Overview

Yakuza Kiwami is an action adventure/ beat em' up game released on Steam February 19, 2019. The game was developed by Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio, and published by SEGA. Yakuza Kiwami is remake of the originally Yakuza 1 that released back in December 8^th, 2005 in Japan, and with a September 5, 2006 released in North America on the PS2.

Graphics

Yakuza Kiwami was developed on an engine made by Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio themselves, the Kiwami engine. This engine is an upgraded version of the Magical V engine used prior to Yakuza 5. Yakuza Kiwami was the last game released to use this engine. The game offers a basic amount of graphical settings, with Texture Quality and Filtering, Shadows and Geometry Quality, Realtime Reflections, SSAO ambient acclusion , Render Scale, and Anti-aliasing being them.

The game can be ran on pretty modest pc hardware today, because of the low system requirements, with the minimum being a Intel Core i5-3470/AMD FX-6300, Nvidia GeForce 560/AMD Radeon HD 6870, and 4GB RAM.

Yakuza Kiwami looks pretty nice in term of graphics in today gaming world, its still holding up well. Since its also a remake, the graphics are much better compared to the original. Now I will compare it to Yakuza 0 and say they look largely the same with the only real different being the color filter used in both as yakuza 0 used an orange filter to catch the 80s aesthetic, and yakuza kiwami has greenish filter to make the game look more gloomy as its now taking place in 2005 japan, the lost decades. You still have the bright and vibrant district of Kamurocho, the many npcs that roam the streets, and an assortment of old and new areas of the map.

Sound

Like previous games, Kamurocho is a very busy place. It never sleeps. Its the nightlife capital of Japan. The ambient sounds of crowd chatter, busy shops/restaurants/night clubs, distant wails of sirens, and the eerie quietness of some back alleys represent that in a fantastic way.

Now time for discuss one of favorite things about Yakuza games. The soundtracks. Yakuza Kiwami is no slouch when it comes its OST's. A lot of the soundtracks were actually remade from the original game's soundtrack. As mentioned before in a previous yakuza review i made, Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio had an soundtrack for every occasion. Every street fight, boss battles, minigames, and sunstory has it own soundtrack play. You want a soundtrack that plays during an urgent moment, they got that too.

Lets not forget about one particular minigame. Karaoke! Where you have the protagonist sings an assortment of songs made by Japanese music artist in a rhythm minigame.

Addictiveness

So, is Yakuza Kiwami addictive enough for you to replay the game again? I have played and beaten the game more than once myself. What helps keeps people coming back to replay the game is a side content. Lots of substories, minigames, and secrets are scattered throughout the map. For what I’ve seen a lot people mainly follow the story during their first playthrough. Its when they start a new game and take a dive into the abundant side content theirs much more to this game than they initially thought.
Its those types of games where you feel like you should've went back and done more than just play the main story. You also can unlock extra stuff if you beat the game once, which might prompt people to come back to the game as well. Especially the crowd of people who want to 100% the game, which is no easy feat.

Story

Yakuza Kiwami's story is pretty well done. The story follows exactly like the originally with a few extra changes. You have some mentions of Yakuza 0 characters in this game unlike the original since 0 was released a year prior and the prequel to the first game.

Yakuza Kiwami story now focused on a single protagonist, Kiryu Kazuma. The story takes place mostly in December 2005 in Kamurocho, Tokyo, Japan, but starts in October 1, 1995 during the first chapter.

Spoilers!

Kiryu is now a formidable figure of the Tojo clan, a Lieutenant of the Dojima Family, but one raining night changes the course of his and everyone life forever as he takes the fall of the murder of his patriarch to protect those he loves. Which lands in him in prison for 10 years. After his sentencing is finished, the world and tojo clan have completely transformed around him.

Depth

Yakuza Kiwami is a surprisingly big game on a small map. Kamurocho, despite its size, has a lot to offer. It is the the biggest red-light district in Tokyo after all. This game is filled to the brim with content. You have a bunch of mini-games to enjoy outside the main story Mahjong, Pocket Circuit, UFO Catcher, Cabaret Clubs, Batting Center, Karaoke etc. Their is a lot more that I can list, but these are ones you might the most fun with. The game features 78 substories, which are just side quest. The substories give you interesting look at the Kamurocho nightlife and its many interesting characters.

