If you play these games the way I did, this will be your first Dragon Engine game, and the first one for a long time. First impressions matter, and the simple ability of walking into a store or restaurant directly from the street had me unreasonably impressed. Compared to the expansion pack feeling of Kiwami 1, this feels like the first genuinely modern (as in, the setting) Yakuza experience.
Hot take: I'm in favour of these games bringing the insanity of the side content into the main story. Hell yeah give me castles rising out of the ground, jokes about the Millennium Tower exploding, dud bombs, all of that. I never know what's going on in these stories anyway, why not have some fun with it?
As a sequel to Kiwami 1, this treads the line much more confidently between remaking the original Yakuza 2 and continuing the story from 0. Kiryu getting to see what Majima's club from 0 is up to now and the entire Majima Saga side story are perfect ways to complete that circle from the prequel, and unlike with Kiwami 1 these new additions don't get in the way of the content from the original game. I also personally have to give this game props for making me actually cry over one of the songs in the karaoke ("Tonight", I wasn't expecting it to carry over from Kiwami 1 and it was a lot more impactful here, I thought).
Hot take: I'm in favour of these games bringing the insanity of the side content into the main story. Hell yeah give me castles rising out of the ground, jokes about the Millennium Tower exploding, dud bombs, all of that. I never know what's going on in these stories anyway, why not have some fun with it?
As a sequel to Kiwami 1, this treads the line much more confidently between remaking the original Yakuza 2 and continuing the story from 0. Kiryu getting to see what Majima's club from 0 is up to now and the entire Majima Saga side story are perfect ways to complete that circle from the prequel, and unlike with Kiwami 1 these new additions don't get in the way of the content from the original game. I also personally have to give this game props for making me actually cry over one of the songs in the karaoke ("Tonight", I wasn't expecting it to carry over from Kiwami 1 and it was a lot more impactful here, I thought).