3.5/5 ★ – KHFanXIII's review of Yakuza Kiwami.

After starting my journey through the Yakuza series with Yakuza 0, I was hyped to get to play what is (really) the first game in the series. While I had some issues with it, Yakuza 0 was a game I truly loved. So does this game live up to the bar set by the prequel? Well, no not really, but I don't think it's really the game's fault. Despite the graphical and gameplay updates, this is still essentially (structurally) a PS2 game, and as such a lot of things in this game feel lesser than the built-from-the-ground-up-brand-new Yakuza 0. This game, firstly is a lot shorter than the previous one. This extends to every aspect of the game including the side content. Due to this much shorter experience, the fully voice acted/animated series are a lot more frequent. On the subject of side content, the substories in this game are not anywhere near as long or deep as the ones from the prequel. They are much less engaging and the complexity has been turned down a significant amount. This goes for a lot of side content as (while there are many returning things), major types of side content like the real estate or cabaret club management don't exist in this game. Honestly, the best side content in this game is the ones that are continuations of stuff from Yakuza 0, or the couple of substories that are nearly fully voice acted and include some fully animated cutscenes (something Yakuza 0 had none of btw). Moving onto the story, just like the other aspects of this game, it's much shorter. The story in general is just not as emotionally gripping or interesting as the previous game, which is really disappointing to me. The story from Yakuza 0 was one of the best highlights and I was invested in it from start to finish, and sadly this game just doesn't measure up. There are also aspects of the story which feel like filler. As someone who hasn't played the PS2 original, I dunno if these segments were in the original, but it wouldn't surprise me if segments like the stuff with Date's and the Florist's kids or how you have to hop around different clubs doing some sort of trading quest to gain entry to Shangri-La, were added for the remake. My other main issue with the story is the character of Jingu who feels like he comes out of nowhere. I understand why he wasn't super present, as they had a twist tied to him and wanted to wait until later in the game to reveal that, but as a result he comes off as a bland, generic villain with not much going for him and not much involvement in the main plot. Overall, while I did like the game, coming to this after the masterpiece that was Yakuza 0, makes me feel pretty disappointed. I hope future games in the series can pull off that same sort of magic that made me fall in love with the prequel.