in 0 felt a bit lacking in this but it has since returned in spades largely down to Majima.

 

Just some of the ways he pops out on you are amazing, I had one time where he was in a huge traffic cone, another where he's a barman ands tries to get you to overpay for some crappy off-shelf spirits and another one (which was my favourite) where you go into a hostess club to see your girl there and instead find Majima in drag, the conversation that ensues where you have to essentially chat him up is amazing too :lol:

 

I had a great side quest where you unwittingly interrupt a lovers quarrel, end up beating the Boyfriend up, he pulls a knife then some random huge Judo-dude shows up and starts body-slamming/wrestling him on the ground :lol: you then have to show him round the town which inevitably leads to fighting him in the purgatory fighters cage.

 

The story has been lagging a bit too, nothing really happens in Chapters 5 and 6, just busy work and side stories really, you get the inevitable (re)introduction to Purgatory too. It was great to see some of the cut-scenes that explain Nishiki's rise to prominence though, really great.

 

Will end the post on a funny glitch I found:

 

 

IMG_20170904_203824.jpg

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stating the obvious but it's very much a remake of the first game, it's surprised me how faithful it is actually.

 

Yakuza wasn't what it is now, the first game is very serious, very po-faced, it's not the nonsense it's become. Yakuza 2 is the game that kind of started that direction with the tigers, but even then, compared to 0, that's a game of gravel

 

As such I'm not sure how many recent converts to Yakuza will like Kiwami, aside from the Majima stuff, the side missions all seem the same as the original, so more goons claiming you've injured them, less dancing across bridges. I like it still though, but I guess I knew what to expect. 

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On 9/5/2017 at 8:44 PM, DANGERMAN said:

stating the obvious but it's very much a remake of the first game, it's surprised me how faithful it is actually.

 

Yakuza wasn't what it is now, the first game is very serious, very po-faced, it's not the nonsense it's become. Yakuza 2 is the game that kind of started that direction with the tigers, but even then, compared to 0, that's a game of gravel

 

As such I'm not sure how many recent converts to Yakuza will like Kiwami, aside from the Majima stuff, the side missions all seem the same as the original, so more goons claiming you've injured them, less dancing across bridges. I like it still though, but I guess I knew what to expect. 

 

I've never actually played the first game, but I can definitely see when some scenes are a bit less cinematic than the latest games for sure.

 

I think Majima is the key that will keep Yakuza converts invested in Kiwami. It's definitely Kiwami's Real Estate or Hostess club management, nowhere near as in-depth as those obviously but it's just ridiculously addictive fighting him, seeing that meter go up and the rank-up fights at the end are usually lavishly conducted and truly fantastic. He adds some much needed zaniness, gravitas and personality to proceedings, there are quite a few decent side-quests I've found like the F-Cup one or the Male strip club recruiter but you're right it does take itself much more seriously than 0 in a lot of regards and there's far more 'I don't like your face!' side-quests than I'd like.

 

 

 

Anyhoo, another 3ish hours on this today, 21 total.

 

Spent most of my time fighting Majima, fighting random fools and collecting 2,000 Yen notes from around Kamurocho for a side-quest. 

 

Majima is definitely my favourite part of the game, he's just a joy to fight (at the moment...), he pops up when you least expect it and hearing him yell Kiryu-Chan! whilst your running down the street is a nice touch, the rank-up fight to reach Rank C is just incredible. He dresses up as a Zombie, says he'll infect Kiryu if he doesn't fight him :lol: which ends up in a Dead Souls-esque Zombie romp fighting random 'zombies' and having about 4/5 different fights with Majima, only after that does he reveal he isn't really a Zombie, Kiryu's like 'Oh you're not going to eat me after all, it was just one of your games?!' hahaha, such an awesome sequence.

 

I have a ridiculous amount of cash now, over 1 million Yen and every time you fight Majima I swear you get about 26 levels worth of XP, it is insane, I went from Level 7 XP on the bar to 350 in the space of an hour, I never expected to have this amount of cash either, Yakuza's 3-5 I was always struggling for cash and barely being able to put any XP into abilities but Kiwami it seems far more abundant.

