Ok so it's been like... almost 2-3 months, I should probably write my feelings on Kiwami 1, especially with the "recent" playthrough and stuff. Spoilers for the game and maybe other Yakuza games, most definetly 0.

So Kiwami 1 is interesting coming into it for my first time. 0 wowed me, though more or less because I was a big fan of Majima more than anything, but I did like what I saw and I wanted to continue, and thus my following first playthrough was fun to go through. I liked the combat since I wasn't that fond of the 3 heat bar at the time, especially when I got all the dragon abilities, I had fun going through Majima Everywhere and seeing my guy, my dude, my man? Majima find all the ways to get Kiryu to fight him, even if grinding out some of the last abilities was a tad tedious. I remember really the story minus a couple notable characters. Yakuza or LaD now I guess was a new series to me at the time, so coming in and seeing that nearly 2 decades later all these little connections and substories and events all glued together was cool. That's partly why even now the Pocket Circuit stuff is so fun to me. Though less because of the actual racing, and more because I like the characters.

I had some hiccups (of which I'll get into soon as they relate to my current onion), but overall, I thought that it was a fun and oddly comfy exprience. It had a simple but pretty striking story, some fun substories, and cool Majima stuff that just kind of fed into me liking him more. I'd even reaffirm this after I played 6 and replayed 0, just waiting so I could play LaD 7 and the Judgement games. (This was a few months before I had my PS5) Sure I was on legend mode the second run, and it made the chapter against Lau Ka Long and the proceeding Car Chase a much more annoying affair due to me dying at the near end, and having to redo it all again, but it wasn't enough to stomp out my feelings. In fact, it was fun coming back, armed with knowledge of the rest of the series, and treading through how I started once I began this 3rd playthrough. Kind of a similar but not as strong feeling as going back to 0 did, but eh.

Cut to nowadays, and I feel mixed more than anything about Kiwami 1. Granted I feel mixed about both the remakes, but K2 as I'll explain in that one is because I kind of hate early Dragon Engine gameplay, so specifically anything prior to Judgement. Here though, it's more that things don't feel like they hold up nearly as well? Granted, I say it like it went from high regards to I hate it, really it was like a solid 15/20 exprience going to like a 13/20 or something like that.

To start positively, I still feel a lot of my initial compliments are in check. I feel that Kiryu controls really nicely with all styles, especially with the addition of the style-swap canceling, making him feel really fluent in a fight, and that's not including the eventual temporary stat buffs. I think Majima Everywhere is still fun, but I do get people's complaints about it being a drag after a bit, as well as how it undermines Majima's actual presence in the story. And while I think the story is a little oddly padded out with certain plot beats feeling a bit jarring or clunky (or just bad with Nishiki), but I think the story is still pretty fun to follow. If you played this first, then it would also serve as a nice introduction to many of the forces involved, whether they assist or go for Kiryu's neck. It's also looking at this in hindsight that I really appreciate early Haruka. The main traits with her being that while she's still a kid, she's determined and wiser beyond her years, and I think they do play to that pretty well, especially with the soapland bit before getting into Shangri-La.

Let's see... I like the music a lot, though that's a Yakuza staple, I like the cutscenes, at least ones pulled from the original game. They kept many aspects of them like the fades to black and PS2 rigging. The game is working in limits that have been long surpassed, so it's kinda funny seeing them being reused if only because remaking all the scenes would be a bit too much. Favorite example of it is when we have Kiryu and Yuya meet for the first time, where the two are just walking around each other, and the camera is just spinning all around them. It's really good.

Honestly, there's more I feel I can get into if we start going through "negatives", so let's do that. The first is combat. So I said before that it still feels fluent, and I stand by that, but it's less that it doesn't, and more that I feel the styles until late-game don't feel as punchy as they should. Brawler is ok, Rush feels kind of meh, and Beast feels kind of stripped down, despite Essence of Pinning being unlocked from the get-go for some reason? Dragon feels terrible early on, but that makes sense as the game does push you into the direction of building it and making it stronger, and I do like the sentiment that the initial 3 styles are just training wheels for what's to come, the Dragon Reborn. My problem is partly they don't feel as good to use, but really it's tied down to 2 major factors. Enemy design and the Climax Heat Bars.

