Yakuza Kiwami 2 + Yakuza 3 - Game Review

It's been a hot minute, hasn't it? I'm sorry about that, I meant to write this post way sooner but I have been busy doing nothing but contemplating and playing Yakuza 4. I was originally going to make a solely dedicated post about Kiwami 2 at first but unfortunately I just could not find enough ground to form a post, as a lot of that game I shared the same opinions with the first Kiwami, outside of story and combat. Kiwami 2's story is a direct continuation of the first one, and it's very good to say the least. It's obviously not as impactful or engaging as the first one, but for being a sequel to one of my most favorite stories, it did a phenomenal job. I noticed a lot of improvements such as the ability to walk into buildings without loading screens and transiting into battles seamlessly, which improved speed a bunch and overall made the experience much better in comparison to Kiwami. Another thing that vastly improved from Kiwami is that the combat in this game is much better and smoother to control, to the point where I believe this is possibly the best way for the games. The fighting is straight to the point, as you only have one form instead of 4 like in 0 and Kiwami, and it's a blast to control. I never got bored pulling the same combinations as each one of them feel like they have a purpose, and they all look cool too. Though, I've noticed is that the number of random enemies is the same although they added an indicator as to where they are and if they noticed you, which was very helpful when it came to avoiding them, though a lot of the random encounters felt like something as they helped me grind up. I noticed the difficulty in this game wasn't as bad outside of the fights with the main villain, Ryuji Goda, some of the fights went from the hardest in the entire game to practically nothing the next boss fight, it was so jarring. There was one fight that seemed pretty impossible though it was 5 minutes max and easily one of the easiest fights too. The only fight with real problems is the very final one in which if you don't time the attack right, you can lose the fight just like that. The additions in this game are absolutely wonderful too. The ability to watch the DVDs you purchased or the large chunk of mini-games such as the photo-booth one or Virtua Fighter, there's a lot more that's not coming to mind though I loved them just as much. That's all I really have to say about this game, as everything else I feel the same as I did from Kiwami, though I must add the cutscenes look a bit off, instead they were in engine as opposed to pre-rendered in Kiwami and they look a little worse, not bad by any means but there is a very noticeable downgrade in quality. 

Yakuza 3 is a weird game. Not for its' content mind you, but the way it plays out. This game is most noticeable as it was the first HD Yakuza game and most importantly, to my heart, the addition of the best Yakuza mini-game to exist, Karaoke. Other than that, it's a typical Yakuza, and it follows a pattern once you get past the first few chapters. The story in this game is really interesting, though I was not as invested as I wanted to be. I wanted to care about what was going on outside of the orphanage although nothing about it really caught my attention, and when it did, I was not really that into it. It's a real shame considering a lot of the story seems really interesting, and I was having a lot of fun playing each chapter. The combat in this one is where I believe this one perfected itself, there's no flaws in it whatsoever and it was a blast just getting into random fights, though there's a problem with those I'll get into soon with. One addition though, I found to be one of my favorites, were revelations. It's a no-brainer why I would love a concept like this, having to take photos for a blog in order to learn new moves, I'm a blogger, it's easy to put 2 in 2 together for that, and the character they bought along for it, Mack, was absolutely a blast, all of his dialogue and his emails all had a sense of fun to them, and I never got annoyed or anything like that when he wanted me to take a photo to have a revelation. A lot of this game also has a lot of fun additions in it too, such as combat, i know I mentioned this a few sentences ago but a lot of fights in this game had no problems, the controls felt smooth and never felt awkward to control. Though, a lot of this game can simply be marked up by pressing the square button a ton and then the triangle. With this all being said, there is one glaring problem, and that problem is the random encounters. They are, so, so, so, so, so, so, many of them. Every few steps there's a new one. It gets very annoying after a while though it's tolerable. The problem is that they span between both Okinawa and Kamurocho too, any crevice that exists, there's probably 3 fights waiting for you. Speaking of Okinawa, this is gonna be the most negative part of these reviews, but here goes nothing. Okinawa sucks. I hate it, it's not fun to walk through, there's nothing to do, and it's too bright and the colors are just straight up ugly. I'm happy there's a new city to explore, but the problem is that the city is not fun to be in, in any capacity. The only worthwhile thing in it is maybe the market? It's cool to see a full fleshed out market in a Yakuza game, I suppose. The mini-games though, those are highlights. Since I was playing the PlayStation 4 Remaster, a lot of the cut stuff got added back, such as a new mini-game that takes place at a massage parlor. It's not fun to control but it's funny so there's that. I also think the introduction of controlling a hostess club too was nice, though I still don't understand how any of it works. They also added a chase mechanic that is pretty pointless, not only do you have to chase your opponent without losing your health, every time you hit something, you lose a large chunk of health, almost every iteration of it in the stories are absolutely impossible on first twice. I will say about the game though is that it has a really rough start, to the point where I stopped playing for 0 though I reeled myself back in and I'm glad I did as the game is amazing, and a great addition to the series. That's all I really have to say about these games so I'll catch you guys next time with the 4th game and possibly a mini-review of the prologue film. 

I'm sorry for the long wait, but I'm glad I finally wrote this. At some point there's gonna be a non-Yakuza related post so be on the look out for that. I'm having a lot of fun with this series though, and I just started playing Yakuza 4 and I have absolutely nothing but positive things to say about it.