Is Yakuza Kiwami 2 a good stopping point?

[SoadY w/ bad eyes]

I played Yakuza 0 about a month ago and enjoyed everything about the game from the excellent backstories and character development to the villains to the length of the game to the multiple playable characters even the story / plot was far better than I expected, all I had read on the Yakuza 0 plot beforehand was "Everybody fights over a small plot of land" hardly a solid plot material. Yet I found 0 to be excellent and teared up multiple times throughout during the sad moments involving Makoto

After enjoying Yakuza 0 I then decided to buy Yakuza Kiwami 1 and Yakuza Kiwami 2 to support the developers and didn't like a few things as they downsized the minigames with no disco, lack of arcade games besides the UFO Catcher and MesuKing, The Majima Everywhere system was weak but not in the way you may think. I took issue with the Majima persona change rather than the endless stalking aspect, although I did grow to like the change towards the end. The most depressing part about the whole game though was the rushing of the story and the death scenes to important side characters such as Shinji, Reina, Kazama, Nishiki and to a lesser extent Yumi amongst others if any all meeting their ends, all of them being close friends / allies. We lost Tachibana (sad) Nishitani (Fun character), Lee, Awano and more likeable characters in 0 but they are hardly on the same level as all the unnecessary deaths that occured in Yakuza 1 Kiwami, we didn't even have time to grieve properly in Yakuza Kiwami 1, it was such a disappointment :( The only thing I did prefer about Yakuza 1 Kiwami over Yakuza 0 was the enemy guard system, you couldn't just spam square like in 0 or Kiwami 2. the enemies were actually competent and a little frustrating at times.

Which brings me onto Yakuza Kiwami 2 we are surrounded by a bunch of new characters, new yet less interesting minigames with disco, bowling, pocket racing, pool all being removed and as for darts it was difficult I couldn't focus my analogue like in 0 and Kiwami. It was like I was in drunk mode 24/7 even with better darts. The anti aliasing was dreadful, the basic simplified combat system used in 2 wasn't as good as the system used for 0 and 1. What bugged me the most though was the relationship between Kiryu and Kaoru. I would have preferred both of them to keep it strictly professional than have both characters fall in love then axing her between Yakuza 2 and 3. When it comes to video games or TV-Shows I'm all about the characters and Yakuza series seems to be renown for introducing you to key characters then killing them all off or just erasing them completely for future titles. Bringing Yuki and Makoto back for brief spells was a nice touch from 0 to 2 but it would have been nice if they had done this with every game. Does anybody else feel the same way when it comes to character attachments? Maybe it's just me living a sad miserable life lol.

Well anyway I said a couple of weeks ago Yakuza Kiwami 2 would probably be my last game in the series after playing through the rollercoaster that was Kiwami 1 so I must ask Is it worth continuing the series if the remasters ever release on Steam or should I just end it here?

[lPaladinl]

Well, Yakuza 3-5 are going to feel like a step backwards because they're not getting remakes like Yakuza 1 & 2 did, and are not on the same engine as Yakuza 0/Kiwami. (Let alone Dragon Engine like Kiwami 2/6)

Story-wise there's plenty to go through, but if you don't like new characters, 4 and 5 are all about introducing new characters and Kiryu isn't the main playable character anymore. (I would say more but not sure how much people would consider spoilers on that point.)

People hate Yakuza 6 for it's plot, and I kinda agree with them. It's not the first time we had dumb and silly plots, but Yakuza 6 as a whole feels poor. That said I still find parts to appreciate, and I especially appreciate the game as just another Dragon Engine release where you get to play as Kiryu again. The side content is great as well, with some new, fun minigames.

Some people also hate Yakuza 3, I can't speak to that.

So really it's up to you and what you're looking for in these games.

Personally I want to take a crack at 3-5, but I am probably looking forward to 6 more now just on a mechanical level.

[...]

You need to understand that zero is a new game, so new in fact, that it came after the Yakuza 5. So developers had much more experience in making a good story and interesting characters. While Kiwami 1 and Kiwami 2 stories are straight bit by bit remakes of original games. Even animations in cutscenes are the same as originals, you can check that on youtube. So, yeah, coming from arguable peak of the series to, basically, back in time would feel as a downgrade.

[Master of Slow Connection]

İlk olarak ... tarafından gönderildi:

You need to understand that zero is a new game, so new in fact, that it came after the Yakuza 5. So developers had much more experience in making a good story and interesting characters. While Kiwami 1 and Kiwami 2 stories are straight bit by bit remakes of original games. Even animations in cutscenes are the same as originals, you can check that on youtube. So, yeah, coming from arguable peak of the series to, basically, back in time would feel as a downgrade.

This.

Yakuza 0 is the sixth game in the series. Characters from 0 are killed off because they exist only in that one game. Yakuza 1 is a self-contained story because they were no plans for sequels at the time. There's plenty of stuff Kiwami remakes added that was never in the originals as well. The series improved and added more content over time and you just started from the end. You've already seen the best Yakuza has to offer and your expectations are now too high.

