Only 2 chapters in....

[『HORIZON』]

Finished Yakuza 0, went right to Yakuza Kiwami after that. As if it wasnt enough that Nishiki is evil now, do they really have to show these flashbacks to when he wasnt a major bastard and didnt have 5 litres of hair gel on his head? Its tugging at my heart strings
NISHIKI WHAT HAPPENED

[HyenaTron]

Yeah, I'm glad I played 0 first too. I think if I had played the original game back when it came out on PS2 I wouldn't have cared about him at all but after playing 0 and with the added scenes it's really heartbreaking how he changed.

[Absinthe Eyes]

I decided to play through Kiwami first, because I missed out on playing through the games in published order, and I wanted to get as much of that experience as possible. 0 will be up next, followed by Kiwami 2 if it gets discounted in the next few months.

I just finished chapter 11/the first scripted portion of chapter 12, and some of the character development doesn't make much sense when seen from the point of view of somebody who'd only known characters like Nishiki and Kazama for a brief while. It seems that 0 makes everything fit, aside from whatever is going on with Majima, yet I couldn't help but wonder why the Yakuza 1 story truly feels more like a part 2, when part 1 took 11 years to be made. A lot of players on the PS2 from back in 05'/06' wouldn't have become fans of the series from the main story plot, of that I can be sure. Actually, maybe the main story was never the point, but that's bound to make itself clear in time.

[lPaladinl]

I mean, Nishiki was always evil, if you realise Y0 was made after Yakuza 1...

You gotta remember, Nishiki tried to kill Kiryu because he thought it was the only way he could "save" him, and that moment really broke him up psychologically. Not to mention Nishiki is still an actual Yakuza, who's being beaten and broken down by his superiors because he grew up as a brother to Kiryu, whom is the number one enemy of the Dojima Family by the end of Yakuza 0.

He's evil because Kiryu has him stuck in a ridiculously difficult place trying to keep his 'honor' as a Yakuza but his best friend and brother is someone who his family wants dead, and will push Nishiki to kill him personally to ensure his loyalty to the family. They've basically been torturing Nishiki.

[HyenaTron]

Originally posted by ArnoldBrosEst1905:

I decided to play through Kiwami first, because I missed out on playing through the games in published order, and I wanted to get as much of that experience as possible. 0 will be up next, followed by Kiwami 2 if it gets discounted in the next few months.

I just finished chapter 11/the first scripted portion of chapter 12, and some of the character development doesn't make much sense when seen from the point of view of somebody who'd only known characters like Nishiki and Kazama for a brief while. It seems that 0 makes everything fit, aside from whatever is going on with Majima, yet I couldn't help but wonder why the Yakuza 1 story truly feels more like a part 2, when part 1 took 11 years to be made. A lot of players on the PS2 from back in 05'/06' wouldn't have become fans of the series from the main story plot, of that I can be sure. Actually, maybe the main story was never the point, but that's bound to make itself clear in time.

If you get a chance to play the original I definitely recommend it. I think the reason Kiwami 1 feels like a sequel is because of the added content and the fact that the original is pretty short and doesn't honestly have much in the way of explanation for why things are happening the way they are. It's a pretty good example of PS2 era storytelling being very to the point and the Yakuza-verse has been expanded so much in the subsequent games that it is interesting to see how things have sort of evolved over time. The reason Majima seems a little off in Kiwami is because I think they originally wrote him to be a one-off sort of antagonist and realized part way through the story that he could be far more interesting and that people liked how crazy he is. If you check out what the characters looked like in the PS2 era it's pretty interesting. Kiryu's design hasn't changed much but Majima is so different between 1 and 2. I think they put more effort towards him as people showed they liked him more.

[Absinthe Eyes]

There were heaps of good stories in the PS2 era where characters had a time for introductions, and a time for growth. The rushed pacing of the Yakuza 1 main plot when treated as seperate from the overall experience, is a little inept when it comes to trying to establish that the characters had history.

Oddly, I think the intimate bond between Kiryu and Majima is the only relationship that can work on the level of meaning that the writers intended at the time.

When I think back on detective Date in particular, I recognise and understand his archetype, and I could easily understand how he felt aggrieved at what he believed to be a miscarriage of justice in the prologue chapters 1-3. That said, at no point from when the game really gets going from chapter 4 onwards, did Date exchange any dialogue with Kiryu that confirmed Date's suspicions of Kiryu's innocence. They just team up as a matter of convenience to direct the plot where the writer intended, as if Date the character was already privy to the point of view of the player. It's an amateur leap in storytelling not to cover such a simple step, and it's common when writers are so immersed in their creation that they make assumptions that haven't been laid. It isn't enough to ruin the experience from that point onwards, but it does diminish the overall finished touches to the game that keep a flawed gem from really earning a place up into masterpiece tier.