The Yakuza Files: Yakuza Kiwami 2

You know what’s funny about long running series. Often, they don’t really “start” until the second entry. Oh sure, technically the first entry is where all the elements are introduced, the main characters, world and core premise, but it’s not until the second instalment where the creators get an idea of what to do with them. If you look at a lot of videogame franchises, many of them didn’t become what we recognize today until the second game. Series like Sly Cooper and Mega Man are good examples of this, and I think you can add Yakuza 2 to that mix as well. Granted, from a gameplay perspective it kept things mostly the same but the over-the-top wackiness that the Yakuza series would become famous for started here. The first game had moments of it, but the sequel took that wackiness, cranked it to 11 and ripped off the dial.

Mind you I am talking about the original Yakuza 2 that released in 2006 on the PlayStation 2. But we aren’t talking about that version, we’re talking about the remake that came out in 2017 (2018 in western territories) on the PlayStation 4, Yakuza Kiwami 2. I guess because the first Kiwami game had done so well, Sega thought that they might as well do a remake of the other PS2 entry for posterities sake. It's like when Activision did the N-Sane trilogy for Crash Bandicoot and then did the CTR remake, you know people would be asking for it so you might as well do it. Plus, with the new western audiences they got with Yakuza 0 it only made sense to do a remake of Yakuza 2 so newcomers could experience the story for the first time.

So, it makes sense for the second entry in this little series to talk about Yakuza Kiwami 2 since it is the most accessible way to experience the game today and it was likely the first time many gamers got to experience the second Yakuza game. There's just one problem. See, Yakuza Kiwami 2 was released after Yakuza 6, which used a brand-new game engine that greatly refined the series gameplay. As a result, Kiwami 2 features a lot of the same refinements that 6 brought to the table. So what’s the problem? The reason Yakuza 6 brought all those refinements was because it was intended to be the last game in the series, at least the last one in Kiryu’s story anyway, so the refined gameplay had a lot more weight since it would be the last time we would see this gameplay style before it would switch things up with the seventh entry, outside of spin offs and remakes that is.

Because of this, I won’t be going into too much detail when talking about the gameplay in this title. I mean if I talk about all the changes now, I’m not going to have much to say when I get to Yakuza 6, where the changes originated and had the biggest impact. So I’ll be talking about the gameplay in a more general sense this time around and then I’ll go into more detail when we finally get to Yakuza 6. But I'm getting ahead of myself here, we still have a story to talk about so let’s stop waffling on and get the show on the road.

A year has passed since the events of the first Yakuza game. Kiryu has since left the Yakuza life behind and is trying to live a normal life with his adopted daughter Haruka. The Tojo clan is still recovering from the events of last year and things are not looking good as a war is brewing between them and their main rival group, the Omi Alliance. In order to prevent this war, the current head of the Tojo Clan, Terada, decides to form a truce between the two clans. But before he can do that, he’s gunned down in front of Kiryu and asks him to continue where he left off.

Since the Tojo Clan is in dire need of new leadership, Kiryu decides to recruit the son of his former boss, Daigo Dojima, as he is the only one with the charisma to lead the clan during these troubled times. But things go pear shaped during the negotiations with the Omi as they’re soon embroiled in a coup by the Omi chairman's own son, Ryuji Goda the Dragon of Kansai. Goda wants a war with the Tojo Clan so he can control most of Japan’s criminal underworld as well as kill Kiryu so he can be the one true dragon.

Kiryu manages to escape and is brought under the protective custody of Kaoru Sayama, a detective working in the Kansai district known as the Yakuza Huntress. So now Kiryu has to find a way to prevent a massive gang war and try to hold the Tojo Clan together until a proper leader can be found. And as if that wasn’t bad enough, the whole thing is undercut by the return of a foreign mafia group hell bent on revenge against the Tojo Clan for events that happened 20 years ago, and they will stop at nothing to get it.

This is a much more complicated plot than the first game. While the original Kiwami had plenty of twists and turns it kept things mostly straight forward with a relatively simple goal. This story, on the other hand, has a lot more going on. There are more characters with their own goals and agendas, each working with or against one another, backstabbing each other if given the opportunity and Kiryu is stuck in the middle trying to keep everything together. Even Kiryu’s own allies are working towards their own ends.