Starting with the latter, similar to later games like 3 and 4, Kiryu has a red bar of heat added to the end of the heat bar. These red heat bars lock behind them heat actions and better speed, damage, durability, like typical. In Dragon Style however, all heat is red heat, so it's really easy to do heat actions, but a lot of stuff needs heat in that style, such as finishers, grab finishers, etc. Just glad that counters don't drain the damn thing anymore (minus Komaki reversal but that's a heat action). The reason this doesn't mesh as well with other styles is that the red bars lock behind what were really key heat actions that helped rounded out the play styles more in 0. Rush is a big example, as it locks out the Heat Action where you hit a stunned enemy so far it knocks into other enemies. That one was there from the start in 0, but here, it's locked behind red heat. Considering you'd probably have to go out of your way early on to get red heat, it means that Rush Style lacks one of it's strongest options for crowd control, and that's like one for rush, Beast Style especially has so many moves locked behind Climax Heat Bars. Now I am stretching a bit for this, it doesn't take long to get a climax heat bar, especially if you go for it first, and Beast especially is really good at getting heat quickly due to it's crowd control and damage output, so it's not as bad. That's all fine and fair, but enemies certainly don't make it easier...

Now from what I've gathered, Kiwami 1's enemy design is less thought out and more difficult than 0's, but I think that's less because there's an absurd amount of enemies or whatever, and more because of 2 factors compounded with however aggressive you make them via difficulty. The first is super armor. At least I think that's what's going on. There are times where you'll try attacking an opponent, and while they will get damaged, they will also go through your attack and hit you through it. That in specific is not great for Beast as it is normally pretty slow, so it's really easy, especially for more aggressive enemies on like, Legend mode to just hit you when you try to strike, or even worse, they strike you while you are trying to grab an item, causing the item to get knocked out of Kiryu's mitts and probably break. It also probably doesn't help that a lot more fights in this game are groups you gotta pummel through, but eh.

The second of the enemy issues is more a mini-boss and boss thing, and that's the healing bullshit they use. Even on my first playthrough, I remember thinking this was a dumb mechanic. So for context, mini-boss and boss enemies will start healing health midway through a fight, and by the time you get later in the game, it can be a lot that they heal back. It feels like a dumb mecahnic because it just artificially extends fights unless I use a really specific "CLIMAX HEAT MOVE" to get it to stop, most of them I won't have for a few chapters into the game, and the final one I won't have until I master Dragon Style. It feels like a really hollow thing to add to bosses, even if the Heat Actions themselves are cool. Kiryu fucking ora oras a guy, probably Majima. Now, compared to the super armor thing, this is a more obvious but oddly less annoying part to deal with, it just makes dealing with fights that much more tedious, unless you have Tiger Drop and then it all becomes moot. Mentioning Tiger Drop is kind of weird in this case, because I think it's a really cool move, but in this game, it feels really easy to do, and can trivialize much of the game, especially if you use any of the "Time for X" upgrades. Those do solve some of my problems and can be really fun. They are basically asking to trade a full bar of heat for major stat boosts to durability, speed, or especially strength, which is really cool late game. Or you know, if you like to send enemies to combo hell with a mix of speed and style swapping. Kiwami 1 Combos are crazy as hell.

So that's kind of it gameplay wise. Kiryu is very fluent and fun to control, but I feel that the returning styles aren't as solid as they were in 0, Dragon take a long time to get working, and some combat stuff kind of sucks like Healing and Enemy Super Armor.

Next notable bits are related to writing and story. This especially is where spoilers are gonna come into play.