[Hardtarget01]

İlk olarak SoadY tarafından gönderildi:

I played Yakuza 0 about a month ago and enjoyed everything about the game from the excellent backstories and character development to the villains to the length of the game to the multiple playable characters even the story / plot was far better than I expected, all I had read on the Yakuza 0 plot beforehand was "Everybody fights over a small plot of land" hardly a solid plot material. Yet I found 0 to be excellent and teared up multiple times throughout during the sad moments involving Makoto

After enjoying Yakuza 0 I then decided to buy Yakuza Kiwami 1 and Yakuza Kiwami 2 to support the developers and didn't like a few things as they downsized the minigames with no disco, lack of arcade games besides the UFO Catcher and MesuKing, The Majima Everywhere system was weak but not in the way you may think. I took issue with the Majima persona change rather than the endless stalking aspect, although I did grow to like the change towards the end. The most depressing part about the whole game though was the rushing of the story and the death scenes to important side characters such as Shinji, Reina, Kazama, Nishiki and to a lesser extent Yumi amongst others if any all meeting their ends, all of them being close friends / allies. We lost Tachibana (sad) Nishitani (Fun character), Lee, Awano and more likeable characters in 0 but they are hardly on the same level as all the unnecessary deaths that occured in Yakuza 1 Kiwami, we didn't even have time to grieve properly in Yakuza Kiwami 1, it was such a disappointment :( The only thing I did prefer about Yakuza 1 Kiwami over Yakuza 0 was the enemy guard system, you couldn't just spam square like in 0 or Kiwami 2. the enemies were actually competent and a little frustrating at times.

Which brings me onto Yakuza Kiwami 2 we are surrounded by a bunch of new characters, new yet less interesting minigames with disco, bowling, pocket racing, pool all being removed and as for darts it was difficult I couldn't focus my analogue like in 0 and Kiwami. It was like I was in drunk mode 24/7 even with better darts. The anti aliasing was dreadful, the basic simplified combat system used in 2 wasn't as good as the system used for 0 and 1. What bugged me the most though was the relationship between Kiryu and Kaoru. I would have preferred both of them to keep it strictly professional than have both characters fall in love then axing her between Yakuza 2 and 3. When it comes to video games or TV-Shows I'm all about the characters and Yakuza series seems to be renown for introducing you to key characters then killing them all off or just erasing them completely for future titles. Bringing Yuki and Makoto back for brief spells was a nice touch from 0 to 2 but it would have been nice if they had done this with every game. Does anybody else feel the same way when it comes to character attachments? Maybe it's just me living a sad miserable life lol.

Well anyway I said a couple of weeks ago Yakuza Kiwami 2 would probably be my last game in the series after playing through the rollercoaster that was Kiwami 1 so I must ask Is it worth continuing the series if the remasters ever release on Steam or should I just end it here?

It sure as hell looks that way! As Yakuza 3 (PS4) remastered is already outdated in every way imaginable, unless Y 3-5 gets proper PC Kiwami versions. Here they made the street fighting fun and lively. Pretty shocking to see how bad the remastered Y3 looks compared to this one. Not only graphically inferior but dull fights too.

[David Young Henning]

İlk olarak Hardtarget01 tarafından gönderildi:

İlk olarak SoadY tarafından gönderildi:

It sure as hell looks that way! As Yakuza 3 (PS4) remastered is already outdated in every way imaginable, unless Y 3-5 gets proper PC Kiwami versions. Here they made the street fighting fun and lively. Pretty shocking to see how bad the remastered Y3 looks compared to this one. Not only graphically inferior but dull fights too.

I'm playing through 3 right now on PS4.
Yes, it's appropriately dated for a decade+ year old game but if you like the series it's enjoyable.

If you're just looking for games that look/play like new titles then don't play them but if you're actually a fan of the series they're perfectly fine.

[North_Dumpling]

I personally think Yakuza Kiwami 1 and Kiwami 2 could have been better games if developers wouldnt just do remakes, but perhaps reboot Yakuza 1 and Yakuza 2 in a way, that the outcome is the same as in the original games, while the golden middle is totaly new and written from scratch, just like Yakuza 0 in a way.

[G9875]

still hopeful we get kiwami 3 on pc and not a straight remaster of 3 like on PS4

[lPaladinl]

İlk olarak North_Dumpling tarafından gönderildi:

I personally think Yakuza Kiwami 1 and Kiwami 2 could have been better games if developers wouldnt just do remakes, but perhaps reboot Yakuza 1 and Yakuza 2 in a way, that the outcome is the same as in the original games, while the golden middle is totaly new and written from scratch, just like Yakuza 0 in a way.

Maybe, but fans of the originals are already mixed on the remakes we did get.

İlk olarak G9875 tarafından gönderildi:

still hopeful we get kiwami 3 on pc and not a straight remaster of 3 like on PS4

Unfortunately that's not in the cards at the moment. There's no news about a Kiwami 3 in the works and I doubt they're working on one right now when they just re-released an edited remaster of 3.

But I'm there with ya on that. Kiwami 3 would be more interesting to me.

[Redblaze27]

Having played through 3.

Its probably not the direction you think its going.