If you're coming from Yakuza 0 to this game you will notice a change in the exp system. Yakuza 0 used money as a mean to unlock heat actions, moves, and more power/hp. This has change in Yakuza Kiwami to experience points. Why the change? Yakuza Kiwami takes place after the Japan Asset Bubble, no one has that much money anymore. It's actually hard to get more than million yen (not counting the first chapter) compared to just having to beat up a few thugs for a few mil back in 0.
Regardless you still have about the same amount of upgrades like the previous game, and its just as hard to obtain all of them. I game still features 4 fighting styles, Brawler, Rush, Beast, and Dragon of Dojima. The last style is just like Dragon/Legend from 0 but this style is available early in the game.

Now continue on the topic, outisde of just gaining exp for upgrades you need to unlock quite a bit of them by training with a mentor or completing the majima everywhere system. You're mentor is Sotaro Komaki, he will train you to unlock powerful heat-actions and counter attacks. In order to train with him he's gonna ask you to obtain items only available by competing in fighting tournaments at the Coliseum. The Majima Everywhere system has fighting majima who will appear anywhere on the map after chapter 2. Fighting him allows you to unlock your Dragon of Dojima heat-actions, and attacks. Now you don't unlock them each fight, you have to fight a bunch of times until you level up your Majima Everywhere score. Their are special fights that will unlock some pretty good heat-actions, and you have to encounter majima in specific locations and conditions for these special fights to occur.

Difficulty

Yakuza Kiwami follows the same difficulty settings similar to all the other games in the franchise. Easy “for beginner players new to the series” , Normal “Standard difficulty”, Hard “for confident action game players”, Legend “The hardest difficulty, no data carried over and no continues. For true yakuza only!”. Legend is not unlocked right away, and can be unlocked by beating the game once.

Despite the difficulty settings you do face tough challenges regardless if you set this game to easy or legend. Their are a handful of boss fight that can really keep you on your toes, and will require you to force kiryu to chug down a copious amount of stamina royales, or even redo fights a few times. I highly recommend to use as much heat-actions as possible along with using gradable items like bikes, chairs etc. One major change to the boss fights is the ability for them to heal mid battle, this can happen multiple times for some. While it might seem a bit unfair, when they heal they can't attack and are left wide open to your attacks. Try your best to wail on them to limit the health they restore.

As mentioned before about training with Komaki or fighting Majima. These fights are difficulty as well. Komaki wants you to fight in the Coliseum, its a tournament fight with a bunch of different rankings It starts off easy but will progressively get much harder as you start making you're way up higher ranked tournaments. They will offer much bigger rewards than the low level ranks. Mojima becomes harder to fight as your progress through the Majima Everywhere system and the main story. Each fight with him will have use different styles, these styles are Thug, Slugger, Breaker, and Mad Dog of Shimano. You can use your own fighting styles to counter his, you just gotta learn which one can easily counter him and his will be a breeze.

Lastly, just like every yakuza game and the spin offs in the franchise you do have the option secret final boss of the game. The Amon Clan. They're one of the hardest challenges in the game. A one on one fight with single member who has insanely high health, and brutal attacks. You have to give it your all in this fight. Amon is sought after by everyone looking to complete the game or just want a real challenge.

Overall

Yakuza Kiwami is a very faithful remake of the original Yakuza game. It keeps the exact same story while adding elements to give you more content about specific story arches that weren't present in the original game. It has a good cast of character with a very engaging combat system. Yakuza Kiwami was the second game to release on PC after 0. Its my second most played Yakuza games, thought its mostly because I beat the game twice already. I did attempt a hard difficulty run and never finished it lol.

My only real complaints about the game is that there was less content compared to 0, but Yakuza Kiwami was remake and Yakuza 0 was a brand new game featuring two protagonist which excuses the lack of content between them.

Great Review it was awesome and very detailed. I have never heard of this game though. I am probably showing my age but the beat em games I'm familiar with is the Streets of Rage franchise. I guess due to being an old school gamer that is probably the reason I have not heard of this game until now.

After reading your review it sounds like this game would be a fun one to play. It also looks like the maker did a good job on the remake. Sometimes when remakes are done they can be hit or miss.