Majima everywhere glitched? :: Yakuza Kiwami General ...

There will also be FULL spoilers for Yakuza Kiwami in this character analysis, so beware if you haven't played that/1.
During your playthrough with Majima in chapter 3, you'll be tasked with scouting out Odyssey, a rival cabaret club. Majima goes into it not expecting any surprises. You look around, and Majima comments on many things in the club. Surely this information will be integral in beating Odyssey in the Cabaret competition. Then, Majima looks to the left of the club, and sees the sight of his life. A man in nothing but his underwear, in the back of the club, for all to see. Not to mention preforming a dance, which is integral to Majima's character, we'll see how later. Majima is reasonably thrown off guard, but there's nothing else to the first encounter of this beautiful man. Most players will assume this is just Yakuza doing it's thing; Surely this character won't come back.
But then, Yakuza 0 throws you for a loop. In chapter 4, Majima goes to a telephone club find more info about one Makoto Makimura. He's found someone who might share him info. Ready to go on the date, Majima is instead interrupted by, you guessed it, Mr. Libido. This "walking erection" has no shame, and assumes Majima to have come to the telephone club to slay his dragon. Majima naturally says that there's more to it then that. Mr. Libido (actual name Habu, who I'll be calling as such for the rest of the analysis.) doesn't really care, but thinks that he and Majima are in the same boat. He claims his libido is legendary, and he needs to take care of it multiple times per day. He asks if Majima has any recommendations for girls, and that they can trade info. Majima refuses, but Habu let's him know he'll be around if he changes his mind.
For some, this was the last time they ever encountered Habu, and just chalked him up as a weird character. Maybe he's an easter egg or something. But rest assured, this is far from his last appearance. If you go out of your way to view good ol softcore porn, you'll not only gain a wholesome friendship with the worker there, but also run into Habu once more. He's glad he was right about Majima; Just as much of a horny man as he is. Majima again denies his accusations, but it's clear he had ulterior motives. Habu is certain Majima's five knuckle shuffle is still to come. And gets so excited, that he... Presumably nuts right then and there. But the man is already raring to go not 10 seconds later. He goes to pursue other girls, and leaves Majima to himself.
It's important to state that you have to go out of your way to meet Habu. He ONLY shows up if you watch a variety of erotic videos. Ultimately 15 are required to view to finish the friendship arc. This is important because the more videos you watch, the more Majima let's loose, the more he let's go of the shackles holding him back. We'll continue through more of the questline before we talk more about the many hidden layers of this arc of Majima's.
We see this during the many info exchanges between the two lustful lads. The more that gets shared, the more we see a bond forming between Habu and Majima. He even openly admits that after all that he's going through, this place is relaxing. No doubt part of it is because of Habu, who proves to be one of the greatest friends Majima ever had. It also contributes to Majima's transformation. If Nishitani represents the crazy side of Majima, then Habu represents the side that let's loose, that ultimately doesn't care about what others think of him. We even see this with Habu's dance. This is the first thing you see him doing in Odyssey, and Majima inherited it for himself, as players can see during the Disiple of the New Order sidequest, as well as during points of the Majima Everywhere encounters. For all intents and purposes, Habu is as much of Majima in the future as Nishitani is.
But of course, not all substories can be sunshine and rainbows, as we see this friendship event take a dark turn. Majima encounters Habu, who reveals that he's been cutting back on clubs, and now he can't get "it" up. He insists that an energy drink he frequently has will solve everything. Though Majima worries that a drink of that magnitude could make things worse, and even kill him. But Habu has nothing left to lose. Majima gets him the drink, and of course, Habu is perfectly fine after that. He laments how he's seen just about every girl in Sotenbori , but Majima reminds him to just see his favourites. The quest ends on a lighter note, with Habu and Majima closer then ever.
And that's it. All in all, Habu is a wonderful character of deep intricacies, who is a perfect representation of what Majima will beco-
Oh, yeah. Kamurocho has a Mr. Libido too.
So Kiryu's just walking around one day, no doubt contemplating if it was a good idea to buy a sophisticated lad porn magazines, when he comes across a strange bald man, asking for telephone cards. The man has a unique power where if he sees a mere photo of a woman, he gets to see absolutely everything. He reveals his name to be Akimoto (not to be confused with domestic accident waiting to happen Akimoto from various substories throughout the series), and tells Kiryu to see him if he has anything to show. Until then, he'll be "wrecking the weasel". It's never clear whether Akimoto and Habu are related, though it's assumed that they are, sharing the balding hair, and the near endless stamina and love for all things women. Perhaps it's genetic. Wonder what their fathers like. Anyway, we see how much more subdued Akimoto is compared to Habu. Not to say that he's polite and respectful, but he certainly goes to much less extents then his brother from possibly the same mother (I mean, at least Akimoto wears clothes) Much like Kiryu is a naturally subdued person. Again, the libidos symbolize what are protagonists are, or will become. In that regard, they're wonderful.
Admittedly this substory is much more out of character for Kiryu. I don't really see our never killing friend picking up cards and showing them to Akimoto. Nevertheless, throughout the quest we see more of Akimoto's powers in action, which impresses Kiryu, and no doubt makes the player jealous. The next time we see him he reveals he even sees through the pixels that censor it. During his next encounter, he reveals he wants to stop looking at cards altogether, and let his mind do all the work.
This however, does not have a happy ending. Like Habu, Akimoto lost the ability to finish the job. He can get it up just fine, but he theorizes that his imagined girls are so much better then reality, that he can't have that sweet release. And whenever he so much as blinks, he sees them. I'd wager it's a sadder tale then Habu's, and I'm not scared to admit this scene had me in tears. Kiryu takes the time out of his life to find the girl of Akimoto's dreams. He goes to the Okama bar (the one place Akimoto probably hasn't gone to), and gets Akimoto to visit the Mama there.
Akimoto does so, and all is well in the world. Akimoto can finally be content with girls that aren't in his head. Like Habu, Akimoto develops a bond with the protagonist not unlike a bond of Kyodais. Akimoto is more then glad to have met Kiryu, and the two go their separate ways, though no doubt we'll see these two beautiful bastards in a sequel. All in all, the Mr Libido's are a masterclass of storytelling, and symbolize perfectly what these two characters become/already are. And that's everything. Sorry for the long post, and I hope you enjoyed me talking absolute nonsense for a long time.