 

Unfortunately the story is still a bit dull really, it just seems like a hodgepodge of side-quests that they've made into the single player campaign to keep it ticking along, the entirety of Chapter 6 has been me

Spoiler

finding the Florist's son and rescuing him from rival Yakuza

and the other part

Spoiler

finding Date's daughter and eventually rescuing him after he goes off to pay off the daughter's debt.

 

The Nishiki cutscenes continue to bridge the gap between 0 and Kiwami (1) perfectly though and  at the very end of Chapter 6 did I finally hear from Nishiki to set the main plot into motion, but it did feel a little shoe-horned in as there was practically no build-up to this landmark phone call.

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Another 4 hours on this for me earlier, 25 total.


Got up to Chapter 8, I thought today would be the day that the story finally takes off but instead there was a huge section dedicated to

Spoiler

 

taking Haruka all around town and doing various side-quests. Don't get me wrong I actually think Haruka is a really cool character and weirdly great to hang out with, most of her side-quests were cool too (made me laugh Kiryu buying an Adult mag for kid's school crush out of a machine :lol: ) but it built up this reunion between Nishiki and Kiryu for so goddamn long and then I had to wait the entirety of Chapter 7 to get there.

 

It was definitely worth it in the end, because of 0 that scene had so much weight to it, you knew how good friends they both were years ago and have been shown how Nishiki has turned to the dark side, it's weirdly similar to Star Wars in some ways, Nishiki feeling jealous of all the respect and esteem Kiryu has in the Yakuza families (even with him being labelled a Patriarch-killer) and he wants that for himself, but instead he's just a joke who gets played from all sides until he grows some balls and ascends the family ranks.

 

 

All the Nishiki and Haruka stuff is extremely well handled, you can tangibly feel the tension between Nishiki and Kiryu. Haruka adds an emotional element to it, as mentioned above she's a weirdly cool kid to hang out with and extremely well written, she doesn't seem annoying or anything and you feel like you want to protect her and care for her, she definitely adds some emotional depth to the proceedings. But despite all this I'm in Chapter 8 and I feel like I'm in Act 1 of the overall story, most of the game has been a load of tertiary characters' relatives going missing at random and Kiryu hunting them down really which is a shame, but yeah the Haruka, Nishiki and Kiryu triangle is pure dynamite.

 

As I progressed through the story more Majima came back to hunt me down, I managed to get him to Rank B and now things have definitely gotten WAY tougher. He's now got 3 heath bars and I had to use about 3 health potions the last time I fought him to get through the fight. I'm sure getting to SSS rank (believe that's the highest) will be fucking ridiculous, but I want to at least try to get as far as I can with it, it's such a great element to the game.

 

Other than that I just did a shit-load more side-quests, I lost count of how many I did really. The highlight was definitely a follow-up to the legendary Shooreh Pippi Cult quest from Yakuza 0, I want spoil what happens but it's fucking hilarious, most of laughed in the game and as soon as I heard that Hindu-esque music again I knew what the deal was.

 

Honestly one of the best value games I've ever bought. £25 for the 25 hours I've put into it so far is ridiculous, that value proposition puts some full-priced games to shame.

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Unsurprisingly, another 4 hours on this earlier, 29 total.

 

Spent most of my time chatting up Hostesses really, spent about 500k Yen on them to get them both up to A rank which unlocks a 'steamy moment' :lol: if you remember the sexy video parlour from Y0 then you know what to expect here, some sexy ladies writhing about on a bed in some negligees.

 

Levelled up my Majima rank to the verge of A now, have to meet him at a night club when I get back in the game tomorrow to have the 'title fight' up to Rank A. Definitely getting much harder, his break-dancing style is the hardest to fight for me, I go into Rush so I can easily dodge about but he's got so many attacks coming from everywhere I have to back off quite a lot and get him when he's finished a combo.

 

The story has picked up pace quite a bit,

Spoiler

you finally see the scene where Nishiki snaps, stops taking shit from people and starts being the arsehole he is now. There's also a Time Crisis-style on-rails section where you're riding along in a car (think 0 had a bit like that in it as well) that was a nice change of pace. But yeah, I'm up to Chapter 10 now, I've heard this game is quite short so I'm probably 2/3 of the way through I'm guessing, and it still feels like I'm being introduced to new antagonist forces behind the scenes one by one and Kiryu has still only had that one scene at the bar with Nishiki.