It does perhaps have a little too much going on as some parts feel a little undercooked. Daigo is set up as a major player early on but his actual role in the plot is fairly minimal. It's a shame too because he’s a cool character and I would have liked to have seen more of him. Luckily he a larger role in the series going forward. The ending also has a lot of surprise reveals that could have been developed a little better if they were revealed earlier on. ]

And yet despite having so many different things going on the game never becomes convoluted. It can be tricky to keep track of everything, but the writing is strong enough that it isn’t hard to catch yourself back up. It also helps that the story is way more entertaining. While the first game had its memorable set-pieces, this one makes the first game look like a generic Law and Order episode. At one-point Kiryu had to climb a golden tower, fighting ninjas and samurai along the way before duking it out with a pair of Bengal tigers. When this game goes big, it goes fucking gigantic. It's a roller coaster ride that goes completely off the rails in a blaze of glory. It’s ridiculous but damn if it isn’t fun.

The pacing is also a lot better. Whereas the first game felt like it was a slow burn and didn’t really pick up with the action until the third act, this one hits the ground running and doesn’t stop. Oh it has its slower moments of exposition and character moments, but it also has far more action between those moments and with the set pieces being a lot bigger it doesn’t feel nearly as slow.

It helps that the character moments are some of the best parts of the game because of how good the characters are. Kiryu is still the definition of stoic manliness but he has a more interesting arc this time around. Feeling responsible for the events of last year and wanting to atone for them. That’s a major theme in the game, learning to move on from the past and how being unable to do so leads to nothing but pain and anger. Kiryu also has a love interest in the form of Sayama, he had one with Yuki in the last game but it’s given a lot more focus here.

Sayama is a great partner for Kiryu too. Being a good match for him in a fight but also having her own character journey in trying to uncover her past. I also like that she’s a badass female character that still has emotional moments and moments of vulnerability, which is rare to find these days where “bad ass female characters” are the most boring 2-dimensional people alive. Admittedly those vulnerable moments do come across as “damsel in distress” at times, but I still like that they at least tried to make her a more well-rounded character.

And then there’s the main villain. Ryuji Goda is a fan favourite character, and I can see why. This guy is a great villain. He's not only a much more intimidating physical threat than Nishiki but he also has way more screen time which gives him a much larger presence in the plot. While there are other villains in the game, each entertaining in their own right, and an ultimate puppet master pulling the strings behind the scenes, the game makes it clear from the get-go that Ryuji is the main threat. He's also got this weird sense of honour. He doesn’t try to use underhanded tactics like a lot of other villains and will betray his own allies who use such methods. This not only makes him a much more compelling character it also makes him a great rival for Kiryu as he acts like a dark reflection of him, possessing the same sense of honour but being more power hungry and ruthless. I liked Nishiki and all but, Goda is the better rival between the two.

That’s just the main cast, the supporting characters are also just as good. Daigo may have a disappointing lack of screen time but he is a very cool character, having a strong charisma that make him the ideal choice for leading the Tojo clan. Date returns and he acts as a good support as he did previously though he has a bit more to do thanks to a new detective character, Jiro, which adds a bit more to his character.

And then there’s our good old stalker pal Majima. Unlike the last game where there was a bit of an inconsistency with his character due to him being written as a straight psychopath in the main story and a goofy idiot in the side quests, here he finally fit into the role of the fun loving nutjob he’s more commonly known as. He's a far more entertaining character this time around and he even got his own mini campaign that goes into what he did between games and even ties up some of his story from Yakuza 0. It isn’t very long but the Majima campaign is a nice little bonus. Majima is also where what little comedy the main story has comes from and it is very funny.

I say comedy in the main story specifically because most of the games comedy comes from the sub stories. And these sub stories are, interesting to say the least. You do still have your typical Kiryu gets scammed and then beats up the scammer stories, but you also have sub stories that are a little more out there. Like a photo shoot with an over enthusiastic man in a red speedo, being tricked into doing voice over for a yaoi hentai game or stumbling upon a yakuza group that engages in infantilism. Yeah the sub stories can get weird, very, very weird, but they can also be very funny. It's a very Japanese style of humour, but I got a good laugh out of more than a few of them. One of them even made me laugh out loud and that rarely happens with me.

So the writing is very solid but how's the presentation. Well this is where it gets, muddled though it is mostly positive. Graphically the game is stunning. The first Kiwami game looked good as well but it was running on a much older engine, an updated version of that engine but still an older engine. Yakuza Kiwami 2 uses the Dragon engine that was used in Yakuza 6 and it shows. This is a great looking game. The world and characters are a lot more detailed than they were before, but this presents a bit of problem for the cutscenes.

Like the first Kiwami game, this game uses the same framework as the original. So the cutscenes have the same cinematography and animations from the original Yakuza 2, which is a 14 year old PS2 game. You can see where the problem is right. The animations look stilted when paired with the more detailed graphics, especially when it comes to the faces. This becomes abundantly clear when you get to the new cutscenes added to the game where everything is animated a lot better. This was an issue in the first Kiwami but it’s made worse here due to the improved graphical engine.

I’ll give the game this, the cinematography actually holds up for a PlayStation 2 game. It leans heavily on a film noir style that works as a compliment to some of the games wackier moments. It still looks good even today. I haven’t played the original so I can’t see how this compares to it but on its own merits, it’s pretty good.

As for the sound, the music is great. I didn’t talk about the soundtrack last time because I only thought it was just ok, but I love the OST in this game. The battle music is a lot more intense, especially the boss music, the background music in shops adds a lot more to the ambience. It's a good soundtrack. However, they made one fatal mistake. They got rid of Baka Mitai. Oh it’s in the game as a background song but you can’t sing it in karaoke anymore. How fucking dare they! To be honest the karaoke selection isn’t as good this time around, there’s not as many options to pick from. There are two songs that I do love though. Tonight because it sounds like the ending theme to an anime and Like a Butterfly because it has Kiryu going hard in on the background singing and it’s kind of hilarious.

As for the voice acting, well it’s all in Japanese so I can’t tell how good it truly is, but for my filthy English speaking ears it was very good. Each of the voices fit the character well and there were some very entertaining performances. And I know it must be good because most of it is reused. Yeah, rather than re-record the dialogue for the remake, they just went and reused the vocal tracks from the original. At least that’s what my research tells me anyway. It isn’t all reused, there is some new stuff as well and to be fair the voice acting is still very good so, whatever.

Before we move on to the gameplay I want to go over the technical aspects. For the most part it’s fine but there are noticeable hiccups. The frame rate is mostly consistent even on my base PS4 model though I did notice some drops here and there. I also had the game freeze on me a number of times during my playthrough. This would happen when I did a heat action so it was likely caused by the game not loading the animation in time. It always resolved itself after a couple of seconds so at least it wouldn’t break the game, but it was still annoying. Then there’s the pop-in which is shockingly bad at times. Sometimes I would enter a building and the game took a few seconds to load in any of the assets.

I should mention that these technical shortcomings don’t hinder the game too much. The freezing could get annoying and would disrupt the flow of combat, but it didn’t last long enough to become aggravating. The thing is, these weren’t isolated incidents. They happened several times throughout my playthrough. It wasn’t frequent enough for me to call it broken like a certain punk game I will not name, but it was frequent enough that I can say the game felt a little rushed. It could have had a bit more polish.

This is around the time I start talking about the gameplay but, as I said earlier, a lot of the gameplay changes made to Kiwami 2 were first implemented in Yakuza 6 and I feel it’s best if I go into detail on those changes when I eventually get around to that game. But I do want to answer one question, is Kiwami 2 a good sequel to the first Kiwami game? If you were to ignore all the rest of the series and just focus on the two remake titles, does the second remake serve as an adequate sequel? Yes. Absolutely yes.

Yakuza Kiwami 2, much like every other Yakuza game, is split between open world exploration and beat-em-up style combat. When it comes to the exploration it’s mostly identical to what it was previously but with one major difference. You now have a second town for which to explore. Unlike the original Kiwami which took place entirely in Kamurocho, this game is split between that and a new town based in Osaka called Sotenbori. I actually like the contrast between the two cities. While Kamurocho is the same dimly lit, claustrophobic and dangerous crime riddled place it was before, Sotenbori is much warmer with a livelier atmosphere. Thing is though Sotenboris is a city of two faces. One side a tourist trap with garish colours and outlandish displays, and the other very similar is design to kamurocho, being much darker and filled with seedier establishments.

You get the feeling that Sotenbori hides it’s dark side with an outward appearance that belies it’s dark underbelly, hammered home by the fact that the two sides are split in the middle via a river that runs through the city. Contrast that with Kamuroch who makes its criminal presence known publicly by having a massive tower run by the Yakuza in the center of its town. It gives both cities a different sort of atmosphere which also helps demonstrate the differences in approach to the two yakuza groups as both have their home bases in one of the cities, Tojo has Kamurocho while Omi has Sotenbori. I like it when a game uses the environment to help tell it’s story.

One thing I like about the exploration is the seamless nature of it, how there’s almost no loading times when entering into a building. Makes it seem like one cohesive world, and I just broke my rule about not going into detail. Sorry I can’t help it, there’s so much I like that I want to talk about that I can’t because I’m saving it for later. So alright, let’s change gears and talk about what you do in the city. Well it’s mostly what you did before. You can just go to the next story sequence or you can do a sub story, assuming one is available, eat at one of the many restaurants scattered about or partake in a minigame. So not much has changed on this front but a lot of it has been greatly improved.

For one thing, sub stories can now be seen on the world map. Whereas before you would have to stumble into them in order to activate them which made a lot of them easy to miss, here you have an upgrade that just where they can be activated on the map. Much better. Speaking of upgrades, the upgrade system has been streamlined somewhat. Last time the upgrades were entirely focused on combat, the skills that helped with overworld exploration were locked behind completion points you got from doing things throughout the game. Here the completion points are gone so everything is now under one umbrella. They also changed how experience points work giving you more rewards for doing things outside of fighting, but again I can’t go into too much detail. It is a great system though and I greatly prefer it to what we had before.

Of course, you will run into some enemies when exploring that will drag you into a fight which leads us into the combat. Before we get into the combat, can I just talk about how much more ruthless these guys are when chasing you down. In the last game I would only have to runaway a little bit before they gave up. In Kiwami 2 these fuckers are relentless, these guys will follow you down an entire city street and they still won’t give up the ghost. These guys have to be the most insane goons ever or the dumbest goons ever.

So what’s the combat like when you do engage with these idiots? It’ fun but there are changes that some might not like. It isn’t as varied as before since you no longer have access to the four different fighting styles. This could be a deal breaker for those that enjoyed the multiple fighting styles but I personally don’t mind. I would rather have one style that’s consistently useful than four styles that vary in usefulness throughout the game. I’m a man who likes his consistency. That being said, the combat is still satisfying though in a different way. While your attacks don’t have the same weight as before, Yakuza Kiwami 2’s physics engine makes it a lot easy to knock enemies into one another and rag doll all over the place. This does lead to weird moments of jank but it’s kind of hilarious when they occur.

You also don’t have to rely on Heat Actions nearly as often either. Your basic attacks do a little more damage and Heat Actions are now more focused on using the environment this time around. They're still a very useful tool, especially the ones that hit multiple foes at once, but you don’t have to rely on them as much for dealing damage. I also noticed the window for performing them is a little bigger than it was before, so they’re easier to pull off. You also don’t lose as much Heat when taking damage, though you also don’t automatically go into a powered-up state when you get enough heat. Instead, when the Heat Gauge is maxed out you can enter Extreme Heat Mode which makes you more powerful and immune to flinching for a short time.

Since you can no longer swap between different fighting styles the game allows you to equip three different weapons instead, as opposed to the single weapon you could carry in the first game. I used weapons a lot more this time around. Yes, they will still break after a while, but they do a lot more damage than before and you can find weapons later in the game that don’t break. Sadly, some weapons didn’t return like the Marlon cannon or Nun chucks, but they did add plenty of new weapons to compensate. Plus, you can now store weapons you find on the ground for later use, so you have more chances to get them.

One thing I should mention is that the item inventory has been expanded to not be as limited when it comes to healing items, but you still have a limit on how many weapons and equipment you can carry. Speaking of, I like the way equipment is handled here. You can equip three pieces of equipment but certain combinations will give you additional bonuses rewarding experimentation.

I think that’s everything, or at least everything I can talk about given the self-imposed limitation I gave. There was a lot of stuff skimmed over or skipped out on because we’ll be getting to it later. Thing is though, I don’t have much to complain about when it comes to the main gameplay. Everything is just a better, more refined version of what came before it. It's also not as frustrating. Enemies will still dodge out of the way of attacks, but they don’t do it in mid combo anymore, or at least they don’t do it as often, so it’s easier to get a full combo. You also don’t get knocked down as easily. In general, it’s a much easier game that does still provide a decent challenge just with a lot less bullshit. Combine that with the smoother exploration and upgrade system that flows seamlessly into every aspect of gameplay another and Yakuza Kiwami 2’s main gameplay experience is a good time that successfully builds on what came before.

But there’s a key word in all that, “main” gameplay experience. Because what’s a Yakuza game without an exorbitant amount of side content. From sub-stories to minigames, Yakuza Kiwami 2 certainly has plenty of content to keep you occupied when you don’t feel like doing the main story. Like the last game though, not every one of these side activities is enjoyable. A lot of that comes down to subjective tastes, but as a rule I find that the minigames are a lot better than the previous game. I still don’t like Darts but it controls a lot better, and you have different styles to pick from, the batting cages are a lot more enjoyable and while I think the song variety is weaker, karaoke is better to actually play this time.

A lot of the minigames are returning from the first Kiwami game though not all of them made the cut. Sorry bowling and billiards fans, this isn’t the game for you. Fortunately, there are a handful of new games to play. There's a new golf game that’s pretty fun, there’s a pissing minigame (seriously) and they even added in fully playable versions of Virtua Fighter 2 and Virtua On. I guess Sega heard we like videogames so they put videogames in their videogames so we can play all the videogames. I’m personally not a big fan of either game but I'm not looking this gift horse in the mouth. Virtua Fighter 2 can even be played with 2 players, so you’re basically getting a free fighting game with this. Admittedly the emulation is a little wonky, especially when it comes to the replays, but both are still perfectly playable versions.

There's also this other new minigame that weirds me the fuck out. You go into this studio where you have to take pictures of models in increasingly revealing outfits, including a sexy Santa outfit. Funny that I would run into that after I mocked two songs about making it with Saint nick last Christmas, karma really is a bitch. But that’s not the weird part. The weird part is that the whole thing is done in live action. It's very jarring to go full FMV mode and it makes the whole thing just a bit skeevier. And the kicker is, the actual gameplay isn’t photography based, it’s about putting together coherent sentences. I guess they did that in case your parents walk in so you can go, “no mom, this isn’t porn. It’s educational.”

There’s a lot more minigames then the ones I mentioned but I'll leave you to discover those on your own. One thing I will say about the minigames is that they are far more rewarding. Although ironically, the casino minigames, which offered the best prizes last time, are less rewarding than before. Which is a shame because I started to like the poker in this game.

It can be easy to look at all of the extra side content and see it as padding. I don’t agree with this mainly because a lot of it is entirely optional. You don’t have to do any of it if you don’t want to. Having said that, there were a few side missions that felt like they wasted my time more than anything else. The coliseum is a fun time but grinding points to unlock later cups feels unnecessary. The point system made sense in the last game because you could spend those points on a variety of prizes. Here all they do is unlock tournaments and the later ranks require you to replay them multiple times. Why not just unlock them by finishing the previous tournaments?

But the biggest waste of time are the bouncer missions. These are beat-em-up challenges that act like mini versions of the main beat-em-up sections in the game. How many of them are there? 78! That's an insane number on its own but here’s where it gets fucked up. Only a third of the missions are actually original, the rest are repeated missions just at higher difficulties. This is what it means to be padded out. There was no reason to have this many challenges when you are simply going to repeat them. It's not like the rewards make it worth doing, most of the time it’s just money or healing items you don’t need. I gave up on these because completing them became tiring. Were 26 missions not enough? The games long enough as is you didn’t need to bloat it out.

There are only two more things I need to talk about before we wrap this up. Like the last Kiwami game, there are some side missions that are given a bit more importance. Those being the Hostess Grand Prix and the Clan Creator minigames. Both made their debut in Yakuza 0 and 6 respectively so I, once again, won’t go into too much detail. But I might as well talk about them since they make up a good chunk of the games content.

I should also mention that both are exclusive to the different cities. The Clan Creator is only available in Kamurocho while Sotenbori host the Grand Prix. The game is actually good at sharing minigames between the two locations though there are a few minigames that can only be played in one of the cities, these two being an example of that. It isn’t too annoying since travelling between cities is easy enough. Though here’s some advice, don’t try to do these is one session like I did. Both can drag a bit if you do so and are better enjoyed in short bursts.

Let’s start with Clan Creator. Remember Majima? Well in this game he runs a construction company. But whereas in the original it was little more than a plot point, here his role has been expanded with his own side story. Hey as long as he isn't constantly harassing me I'm happy. The plot of clan creator mode is that Majima Construction is trying to build a new district in Kamurocho, a bunch of land sharks want to take it over and you have to defend your territory against them. By the way, the land sharks are all played and modeled after former Japanese professional wrestlers. That's pretty dope.

The basic idea for this mode is that you recruit people into Majima construction, either by paying to scout them out or by finding them by completing side missions. Once you have your clan assembled you can then do missions that play out like a mix between a tower defence and a real time strategy game. This mode is, alright. There's nothing wrong with it but it lacks depth.

The missions themselves are varied enough and can be hectic fun but the management part of it falls flat. The clan members have grades from bronze to gold and once you have a team of gold members there’s no reason to swap to the lower grades. The different members do have their own stats, abilities and attack types but for the most part the only thing you need to worry about is having a balance of attack, defence and ranged types in your squad. It's simple fun but I didn’t play much of it beyond the main story.

I found the Hostess Grand Prix a lot more enjoyable. For one, the story is a lot more fun. You run this hostess club called Four Shine but there’s this evil hostess club that wants to run them out of business and the only way to stop that is by winning a massive hostess competition through the power of friendship or something. It's silly but in a charming sort of way way. It's like the plot to a sports anime but with hostesses. It's cliché as all hell but it is endearing in its own stupid way. I should also mention that the main hostesses are all played and modeled after Japanese models. That's not as dope as having Japanese wrestler but it’s kind of neat, I guess.

Like the Clan Creator mode, this mode has you recruit hostesses to help you in the club. This mode focuses a lot more on the management side however. Before each session you select which hostesses you want working and there’s a bit more thought required here since hostesses will get tired and need some time off. The hostesses are skilled in one of 5 categories and guests have a preference for one of them. So you need to keep a balance in what the team is good at lest you risk upsetting one of the guests.

You also have platinum hostesses you can customize with different outfits that affect their grades in how they look. Didn't think I'd have fun playing dress up but here you go. These platinum hostesses are your best ones and certain customers will request one, so make sure you always have one on the team.

After you’re done managing the team you then play a minigame where you manage a night at the club. It goes like this, customer comes in, you sit a hostess down with them that matches their requirements and try to earn as much money as possible in the time limit. The Grand Prix has 5 different cups and some of them have unique stipulations like only being able to have 6 hostesses in a team. At the end of each cup is a battle with the champion where you try to earn more money then they do.

This mode can be really addicting. I like management style games and this one ain’t half bad. It's a little simple but it has little more depth than the Clan Creator does. Plus it’s a great way to earn some extra cash. That being said there are two problems with this mode. For one, once you get used to it, it becomes rather easy. Early on I struggled a little but once I understood what to do to maximize profits I steamrolled through everyone.

The second problem is with dating the platinum hostesses. This acts as a toned-down version of the hostess game from Kiwami and like in that game each of the hostesses has their own sub story you can do by going on 3 date with them. The problem is that you only unlock these dates by completing a round of the Grand Prix and this can get tedious when going for all the sub stories. I would have liked it if I could just go on the dates right away to save me some time.

Yakuza Kiwami 2 is a great sequel and a fine action-adventure game in its own right, or is it an RPG I can’t tell with this series. While it can be bloated when it comes to some of the side missions the main game is so well paced, action packed and memorable that it’s easy to forgive its minor shortcomings. It's a game that is both simultaneously a serious crime thriller and big dumb action movie and it walks the line between the two with aplomb. If you liked the first Kiwami then you’ll probably like this one too. Some will be disappointed with the changes to the battle system, but if you take it on its merits, I'm sure you’ll find something to enjoy about it.

However, most of the reasons behind it being as good as it is, is because it’s the result of years of fine tuning and refinement. Going forward with this series we’ll be heading backwards since the next 3 Yakuza games only received the remastered treatment. Will it be fair to compare Kiwami 2 to those games? Probably not. So going forward, I’m going to examine each game on its own merits and not how it compared to its predecessors. At the very least I can focus on how the games evolved over time now.

But that’s going to have to wait. I'm going to put this little series on the backburner for now. I did just play two massive adventures back-to-back, fucks sake Kiwami 2 took me nearly 80 hours, so I need a bit of a buffer period. Plus, February is packed with games I want to look at, so I need to take a break from this series, at least for a little bit. Rest assured that I will get back to this series eventually with Yakuza 3, which was the first yakuza game I played so it should be interesting going back to it. Until next time remember to stay safe and have fun.