WELCOME TO MY LONG ASS REVIEW OF THE YAKUZA SEIRES! This will include a shortened version of all of my thoughts and feelings towards all 8 (*note: this review will only cover the main series, so no dead souls, ishin or other spinoff's (tho I might play them in the future)) games and some of their inner aspects. So not reading all of it is completely understandable I just wanted to share them with someone but sadly none of my friends played it so i have nowhere else to do so
one them suggested posting it here and tbh i have nothing better to do so here they are
TLDR; 10/10 franchise I really like the characters, stories, music and gameplay.with that being said, HERE WE GO!
(*note: like I said these are MY opinions and MY lists, if you think otherwise, youre welcome to write it down in the comments I would love to hear your thoughts :))(*note: this review might contain spoilers, with that being said I will try to hide everything that I think might be considered a major spoiler and will put it between [ ] so if you see these be careful)(*note: this review might be a bit scattered and not understandable at times, that's because of 3 reasons: 1.english is my second language, although I like to think im at least conversational, spelling and sentence building aren’t my strong suits. 2. Like I said this is a review of all 8 games so I might scramble stuff in the middle or forget something completely. 3. I first wrote this on word and after transfering it here i noticed there are problems with the spacing and enters, so if you see a lack of space when there should be most likely there was supposed to be a shift+enter, i tried fixing it multiple times but appreantly having every enter where it should be makes it over 4000000 characters long.) So forgive me for those)(*note: if for some reason you would like to see my opinion on something that I didn’t include, you're welcome to ask me to write it :) I might not be able to answer everything but ill do my best to check the comments every so often for a while)
first of all I would like to say that my entry to the series is that a friend of mine bought me a copy of yakuza 0 for pc, little did he know, that would evolve into a crippling yakuza addiction (I bought a ps4 off another friend just to play 3-6). (*note: I know I said "none of my friends play it" that was a tiny lie, I have 1 friend who for 2 years now "is in process" to 100% yakuza 0, so I have no one to talk to about 7/8 games of the series) I came into the series thinking what I believe almost every player thinks before they start playing "oh it looks similar to gta/saints row but Japanese" but, say it with me now! "YAKUZA IS NOT JAPANESE GTA!" what I discovered is a beat'em-up, tear-jerking-story based adventure game, lucky me these are some of my favorite genres! I feel like yakuza has a very sad story not because its actually like sad sad but because kiryu is human, you see him go through life having to go through all kinds of crisis's and problems and its kinda feels like seeing a child grow? Idk, at least for me it sometimes does
now for my top 8 yakuza games (*note: the scores I give them out of 10 and their place on the top 8 might seem weird and "incorrect" because I give some games of lower place higher score then stuff of higher place. That's because when I decide their place on the top 8 I only consider how much I enjoyed it overall. when I give them a score out of 10 I try to give them what I think is a more objective score that includes everything of how fun it was, how much I liked the characters, the mechanics, the story, ect….)
(*note: if I don’t include a character in my reviews that doesn’t necessarily mean that I hate them, it just means that I generally don’t have too much to say about them. Overall I like basically all the main and side cast)
1.Yakuza kiwami 9/10
Lets start with the story,
Imma be real with ya chiefs, I have a pretty small smooth brain. That's why I like simple-semi complicated stories
And here we have a very basic story to follow, 10000000 yen missing, parent of this child missing, find them both. I love that simple, short and to the point but still interesting enough that I spent half my playthrough on the edge of my sit
This game also has the best side-quests of the entire series which are easily pocket circuit & majima everywhere
from the gameplay and mechanic side I also feel it’s the most fun and tight, nothing feels slow, every punch packs a punch and I actually really love (and prefer) the 4 fighting styles and was really sad to find out they were only in 0&kiwami. It has my favorite level up system (I will also include my top 7 level up systems later)
And now for some character reviews
Kiryu-CHAN!- he's by far my favorite character in the entire series, until now I only saw him as a brooding, badass, powerhouse that fucking breaks, shoots, and destroys (god forbid kills nothing like that here) but this was the first time I got to see that he actually has a soft side too and it’s the cutest fucking thing I've ever seen in my entire life. It was the first time I realized yakuza is one of those series that can make me sound like a kettle when I "aawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww" seeing his interactions with haruka, yumi, nishiki and others was almost heart melting. Speaking of which
Majima-I have what I think is a very controversial opinion, which is I don’t like majima in 0 (and I will get to that later). So I really didn’t expect much considering I came to this series blind. And OH BOY! Majima quickly became one of my favourite characters and its really sad for me that I believe they kinda toned him down in later games. [half of my playthrough was running around looking for him and doing all of his stuff, having to fight him as a cop, zombie, idol, hostes in all sorts of different situations was one of the best things about this game]
nishiki-*ahem*,Im gonna fucking cry.
Like I said I came from 0, seeing the journey he went through from #1 jobro (which he will forever be btw) to head of a family he has no idea what to do with, to madness, to evil mastermind was one of the saddest stories of this series. Every head of the nishikiyama family after him only brought shame to his name. [every scene that contained both him and kiryu in the same room made me want to cry. From the moment he declared they are not brothers anymore to the final scene when he shot the bomb]
Haruka-B A B Y
My first thought after seeing her was "ughhhhh fuck an annoying child character to take care of, that's not what a yakuza game should have" but what ended up being is that if anything happened to her I will ̶k̶i̶l̶l̶ hit everybody in this room very hard until all their bones break and leave them unconscious with no way of calling an ambulance or any kind of help and then do that to myself only to protect her.
She is precious, and if you for some twisted, evil, disgusting reason think otherwise you are wrong
[Yumi/mizuki- when Im writing this its been like a year since I played kiwami so I don’t remember every little detail about this character (not that there's too much to remember to begin with) if anything the twist at the end was pretty surprising and her backstory is kinda sad]
[rena/shinji-they both serve kind of the same role so I don’t have too much to say on them separately. Their death (by the hands of the most annoying boss in the series) is kinda sad and like anything else relating to nishiki in this game, rena's death speech about how she always really loved him and wanted to help him in any way possible made me want to cry]
2.yakuza4 7.8/10
This game could’ve easily been an 8.5/10 but there're some stuff that just annoy me a bit and makes me have to retract from its score, let me get into it
First of all,
Although at the start the story didn’t really make sense to me and I thought it was very confusing, now after I played everything and saw how stuff connected together, I realized how amazing it actually is
From akiyama's little relationship with lily
To kiryu helping a refugee
To a laid back cop who gets in to something bigger than himself
And finally back to the actual main character of this series
initially It was very annoying when I found out I only get to play as kiryu at the end of the game but I got over it
On the gameplay side
in the overworld everyone felt really slow to me,it didn’t feel like they were running (like their animation showed) it felt like they were always at the speed of a start of a jog but you kinda get used to it so its fine overall.In the combat side of thingsI really liked how akiyama, tanimura and kiryu controlled. Fast&strong which is why I really like the combat of this series to begin with (I also found it kinda funny that swords in this game are sometimes considered "blunt objects" for some reason so when you use a heat action with them you just smack an enemies head again and again with the blade)
I will use the fact I didn’t include saejima in the list of the gameplay I like as a perfecet Segway to my character reviews
Saejima-although his story really is interesting, kinda sad and heartwarming at times I grew to not like him just because his gameplay is sooooooooooooooooo slooooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
I don’t know why but I also felt that he was weaker than the rest of the characters? It kinda felt like when the rest of the crew took down 10 enemies in 1 second he took 1 enemy in 10 seconds
I get that hes supposed to be a tank and he has a lot of hp but usually tanks also do lots of damage to make up for their lack of speed
Here its just a "very healthy", slow and weak tank so its just annoying to play [if anything his sister is hot]
Akiyama- his gameplay is kinda like the "brawler" of the game, similar enough to kiryu's gameplay but different (because kicks) also his personality is cool, i would categorize it kinda like a happy go lucky guy but not really
His story is interesting about this mysterious girl named lily who apparently really looks like his ex and he has a picture from his past that shows her. Anyway she asks for 100000000 yen a̶n̶d̶ ̶b̶e̶c̶a̶u̶s̶e̶ ̶h̶e̶s̶ ̶a̶ ̶s̶i̶m̶p̶ and because he really wants to help her, he gives her a challenge.
Tanimura- the counter option was kinda cool ig. His character is cool enough and his story about wanting to find what happened to his father is kinda sweet
I don’t have too much to say about him because he's kinda forgettable in the sense that his story was kind of an open and shut case
He was definitely one of the playable characters of the series but that's honestly the most you can say about him
If anything its kinda sad they swapped him in yakuza 5 but understandable because his story is 100% finished and he has nothing to draw him back considering he isn’t really related in any way to the rest of the cast
Date-I like him but his character rarely changes. In the rest of the series it seems the story writers forgot he quit being a detective
[yasuko/lily-seeing her story unfold was kinda sad, all she wanted for the last 25 years was to see her brother again. At least she got to that 1 last time before she did the bullet walk thing this series lovesssss to do]
One last thing about this game that really annoyed me, the game ends with a happy ending, [saejima is proven innocent, kiryu seems to return to the tojo clan and they all live happily ever after]. When I saw it I thought "oh wow, I wander how they're gonna build upon this?" well, they didn’t, like at all.
This series has 1 annoying problem that the writers team usually completely forget how the previous game ended
3.yakuza3 7.4/10on the story side-
Kiryu only wants to keep his goddamn orphanage leave him alone ffs.BUT NOPE!It’s the yakuza series so every few years it’s always the same thing: something something TOJO something something MONEY something something BROTHER something something REVENGE, oh godly kiryu san mr.dragon of dojima please help me!
The gameplay in the remastered collection stays more or less the same throughout so I don’t really have anything to say here
The characters of this story are a weird bunch
The children of the orphanage- if anything happened to any of them I will ̶k̶i̶l̶l̶ hit everybody in this room very hard until all their bones break and leave them unconscious with no way of calling an ambulance or any kind of help and then do that to myself only to protect them.
rikiya- at the start of the game I thought he was just gonna be one of those bosses that you beat thrice throughout the game and never hear from them again afterwards, what ended up happening is that I discovered just a lovable, loyal, dork of a character [and when he got shot and kiryu started crying I was almost crying with him, definitely one of the saddest deaths in the series because it’s a very unexpected one]
4.yakuza 6 8/10
HOLY SHIT MY BABY HAD A BABY but who is the father? Let's go to Hiroshima to find out! [If only yuta put on a condom]
Jokes aside this is one of the most amazing stories the series ever told
I was originally dreading playing this game because I don’t really like the dragon engine that much (that might be because I played kiwami 2 right after 0&kiwami and was just kind of overwhelmed by it although the graphics of it are amazing, the gameplay feels a lot more wonky to me, I either feel very weak or too strong (usually weak) I got used to it but I actually prefer anything else in the series)
But man did the story really bump up its place in the top 8
Nagumo- im sorry but speaking by role-serving terms rikiya is just kinda the cooler Nagumo (or technically speaking Nagumo is the worse rikiya) he's just a hot headed simp who's the captain of the hirose family but also kind of sweet in a way
If anything he has one very memorable line "yesterday's enemy is today's aniki"
Yuta-[BOI LOOKS LIKE LIVE ACTION KOICHI FROM THE DIAMOND IS UNBREAKABLE MOVIE AND MY BABY STELLED FOR HIM?!
jokes aside I see why haruka chose him, one of the best character's in the series for sure
tho the twist where he's actually the father was kind of apparent from the start]
Kiyomi- she looks like sayama's mom. Like I was 200% sure it was her for like the entirety of the first chapter she was shown in
[Also the thing in the end about kiryu saying he considered daigo as a son is stupid and forced in as hell]
5.yakuza0 7/10
(*note: I think I got a little more to say about this game then the rest cause like I mentioned it was my entry to the series so this may be a little bit of a garbled mess)
So let's start by saying, hands down it has the best overall soundtrack (*note: I will get to my top 15 songs later) consistently very high quality while the rest of the games have like 1-3 outstanding songs in them this one has: the intro, judgement, the best version of baka mitai (*note: I only discovered that the meme originated in yakuza like half-way through its life span) (*note: I saw on here some time ago that one of the top posts is a screenshot of a tweet from kiryu's VA that says he's very pleased that people are singing his song and I find that very heart warming and wholesome), 24-cinderella and so, SO many more.
Now… from the story side of things…..
Im sorry to say this but I don’t really like majima's story in this game. Out of every other playable character in this series majima's story in this game felt the most like a filler to me. The first like 4 of his chapters could've easily been skipped with nothing of value to the overall story lost. Having to switch to him every 2 chapters was very annoying. Actually It annoyed me so much that in the middle of zero I kinda just dropped the game for like half a year+ because I just didn’t feel like playing as majima [it was after the cutscene where nishiki betrays kiryu but doesn’t want to shoot him]. Tho his relation-ship with makato is easily the saddest, most tragic thing to happen throughout the entire series. But like… idk I really preferred playing as kiryu 100% of the time
On the gameplay side of things tho
Definitely one of the better, like I said I really like the fighting styles so having 8 of them (well 6 technically since I basically didn’t touch the real estate nor the cabaret) was really fun
Brawlethug-very basic, close enough to the dragon fighting style if that's what youre looking for but very boring nonetheless
Rush/breaker-rush fucking sucks, on the other hand I find breaker to be very funny and I used it most of my time playing majima
beast/slugger-beast is easily the best fighting style in the game, it’s a tiny bit slow but it gives back by being a fucking powerhouse being able to lift giant object's and using them as very fast hard hitting weapons (*ahem* *ahem* thisiswhatsaejimashould'vebeen*ahem* ahem*) on the slugger side I only switched to it when I saw that I couldn’t just style on my enemy to win and had to actually "play the video game"
now for the character's
makoto- I A M G O I N G T O F U C K I N G C R Y
nishiki- [ kiwami spoilers>>R.I.P best jobro, once again im going to fucking cry everything in this game makes me want to cry], his relationship with kiryu is easily one of the best parts of this game, from the little comments he makes about kiryu's wardrobe to [him saying he's not interested in climbing up the ranks without kiryu] everything that makes him easily the best follower in the entire series.
majima- I didn’t know what was coming so I just assumed this was kind of his character.looking back at it im kinda disappointed they didn’t try to do something else with him and instead they just kinda made him a simp to the yakuza [also it was kinda stupid to me how they didn’t find a way to bridge him into the crackhead he is in the rest of the series (they totally could've btw) instead making him just choose to "live crazier than any of 'em" (but thinking about it again honestly I feel like making majima choose to be a crackhead just because he wants to kinda fits his character)]
kuze- *insert how many times do we have to teach you this lesson old man meme*
6.yakuza LAD 8/10"YOU BITCHES EVER HEARD OF PERSONA 5?"was probably the first line shouted by the director of the series in the first boardroom meetingthe story of this game follows ichiban kasuga trying to prove his loyalty and powerand goddamn smashing those goalsits kinda weird because I feel like I have nothing yet so much to say
Gameplay wisefor some reason they decided to change it to an rpg probably after the director played P5R for too long because like I indirectly said… almost everything here is persona 5,the ui, combat, life skills and so on and so forth. There are even social links for crying out loud.
this game might've been a 9/10 if only there wasnt 2 giant grind moments in the latter half of it
[specifically before the majima&saejima boss fight and kiryu boss fight]
Character review
Ichiban- I saw a meme somewhere that said ichiban is "cooler nishiki", HELL NAHthose 2 are completely different characters each with their own reasons to make me depressed. Defiantly in the top 3 protagonists of the series which goes like 1.kiryu 2.majima 3.ichiban [before i started the game i was 200% sure he was gonna die, luckly he didnt, yet]
Adachi- before I started this game and only saw the art I was 100% sure it was the guy who taught slugger to majima in 0 (the weapon maker from the noodle shop).he's not.Good follower tho
[Joon-gi han- imma be real with ya chief, I forgot he died. And until kiryu said it was a double I was sure it was the same dude, he's not, still cool tho]
[kume-LITTLE SHIT SHANKED MASATO AND DIPPED WHY DONT I GET TO BEAT THE SHIT OUT OF HIM AGAIN!?]
I feel like I should have more to say about the rest of the MC's, but I got nothing. I love all of them but I don’t have anything outstanding to say.
also this game has the top 3 best girls of the series which are: 1.seong-hui 2.sumire sawa 3.saeko mukoda don’t @ me
7.yakuza5 thekomakitigerdropisbrokenasallhell/10
Once again with 4 different character's, each with their own story that finally combines into one somehow
on the gameplay side
Like I said kiryu has the best moves in this game then the entire series
The counter allowed me to cheese out enemies I couldn’t really fight. And the komaki tiger drop allowed me to delete half a bosses health bar in one hit So usually a boss would last about 2-6 tiger drops
His story revolves around just being A NORMAL GODDAMN TAXI DRIVER LEAVE HIM ALONE FOR FUCK SAKES and going through a midlife crisis
Akiyama stays mostly the same
They did fix saejima a bit but still it was a drag to play him, not only that but the entire thing where he stayed in the small village for like a full chapter was very annoying and was clearly made just to drag out his story
HOLY SHIT MY BABY IS A PLAYABLE CHARACTER, when I originally saw haruka on the splash screen when you open the game she kinda has a fighting pose so I thought that she maybe learned a thing or two while watching kiryu
NOPE, I HOPE Y'ALL LIKE RYTHEM GAMES CAUSE THAT'S ALL SHE DOES!, personally im ok at them but not that good so I played only the stuff I had to do with her
[tho the twist at the end of her story about majima being park's ex husband, MAN I DIDN’T SEE THAT COMING]
And then there's shinada....
I honestly don’t know what to think about him.
He's an ok character overall but his story seems so unrelated it kinda seems to me like they just shoved him in there because they had some problem with having only 3 character that can fight. His gameplay is fine enough but sometimes it kinda felt weaker then it should be? Idk. His normal punch and grab combo is mediocre+ - ok- nothing more than that. His staff doh allowed me to cheese enemies and getting them into an infinite loop of being knocked down again and again
Another thing I can say about this game is that the character models eyes always look on the verge of tears and it seems very funny to me that at any given moment most of the cast looks like its about to cry cause im sitting here ready to do the same
8.yakuza kiwami 2 6.9/10
Man what a disappointment.
I came to this thinking its gonna be as good as 0/kiwami and my hopes were crushed
Like I said I don’t like the dragon engine that much so moving to it after the engine of the 2 previous games felt really weird
The story of this game although very heart warming at the moment youre playing it, is quickly forgotten about and basically un-canonized in the rest of the series [at the start of yakuza 3 sayama departs to America and never returns, in yakuza 6 it is mentioned that yumi is the only woman kiryu ever loved and that he never killed anyone (although ryuji goda died by his hands)]
Don’t get me wrong its still a very good game just not as good as the rest of the yakuzas
Now for the characters
Sayama- although story wise it seemed very sudden that they started dating, it was apparent from the start that something is gonna happen between them. Once again it was a sign that yakuza is one of those series that can make me sound like a kettle when I "aawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww"
Ryuji- one of if not the best villain of this series. That's because he's not actually evil but he knows there can only be one dragon so hes gonna fight for it. He actually has honor and some sense of justice. [the ending tho where sayama is crying because she finally discovered she has a brother but now he and her lover need to fight is very depressing, good thing it was all forgotten amirite? (pleasekillme)]
Now for my top 7 level up system's because this series cant ever just stick to 1
1.yakuza kiwami
It’s the only one I managed to fully complete so I might be a bit biased, but I feel like the exp/level system that is different for each fighting style is perfect. Unlike in the rest of the series where there's only the dragon fighting style that separates into body, soul, heat and tech.
2.yakuza 3
it’s very simple and doesn’t really lock out any abilities that you really need
3.yakuza 4
it locks some stuff out on the start but you can get them pretty easily
4.yakuza 5
Kinda just a worse version of 4
5.yakuza LAD
I actually like the fact every battle upgrades everything at once and I don’t really have to think about if something is better than anotherthan again you can make the case that it removes any sense of choice from the game (at least speaking in level up terms)
6.yakuza 0
Although you get like 500000 yen per basic group of enemies, I still feel that money and levels shouldn’t corelate, especially when I need hundreds of millions for some of the side-quests (*ahem* *ahem* pocket circuit *ahem* *ahem*) also, tho it makes sense canonically, I feel like the trainer system of this game specifically is kinda stupid and annoying, never really bothered with it doh considering how much beast is a powerhouse even when its only upgraded with the stuff you don’t need to unlock
7.yakuza 6 & kiwami 2
Its too separated, having all those different exp points is stupid, I always had like 2 sections that were lagging behind the rest.
I would like now to give a quick shout-out to the top 4 side-quest's in the series1.pocket circuit 10/10
I got too addicted to it both in 0 & kiwami, 95% of all my early game money was either spent/saved for pocket circuit
#pocket_circut_fighter_forever
[when I saw kiryu reminiscing on being kamurcho's fastest in kiwami's baka mitai I fucking died laughing]
2.majima everywhere 10/10
Basically doubled my playthrough's length because I always wondered what kinda whacky ass shit majima is gonna pull next. He's the best character in that game 100%
3.taxi racing 10/10
I did it all in the same game day so I like to think that in 1 night kiryu beat all the devil killers.
Shock that it reminds me of intial-d, who would've thought right? Jokes aside the car controls in this game are really fun
4.dragon kart 10/10
I would like to believe someone ran in the idea room and was like "GUYS, SO UNTIL NOW WE PLAYED PERSONA 5 100% OF THE TIME, GET THIS, WHAT IF, MARIO KART?!"and then everyone clapped
Now…
There's 1 aspect that I pretty much barely mentioned in this review and you might even be asking yourself where is it?
So without further ado
My top 15 songs from the yakuza series
Why 15? Cause that's how many songs I personally find to be fucking bops and the number of songs that I put in my playlist
(*note: don’t take it too much as if its in numerical order, I kinda tried to do it as such but that's kind of a lot of songs (the longest section in my playlist at least) and I really love all of them so it was hard to choose. Maybe try to look at it more of as a list then a top 15)
1.get over it-yakuza kiwami
It’s the only REALLY good song in this game (*note: not the only good one, the only REALLY good one)
Man that fucking guitar section in the middle, you know the one im talking about.I apologize for bringing jojo into this but I feel like if kiryu was a jojo this would easily be his theme (and that guitar section is like giorno piano)
2.destiny-yakuza 6
V I O L I Ncoming in in a VERY close second is destiny from yakuza 6I originally thought someya to be one of those bosses you just beat like 3-4 times throughout the events of the game then never hear from again and just remember him as that one asshole from that yakuza game. But MAN then this theme hits in his final fightand O O F[and right after the fight when he begs you to kill him to save kioymi, I have yet to actually cry during the events of this series but its really trying to make me do it and im 100% sure eventually I will]
3.machinegun kiss-yakuza4&5
I have a story with this song that the first couple of times that I listened to it I thought it was very mediocre, then one day I just got a vibe to listen to it 1 more time, at which point it got stuck in my head for about 3 weeks-month and it shoved its way up here.
4.judgement-yakuza 0
In case you haven’t noticed I really like buttrock
[I read a comment somewhere that said kiryu can no longer sing this after 0 because its not the same without nishiki, excuse me when I UGhhhHhHhHhhhhhhhHHhhhHHhhhHHhhHhhhhHhhhh]
5.clay doll on the cradle-yakuza 3
It has a pretty weak start but becomes really good really fast
6.comin'at ya, my girl-yakuza 5
As much as I don’t really like haruka's gameplay in 5, this is the best song in the game, sue me