First off and simply enough, substories. This one is less bad... more just basic. I mean mechanically, there are a few I remember that are quite finicky about triggering, like Prodigal Son, but the ones that return from the original game are just that, basic. There are pretty fine ones, though there are a lot that are just pretty one-note. I do like a lot of the new ones introduced in this game though. Stand outs are ones like Memories of the Bubble, the return of Pocket Circuit, Behind the Assassin, Komaki's Training: Clear-Minded Mastery, and Searching for a Present, all either for being fun call backs or continuations of 0, having some fun dialogue and interactions, or just being really cool in one way or another. I also like the ones that return from 1, like the Yakuza's Wife, the Bump and Scam quadrilogy, My Baby's a Showgirl, The Cell Phone Plan, and Pay it Forward. These are all just fun to go through for one reason or another. Overall, I think substories are plainly just fine, but that's about it. Also the Amon fight is really fun, probably my favorite in the series right now.

So... Majima. The M.E. system is cool but can drag on, and as I said before, it kind of guts Majima's role in the story, and I don't just mean the holes in his chest. The first case is involving the two fights with him in the story. Majima takes a knife for Kiryu at the end of the first, and in the original, we fight him while still bandaged up from that wound. In this game though, because of M.E., Majima is fine after the initial stab. So their way of fixing it is before Kiryu goes to Shangri-La, Majima gets him a Taxi down to the docks because Kiryu was being followed by a group of hitmen out for him, and so Kiryu and Majima team up to deal with them. At the end of it though, Majima takes a bullet and falls into the water, presumably dying. Kiryu thinks for half a second "hey, maybe I should help". But then just says he's got better things to do and scrams. When Majima comes back later that night, he has the bandages. This entire roundabout way to getting bandages on the man to keep with continuity is daft, but really funny. The other one that's funny but one I take less issue with is after killing off Shimano. Majima texts Kiryu telling him that there's no beef between them for that, which does sound bad, and very much just feels like them trying to keep M.E. going, but it weirdly works as an ambiguous cap off to Majima and Shimano's relationship. I dunno, with 0 in mind, being the part that really shows Shimano being a major role in forcing Majima into the Mad Dog role, it makes it a fun bit of something to speculate about just how he might've taken the news of Shimano's death considering he was seemingly so non-chalant about it.

Now while Majima's a victim of the game inserting stuff in, I think Nishiki suffers it more, though not without the initial things I didn't like before. Well that and Jingu by extension, since he's boring af. The problem with him though is more interwoven into Nishiki, and Nishiki in specific has a bit of history. On my first playthrough, I really didn't like the context to how Nishiki ended up fighting Kiryu, even if the ending stuff afterwards is a good way to wrap it up and how I think it should be. To sum it up, after Kiryu's fight with Jingu finishes, Nishiki walks in and tries to take the spotlight, insistent on taking on the role of Chairman of the Tojo. When Kiryu and co. tries to explain to him that Jingu was playing him for his own game, he exclaims he already knew, which then leads into him explaining his resolve and loss, and snapping at Yumi, leading to him and Kiryu's grand fight. It feels bad though, because he makes a big point about "not being able to trust anyone" as he tries to amass more power and make it to the top of the Tojo. Though based on that sentiment, I would've thought that Nishiki intended to backstab Jingu for his money at the end, making him the defacto last threat would've made more sense, not him awkwardly inserting himself in the plot after the Jingu stuff to have a fist fight with Kiryu. Granted, a lot of this scene is already somewhat awkward as Nishiki seems real hesitant to listen to reason, and it leads to him snapping at everyone before the fight "claiming that it's how fate had to be", but I can let that slide since that's more awkwardness between old friends turning really sour, not weird writing problems.