 

Didn't do much else really, finally had enough cards to continue the MesuKing mini-game side-quests and that's about it really, sold some Ruby/Gold Plates I'd got in my item box and now have about 1.8 million Yen, not played any Pool or Mahjong yet so that may be on the cards tomorrow.

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Finished this earlier, took me 33 hours to clock it, had 51% completion in the end.

 

DJSy6ZHW0AANd64.jpg

 

Didn't really run out of things to do as such but I kind of ran out of things I wanted to do. Majima everywhere just ended up a bit annoying at the end, he was everywhere and had a ridiculous amount of health bars, managed to get him up to S rank but getting him to SSS (the highest rank I think?) would've been a chore I just couldn't be arsed with.

 

The story was pretty cool, wasn't blown away by it and it was very similar to some of the previous games in the series, but yeah, it definitely had some twists and turns in there I didn't see coming and some of the revelations at the end were pretty shocking, quite emotional too at times.

 

I think my main complaint with the story was how inconsistent it is, it feels like Chapters 4 to 9 were all side-stories of Kiryu rescuing various friends/family members' relatives around Kamurocho with a slow drip-feed of Nishiki scenes (which are fantastic to be fair) to keep the ongoing brooding throughout. It feels like you get almost 90% of the plot in the first 4 and last 3 chapters really with the middle ones just left to Kiryu cleaning up messes around town, there's key antagonist reveals, sombre harrowing moments and certain characters true motives revealed all in the last chapter, hell, there's one antagonist that you only see for the first time in the final chapter and only gets mentioned 3-4 times throughout the entirety of the game before you meet him, meaning there's not really any build-up to it, you don't recognise him or anything it's like 'oh this dude looks like he means business' when he turns up instead of 'you bastard!'.

 

The final fight against

Spoiler

Nishiki is by far the most rewarding, it's definitely the toughest and most heart-wrenching too considering all the time spent with him as 'brothers' in 0 and this ongoing thread throughout Kiwami of how he turned into a major arsehole, Kiryu finally tolling out some justice on his arse in the end.

 

Despite by complaints about the inconsistent story I still really enjoyed it overall. There's just really nothing like this series, I just adore spending time in Kamurocho and soaking up the atmosphere, the zany nature of 0 is only present  through a handful of side-quests and the Majima Everywhere stuff but you still get a taste of it. It's just much more toned down and more like the Dev's have thrown you a zany bone in a more serious (former) entry rather than the full-on batshit crazy antics of 0.

 

0 is by far and away the better game, but if you've played 0 and want to see how certain characters end up then Kiwami is definitely worth playing. For newcomers to the series I recommend starting on 0 rather than this. Kiwami is almost too faithful to the original game at times and feels a bit dated in terms of mission structure and story, I hope with Kiwami 2 they deviate a bit more from the source material and spice things up a bit.

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  • 4 months later...

Played a few hours if this. Just like last year I started with a Yakuza, so I will this year. 

 

I think Blakey said it; there's nothing like this. I missed this violent brutal combat. Love smashing blokes about the place. Story and characters don't appear to be as fun - much like I remember. It's good though. I use want to sit down for a few hours and cane it though...

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  • 2 weeks later...

Fin.

 

I prefered Yakuza 0 but that has the advantage of coming later down the series in terms of activity variety and story. 

 

The Majima everywhere was a fun addition. Well, the level up fights. He started to appear too often later on, and with little progression, it started to get obnoxious.

 

Combat straight from 0 I felt right at home. Not sure if the bosses in this were just a pain in the ass or they've been amped up for 'extreme' (Kiwami). I don't remember it being as frustrating with homing attacks and some fights with guns, like the penultimate fight, down right irritating.

 

But aside from the little frustrations it was a solid experience. Good wholesome gang face punching fun. Can't wait for 6 

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  • 2 months later...

Always with the latest big games, I’m back in on this. Took me a minute to get my bearings with the controls and where I was headed.

I’m still early in, Kiryu has gone to a club and learned about the latest murder of a family chief.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Absolutely positively it’s Zero.

Firstly it’s a better game than Kiwami but also playing this which is largely the same as it was originally, it’s weird how it starts like you should already know these characters. As if Zero was always planned. 

 

Partly down to it it taking place after Zero and partly down to it being the same engine with same mechanics and animations, this feels very much like Zero Part 2.

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