1. 24-hour cinderella-yakuza 0

Started listening to it because it’s a funny meme song
It got stuck in my head for 2 weeks
8.tears of a father-yakuza 3
When the credits hit after THAT cutscene and this song starts to play, "the father" is almost not the only one to shed tears
I only found out its called "tears of a father" while I looked it up after, and that was the point my heart had to get replaced because the previous one died
9.baka mitai-yakuza 0/kiwami/5
Do I really need to explain?
10.speed star-yakuza 4
A really pumped up default fight theme
11.intro-yakuza 0
I have a meme with some of my friends about the first 4 notes you have to hear before being able to skip it
(*TA NA, NA! WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA*)
12.infinite handcuffs-yakuza 4
Another pumped up normal battle theme
13.today is a diamond-yakuza 6
*insert funny kiryu thumbs up*this song seems so happy and upbeat until you realize that according to it the singer is singing it to his lover that is in a coma[kinda fitting doh]
14.Friday night-yakuza 0
Once again, started because of a meme, continued because it’s a bop
15.[majima construction anthem]-yakuza kiwami 2
All rise for our national anthem.
One of the best things to come out of this game.
Surprisingly enough there weren't any outstanding songs in lad
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AND THAT'S IT!
As a little conclusion, I would like to say I would've never imagined I would be as much in to this series as I am now, definitely one of the best game series's of all time and im really sad its not popular as it should be
Overall 10/10 series
So many good memories were formed and I can 100% see myself replaying it in the future
If you actually read all of it,
Holy shit thank you I wouldn’t be able to do that myself :)
And even if you just schemed through it and only looked at specific sections,
Thank you as well
Like I said if you wanna ask me about something I didn’t already write or wanna give your own opinion on one of my opinions youre 200% welcome to do so in the comments, ill try to answer most of the stuff i see
Well, I have nothing to add, see ya!

Hello. Yakuza is a serie I never cared much until recently, knowing the game, but never tried. Seing the cover of Like a Dragon, I was interested and almost everything was on sale, so I took Yakuza 0, played a bit, enjoyed, and bought everything, except like a dragon (it can wait). Of course there will be spoilers.
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Well, each time I finish a game, I feel a bit exausthed and I'm like "I should take a break, play something else a bit" but I kept coming back to an other game. Persona 5 Strikers should at least make me stop. I know those games are not for binge playing, but hey, i'm enjoying them.
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I started with 0, which was fairly good. The beggining felt wayyyy too slow though, Kiryu looks a bit bland but the way Majima was introduced is great, fighting with him is fun thanks to the Slugger mode and the Breakdance. Fighting with Kiryu was less fun. I liked the progression system and the two main activities, though I didn't complete them. Thing is I never really completed any side activities, I find it a bit too tedious. The story itself is fine, and I feel Majima carries it. On the other hand, Kiryu struggling with the Dojima Clan is a bit weird and it's like they kept poking him to annoy him. I really liked the scene with Nishikiyama when he almost killed him. That really built something, that made sense in Kiwami
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After that, I went fast to Kiwami 1 and that was ok. The fighting was not really fun though, I hated the dragon mode. The story stays simple and the ending is a good climax. The end is strong and powerfull. Hakura is cute. But what I loved the most was the Majima everywhere concept. That was hilarious and made the fights interresting.
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Kiwami 2 was more enjoyable story wise and gameplay wise, less Majima is a bit sad, but I quite liked Ryuji as an antagonist. The relations with the Korean mafia, and that they are all related is a bit too much but hey, that's a game. The only problem I had with the story was the Castle coming out of the ground, the ninjas, fighting two tigers. I want to believe it was an hallucination. That's also when I liked Ryuji, not wanting a kid involved in that. Sayama is cute too and I wonder if I'll see her again. The cliffanger ending was stupid but luckily they explain it in the post credits so I won't complain about.
I also found the plot of bit complicated overall, with Terada.
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Then I played Yakuza 3 ... and I liked it a lot. The beggining is slow, but I really enjoyed Okinawa. Made me feel like in Persona 4 with Inaba, smaller place. The orphenage is cute and kids are interesting. Rikiya was a bit boring, screaming ANIKI all the time. But he did shine at the end, and served some purpose.
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Not enough Majima to my liking, and seeing Daigo grown up is nice. The gameplay was straightforward but enjoyable. Story is nothing to really talk about but not that bad. The last chapter felt long. I really liked the chart to see who was who, their relations, and seeing Sayama "refused advances from an handsome cop" made me happy, until that she went to dinner!
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So yeah, I'm enjoying the serie, but what I really like is the characters who keep poping up and you feel you have known them for long, especially Hakura, Date and Majima. I hope to see more of them, and i'll play Yakuza 4 soon.

This will be a bit long, but I want to be thorough.I don't know if this has ever happened to anyone before. I played through the campaign on hard and managed to do very well up until Chapter 8. I had forgotten about Majima up until this point because I forgot he was hiding under a cone, so I didnt even have the Komaki moves yet as you need to unlock some of Majima's moves before Komaki allows you to train more (He will say he is preparing until you do). You can imagine how frustrating the fight was. I thus reverted my save to the beginning of the chapter to grind through both Komaki's and Majima's moves to what I could. I Tiger Dropped those breakdancing a**holes and continued building the Dragon Style as much as it was possible. I quickly got to SSS rank with Majima then got to the Finale and Tiger Dropped my way through Jingu. By this point, the only Majima line in the Dragon Style I was missing was the Officer Majima one (Essence of Mad Dog: Chokehold). I finished the game and began a Premium Adventure run, but I have yet to receive an email or encounter Officer Majima anywhere.
Now, here is what I know about Officer Majima:
His apparent first encounter occurs when you level up to Rank F and you get a call from Nishida, which is evident from the green waypoint like other Rank upgrade events. From here on out, the encounters with any type of Majima are randomized. However, how could I be allowed to level up to Rank SSS without having triggered the event to upgrade rank F? Did I break the game? Also, Majima begins to hide in Rank E, so this means I must have already passed the point of upgrading my skills. I have also looked for information here, here, and here, but albeit having roamed for days on end around Kamurocho I have not found him. I think I need to trigger the first meeting or else Officer Majima wont randomly appear, as in the videos I've seen Majima mentions "Time for ANOTHER random inspection" which implies these random encounters do occur after the first encounter that acts like an apparent trigger.
What can I do to unlock this last ability? I am really far into my save file trying to get 100% and I dont want to start over from scratch simply because of this apparent bug. Thanks a lot to anyone that can help me figure this out. I am on PS4 on the digital version btw.
TLDR: Finished the game, have Majima on SSS rank, never met Officer Majima so cannot complete Dragon Style. Need help to figure out why he won't show.
Edit: I have also had my weapon inventory almost full during my entire game.

