Yakuza Kiwami is a remake of the original Yakuza game
which came out stateside in 2006,
but keeping in line with the eccentric series,
Kiwami doesn't play it straight.
It's more than a better-looking version of an old game.
In a lot of ways, it's a continuation
of the excellent Yakuza 0 that released earlier this year.
While not as full-featured or diverse as Zero,
Yakuza Kiwami is nonetheless worth the emotional investment,
retaining many of the series' best qualities.
The story explores plenty of big picture themes,
including trust, betrayal, family, and the weight of responsibility.
The ever-stoic Kazuma Kiryu, takes the fall for his best friend Akira Nishikiyama,
who murdered their boss to protect a childhood friend.
Kazuma spends the next ten years in prison,
only to get out and discover that the world is a very different place.
From there, he gets embroiled in a grand yakuza power struggle
involving an absurd amount of missing money,
a young girl named Haruka, and general criminal deception.
The narrative isn't as focused as Yakuza 0,
nor does it quite reach the same emotional highs.
Yet it's still strong, and it’s much better than the original 2006 version.
A big reason for this is the addition of new scenes
that further flesh out the characters.
In particular, Nishikiyama's descent into darkness
and his complicated feelings about Kazuma are given more weight,
making him an effective oppositional figure.
The arc especially resonates if you've seen the brotherhood
between Kazuma and Nishikiyama presented in Yakuza 0.
By leaning on the fantastic character development of the prequel,
Kiwami's twists and turns have a bigger impact.
The innumerable backstreet brawls you'll get into
feel very similar to Yakuza 0,
if only because the remake carries over the style system.
You have access to all four styles, brawler, rush, beast, and dragon, right away,
although the dragon style evolves differently.
Styles add a tremendous amount of flexibility
to the rather basic beat-em-up formula of the series.
Each style has strengths and weaknesses
as well as new moves to learn by spending experience points.
The rush style is quick, offering the most evasive options
as well as being able to stun enemies with a flurry of blows.
Conversely, the beast style is slow but hard hitting,
allowing you to automatically grab objects to use as weapons during a combo.
To the game's credit, all of the styles are useful throughout
with plenty of times where trying a new approach
can yield effective results.
That's not to say everything about combat works well.
Near the end of the game,
Kiwami starts throwing a large amount of enemies with guns and knives your way.
These weapons easily knock you down,
leading to situations where you're on the floor
with seemingly every other attack.
It's a kind of challenge that Yakuza has overly relied on before,
and while there are skills you can acquire to help in these situations,
they’re not especially interesting to overcome.
Among the new additions, Kiwami attacks aren’t particularly exciting either.
Occasionally during big battles, bosses will hunch over,
highlighted with a colored aura.
During this time, they'll recover health,
but they're also vulnerable to a Kiwami attack of a certain style
that corresponds to the hue of the aura.
Although flashy and quite powerful,
the mechanic doesn't really change much throughout the course of the game,
becoming a novelty that wears off more quickly than expected.
The biggest and best new feature is the Majima Everywhere system.
Goro Majima, the cackling and exceptionally charismatic thug,
constantly challenges his nemesis Kazuma to fights
in an effort to help him recover the strength he lost in prison.
Defeating Majima in these scuffles slowly raises the Majima Everywhere rank,
and since that’s the main way to unlock new abilities for the Dragon Style,
there’s plenty of incentive to seek out and confront him.
As your rank progresses,
Majima will hide and disguise himself throughout the city
and you'll have to find him in order to continue.
These disguises range from impersonating a cop
to dancing on a stripper pole,
and each one furthers the off-kilter Majima charm
that’s progressed throughout the series.
These encounters present more narrative depth than expected.
At times, Majima references moments from Yakuza 0,
providing small payoffs for anyone who’s played the previous game.
Considering how vital Majima was in Yakuza 0,
the Majima Everywhere system is a very smart way
of giving him a bigger role in the remake
without forcefully cramming him into the main narrative
in ways that don't make sense.
Yakuza has a history of bizarre and humorous side stories,
and Kiwami is no different.
Expect the seedy residents of Kamurocho
to try to swindle you out of your money on a regular basis.
Sometimes their scams are blatantly obvious,
while others are subtle enough to catch you off-guard.
Many of these stories resolve themselves quickly,
but they're nonetheless entertaining thanks to their lighthearted nature,
making for some of the best moments of the game.
A few of the new side stories are especially worth chasing down,
such as one that continues the story of a man obsessed with racing model cars,
the pocket circuit fighter.
When compared to past Yakuza games, Zero in particular,
Yakuza Kiwami simply has less going for it.
There's only one playable character,
a single city to explore, and fewer activities.
However, Kiwami is launching at a heavily discounted price,
and when viewed from that perspective, it feels like it has a lot to offer.
The story is consistently interesting, the fighting still brutally satisfying,
and Majima Everywhere is a clever addition.
Yakuza Kiwami may not be the biggest in the series
but it's a solid remake of the game that introduced the Dragon of Dojima.
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