4.5/5 ★ – asoola's review of Yakuza Kiwami 2.

Hmm… I have a love hate relationship with this game while I think it’s well written and it’s not a bad game I do think those one million plot twists shouldn’t have been shoved and revealed all in the final chapter I wish they revealed some of the plot twists in the earlier chapters but that aside the game is genuinely not a bad game. The story itself was great, the storytelling was a bit flawed due to what I mentioned above, and the new characters and Kiryu’s character were written well! I think they dived more into Kiryu’s nightmares both literally and metaphorically in this game and I kinda love that the incident he experienced 100% left him with survivor’s guilt personally speaking I mean look at his actions throughout the game and the ending he genuinely thought people are better off without him around and it’s okay if he died even though Haruka was 100% not okay without him being out of her life or dying. Speaking of his father-daughter relationship with Haruka will always be heartwarming these two should stay together forever! Kaoru Sayama is a fantastic character and I’m glad she is, you can really tell they put lots of thought into her character she’s not just Kiryu’s love interest. (Her relationship with Kiryu is cute btw) The antagonist in this game , Ryuji Goda is up there with my favorite antagonists in the Yakuza series he’s such a well written antagonist! Again I never played the original Yakuza 2 and I read The Majima Saga stuff is new and included only in Kiwami 2 AND I LOVE THE MAJIMA SAGA! It was so well written, seeing him face his past and the love of his life again made me cry he may be the “Mad Dog of Shimano” but he’s still a kind-hearted person and this story emphasized that point! Well that’s all I wanted to say gameplay fantastic as always and music gets better with every game. (Ryuji’s theme is 10/10!) It’s a flawed game but a game I love nonetheless. (Side note: I finished playing this game in March 2022)