Hello! It's me! Sora. Today I would want to request Yakuza Kiwami! The sequel to Yakuza 0, it's a game I would want to get my hands on; considering I tried getting it on a giveaway, but instead, I decided to request the game, although I originally planned to get the full bundle with Yakuza 0, but instead, why not get the game from that bundle? But I'll have to be mindful about it, let's get this started, shall we?
If you don't know Yakuza Kiwami, let me give an explanation for ya, okay?
Yakuza Kiwami is an open-world, action game developed by SEGA in 2016 in Japan then later in 2017 for North America and Europe, This is rather than a new installment for Kiryu's chapter, but It is a complete remake of the Original Yakuza for the PS2, The plot itself remains the same, except they added new story elements such as Nishikiyama's soon to be corrupted journey during Kiryu's jail-time as well as Kiryu and Majima's constant fights, thanks to the Majima Everywhere feature. The fighting system has been improved after Yakuza 0, as I said about Majima Everywhere, it's kinda like Mr. Shakedown's system in Yakuza 0, but, unlike that system, Majima Everywhere not only increase the player's rank experience of the system, It also unlocks each and every Dragon of Dojima moves for Kiryu's Dragon Style.
You get to play as Kiryu Kazuma, who is now known as "Dragon of Dojima" soon takes the blame for Dojima's death, as a result, he was sent to prison for 10 years... TEN YEARS. After being a free man, he soon discovers his good childhood friend Akira Nishikiyama became a powerful corrupted Yakuza boss, Kiryu's childhood friend, Yumi went missing, the 3rd chairman Sera's death and now the ten billion yen has been stolen, with the help of Haruka, Yumi's daughter, Kazuki, and Yuya, the founders of Stardust and Makoto Date, a detective whom Kiryu met in 1988 and saved his ass from a horde of Tojo Clan members. Together, they unravel the secrets behind what truly happened and find the true villain behind everything.
Meanwhile, as you finish up the chapters, you will soon get cutscenes of Akira Nishikiyama, explaining what happened to him ever since Kiryu's prison time, each chapter shows more and more lore of how Nishiki went from becoming Kiryu's Judgement Singer, ahem I mean GOOD FRIEND! to the greatest enemy he has to face 10 years from now.
As for Majima now, we get to see him also in 1988, before Kiryu's prison time, describing him as sadistic and brutal, because he's the Mad Dog of Kamurocho, or we like to call.. The Mad Dog of Shimano! The moment Kiryu comes back to Kamurocho, Majima took notice of Kiryu's now rusty but shitty style has emerged, no longer has the greatest fighting style he had from Yakuza 0. Thanks to that, Majima will have to keep an eye out for him, thus Majima Everywhere feature became real, you get to fight him through random battles, once you get to a certain point, before leveling up the gauge of the system, you get to fight a couple of disguises from Majima except one.
The reason why I wanted to get the game entirely is that, while almost done with Kiwami 2, to say the least, I really wanted to try the first Kiwami, even though I already have gotten a brief explanation at the beginning, but nevertheless, I really wanted to try the game for myself and see what's now different from Kiwami 2.
If you were reading till the end, good job. Now about the whole bundle thing, I'm willing to let you guys decide if you want to buy the whole bundle or just buy the game I've requested. (Because I got advice from various users from my discussion page, including u/bruzk2**, I hope this should be it..)**
So if you can gift the game or not, it's all fine. I'll keep waiting patiently, no worries. And besides, you gifters decide to get the whole bundle or just the game only as I said before.
Here's my Steam ID:
https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198803043306/
Here's the link to the bundle with the game there:
https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/13660/The_Yakuza_Bundle/
Anyway, I hope you took time in reading this, and have yourselves a Merry Christmas in a few days.
And just so you know, no matter where he fights, Kiryu NEVER EVER KILLS ANYONE! Alright?
Thank you for reading.

A long time ago Yakuza kiwami came to PlayStation plus, but i just started playing last month, the point is, i dont find majima for majima everywhere, i am at chapter 11, i didn't did the mesuking kid quest, and the last time i saw majima he was with the officer costume, can somebody help me?

I'm on Chapter seven of Yakuza Kiwami at the moment, and I've gotten Majima Everywhere to rank C. I got a message around Chapter five that I can't do anymore until I progress the story, but right after I got a text from Nishida about "Looking For The Boss" and now Majima won't leave the park.
Is it broken or do I just need to keep progressing until he activates again?

I started Yakuza Kiwami and I am at the start of chapter 11.
I LOVE this game, and I love fighting Majima(I am rank ss, and completed Komaki training), I'd like to buy Yakuza 0, Kiwami 2 and 6.
Do I need to grind also in these games like the Majima Everywhere system? You know, I like Majima Everywhere just because there is Majima, otherwise I would hate it so much xD

The reason for this post is to vent, so that I don't throw my controller at my fucking TV.
I recently joined the Yakuza gang and put about 57 hours into Yakuza 0. Loved it. Story, combat, side content, characters, all awesome. And then I decided to continue the story. Yakuza Kiwami is a good game. The combat is just as good as 0's with a upgrading system that I actually prefer. Majima everywhere is awesome, and the story, even though it does get off track, is very good. The side content was a huge let down though. The minigames weren't as exciting and the substories all seemed like fetch quests. Anyway, that said, good game. But wait. There's more.
Jingu. Fucking Jingu. I reached the climax of the story and am forced to fight some nobody that I'm supposed to care about with a big ass mole on his forehead. That battle was absolutely poo poo, especially since I'm playing on hard and only had two weapons to use. This was because I hadn't needed weapons at all throughout the story (it was fairly easy throughout), and had to face him like 20 times before I could beat him.
Now on to Nishiki. How tf am i supposed to beat him when I used all of my staminan royales on jing!?!? It doesn't help that I can't use the dragon style heat move to keep him from regaining health. I finally gave up on him and chose "exit game" when I died. Now I'm at the start of the chapter. Why Yakuza Kiwami. Why. I guess at least now I can go and get a bunch of weapons to fight Jingu's punk-ass with. But I don't even feel like going through all that shit again bro...
I need some encouragement boys. And girls. Yakuza Kiwami is busting my balls big time. I already purchased Kiwami 2 because of the sale on PS4, so I really hope that I can beat Kiwami. Is Kiwami 2 better than 1. Please say yes. Yakuza 0 was a masterpiece in everyway. Kiwami was pretty good for the most part until the shit show of an ending. I love these characters too much to quit, but I can't see myself pushing through this lame ass chapter again. Help me out guys

Just wanna state a few things upfront. There will be mild gameplay spoilers for Yakuza Kiwami, as well as Yakuza 0. Nothing beyond Chapter 6. No story spoilers here, so don't worry about that. And that I'll be prioritizing gameplay for this. I might do this for the story too, if I feel like doing it. And that I'm going to talk about Yakuza 0 a lot in this, considering I was going into Kiwami with 0 as a comparison of sorts. This is gonna be a long post. If you don't want a detailed summery, here's the short of it.
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TL;DR: The game more then succeeds as a remake of Yakuza 1, but I personally think it fails as a sequel to Yakuza 0. With that being said, the core gameplay improves on 0's, though with some issues and annoyances that seems to only serve to give the player busywork. I highly recommend it if you enjoyed 0, but don't expect a game of higher quality then it.
With that being said, let's begin.
There's 3 ways to review this game.
Number 1: A standalone experience.
Number 2: A remake of Yakuza 1.
Number 3: A sequel to Yakuza 0 (how I think most people experienced this game).
We'll get to the negatives of the game first. I'll say right now that if you're expecting number 3, you'll most likely be disappointed. I know I was, anyway. Kamurocho in general has less stuff to do in Kiwami then in 0. Not by much, but enough to be noticeable. there's 78 substories, compared to 0's 100. Not to say that 78 is a small number, it's really not. But, you need to remember that this is a remake of Yakuza 1. Side quests included. These substories get extremely similar. There are some genuine greats here, don't get me wrong. But facts are facts. Nearly a quarter of these are some variation of Kiryu walking into some sort of scam. possibly the biggest complaint I have with Kiwami is that there's ultimately NO new content. Majima Everywhere is a fantastic mechanic, and a wonderful alternative to Mr. Shakedown... But it's still an alternative to Mr. Shakedown. While the baseball and cabaret dating game have been tweaked, it's still just that, a tweak. Mesuking is just a reskin of catfighting. You get the point. There is the photo booth in the arcade, but that's genuinely it. The content itself is great, but the fact that there's essentially nothing new about Kiwami may cause some problems for players. Not to mention that certain minigames (like disco and arcade games) have been removed. It makes sense thematically, sure. But at least add an alternative, add a new game.
Combat also has some issues. Most of these being carryovers from 0, but they're still valid. The main issue for me is that hitboxes are still off for some attacks. We've all had these moments playing these games. You plainly hit a guy, but the game doesn't register it. Or an enemy clearly misses you, but he still hits you for what's seemingly meters away. This doesn't happen often in the main story, but the coliseum is especially sinful of these moments. Speaking of the coliseum, I found it to be poorly designed. This is mostly due to the tournaments that require weapons, which legitimately are miles worse then your base moveset. Even without considering those tournaments, it always felt like I had to rely on luck to not get certain fighters (looking at you, Charon M). The most boring addition to combat is probably the Kiwami heat action. Fantastic concept on paper. Stop the boss from healing by doing a super heat move. But there's a couple problems. There's only one animation for each Kiwami heat move style. Nitpicky? Probably, but it get's boring looking at the same one. More importantly, is how much you'll be using it. Most bosses heal twice, maybe even 3 times per fight. So the amount of times you'll be using these heat moves is actually kinda hilarious. Majima Everywhere? nah, mate. Kiwami Everywhere. Certainly feels like it, anyway. Another issue I have with combat is unlocking the Dragon Style moves takes such a long time, that by the time it's genuinely viable to use, you'll only have about a quarter of the game left. Once you get the right moves, it's a blast to use, but it's little more then a waste of a style until then.
I won't go into the story much in this, but I feel like I should state some things about it while we're still in the "bad" section. Don't go into this thinking it's a sequel to 0. It's more a standalone story, with characters from 0 taking the center stage. Does that make sense? Probably not, but that's how I saw it. The general opinion is that 0 has the superior story between the two games, and I'll agree here. Even the developers probably think so, as they added new scenes, which significantly fleshes out the main antagonist more. And hey, props to them. This isn't inherently a jab against Kiwami, more a testament to how good 0's story was. I've also heard that some small things about backgrounds and scenery in the story and world was cut from Kiwami. I don't know why the developers decided to cut it, but I'm quick to forgive that. The scenes they added to the main story make losing the small details worth it. Speaking of, we're about done with the bad section of this review. Now for the portion I'm more excited about, the good of Yakuza Kiwami. We'll be here awhile.
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As a remake of Yakuza 1, Kiwami is genuinely fantastic. Looks amazing, and recaptures every cutscene from the original perfectly as far as I'm concerned. Combat is naturally improved, aside from complaints I've already listed. And new side quests are added, which were all treats. With very few exceptions, I'd go so far as to consider this one of the best remakes of the last decade.
While I did critique the substories of Kiwami, and I still stand by the fact that many of them kinda suck, something happened that genuinely caught me off guard with them. Some are genuinely fantastic. I won't go too in depth with them so that you can be surprised seeing them for yourself, but I'll just say this. For all the rightful credit people give 0's substories, they're pretty low budget. Reusing animations, little to no voice lines, etc. Kiwami genuinely surprised me by having fully voiced substories, substories with pre-rendered cutscenes, and all of these substories are genuinely improved because of this added touch. On one hand, I find it strange that only a select few substories have this treatment. But on the other, what's here is great, and in some cases surpasses the substories of 0. And this goes for Kamurocho, too. Nothings inherently changed about the city, but lighting and new areas make it a genuine joy to explore again. And though there's practically no new content, the content here is still great.
And now, combat. Not much to talk about here, it's an enhanced version of 0's combat, and they did a good job with that. Rush in general has been buffed, and is actually really fun to use now. I almost never used this in 0, as I found that it wasn't fast enough to compensate for it's low damage. Not to mention that I prefer playing the "tank" role in games anyway. Kiwami fixes my main complaint of Rush. It's easily twice as fast as Brawler, and evading is so fun using this style. Conversely, I feel like Beast got nerfed. It's still fantastic, but I found it to be less valuable then it was in 0. Might be just me, though. The experience points system is LEAGUES better then the money system. You don't need to grind in order to get half of the upgrades, which is always welcome in any game. For as much as I love 0, getting those last upgrades is essentially just farming the business side mode for a long period, which isn't all that fun. The last thing I'll say about the combat; Majima Everywhere is a top contender when considering the best features in a videogame from a entertainment perspective. That's all I'll say about it, for the same reason as the substories. Experience it yourself.
And again, while I won't go in depth on the story, I will restate that Kiwami's added scenes are so effective at making the main villain more human, and turns what was otherwise a forgettable arc in the original game, into a wonderful tragedy regarding how the villain came to be, especially with context in mind. And the story itself is fantastic. Worse then 0? probably, yes. But still fantastic. That's a great way to describe this game in general, honestly. If you (for some reason) did not like Yakuza 0, the chances of you enjoying Kiwami are astronomically low. If you loved 0 (like me), you'll have a fantastic time with most of Kiwami.
I highly recommend Kiwami. It's funny, is more then competent as a beat-em-up, and has a story that'll most likely grab you by the first hour. I know it did for me. While it certainly has it's flaws, I think the pros all in all outweigh them. the asking price for the game is also incredibly cheap for what you get in return. Hope you enjoyed reading, and hey, if this helped someone with their decision with the game, that's all the better.

