Topic: Yakuza Kiwami

Unfortunately, I didn't get to experience Majima Everywhere that much in Kiwami. I played too far into the game where he disappears from the story and I left a majority of it locked out. 'Tis the price of playing a game blind, I suppose.

It's something to focus on when I replay it later. I didn't do a ton of side content.

@KratosMD oh yeah, I have totally forgotten first person view. Nice.

@dermeister Im on chapter 8 and he literally is everywhere. Like everywhere.

@KratosMD Excited for Kiwami 2. I didnt grab Y6 either so it will be great to test out the new engine.

@Kidfried @KratosMD You have both raised some good points. There are too many street battles in Yakuza for sure. Initially its fine but sometimes it seems you cant run a block without being in a scrap. Also as the RPG elements for your strength and abilitities are freeform you can be over or underpowered and only find out whilst in a fight, getting the counter attack ability helped massively on my kiwami playthrough. The fighting system is deeper than a normal difficulty run lets on and I wish some of the abilities are available from the start as I rarely used finishing grabs and other moves I unlocked later on. I tried the climax battles from the main menu after beating the game. That was really really hard and you need to use all of the abilities something the game never taught me, as I never needed to learn.

I looked up a spolier free guide for majima everywhere. He goes away after the first 5 or so battles until you beat most of, if not all of the old trainer in Purgatorys battles a bunch of chapters later. If you have done that there are context specific parts of Kamorucho you need to visit after you get texts etc. They are not always obvious and dont appear on the minimap. Try the photo booth with your gf both zero and kiwami are great games. Zero is a ten, Kiwami is a nine.

Im playing through kiwami 2 right now and the story is fantastic. The Go Ryu clan is a great advesary and theres an opposing mafia with a hudge grudge against both the police and Tojo clan. Its really well done. However the fighting is worse than zero and kiwami as you use the dragon style all the way through with only a touch of beast style if you go into ultra heat mode (pressing r2 with a full heat gauge) unlocked on chapter 8. Its far too easy to win imo. I havent felt in any trouble throughout and that includes the cage battles. Weapons are more useful but thats about it.

Also no pocket circuit!!!! Wtf!!!! Fortunately the arcade games have a touch more longevity and the darts, golf and baseball are all top notch!

The problem I have now is Kiwami 2 is practically the same to zero and Kiwami. The sidestories are a little bit more lacklustre again and the fighting is worse. The exp system is better and the story is probably the best one I have played so far. Theres less mini games compared to zero but whats there is arguably better and polished. Its a solid 8 but my interest in Yakuza the game is waining and would rather watch Yakuza kiwami 3 in a theatre.

@Kidfried You should grab kiwami 2 in a few months. For me its a nice send off to the series this gen and I will pick the series back up next gen. Its very good and with 3-5 being ports rather than remasters I can happily overlook them.

My issue is theres a touch of Dynasty Warriors syndrome going on with the amount of releases and spin offs. If Sega put a major effort into Yakuza 7 and released it in say 3 years time with more polish and its own identity it could be a GTA challenger. The current schedule with 4 main line games and 1 spinoff along the same lines and structure within 2 years is too much. The games are too similar.

Where as with zero I didnt mind the lack of voice acting in parts, invisible walls and repeated animations as It was an obscure release. Now Yakuza is popular Sega are Hellbent on ramming the same game with the same flaws down our throats.

I started doing Legendary Mode after finishing Kiwami last year. I'm on and off playing the game so its taking me months to beat it, particularly the car chase. My god its still this horrendous piece of asscrack level as I remembered. Its even more worse in Legend mode. I don't know if I will ever beat Legend because of this level. I hate FPS so this is really just torture for me

@moniker I hated the car chase, easily the worst part of the game. Put the difficulty right down for that bit.

I loved Cabaret Club management in Zero and I love it just as much in Kiwami 2. This may be my real calling in life.
One...!Two...!Three...!Four Shineee!

The Yakuza Kiwami 2 photo-shoot mini game is unbelievable... .
I'm 'forcing' myself through all the courses lol.
I'd post a screenshot, but I'm almost certain it would get me banned.

I have no idea how SEGA have been getting away with this for years. The perks of a niche franchise I guess XD.
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EDIT
Finally beat Kiwami 2! I’m consistently impressed by how much the story in the Yakuza games pull me in. They’re incredible!
0 is still the one to beat for me, although I enjoyed the narrative in Kiwami 1 more than Kiwami 2, but the latter is easily the better game.