[lPaladinl]

I also skipped over how OP doesn't like Majima changing so much.

I agree on that, but one thing to keep in mind is his presentation in Kiwami/1 is how he originally was. He was a lunatic from the start. Yakuza 0 is the most strange because it's when he's the most normal, even after losing an eye and being tortured so much.

However the rest of the series also shifts his personality between games. People assume that the developers never had a real plan for him in the larger arc of their stories, and he was meant to be a one-off crazy character to add color to Yakuza 1. But they kept him around, even if it meant rewriting how he behaves a bit each time.

Like by Yakuza 6, you'd almost think he was similar to how he was in Yakuza 0 again, only because he has almost no screen time.

[SoadY w/ bad eyes]

İlk olarak Shōnen-Heart! ♡ tarafından gönderildi:

I can understand everything but if you start your sentence and go rambling about mini-games and anti-aliasing - you have a problem. You either don't want to admit that you didn't like the story, or you're burnt out, or you simply didn't want to play this game to begin with. Games are not about "supporting the developers" and nobody forces you to buy something and play it to 100% completion.

The only technical point I could understand would be framerate, but anti-aliasing - it's just...

Everything sparkling and flickering on screen is a none issue? A poorly implemented anti-aliasing is probably the second most talked about thing on the internet behind poor optimization when it comes to games, maybe third now that we have Epic Store exclusivity to contend with lol. The only other game that comes close to Kiwami 2's awful use of anti-aliasing would be a game called The Council.

Besides anti-aliasing, minigames, gameplay changes I just didn't like that popular characters from 0 were written out of the series off screen and the ones that did return for Kiwami 1 died. It was all a bit too rushed for my liking and wasn't handled with proper care. These scenes should have been emotional yet I was sat there thinking wtf were the writers thinking? If you are going to kill off most of the characters at least do it properly.

lPaladinl in his first post mentioned "if you don't like new characters 4 and 5 are all about introducing new characters. I felt that way playing Kiwami 2 lol. Felt like a brand new cast from 0 to 1 to 2. I actually liked Kiwami 2's main story except for the BS ending. Newly introduced characters doesn't bother me but I feel you need the right blend of old and new and Kiwami 1 pretty much killed them all off.

[lPaladinl]

İlk olarak SoadY tarafından gönderildi:

Newly introduced characters doesn't bother me but I feel you need the right blend of old and new and Kiwami 1 pretty much killed them all off.

That's a problem with prequels set in tight time frames. It's the same reason Star Wars: Rogue One kinda sucked. They tried to cram a new story into a tiny space of time in a larger arc that couldn't allow most previous characters to exist.

And then you have Yakuza 1 which was treated as the end of the series.

[HyenaTron]

İlk olarak SoadY tarafından gönderildi:

İlk olarak Shōnen-Heart! ♡ tarafından gönderildi:

I can understand everything but if you start your sentence and go rambling about mini-games and anti-aliasing - you have a problem. You either don't want to admit that you didn't like the story, or you're burnt out, or you simply didn't want to play this game to begin with. Games are not about "supporting the developers" and nobody forces you to buy something and play it to 100% completion.

The only technical point I could understand would be framerate, but anti-aliasing - it's just...

Everything sparkling and flickering on screen is a none issue? A poorly implemented anti-aliasing is probably the second most talked about thing on the internet behind poor optimization when it comes to games, maybe third now that we have Epic Store exclusivity to contend with lol. The only other game that comes close to Kiwami 2's awful use of anti-aliasing would be a game called The Council.

Besides anti-aliasing, minigames, gameplay changes I just didn't like that popular characters from 0 were written out of the series off screen and the ones that did return for Kiwami 1 died. It was all a bit too rushed for my liking and wasn't handled with proper care. These scenes should have been emotional yet I was sat there thinking wtf were the writers thinking? If you are going to kill off most of the characters at least do it properly.

lPaladinl in his first post mentioned "if you don't like new characters 4 and 5 are all about introducing new characters. I felt that way playing Kiwami 2 lol. Felt like a brand new cast from 0 to 1 to 2. I actually liked Kiwami 2's main story except for the BS ending. Newly introduced characters doesn't bother me but I feel you need the right blend of old and new and Kiwami 1 pretty much killed them all off.

It's not that characters returned in Kiwami 1 and then died. Yakuza 1 is from 2005. Those characters were long dead by the time 0 came out and it's only because of their inclusion in that game that a lot of them got hardly any screen time at all

[Burny]

How many replies until OP realizes that Yakuza 1&2 were the original games not meant as a sequel to 0?

[Zuranai]

You found Nishiki's death rushed? I could agree on the rest, but there were a ton of build and development for him spread across Yakuza 0 and Kiwami, and his descent into madness was pretty well done imo.

With regards to Majima, my impression was that the whole Mad Dog persona is just a facade he puts on, drawing inspiration from Nishitani, Lee and Sagawa's way of life, because the Yakuza life isn't easy or fair. You see the more calm and calculated Majima in the Majima saga, during the cutscene before Kei's fight, with him dodging his shots and trying to kill him.