Like a lot of people some months ago , I discover the great song which is Baka Mitai and I can't stop appreciate how it sounds in my hears.
Just because of that , I begin to get interested by Yakuza and start the first Yakuza game on Playstation 2 but it was a bit old for me due to the graphic's look and the combat system, so after some chapter I begin Yakuza Kiwami and it was a gigant punch in my head.
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The original game have a great story and great characters but Kiwami is really awesome with his Majima Everywhere, amazing fights and good substories that put a smile on my face at every time, I really love this game.
I want to thanks the guy who begin the Baka Mitai meme for turning me into a big fan of this game serie, I will look for the others game right after finishing Yakuza Kiwami

I've just got the 1000g in Yakuza Kiwami on X Box One X, after completing my legendary difficulty playthrough and finally finishing the game.
It was fun, for me the highlights were the battle through the apartment building in chapter 11, the funeral level, the fight on and next to the ship in chapter 12, and overall the story; one of the best story's I've ever played through in a game.
Things I didn't love so much would be Majima continuing to pop out everywhere even after I've maxed out my Majima everywhere rank; the frequency of random encounters; the cheapness of the AI during some battles and mini games; mahjong; the Otometal karaoke song and the car chase on legendary. Everything else was a blast, so much fun.
The world was dense, colourful and alive, the story was dramatic, emotional, logical and gripping. The Substory's were goofy, fun and a nice change of pace to the heaviness of the main story's plot.
The combat was fast, exciting and varied, Dragon style had to be my number one choice, it felt awesome mastering Tiger Drop to wreck opponents.
The achievements were fun to pursue, and although some were tough the majority of them felt achievable with enough effort; although asking me to get 250 on the Otometal karaoke song was unfair. It honestly felt like a complete brick wall to my progress, and although I did it I still feel like they should have only asked for 200.
Asking for 250 felt a little spiteful to the player, ultimately I don't suppose it matters since it wasn't enough to stop me beating the game and getting every achievement.
Overall I had a blast playing this game, good times. I can't wait to start the next one. Got the platinum for Zero, 1000g for Kiwami, and beat Yakuza 3 back on PS3. Next up is Kiwami 2, I can't wait. I love this series.
Though not quite yet, I think I'm going to need a few weeks away from Majima; not sure I'm ready to let him back into my life yet. I need a break lol.
Thanks Sega.
Happy gaming guys.

So my plan here is to go through game by game and just kind of give my general thoughts and opinions, anything more in depth y’all want to talk about I’m more that happy to continue in the comments. Needless to say, here be spoilers.
YAKUZA 0: where it all began, the prequel game taking place during the 1980’s bubble economy. Yakuza wasn’t even remotely on my radar before this, and I don’t honestly remember how it ended up in my steam library but I’m glad it did because it kicked off a grand 5 month adventure. Y0 might be my favorite in the entire series though I may be biased since it was 1sr, even though it’s nothing short of a masterpiece. I LOVED swapping between two characters, getting two different parts of a story and trying to figure out how they went together, a concept they mastered after tuning it through Y4 & Y5 (but more on that later). They really went all out making our protagonists feel different, from Kiryus lumbering heavy hitter ox stance to Majima’s manic and all over the place breaker style. The side activities were some of the best with real estate, club management, and slot car racing. I also really liked how over the top 80’s it was, in addition to the silly amounts of cash flying out of enemies with every hit. I’m eternally grateful I got into this series late and was able to play Y0 before Y1, because there are so many characters and story arcs I wouldn’t have cared about nearly as much if I hadn’t. Even characters with minimal screen time like Sera and Dojima felt so deep in YK1 because they had all that time in the prequel
Yakuza Kiwami: I have mixed feelings on YK, it was a real solid game on its own but Y0 was such a hard act to follow that it left me feeling a little unsatisfied. That’s not 100% a bad thing either, I have a feeling the game wanted you to feel that way to better empathize with its protagonist. You get out of Jail 17 years after the end of Y0 and everything is different, the world you cut your teeth in no longer exists. You wander around a different Kamurocho that’s feels colder, gone are the lighthearted side stories where you befriend quirky individuals, replaced (early game) with countless strangers trying to scam you any way they can. The woman you loved has vanished, the best friend you took on the world with turned on you, and your “family” is ripping itself apart, one faction out for your head. A couple things really annoyed me mechanically, like every boss recovering large amounts of health unless you happened to have enough heat and the correct ability unlocked to stop them. I also really disliked Majima Everywhere being linked to the dragon fighting style, I either accidentally soft locked something or my game bugged because no matter how many steps I replicated from game guides I couldn’t get Majima to appear anywhere from chapters 4-11, leaving that tree empty and useless. Outside of that it felt fairly similar to 0, albeit with a darker tone that never got better. The game started with Kiryu losing his freedom and by the end everyone who ever got close to him ended up dead.
Yakuza Kiwami 2: Literally the only complaint I have about this game is that they got rid of the multiple fighting styles that I loved so much in the first two games, but that was relatively minor because the way skills worked let you tweak they way Kiryu worked to suit your play style. I was blown away as soon as I started it up, the graphical quality and new first person camera made Kamurocho feel like a living breathing city that I wanted to get lost in. It was nice to get back to Sotenbori as well, seeing how Majimas old stomping grounds had changed since the late 80’s as well as the return of Cabaret club management, my favorite side game. Ryuji Goda is my absolute favorite villain from the series, and one I partially felt bad about defeating. He had a charisma and sense of honor that was infectious, having several opportunities to take out Kiryu but not taking them because it wouldn’t have been earned, even going as far as killing one of his lieutenants for kidnapping Haruka. This entry brought back the over the top silly side stories I really loved in Y0 as well, except for the Cursed Tape side story that scared the crap out of me haha. At the games core it was a real great story about identity and how your bloodline doesn’t define you. On the technical side playing Y6 made me appreciate how polished they got the Dragon Engine for YK2 after debuting it with the finale of the Kiryu saga. I could go on about this hand forever, and might in the comments, but we still have four more games to cover.
Yakuza 3: I feel really bad for Yakuza 3, I don’t think it was a terrible game but I didn’t much care for it. YK2 was a series high point so it’s a hard game to follow already, and Yakuza 3 didn’t exactly age well even with the PS4 HD version. The combat was sluggish and dull, with Kiryu moving like a tank, and the leveling up system was overwhelmingly bare and left little room for customization. Let’s talk plot, I don’t like how casually Sayama left for America, just leaving Kiryu after weeks early she was willing to die with him atop the unfinished Kamurocho hills as a bomb counted down. I didn’t actually mind the opening couple chapters like most people seem to, I appreciated how raising the orphans deepened Kiryus character while defining just what kind of man he is. I liked working with the smaller Yakuza family in Okinawa, Rikya being one of my favorite characters in the series. What I DIDN’T like was the goofy story, with previously unmentioned twin brothers and CIA agents...it just felt real dumb. One last thing I HATED (that lasted the next two games as well) was the claustrophobic inventory system, where you only had a few spots that were shared between weapons, armor, and recovery items. Unfortunately I can’t say too much about this one, I kind of rushed through it because it just felt like such a chore after YK2, one day I hope to go back to it and give it another chance on its own.
Yakuza 4: This game felt like a soft reboot of the series that I really appreciated after the plot of Y3 went so off the rails. Taking the focus off Kiryu the game opens up with Shun Akiyama, the loan shark with a heart of gold and legs of steel. I instantly fell in love with this character, both his fighting style and personality made me savor every minute of gameplay. His link to YK1 felt a little forced but not unbelievable, so I went with it. I really enjoyed seeing Kamurocho from several different pairs of eyes, and it made me feel closer to the city and it’s people. I got even more excited when I found myself continuing the story with Taiga Saejima, a character I found intriguing when first mentioned in Y0 and was looking forward to getting to know more. Tanimura was probably my least favorite, but I still found him likable enough to the point that I was disappointed that he was dropped for Y5 due to a scandal with his voice actor. Even though it was an improvement to Y3 it still kind of dragged In some parts and the leveling system was still fairly bare bones with the carried over cramped inventory system. Some of the story bits here made my eyes roll a little cough rubber bullets cough but nowhere near as bad as Y3. I really liked the combat here, having multiple characters reminded me of the multiple fighting styles which gave me the warm fuzzies.
Yakuza 5: A top 3 Yakuza game for me, it takes the formula of Y4 and perfects it the same way YK2 perfected Y6. All the characters we got to know in Y4 (except for Tanimura) return bigger and better than ever with two new additions in Haruka and Shinada. This gave us the best character development for Kiryu in my opinion, even if he’s pretending his name is Suzuki. You can see the toll the years have taken on him as he approaches 50, having not truly been a Yakuza since his early 20’s (aside from a brief stint as chairman) and still getting dragged into their conflicts. You can see his anger starting to come out more here too, everything that has happened starting to wear him down. As soon as Saejimas chapter started I felt like I was playing a totally different game, and I loved the snowmobile prison break and hunting in a quiet mountain town. My favorite part of this game was all the side content for each character like taxi driving, baseball, and hunting, even if I’m salty that Akiyama got shafted. The vastly different locales here were a real treat, from to snowy mountain town outside of Hokkaido to the urban sports Mecca of Nagoya. Each of the protagonists has their fighting styles fine tuned to feel real fun even if the leveling system was still meh. I had the biggest love / hate with Shinda, I loved him as a character, his story was a fun mystery, and I never loved a side activity quite as much as I loved playing baseball, I would have loved a mode where I could have played full games instead of just batting. That being said I hated his combat, every battle was a chore and the shitty minimalist inventory system held over from Y3 was a hindrance on his weapons focused fighting style. Haruka was way more fun than I anticipated, it was a nice change of pace from all the fighting and manly men doing badass manly things, not to mention how fun it was to see her grow up from the small child I found in YK1. The finale chapter of Y5 is probably my favorite, just because of how epic it all felt. From all of Saejimas fellow inmates showing up to stop Baba to Watase, Madarame, and Kitakata showing up with their troops to help Akiyama. That being said final boss was kind of dumb, being a minor character you met last minute who turned out to be the big bad just because. It was also without a doubt the hardest boss fight across all the games, having a million health bars and hitting like a damn truck.
Yakuza 6: here we are, the bitter end to a series that I fell in love with almost instantly. I was honestly a little disappointed in it, though I feel that most of my gripes could be attributed to the studio still experimenting with the Dragon engine, not quite mastering it like they had in YK2 which resulted in super floaty combat. The other aspect of combat I found annoying were a few select fights with way too many opponents because you had AI team mates, but the enemy AI laser focused on Kiryu so you could barely throw a punch without getting knocked down . My other main complaints were how much smaller Kamurocho felt, with a couple key areas blocked off it felt like a bittersweet way to say goodbye to my new digital home, semi related is how much less side content their was, and how fewer and spaced out sub stories were....seemingly partially replaced with the Troublr app. Story wise I really didn’t like how the characters we got to grow attached through the last several games were just missing in action. No Majima, Saejima, Daigo, Shinada, and (mostly) Akiyama. I get that it was the finale to Kiryus story but I feel like his closest friends should have played a bigger role. My final complaint, which is minor, is how damn hard it was to get green/ technique experience points. Through the later half of the game I had thousands of exp points in every other category but was often unable to pick up some skills because I struggled to get enough technical points. Okay, enough with the gripes and onto the good parts. I loved Kiryu more than ever in this game, watching him on the warpath to protect his family was so satisfying, and seeing him destroy countless enemies who stood in his way made me feel powerful. I loved the Hirose family the same way I loved the Okinawa yakuza in Y3, Kiryu taking this well meaning young kids under his wing made me feel like I was passing the torch to the next generation. The game did a GREAT job of making you feel like a fossil, an era of the past in a ever changing and evolving world of organized crime. The few sub stories I found were wonderful, with honorable mentions to the murderous AI with a grudge toward SIRI and a happy ending for Pocket Circuit Fighter. The overall message was a rehash of the Yakuza 2 story, about how your blood doesn’t define you but rather the destiny you take into your own hands, and I’d argue it did it better than Y2 since they added in the message that family is what you make. In the end it was a satisfying ending to Kiryus story, watching him take blow after blow to the head and keep standing made me appreciate the absolute beast I spent 7 games following.
If you made it to the end congrats! You dealt with my sloppy paragraphs ranting about this charming little series that I love despite some of its flaws. I look forward to the future of the series now that Kiryu is out of the spotlight, and I’m really hoping they bring over the Samurai spinoffs. Speaking of spinoffs, I’m off to play some Judgment! Looking forward to talking about the games in the comments with y’all!

