I took me 156 hours, but eventually I have it - 100%, all achievements. And there is a lot I can say about this game now that I completed everything.

Let's start with the bad things:
- Unfair fights - Probably the worst thing about Yakuza Kiwami is how frustrating the gameplay can get at times. It is especially present while playing the Legend difficulty. Obviously, the game is supposed to be hard at the highest difficulty, but the developers focused on the wrong adjustments. You may have practiced fighting for hours, you may know how to and when properly dodge, block, and attack. But the enemy will always find the gap and get you in the most annoying way possible - a gunshot, a knife stab, a kick that will knock you against the wall that will knock you against another kick that will knock you against the wall again... And you can't do anything, only watch the same animation over and over because once you get up, you get hit by the same thing again. Kiryu's "OUGHEEEUGH" scream after each stun is engraved in my brain forever.
- The car chase - a shooting sequence in a fighting game done poorly - the crosshair moving slow, dynamic camera movement affecting your crosshair, short time to react, high enemy damage vs your low damage, and the cherry on top, on Legend difficulty when you lose, you have to start over the whole chapter because there is no savepoint! I finally gave up struggling with it on my Steam Deck and switched to mouse and keyboard on PC
- The "anime" moments in the main story - I love the main plot of this game. It was interesting and full of great characters. But sometimes I couldn't help but cringe. A dying character always has their 5 minutes before death to explain everything. People point guns at each other and talk even though they want to kill each other. Just shoot them already. What's stopping you if you want to shoot anyway after the conversation? What's the point of the conversation if you want to kill the person you are talking to? I know why - the anime energy and the power of talking over common sense. And the classic "if you are here, you know what happened". Yeah, I know because the story led me to this point, but if it was not so linear, I would be in that place by pure accident and wonder what happened, and then hit with a message "if you are here, you know what happened". Such a goofy thing. People may say that this is the essence of Yakuza games. That it is basically anime just with a realistic art style. But I would love the goofy, anime, unrealistic events to take part in substories because there it actually fits. The main story always feels serious, and these small things I mentioned make it look less serious.

Now that good stuff:
- The story - As I mentioned, the story is interesting, with many great characters. Certain chapters get emotional when you get to know the characters better and realize why they act the way they do. I cared for many characters and was engaged in their stories.
- Majima Everywhere - It was such a great mechanic. Its introduction was justified by the main story events, it was fun seeing Majima in many weird places and roles and I never felt annoyed when he appeared out of nowhere, even when I urgently needed to go somewhere. Even though Majima does not play that important role in the main story, he is crucial for the Dragon Style training, the most OP fighting style in the end game. The training is done well, even if it all goes to fighting Majima. Different settings, Majima changing his outfits and fighting styles, and losing does not kill you or make you stagger after.
- Music - A great selection of songs. Fighting music kept mu pumped up, sad music made me feel more compassion toward characters in their serious moments. Every time I came back to karaoke I had a great time even after playing the same song several times. I am definitely going to listen to some tracks in my free time.
- Fighting - It felt great. Rush Style is probably my favorite, but I was using all of them all the time and before maxing out the Dragon Style, none felt less impactful than the others. Yeah, the maxed out Dragon Style takes the spot, but it takes a while before you get to that point. And before that, you need to rely on these 3 styles.
- Side content - For casual playing, side content is amazing. Many substories, minigames, collectables, and they are often connected in some way so it's not always boring. For the completion list, it gets annoying at some point (looking at you, acquiring weapons). But I enjoyed the grind nonetheless.

Also Mahjong > Gambling Hall

I started with Yakuza Like a Dragon and wanted to jump to the start of the series after to get all the story I had missed. All the advice I saw online was insistent that the best move is to start with the beginning of the series in Kiwami and NOT the beginning of the story in 0. I ignored all of that and played 0 first, loving the game from start to finish. When I was finally done 100+ hours later I was eager to jump into the next game.

I don't want to have to just compare this to a different game, but I quickly understood why people are so adamant on playing this game first as it's very barebones compared to 0. I knew it would be but I didn't think it would actually affect my enjoyment, but I just can't enjoy playing it and can't make it far enough into the game to even give this a rating.

I read the warnings, I heard the warnings, and I ignored them all. I am Icarus, Yakuza 0 is the sun, and I got too close, had my wings melted and plunged into the ocean that is Yakuza Kiwami to drown in my own hubris.

The goal was to finish all the Yakuza games before the end of 2024. I don't think that's going to happen anymore but I will someday come back to this game and give it the playthrough it deserves once my palette is cleansed of a more modern Yakuza experience.

+ The introduction is absolutely fantastic
+ Relationship between Kiryu and Nishiki is very interesting from the get-go
+ Ending sequence is quite entertaining

- The pacing is atrocious, the middle portion in particular is painful to play
- Bosses regenerate health in seemingly random fashion, makes some fights extremely long
- Presentation is very lacking, even for a remaster

Yakuza Kiwami is a huge step down from the heights that Zero achieves, from gameplay to pacing to plot complexity. Thankfully, Kiryu and Nishiki's chemistry is so good that their interactions are entertaining enough to offset some of the game's bigger problems.