2.5/5 ★ – SoftLockJake's review of Yakuza Kiwami.

Everyone fondly remembers their first entry in a franchise, and while I have yet to dive into the rest of the Like a Dragon series, I can already tell that the memories I made in Yakuza Kiwami will stick with me for a while. The game is flawed in many ways, and even though Kiwami is a dramatic reimagining of the original Yakuza game, I think it still feels clunky and archaic a majority of the time. Getting to know Kiryu, Nishikiyama, Haruka, and, of course, Majima through this game's story and side content helped me appreciate these characters and the soul of the game more than I ever thought possible from all the memes and GIFs I've seen from the series's wacky moments. The game does not play well, and even though combat got incredibly complex toward the end, I still felt it was lacking cohesion. Despite that, though, I was able to appreciate the swings this game took. I see the vision, but definitely not the execution. I'm very excited to see how the franchise evolves and improves as I play more of them because I really liked the vibe and idea of this game. Playing it, not so much. -Great- Visuals- I think Kiwami looks fantastic, and even though it's eight years old, I think it really holds up by modern standards. It doesn't ever reach the highs of, say, God of War Ragnarok or Final Fantasy VII Rebirth in terms of pure fidelity. But, the x-factor that really did it for me is that Kiwami avoids the greatest fidelity sin of dramatically changing model quality between scenes. Kiryu always looks like Kiryu, the NPCs always look to be the same quality, and even in the most dramatic of designed cutscenes, landscapes, weapons, clothes, and nearly every texture looks consistent, which is more than I can say for modern games that heavily rely on texture streaming and dynamic resolution. The consistency and overall quality of the game's visuals and art style make it seem timeless. If you put visible pores on a cartoon or anime-style character, I will always be impressed. Soundtrack- Bangers on repeat. No song stood out to me as weak, and the music was used tastefully, usually being very understated so that when it ramps up, it feels more important. The song that plays during chase segments and extended combat scenarios is one of the best VGM tracks I've ever heard. It perfectly captures the feeling of Yakuza: dramatic, intense, violent, but also melancholy, a bit goofy, and very Japanese. -Good- World Design- Yakuza is an open world in the same way that early GTAs and Saint's Rows are; that is to say, it is not very open, but it is still a realized world. Kamurochō, the fictional redlight district that Kiwami takes place in, feels realized. I know they had many games to refine the city by this point, and it shows. The city is so full of life and character, with something worth checking out around every corner. Some random alley could trigger an insane sidequest with custom animations, one building that looks a bit different from the others could house a secret minigame, or a random NPC that looks totally normal might be anything but. I loved exploring Kamurochō, and even though not all the side content is worth doing, finding all of it felt refreshing and nice in a market oversaturated with barren, empty, open worlds. The Drama- I was gripped by the story of this game, even at its most ridiculous. It takes place in such a dream-like world that I believed anything could happen at any time, and even though the stakes were constantly rising higher and higher, the characters always seemed believable and lovable, even at their most absurd. I don't think the plot is good at all, but the way these characters live, love, lose, and laugh through the story made me such a fan. A friend of mine described Yakuza as a soap opera, and it is so accurate because for as wild and dumb as these characters were acting, I was still so into it at every moment. -Bad- Combat- Incorporating elements of the Yakuza 0 combat system into this game was the right call, but unfortunately it wasn't enough. I don't love combat in Kiwami, even though it's a bulk of what you're doing at any given time. It's complex to master yet simple to understand. The problem is that I never felt compelled to explore its complexities because it really came down to weak enemies that make the same moves every time, heavy enemies that make the same moves every time, enemies with guns that you just have to dodge, and bullshit boss fights that frankly were complete buzzkills. I don't think the issues here were as much with the act of using skills and switching stances, and more about a lack of opportunity to actually express any creativity while fighting because of disappointing enemy variety. With that said, it wasn't terrible; it was just kind of boring and inoffensive. In a game almost entirely about combat, though, that's basically a death sentence. Side Content- As I mentioned above, some sidequests were phenomenal and took me on hours-long adventures through intense storylines. Those were really fun and always engaging. But, for every one of those, there were four or five sidequests that were just "go here and punch someone" or "play this minigame kind of good." And while the stories accompanying these sidequests were often good enough rewards, I did not find a majority of sidequests to be worth my time. Even when the side stories were popping off and tugging at the heartstrings, the minigames never really hit. There were a few I enjoyed, like the casino games, bowling, or pool, but a majority of them, including the tentpole ones like MesuKing and Pocket Circuit, failed to grab me. They felt half-baked, and I was disappointed. I've heard the side content in the latter games is the bread and butter, so I'm excited to see where it will go.