Ok, so I finished Yakuza 6 today, finishing up the main Yakuza games/story which I started with Yakuza 0 early last year. I just wanted to give some thoughts on the games. I'll be fairly brief, giving more of an overview because I could do an entire post for each game. I'll be talking about them in order from favorite to least favorite (But to be clear, I played them in chronological story order, meaning Y0-K1-K2-Y3r-Y4r-Y5r-Y6)
Yakuza 0: The first Yakuza game I played, and still my favorite. An awesome story, some great characters (both main and side characters), villains/evil plot that was interesting and THE best combat system (in my opinion). It also had my favorite side games (I am addicted to the Cabaret Club game in 0, Kiwami 2 and FotNS, and I also really enjoyed Real Estate Royale). Overall, this was a great start to my Yakuza journey.
Yakuza Kiwami 2: Another great game. The engine from Y6 was improved a lot and the combat is a lot funner then it was in Y6 (in my opinion). The story is good, with compelling villains, and the callbacks to Yakuza 0 (The Majima Saga in general, Cabaret Club Grand Prix, and the appearance of makoto) are great, especially as someone who loves Y0. The Clan creator mini game is just ok (I like it better in Y0), but overall I had a great time.
Yakuza 4 (Remastered): This game is neck and neck with Kiwami 1, which has a more well done combat system, but the story puts Y4 slightly ahead of Kiwami 1 for me. It was a shock when the game added so many playable characters, and Kiryu was the last one you played, but I grew to love most of them. Akiyama was great, both story and combat wise; Saejima was clunky to play but a fun and interesting character; I think I like Tanimura more then most people but he was definitely the least fun to play, and Kiryu was awesome, because he's Kiryu. The story was pretty good, although some people's stories were better then others. It was cool seeing more of Majima's backstory (even though Y0 had told some of it). The overall story was a bit murky for me (I'm still not sure why Daigo was being a bad guy), but overall this was a very fun experience.
Yakuza Kiwami 1: The remake of the game that started it all. Playing Y0 before this really helped its story, since without Y0 I wouldn't have cared much about Nishki, or at least nowhere near as much as I did. The story is a bit weak compared to the ones above it even with things apparently added that weren't in the original version, but it had good moments and the combat was fun. Also, I'll just say it: I LOVED the Majima everywhere system. Its something I actually missed afterwards. The side game was just the old hostess stuff which was just ok, but overall I had a fun time with the game.
Yakuza 5: This game suffers from a weak overall story, but the actual gameplay is fun. I enjoyed all the side stuff, especially the taxi and Hunting mini games. The characters are all pretty good, I even enjoyed the gameplay of haruka's section. But, the story really holds this game back. Harkua's story sucks, I have never been happier to see a side character killed then I was when Park died, my only regret was it happening off screen. Also, Akiyama should have had his own chapter. The kind of overall plot was also not that interesting to me. So, overall I had fun with this game, but it definitely has stuff that holds it back.
Yakuza 6: This game has problems. The combat is the second worst in my opinion, with the new engine needing a lot more work before they should have used it. The lack of storable weapons, the wonky physics, the severe nerfing and overall lack of heat moves and enemies being annoying to take down by just normal combos (with grabbing and dropkicking being the best way to fight enemy mobs) all combine to make the game a bit of a chore to play at times. The clan creator and baseball minigames are fun, though. The story is terrible, easily the worst in the series (that I've played). All the important side characters are either in jail, hiding or in a coma for most of the game, and while some of the new characters are fine (I liked Nagumo and Kiyomi alright), you really feel the loss of the missing characters. The overall story is garbage. Parts are ok, like the mystery of who hit Haruka, but the overall plot is outright stupid, and not in a good way. The villains are the worst in the franchise, with none of them even being satisfying to defeat except maybe Hirose, and the "Secret of Onomichi" is outright asinine. The ending also leaves Kiryu's story wide open, while the game was supposed to be the end of his story. He should have either had a happy ending or died, as it is the game sets up another Kiryu game which we won't be getting. This is my least favorite Yakuza game, but I don't consider it the worst one for reasons I'll go through in the last entry.
Yakuza 3 (Remastered): This game has the worst combat system of any 3rd person action game that I've ever played. Every enemy, from bosses down to the weakest street punks, block everything. It is so infuriating that after about 4 hours I restarted the game and set it to easy (I played every other game on normal) because combat was so tedious that I wanted it to go as fast as possible. I did everything I could do to avoid random fights in this game because they just weren't fun. The story has flaws (too much time spent doing inane chores/errands for the orphans), but the overall story was ok, and I did grow to like the orphans as characters. The hostess minigame was odd in this game, but it was ok. This is not a bad game overall, none of the Yakuza games that I played were bad games in my opinion, and storywise this is better then Y6, but the combat is terrible and puts the game at the bottom of the pile for me.
So, those are my thoughts on the Yakuza franchise so far. I also played the FotNS game from the same developers and enjoyed it (I'd stick it right above Y6 if I was adding it on the list). I need to play Judgement, but I'm waiting to catch it on a good sale when I have some extra money, since it doesn't seem too connected to the rest of the franchise. I'm really excited for Yakuza: Like a Dragon, because I actually really enjoy JRPGs and the overall style of that game looks great.

DISCLAIMER: I know Kiwami is a remake of the original PS2 game, but with all the changes they made to make it akin to 0 it's baffling what the end product is.
I want to start by saying that in March I picked up Judgment and enjoyed the hell out of it (I intend on making posts about all the Yakuza games) to the point where I bought Yakuza 0. After I beat Judgment, I moved on to Yakuza 0 and loved it. Again, I loved it to the point where I bought the rest of the series due to it being on sale and the immensely positive word of mouth. Going into Kiwami, I knew that it was a remade version of the PS2 original and I wasn't expecting gameplay that was as refined as 0 or Judgment. For the first few hours, I was actually really enjoying the game, particularly the side missions. Sadly, I think I have to tap out of Kiwami because I think the game is tedious and annoying to the point where the fun is few and far between.
Combat
On the surface, the combat in this game looks as if it's exactly like 0 because it has the same styles and most of the moves pulled from there. Yet, it's more annoying and frustrating to participate in. You not only do far too little damage in this game, but also you get knocked down too easily. The damage aspect makes sense from a story perspective, but couple low damage with a tedious boss battle system (see below) and you've got a recipe for annoyance. With the knocking down aspect, I've had countless fights where it seemed like every hit knocks you down and forces you to do the quicktime event to get up. There's no fulfillment to the combat because once you build up a combo, an enemy can instant grab you and throw you on the ground. This is ridiculous. In fact, when you build up a combo, an enemy will grab you in the middle of it and force you to do a quicktime event to break free. This wouldn't be so tedious if it didn't always happen multiple times during fights with multiple people.
Boss Battles
The bosses have mostly the same move sets from bosses in Yakuza 0, except now they REGENERATE HEALTH. Who thought this was a good idea? Of the ways to make your bosses challenging, regenerating health is arguably the cheapest way to accomplish this. There's no reason to learn any of the different movesets for the combat styles or get the heat moves for them since you'll never get to use them on bosses. If you decide to use them, you run the risk of not having enough heat to stop the boss when he regenerates health. Hence, you'll just have to build up your heat and save it to stop the bosses from regenerating. Because of this nonsense, these boss battles take forever and they're so boring to fight. If you try to get near them and build up a combo, the bosses will always grab you which forces you to continue to mash X (on ps4 at least) in order to break free. Then when you try and build up another combo, this happens again. This can happen around 2 or 3 times every 20 seconds. I get that this is a remake, but the fact that they had made Yakuza 0 before working on Kiwami and had none of these problems with the bosses just makes it so confusing as to why the bosses in this game are chores. Essentially, you're fighting the same bosses from 0, except now they regenerate health and having a furious grabbing fetish.
Majima everywhere
This system was fine at the beginning of the game since it was nice seeing Majima after Yakuza 0, but after I realized he spawns close to you EVERY time you exit a building, it got annoying real quick. Every time I want to play a minigame or get food to heal Kiryu up, I have to fight Majima again and this time he has even more health than he did when I last fought him. It's clear he was supposed to be the Mister Shakedown of this game, except he appears far too often for it to be enjoyable. In fact, I just used him to farm ability points and I didn't enjoy doing it at all. Just like the boss fights, fighting Majima takes way too long not only because of his increased health every time you fight him, but also because he regenerates health. Essentially, every time you interact with a building in Kamurocho, you have to have a tedious fight with Majima as penance for your fun.
Traversing the city over and over and over........
After a certain point, almost all the missions in the game involve you running to either Purgatory or Serena to get a mission and then running back to one of those. This boring loop is made worse from the fact that both of these areas are the complete opposites from each other so you're just running back and forth over and over again. This gets brought up a lot when people talk about GTA V putting missions at opposite areas of the map, but at least you can relax while doing it. Here, you're likely to run into Majima or other enemies which forces you to do more of the lackluster combat.
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It sucks that I have to drop this because I almost never drop games and I know that the developers spent so much time remaking this from the original ps2 copy with the best of intentions. I even gave the game the benefit of the doubt and chalked up these annoyances due to Yakuza burn out from playing Judgment and 0 back to back so I dropped the game for a few weeks. However, picking it up again just made me baffled because I've never seen a game that's worse than its predecessor in every way possible. And yes, to me this game can be viewed as a sequel to 0, instead of as a predecessor, because almost everything besides the story aspects were changed. The dialogue was even re-recorded, the combat was matched to be 0s, the boss movesets mirror those in 0, etc. Yet, most of the aspects pulled from 0 were tweaked to be tedious and/or annoying to such a high degree. I don't understand how you can pull so many aspects from a game and put effort to make them worse.
I wish I loved this game like so many of you here, but after 40 hours I think I've been far more than patient with it. My backlog is just too big to gamble that this game will suddenly get better in its last 5 chapters.
Also it's my first post here, so please let me know if I did anything wrong. I welcome all types of discussion too! I love this community and I just wanted to get my voice out there.
Final stats before quitting: ~40 hours of gameplay
Almost finished chapter 8
Majima everywhere ranked B (1 fight away from A)
34/75 side missions complete
Got 28% of its trophies on PSN

I’m on my 1st replay of Yakuza Kiwami and during this replay, this time I really grind Majima Everywhere and Dragon Style, and I need Essence of Mad Dog: Demon. I’m on Chapter 11 and he still hasn’t called yet. What do I have to do?

Just finished this a few days ago. WOW. Kind of an amazing experience. I didn’t expect to get so caught up in the story. I don’t think I’ve ever loathed villains in a game so much before the way I loathed these. And yet, still, the game almost makes you feel sorry for some of them in the end. Ultimately, most of them seem like pawns in the underworld game. They’re victims too, in a way...though they chose the life. Thought it was a very mature, wide view the devs took.
I thought the simple story, revolving around a small patch of land, was kind of brilliant. Love how the story evolved and slowly revealed its secrets, bit by bit, and brought the two worlds of Kiryu and Majima together. Have to say, the opening cut scene of Majima’s first chapter (the disgruntled customer at the Grand) is one of the most amazing, revealing, and fascinating introductions to a main character I’ve ever seen in a game.
And my goodness, the substories. I certainly never expected to meet a character named The Walking Erection (Mr. Libido, as referred to after the first meeting). I had to look twice to make sure I was reading his name correctly on the screen. Some of these side quests are honestly kinda twisted (buying a soft porn mag for a kid...really)? But truly, these missions end up being really kind of innocent in a way, if that makes sense. The way the dialogue is written, the main focus is not to make them seedy or crude, but to kind of poke fun. Even Kiryu and/or Majima laugh at the absurdity of some of these side characters. I don’t want to generalize but I think sexuality is a lot less repressed in Japan (sex shops are apparently everywhere and very mainstream) , so these kind of crazy stories are probably not considered crazy there. I don’t know...I’m no expert on Japan.
I really enjoyed the Cabaret business angle and found running a night at Sunshine to be oddly addictive. Sometimes I’d just spend a coupla hours mixing and matching hostesses and seeing how things go. The club showdowns with the Big 5 were really entertaining. I found Kiryu’s business angle to be less interesting and less intuitive. I’m still not 100% sure how to master that. I don’t think I made more than 100K as Kiryu, but I made a few hundred million as Majima. As a result, Majima was by far my strongest combat fighter. I pretty much abandoned Kiryu’s business ventures after awhile. I never did go fishing, btw.
Negatives in the game? Being rushed by mobs constantly when on my way to a mission. Sometimes I welcomed it when I was grinding, but often, the fights were just a pain. Of course, you can usually run away from unwanted fights but a few times, I was kinda boxed in and couldn’t get out of them. More of a mild annoyance than a major negative. Fighting games are actually not my favorite genre and not my strength, but Yakuza Zero doesn’t make you feel overwhelmed...though in the beginning, I felt underpowered vs. the first Kuze fight, until I did some grinding.
So, TLDR...great game, great story. I’m really looking forward to Yakuza Kiwami. I’m not going to start right away, cause I want to get some distance from this experience first and go in fresh and recharged in a few weeks.
And finally, a big thank you to the fine people here who offered suggestions, tips, insight on lore, and advice during my playthrough. You guys never ripped into me, being a newbie, and instead made me feel welcome. This sub is a great community and I look forward to coming back often.