I still think all that about the plot. Jingu isn't really an interesting villain at all, a pragmatic opportunist sure, but one that falls flat with how stock of an "evil-guy" he carries himself as. His and Yumi's discussion before his fight is kind of grating because of that. I feel like if Nishiki tried taking the reigns more in the plot, it not only would've made his entrance into the fight a lot cleaner, but would've made Jingu's role in it feel a bit more fitting, and make the scene at the end between him, Nishiki, and the bomb a bit more interesting for both sides. Or something along those lines. Because if Nishiki seemingly knew that he was being toyed with, he sure as hell didn't do much to get away with it. It all just kind of sucks because I still think the ending after the Nishikiyama fight works just as it does. Jingu comes back with a gun in tow, attempts to finish off Kiryu, but Nishiki comes in for the save, and sacrifices himself to stop Jingu and the money he clung to for so long. It's a good ending, just the jump to it feels a little clumsy with how the two antagonists ended up getting there.

I think the other thing I've come to dislike is the new cutscenes added to explain Nishiki's story in the 10 years while Kiryu is jailed. It's not a bad idea, if a bit unnecessary, considering the baseline of problems set by 1 and the full delving of character Nishiki got in 0 already felt like plenty to go off. Here though, they sort of go a bit too hard on the "fall" part of Nishiki's fall in the 10 year span. The basic idea before is that Nishiki is reliable and compassionate for those that he cares for, but he's a bit shallow, prone to jealousy, and certainly easy to break without guidance. 0 was a time where he and Kiryu, while young, were brothers, were close and unhampered by jealousy and status. They wanted to climb the ranks, sure, but they were in it together. And 1 shows Nishiki succumbing to his jealousy after one bad thing after another takes effect, sending him spiraling. He shoots the patriarch and gets Kiryu put in jail. He lost Yumi soon after, and then lost his sister, and assumingly Shintaro kept his distance after learning who shot Dojima. With barely anyone to tether or guide Nishiki, it's no wonder that he fell to unchecked and callous ambition to climb the ranks. It even explains why that cutscene before his fight feels awkward, at least in regard to Nishiki trying to prove something, anything, to Yumi and Kiryu. It doesn't really cover the other reason why that scene is awkward, but that's a me thing.

In these new scenes though, they paint Nishiki as someone everyone thinks is a joke, give him his own family and status as patriarch, but then gives him the worst people to work with, and make everything involving losing his sister not just saddening, but unnecessarily mean-spirited. When Nishiki is at his rope's end, he either kills himself, or what he ended up doing, killing the asshole who got him the money, and uses the justification that one death or two, he should just kill off anyone who gets in his way so long as it means he can reach the top of the Tojo. I'm not saying him breaking wasn't gonna happen, that's been hinted at since 0 and this is a part of a pre-established story, but the way it's done here makes it feel really corny. It's so evil and played up that I can't really take putting his hair back seriously, not in the slightest. Even for a series that bathes in it's own melodrama and silliness, this feels kind of hard to believe.

It just plays things up to make Nishiki more miserable, and that's kind of why I don't like it that much. If they kept any of it, it would've made more sense to just see Nishiki growing more paranoid and distrustful as stuff went wrong, leading to brasher actions to climbing the ranks that eventually made him the cold and broken person he is in K1 proper. Less of everything building into one "flash of inspiration" and more him spiraling and losing his way over the decade. They do point out a couple of neat things for it, like him becoming a patriarch, but being told to welcome Kiryu back once he's out. Initially he's thrilled on the prospect, but once things go bad, he starts to blame Kiryu for how things turned out, something that he tbf, brought on himself. The part also with Reina and him snapping at one another while a pretty fucked up scene to watch also sort of gets the idea across better on how the paranoia would break him... but eh. It is what it is.

I think I've said all I want to, so let's have a TL;DR. I think the combat is overall really fluent but hindered by the enemy design and the styles take awhile to feel good to work with, I think the story before the additions has some issues with pacing and some hang-ups with Nishiki, but it's overall fine, fun even. With what they added, I dislike even more how Nishiki is portrayed, the Majima Everywhere system is cool but can drag on a bit, and the substories are a mixed bag between pretty neat or bare bones. I said that this game was a comfy game due to it's fun and brevity to at least get to Amon, and I think I still agree with that, just probably not as much as prior. Solid 13/20.