The cherry on top of Kiwami 2 is the Majima Saga. No one should skip this bonus mode. It might just be my favourite part of the game and gives further closure to the events of Zero.
Multiple tears were shed.

I believe Yakuza 3, 4 & 5 are going to be straight up remasters, rather than Kiwami-style remakes. Think I’ll wait for 3 to come to PS4 and then stream 4&5 via PSNow.
Hurry up SEGA!

@KratosMD I was done with K2 in about 35 hours. I too couldn't be bothered with the cabaret stuff however it's the only way to unlock a bunch of side stories which I will probably never see.

Chuffed to have played zero, k1 and K2 and love the series. But the lack of slot cars and having only one fighting style knocks K2 into good rather than great territory of zero and k1.

Started playing the free psplus yakuza kiwami. Wow what a great game so far. I gave never played a game in the series before. Now I can see why it is a much loved franchise. Any tips for a new yakuza gamer? I'm leaning rush style because I like the speed and Dodge abilities. Any skill tree or mini games I should avoid?

@Elodin Play it the way you want. It's also worth having a guide for sub stories and the chapter / location they are in. I wouldnt bother with any other guides or assists and play it at your own pace.

Some of the more obscure mini games won't make any sense. For instance Shogi interested me briefly until I realised it takes more commitment than mastering chess! But by all means have a go.

Great to hear Yakuza Kiwami has another fan. It's a top game.

@themcnoisy @kidfried thank you both for the info. I'm glad it is a play your own style and it works kind of game.

Just watched the credits roll in Yakuza Kiwami! I had a really great time with it. Sure, I think the combat was a little rough around the edges at times, and that car chase segment can bite me, but overall it was really good.

I liked that the world felt very intimate & despite not being large in size, was packed full of things to do (Pocket Circuit, Mesu King, Darts, Billiards, and the Batting Cages were my favorites), and the story was very interesting with lots of twists.

I had a good 5hr session with this yesterday and am having good fun again.

It's weird to sort of know the world so well already but with some things not being where they were. Kind of an apt feeling after Kiryu has been locked up for ten years.

I'm not a fan of the Kiwami battle aura thing as it's quite annoying not having the moves to allow you to do it early on and just having to accept bosses are going to regenerate their health a bit. I've only had the funeral fight where it's been a real pain in the arse though.

It's quite cool having played Zero first though to see where characters have come from. Some of the missions from Zero were really unsubtle though as to how related they were to the game, such as Shinji being a kid and saying he want to be just like you. I still don't get how Majima goes from such an understated badass to these absolute weirdo in this game though

@KratosMD It's a good mini game. I sometimes struggled to find the properties or business which boost the profile of your club, easy enough to find the hand gestures and what not. The old granny was my elite hostess!

@KratosMD This is a good guide for just about everything Cabaret Club related in YK2;

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=173954...

The hand gestures are the same as Y0 so I still have my weird way of remembering some of the odd ones. Towel and menu are obvious; L for "lad's drink"; C for "chick's drink"; the crab type one for ice (ice crabs!). Weird but it works for me.

The oddest hostess I have is definitely the one who looks like she has an orange for a head though!

Other than my 4 month Dreams affair I started fist of the North Star and actually played a good 3 hours tonight taking my total upto 9 and a half hours.

The mini games from Yakuza have been repurposed but in a good way. The karaoke system is now a brilliant doctor mode in time to music where you heal citizens and beat up bad guys in time to button prompts.

The hostess club is now well faster with a few different mechanics - you can give the customers a 100 fist combo or threaten them if you want.

The baseball is a mode where Kenchiro grabs a lamppost and has to hit bikers off their bikes as they come towards you.

The pocket racing stuff has been used with the car you use in the overworld, so you need spiked wheels for some terrain and a better engine for hills and quicksand.

So it's good in that regard.

FotNS is a slow burn and for me is less interesting than Yakuza. The wasteland is too big and boring, I'm already using checkpoints to skip driving (never a good sign). And worst of all everything is miles away.

@KratosMD I guess you mean the physical edition of 3-5?

Clan Creator is fine but quite repetitive. I relied so much on one of the bonus characters who uses bombs for crowd control. Waiting until later in the game to play the latter levels helps as you will unlock more character to use too.

Y3 is meant to be one of the weakest games in the series as well I believe..

@KratosMD Fist of the North Stars cabaret club is way faster than Yakuza. You would probably like that too.

There is a much easier way to do that substory.