A busier month, with much time available for games, even before the epidemic came into play. I finally found a way to play PC games for a sustained length of time: connect my laptop to my TV (and use a controller obviously). I don't know why but it makes all the difference. Happy to report that the GTX 1650 I settled on handles most games very well. I've thus been able to delve seriously into Game Pass and play games I've been wanting to for a long time. It's a great way to test games out. And do something I'm usually loathe to do: not care about achievements and even drop games out. As usual, prepare for a lengthy report.
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Yakuza 0 (PS4)

• Playtime: 78 hours
• In my backlog since July 2017
• Rating: 8/10
• Review: As a veteran of the Yakuza series, this episode hasn't been as revelatory as it has seemingly been for others. I was eager to experience the origin stories of Kiryu and Majima through an upgraded version of the engine (my last entry was Yakuza 5 for PS3), and get to play once more the ludicrous sidequests the game is now known for, but it didn't entirely deliver. First, I feel like the game didn't go far enough with the characters: Kiryu is much too similar to other entries in the series, and Majima only meaningfully change at the very end of the story, which fails a bit to appropriately sell the transformation. Second, and it's a recurring issue with these games, the story is way too long, and the pacing suffers a lot (it doesn't help when you have 30 minutes long cutscenes or when you have to fight the same dude for the fourth time). The whole first half of the game is spent in the dark, with no clue as to what's happening, and the pieces only fall into place quite late. I understand that it's probably the easiest game to get into for newcomers, but I'd still recommend playing the Yakuza 1 (or its remake Yakuza Kiwami) first. Lastly, I was a bit miffed at first when I saw the game use three combat styles for each character, because it meant less moves were accessible at any given point, an issue compounded by the initially prohibitive price for the combat upgrades. Fortunately, once you've invested in the two main sidequests (real estate and cabaret management), money, which doubles as XP, flows more readily (and you're swimming in it when you learn to deal with the colossal Mr Moneybags), and it's easier to become a kickass powerhouse and to switch between fighting styles on the fly.The main sidequests are where the game really shines. Though they appear to be little more than busiwork at first, they tie everything together. Every regular sidequest, as zany and over the top as ever and with no pacing issue whatsoever, is a chance to meet new characters that can later help you in your real estate or cabaret, as can restaurant and shop owners if you're a regular, providing a nice incentive to look for them as often as possible. Real estate and cabaret management also tie in with the minigames (dancing, bowling, snooker, karaoke, darts, arcade games, and more) pushing you to experience and master eveything the game has to offer (I managed to go past the first few stages in Out Run and Space Harrier for the first time ever). Thanks to the numerous sidequests, I had a lot of fun with the game, but I'm reminded once more why I usually take a year-long break between playing the different installments, as they can become quite long-winded and repetitive. I still look forward to closing out the series with Yakuza 6 in the future.

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Old Man's Journey (PC)

• Playtime: 1 hour and a half
• In my backlog since November 2019 (start of my Game Pass subscription)
• Rating: 3/10
• Review: It's a game with very cute graphics and soundtrack, that feels very indebted to the montage from the beginning of Pixar's Up!, except it doesn't work quite as well. The gameplay section sees you moving the landscape to create a path for your grandpa character, and it's serviceable, but I found the story told in vignettes to be too cliché and I didn't like the ending at all, as I felt it wasn't earned at all (even though you're litteraly moving mountains to get there). All in all, it feels like an artsy game for tablets.

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Gris (PC)

• Playtime: 4 hours
• In my backlog since November 2019
• Rating: 5/10
• Review: It's a game with very cute graphics and soundtrack, that feels very indebted to Journey, except it doesn't work quite as well. It's a gorgeous platformer where you unlock an ability per level, but it starts out a bit too simple, making it a bit boring and flat. It doesn't help that the game tries to have a subtext that doesn't come through at all. But the game becomes more and more pleasant as it gets a bit more complex over time (at least a bit more involved). It reminds me a bit of Monument Valley for the graphics over gameplay aspect, but it felt more OK for a phone game. Not a terrible way to spend an afternoon, but far from the masterpiece I heard about.

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Ape Out (PC)

• Playtime: 2 hours and a half
• In my backlog since November 2019
• Rating: 8/10
• Review: It's a game with stark graphics and soundtrack, that feels very indebted to Hotline Miami, except it works, perhaps even better? The vivid color scheme, the overhead viewpoint, and the gore are all there, with jazz drums puntuacting your every action, but it's a bit more accessible since you don't have to clear out levels, only make it to the end. Since they're somewhat randomly generated, this allow for a rawer experience, befitting a colossal gorilla, you can't plan everything and you have to follow your gut. It gets a bit repetitive and difficult on the last couple of levels, but the rest of the game is adjusted perfectly, and the feeling of smashing enemies and sending them flying through windows is glorious. Perfect experience for Game Pass, novel, short and memorable.

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Celeste (Switch)

• Playtime: 9 hours
• In my backlog since March 2020 (August 2019 if you count Epic's giveaway)
• Rating: 8/10
• Review: It's a masocore 2D platformer with a cute story and lovely soundtrack and pixel art graphics, that feels a bit indebted to Super Meat Boy, except it's actually fun and not gross. Madeline's progress on the mountain is hard earned but the challenge always feels fair, checkpoints are generous, and every level has an interesting twist, and the cute story is welcome. I didn't feel the need to go after every optional challenge (only a few dozens strawberries, no B-side, but I did finish the Pico8 version), but that's OK. It's not my favorite platformer ever (I still prefer the unique VVVVVV), but it did live up to the hype, which is no small feat considering the constant praise and numerous accolades.

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Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus (PC)

• Playtime: 15 hours
• In my backlog since November 2019
• Rating: 6/10
• Review: Wolfenstein New Order is one of my favorite FPS, mainly on the strength of its story and cast. Leading the resistance in Europe in a Nazi conquered world in 1960, BJ Blazkowicz and his crew were interesting characters with inner lives and humor, that were simultaneously living the horror of nazism and acting out a glorious pulp revenge fantasy. This sequel is a disappointment. First the gameplay isn't as balanced, and I had to play on Easy as the game was too frustrating as stealth wasn't working as well with the new level design. I also felt like the environments weren't very interesting, except for a memorable walk through Roswell: a lot of generic corridors or desolated cities. The characters were still OK, and I particularly enjoyed the story bits at the base in-between missions but the stakes never felt as high, and it felt like an attempt to replicate what worked in New Order, not exactly an addition. Still some nice pulp action, but hopefully the third episode will be better (Youngblood being a coop spinoff I'm not interested in).

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A Short Hike (PC)

• Playtime: 2 hours and a half
• In my backlog since March 2020
• Rating: 8.5/10
• Review: It's a game with cute graphics and soundtrack that feels very indebted to Nintendo games, except this time I can see what all the fuss is about. The sparse writing charmed me into pursuing the small quests, and provided a nice direction for this otherwise quite open-ended adventure. There are a couple of items to acquire that broaden the range of your actions and allow you to make progress, but everything is tightly integrated and it all feels very natural. There is some light rock climbing with a stamina bar, quite reminiscent of Breath of the Wild, but upgrades are plentiful and the world is quite small and dense, so it works really well. A small unassuming game that feels very polished and complete, winning me from the start. Hope you got it through Epic Games Store's giveaway.

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West of Loathing (Switch)

• Playtime: 15 hours
• In my backlog since January 2020
• Rating: 8/10
• Review: This is a western-themed RPG, experienced mostly through simple 2D black and white art with stick figures. Most of the action is conveyed via text, and battles are simple turn-based affairs. This doesn't read like a winning recipe, but the game manages quite a lot with it. It is a comedy game through and through, and everything works to that aim: the NPCs and their quests are often absurd and ridiculous (and being mostly text based, the possibilities are wider than usual I found), you can fight with a cactus or with a pistol found in a disguting spittoon for instance, you encounter demonic cows and undead skeletons. The game is surprisingly varied, as there are quite a lot of places to investigate, numerous items and specific skills to help you along the way (lockpicking, persuading, mining, fixing broken stuff, along with more humorous ones). Since the screens aren't that big and you can skip from place to place quickly, it helps the pace tremendously, there is always something new to do. You can also level up as much as you want, so you can't be stuck for long. Not everything is laugh out loud funny, but the writing is consistent throughout and is sure to make you smile quite often. There are also a couple of more elaborate secrets to uncover, rewarding investment. I had a good time throughout and I ended up weirdly charmed by this offbeat universe.

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Lonely Mountains: Downhill (PC)

• Playtime: 10 hours
• In my backlog since November 2019
• Rating: 8/10
• Review: This is a mountain biking game, geared towards time attack, with cute low poly graphics. What got me first was the atmosphere, with beautiful tracks, only disturbed by the sounds of the wind, the birds and your tires on the tracks. I was focused on making it through with as few crashes as possible, taking my time and enjoying the scenery. And it was a peaceful and serene experience, the controls proving satisfyingly simple and reactive. And then, I got more and more into it, looking for viable shortcuts everywhere, taking more risks with jumps and racing between the trees. It's a specific fantasy to be able to go down mountains with such control, and even with the camera being 3rd person (almost like an isometric camera), it got my adrenalin pumping. I usually don't care for scoring games, especially with my 12in12 and completion focus), but I found this one to be well balanced, with most challenges very doable (the ones that unlock additional trails or bike parts at least, there are more difficult ones for cosmetic unlocks). I only have a small niggle: the need to race a track multiple times to beat some challenges (even though you already met the requirements on a previous run). I initially didn't like how you unlocked the bikes (specific challenges were needed to unlock specific bike parts), but they've changed it since (bike parts are no longer specific, you can beat any 6 "bike part" challenges to unlock another bike for instance). I'm seriously considering buying this game to be able to play it once my Game Pass subscription runs out in June, so that should tell you how much I enjoyed it.

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Into the Breach (Switch)

• Playtime: 9 hours
• In my backlog since December 2019
• Rating: 8/10
• Review: A turn based tactical puzzler with huge monsters and Mechs that I was eyeing for a long time. I was a bit afraid because it was from the developers of FTL, which I loved but which was quite hard. And indeed, I didn't go far on Normal on my first few runs, so I quickly retreated to Easy. There, I was able to slowly learn the abilities of my roster, the attacks of the different enemy types, and how to progress. I was able to win the game after 2, 3 and 4 islands with minimal losses. I've now returned to Normal and am able to win handily after two islands, and generally have much more viable runs. As it's been said countless time, the strengths of this game are the way you get all the info you need to decide what to do: what attacks enemies are going to do on what target (with damage points and status effect), in which order. The scope is small enough (8x8 areas, 5 turns, 3 mechs), to make each battle manageable, but the ever increasing number of enemies make each turn incredibly tense (you do get to rewind one turn per battle as well, to mitigate mistakes). You often can't kill the enemies outright, let alone take care of all of them, so you have to make the most of area of effect attacks, displace enemies so they attack each other, incapacitate them any way you can, and prevent them from spawning at all. Coupled with the interesting decision to make the health of your team an expendable resource that gets refunded after every battle, and every pilot a nice to have bonus that can be sacrificed if need be to protect the energy grid, battles don't play out like other games at all. I have completed the game, but I'm not nearly done with it yet, as I'm a long way from mastering even the standard roster on normal, and I haven't even touched the other teams. This is a very competent and elegant game, whose only blemish is to be a little too clinical and abstract (though there are a couple of nice lines from the citizens you're saving). I suspect it'll keep growing on me over time, and it already has a place of choice on my Switch.

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Shadow of the Colossus (PS4)

• Playtime: 6 hours
• In my backlog since March 2020
• Rating: 10/10
• Review: Not an objective score, but I don't care, this is one of my favorite video games. Spruced up with a nice new coat of paint, it's still as eerily beautiful as it was nearly 15 years ago. The colossi are majestic, the music is second to none, the desolated world invite to thoughtful introspection, and fighting the colossi is still as pulse pounding as ever. The game is basically just 16 fights interspersed with serene rides with Agro, but the pace is very good, and the game not overly long, suiting its minimalist fable status. It hasn't lost any power and is still as unique as ever.

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The Witcher II: Assassins of Kings (PC)

• Playtime: 35 hours
• In my backlog since November 2012
• Rating: 7/10
• Review: I've had this game in my backlog since forever. I had played and loved The Witcher 1, but never got around to this on. When The Witcher 3 got a rapturous reception, I figured I'd skip it to focus on the newer one (I only got to it in 2018 but still). This one is surprisingly close to The Witcher 3 as far as gameplay is concerned: you're in direct of control of Geralt, and have to fight using your swords, your magic, and make the most of the loot you find to craft bombs, potions and oil to help you. The combat wasn't as refined though and hasn't aged well, and I beat the game on Easy (I think it befits Geralt's status as a skillful Witcher in the story). The main difference is it's not an open world, but as far as I'm concerned, it's a positive. The game is focused like its sequel never was, and the pace benefits a lot, allowing the story to be more complex. There still are some sidequests and some monster hunts, but for the most part, everything ties to the main plot, and it is a good one. I will go against the consensus here though: every episode of the series is integral to understanding the plot. This game follows closely the events from the first ame, and sets up a lot of the intrigue of The Witcher 3 (to be frank I'm quite mad at all the articles saying it wasn't necessary to play the Witcher 2 before playing The Witcher 3). The quest structure may not be as subtle as its sequel, and the level design isn't as good (it sometimes feel like it is tortuous only to add to the length or to mask technical problems), but the story and the characters are complex and captivating. If you like the Witcher 3, you'd do well to play this one, I found it to be a more streamlined experience with old friends that I got to discover anew. Try the first one first if you can though (it may have aged poorly though).

