Immediately after finishing my Yakuza 0 spree (and becoming a cabaret club mogul), I jumped into Yakuza Kiwami, which is a game that came out one year after Zero. Essentially a remake of the original game from 2005 with some added and changed story elements to better serve as a sequel to Zero. It continues Kazuma Kiryu's storyline and the evolving drama around the Tokyo's Tojo Clan. Once again, I will be keeping this entry short-er. First I wish to describe some of the smaller changes to gameplay and systems, touch a little bit about the storyline (without spoiling major story beats) and then give my overall impressions.
Since this is built upon the same engine as Zero (and Yakuza 6), the first feeling of this game is extremely familiar. The UI is pretty much the same, Kiryu's styles are the same (even though they are once again starting from scratch), the movement both during and outside combat feels a bit better and more responsive than Zero. The biggest change to combat progression is via the newly introduced Majima Everywhere - this is how Kiryu now levels up his Dragon of Dojima fighting style. Fresh after starting the game, Kiryu meets Majima (my darling from Zero) who wishes to train him back to what he was like before Kiwami by constantly ambushing him during substories, various side activities, when roaming the overworld map or during random encounters. This is also amped up for comedic effect, but more on that later. As Kiryu, you will be doing whatever it is there to do when suddenly you will have Majima attacking you as if you are Peter Sellers opening a fridge in Pink Panther.
I somewhat enjoyed this mechanic, at first. It was fun encountering Majima, but pretty soon I ran out of the "regular encounters" and it turned into puzzles. I was supposed to find him based on descriptions, poems, etc. It was here where I stopped engaging with this system. This is all subjective of course, but the comedy was a hit and miss.
There were also many alter egos of Majima, such as Officer Majima, Bartender Majima, Zombie Majima and others.
Anyway, let's switch straight into characters and story. So, I did not like this version of Majima at all. He was nothing like the Majima from Zero, who was a tragic hero trying hard to be as stoic as possible. I also feel like there was zero (haha) transition from the stoic reserved Majima of the previous game to this one. In Yakuza 0, he changes his hair and clothes, and that is it. Suddenly, he is the Mad Dog of Shimano. There was also no explanation as to why he was so obsessed with Kiryu, as in Zero they have barely met. I have been told that what Majima was in Zero was really an exception, as he always was and is a Joker type character who adores violence, Kiryu and being absurd. I don't know. Not a fan. I also found out that in Kiwami 2 there is more of the Zero Majima, so I am hopeful.
A big plot point in the story of Kiwami is the continuation of the relationship between Kiryu and his best friend, Nishiki, whom I never really liked in Zero. Here, Nishiki (sort of) takes center stage and once again, I was not a fan. Dare I say that in the first game there were two moments I liked, but in Kiwami I groaned whenever Nishiki was on screen. Supposedly, most of the added story elements that were absent in the original concern him. I just have to shrug in disappointment.
Whenever the politics of the Tojo Clan, including the bosses of Dojima, Kazama and Shimano are on screen (especially at the beginning), I was glued to the screen and loving it. When the story switched to a more personal focus, I had to force myself to continue.
One of the new characters in this game was the Tokyo police detective Makoto Date, who had an amazing first scene and my impression has been that of a very cool side character that appears briefly. Suddenly, Date-san was present for 90% of the story and was more involved than Kiryu and I was kept wondering why the hell was this Columbo looking mf still here.
Even though I struggled in the middle, I really enjoyed the ending, which tied both Kiryu's personal story as well as the overarching story of the Tojo Clan. I am sort of glad that all the personal ties that were carried over from Zero to Kiwami in regards to Kiryu are done. I liked what they did with some of the new characters and I especially liked Kiryu himself much more than in Zero. Here he seems much more mature. However, I did not care much for this game's characterization of Majima and I did not enjoy the bulk of the main story. The ending had left me satisfied and happy, however. I am looking forward to Kiwami 2. I would rate Kiwami 1 an above average 6/10.
No comments:
Post a Comment