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Abandoned
Vampyr (PC)

• Playtime: 5 hours
• In my backlog since November 2019
• Rating: 3/10
• Review: I quite like Life is Strange from the same devs, and since it was scheduled to be removed from Game Pass soon, I figured I'd get to it quickly. This action RPG set in London during the Spanish Flu felt very timely, but quickly proved very tiresome. The setting is interesting but a lot of things irked me from the start. First, your character is turned into a vampire, promptly bites his sister and immediately goes into full denial mode "it's not my fault" etc, turning him into a massive douche right away. The game is advertised everywhere as allowing you to be a "good vampire" never hurting anybody. The combat design team never got the memo, and the game forces you into battles where you pummel and bite people left and right. It doesn't help that if you try to act moral, you're limited to a barebones fighting system (worse than Dishonored, which still had interesting stealth). The other half of the game is talking to the inhabitants of the different neighborhoods. Most of them have an interesting background, and occupy a grey moral area. But the dialogue is so dull and it kills the immersion! Every dialogue is broken into questions, a la Mass Effect, but no matter who you're talking to, it's the same questions, and with 15 characters per area, it brings the game's pacing to a slog. The main character gets to gather clues to confront the NPCs, but there are worse tone shifts here than in LA Noire. It's also possible to fail clues weirdly, if you don't select the right answers (it feels weird because you expect to be able to roleplay this however you want, but no). And the game seems to take some sadistic glee from tricking you into wrong decisions at the end of each chapter. I wanted to finish it quickly, but I couldn't believe the characters, I wasn't invested in the story (which after a promising realistic start, seemed to go into tired secret societies quickly), and the combats were repetitive and frustrating. So I bailed and won't look back.

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In progress

• Halo Combat Evolved Anniversary Edition (PC): Not feeling it after two levels, not sure if my will to experience this classic will hold much longer.
• Battle Chef Brigade (PC): Match 3 puzzle RPG meets Top Chef Anime, light-hearted fun.
• Overcooked! 2 (PS4): As if the quarantine wasn't enough to test our couple ^^
• The Outer Worlds (PC): I love Fallout New Vegas, but this feels tired right from the start.

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So a good month after a blank February, 12 games completed, 4 from my list, and 1 abandoned (which counts as progress). Hope you had a good month too. Stay safe in your homes!

I finished Yakuza 0 recently and it's my first time playing Kiwami. I am now at chapter 8 and Majima never showed up since I received the email telling me he was at club shine. When I go at club Shine only Rina is there. Is it possible that I waited too long to go to club Shine and that Majima Everywhere is disabled because of the main story? (boss fight at the batting cage where he got stabbed)
Thanks for helping me. I know I'm not the first to have this problem but I couldn't find a solution.

In December of 2019 I decided to tackle my backlog which currently sits at 68 games as of today.
Just to clarify, by "finished" I mean that I either beat it or put away for good. Review scale is based on my personal enjoyment of the game and how much I respect it.
Here are my thoughts:

1. Vanquish 12/18/19- Cool game indicative of the 360/ps3 era. Platinum Games clearly had a lower budget but still manages to absolutely nail the game play. The sliding mechanic completely flips the game from a boring cover shooter to a one of a kind shooter. The missions are repetitive as its mostly just going from one point to another shooting enemies. It doesn't help that the environments in the game all look exactly the same. The last chapters had some more variety helping the game end strong. Despite it's flaws, I fail to see why nobody played it back in 2010. 7/10
2. Shadow of The Colossus (PS4 remake) 12/19/19- That very first moment when you don't know what the hell is going on and suddenly you need to mount this huge beast with your useless sword and bow, then you gotta slay the beast. You slay him, but rather than feeling like a bad ass, I felt guilty and ashamed for killing this monster for some ho. Great game, but by the last 4 Colossi I had enough and the game just felt like a drag to finish. My enjoyment was about a 5/6, but it gets more because I really do respect it. 7/10
3. Tomb Raider (2013) 12/19/19- Tomb Raider series draws a lot of comparisons to uncharted series and for good reason, which just sucks. Because realistically Tomb Raider is worse in just about everything like story, writing, gunplay, soundtrack,etc. I enjoyed the puzzles, traversal was a step up, and using the bow and arrow is always a blast. The journals you find throughout the game are all voice acted which is a nice touch, and got me to actually pay attention to them. The survival elements of searching for scraps should have just been cut from the game as it didn't add anything. The game is solid, but nothing special 7/10
4. Astro Bot Rescue Mission 12/21/19- One of the must buy VR games for sure right now. Taking advantage of VR technology to look around the environment, completely changes the collectible platformer and its what really sold this game. The platforming itself was pretty basic compared to modern platformers, so most of the fun came from how the environment interacted with you. A pure bundle of joy that never stops surprising you- 8/10
5. Ape Out 12/23/19- I know this probably doesn't qualify as patient, but considering I got it for free I don't mind. Ape Out is a pretty fun 2 hour gorilla beat em up game. Playing it all in one go did make the final half hour a bit frustrating as the challenge escalated.The artstyle and Jazz soundtrack blended so perfectly with the gameplay, and is what makes the game truly standout. 9/10
6. Furi 12/22/19 - The premiere boss rush video game. The electronic soundtrack is absolutely killer and goes along great with the fast paced combat. The story was absolute nonsense though, so don't expect anything interesting from that department. 8/10
7. Ziggurat 12/24/19- I made it to the 5th floor, but never won a run. Spent about 3 hours on this game, before it felt like I had given it enough time. I had a little fun, but quickly got bored as the enemies became tedious, and I didn’t find the different perks each run to be engaging. Really interesting concept, but ultimately doesn't stand out when compared to what the roguelite market can offer in 2020. 4/10
8. Bastion 12/23/19 - Sometimes there are games where all the ingredients are great, but the final product just doesn't click and bastion is one of them. I was expecting alot more from this game, but it just failed to grab me. The combat was boring and all the RPG elements seemed really tacked on. The only saving grace was the art style, and the soundtrack which also did nothing for me ingame. Somehow finished the game, but if you asked me what it was about I'd have trouble answering. 5/10
9. Yakuza Kiwami ( PS4) 12/28/19- Engaging story and fun gameplay with some very frustrating and poorly designed boss fights. Majima everywhere seemed like a cool concept, but he rarely showed so I couldn’t progress that entire portion of the game. Despite all that, I play yakuza games for the story and it absolutely delivered on that front. By the end of the game I was still hungry for more yakuza, so I'll be sure to pick up Kiwami 2. 8.5/10
10. Pony Island 1/1/20 - One of those super meta puzzle games where everything is fucking with you. Game is extremely short, a normal play-through is like 1:30 hours. The game is boring for the most part, but it's still really interesting and evokes discussion. 5/10
11. Katana Zero 1/2/20 - This game is a vibe that just hits so right. It has a charm that only pixel art games can capture,a soundtrack perfect for its aesthetic, and gameplay that is just so goddamn tight. The main thing that holds Katana Zero back as a masterpiece is the ending. While its ok to leave loose ends open for a sequel, katana zero's ending just made the game feel unfinished. Not to mention that the game gives a false impression that your choices actually matter. Thankfully the developers are releasing a free dlc for the game, but really they're just finishing it.Not quite a classic yet- 9/10
12. Oxenfree 1/15/2020- Just finished the game today, I gotta say I really liked it. The game has really good dialogue( puts life of strange to shame) and voice acting that just keeps you engaged throughout the story. The game invites you to do multiple playthroughs in a really cool way too that I don't wanna spoil. 8/10

If I had to recommend any three it would be Furi, Katana Zero, and Yakuza Kiwami( Play 0 first).

I’m currently on Chapter 4 in Yakuza Kiwami, and my Majima Everywhere rank is still at G. To my understanding, it should have gone up after the first scripted fight in Chapter 2 where he attacks me with his knife. Is my game glitched?

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Hey, so I just recently got into the Yakuza games. I started with 0 since i recently bought a ps4, and FELL IN LOVE WITH IT.
Yakuza 0 was an amazing game and I wish I could erase my memory and relive it all over again. I love everything damn thing about it. I was pretty hype for Kiwami, regardless of the negative reviews I was seeing.
._. I wasn't pleased lmao
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Here are some of the things I didn't like about Kiwami:
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STORY:
Yumi - Right of the bat, they introduce Yumi. I just came from 0 and never remembered a "Yumi" from the Orphanage, but whatever. I immediately had no feelings towards her. I didn't care about her AT ALL. She was sweet, sure, but what else? She was so boring and bland and ordinary and I honestly don't see how Kiryu harbored any feelings for her.
In 0, when we were introduced to Reina and Makoto, I began to truly and honestly care about them. The story had written them to feel like actual people with actual wishes and desires. They had certain characteristics that set them aside and you could truly see character development from them.
The thing that Kiwami missed with Yumi is that there was virtually NO character development from her, because she was AWOL of 70% of the game.
Sure it was cute when Yumi confessed to Kiryu before she died, but it's like okay??? Why should I care about you?
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Nishiki - Sega truly screwed up this man from 0. I understand that Kiwami is a reboot of the first Yakuza game, which was created before 0, but honestly? They couldn't have tweaked the story just a LITTLE bit? Nishiki is meant to be the main antagonist, but we literally only meet with him twice in the game. Whilst he does show character development, its not natural like how it was in 0. Sega just straight up serves you the scenes in cutscenes, and we don't get to discover anything for ourselves. It drives me nuts how Nishiki could kill an amazing woman like Reina, and go ballistic over someone and bland and one dimensional as Yumi.
The biggest crime, for me, in terms of Nishiki in Kiwami, is the ending. Nishiki and Kiryu were brothers, and yet they have no kind of reconciliation. No "I'm sorry" or "We'll always be brothers". NO, it's just Nishiki shooting the bomb and dying. Nishiki dies hating and resenting Kiryu and THAT DRIVES ME NUTS!
Why did Nishiki even shoot the bomb? It was gonna detonate anyway?!?!?!? And how is Kiryu and Haruka alive and unscathed??!??!?!? It makes no sense at all.
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Haruka - she was really sweet i guess, but I didn't care for her as much as I wanted to. I'd honestly trade Reina for her in a heartbeat. It was cute how she tried to save Kiryu from Jingu tho, so she's alright ig.
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The Chapters - Some of you might not get this, but in 0, whenever it was the end of the chapter, you'd know. There'd be some sort of BIG reveal that made you go :O and then it'd present the next chapter, with a recap of what happened.
In Kiwami, the chapter changes are so choppy and out of nowhere. Like we'll be talking to Date and then BOOM chapter 3, like what do you mean? What happened?
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GAMEPLAY:
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I will say with no shame that I played this on Easy Mode.
- Fighting groups was THE MOST INFURIATING THING.
You couldn't attack anyone for more than five seconds without being knocked on your butt by some other guy. They ALL HAD KNIVES AND GUNS WHICH TAKE SO MUCH OF YOUR HEALTH SO THAT SUCKED TOO.
The fighting was so unsatisfying. Whenver it was time to scrap, I literally sighed in frustration. Some of the fights were so hard and unnecessary, like the one when Kiryu took Haruka gambling. THAT FIGHT HAD NO REASON TO START AT ALL AND IT WAS SO DAMN HARD.
The bosses rejuvenated their health, and not by a little bit, BY A LOT, so the five minutes I spent getting that bar from yellow to orange was just WASTED. I couldn't beat any boss without using Heat.
Majima Everywhere was okay, and I put up with it because I love Majima, but after a while ig his henchmen told me he was hiding somewhere and I just never found him again, so I guess that's that lmao
In Zero, when we had to protect Makoto, it felt like WE HAD TO PROTECT HER. We dragged her from one side of the city to the next and shot down an airplane to save her. It was real sh*t, and it was intense. But I loved it!
In Kiwami, i don't feel like I had to protect Haruka at all. Whenever there was a fight, she just sat in the corner and waited for me to finish. There was no connection or will for me to protect her at all.
All of the enemies had THE SAME DAMN VOICES, (if i heard another *heyaaah* again I was gonna lose it)
I remember seeing the same villain animation IN A ROW from different groups of enemies. That shows how damn lazy Sega was with this game.
In the streets of Kamurocho, when I bumped into people, THEY HAD THE SAME VOICES AS THE ONES IN ZERO. WHAT?
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tl;dr
Kiwami had so much potential, but it was obviously just watered down Yakuza 0 with another story.
Is Kiwami 2 better? Will they stop breaking my heart?
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ty for reading c: