Alright, now that i'm back in with the Dragon Engine stuff, I probably should give Yakuza Kiwami 2 a proper look before I forget too much about things. Even then, I doubt my thoughts on a lot of Kiwami 2 will be as meaty or well informed as the rest of the series. But that is partly because it's the game I want to compare and contrast the most with it's PS2 counterpart, and that'll take some strong overlooking of both. So to make up for it partially, this review will consist of both the main Kiwami 2 stuff, and the Majima Saga as a bonus, since I got a lot of nice things to say about that.

Honestly in terms of Kiwami 2's gameplay, it is very much a step-up from 6. It retains a lot of things about 6's gameplay, but makes some appropriate and much need additions to make it better. How you upgrade with the 5 different stats still remain, how you unlock new abilities via a set few menus are pretty similar, and Kiryu's moveset basics are still here, including the dropkick, parry, tiger drop, bounding throws, etc.. In return, Kiryu gets the older version of the heat bar where it's an actual bar this time, not the heat orbs. Kiryu gets a lot more heat actions to do with just his basic fists, including a heat move that hits ground opponents, finally. His weapon and gear is a lot more emphasized in this game with a ton of old movesets returning such as spears, bats, golf clubs, tonfa, etc., as well as the gear slots now being a full 3 of them rather than just plainly 2 of them. Also because this is Yakuza 2, not only does unlocking a lot of these moves come from substories, completion, or just random interesting things around the cities, but they also come with a friend system. This system gives Kiryu a bunch of unique heat actions to open fights with. There's not much more than that, but they can be cool otherwise. To sum it up, it's 6's systems, but rounded out with amount of versatility that you'd probably expect from Kiryu. It's not all great since lunging punch is still here and it sucks, komaki knockback is back and it got knocked down a peg or 6 in terms of usefulness, but it's overall pretty good.

It relies a lot less on the still present Blue Heat Dragon Spirit mode, even taking out a lot of the 6 heat actions involving it. And relies a whole lot more on Kiryu's strength without it, and of his regained weapon mastery. Seriously this game is one of the few in the series that really pushes me into wanting to use weapons more, and it even sweetens the deal with a late game ability that refreshes used weapons on their durability, making it a really fun way to go ham in the late game. And you'll need it especially for the Amons and Bouncer Missions (we'll get to those later).

While i'll explain it more in depth in the 6 review, my issue with it is less that Kiryu's moveset sucks, which it doesn't, it's perfectly fine and much better than 6's, even has a unique edge not many in the series before could say it had to me, but it is in early dragon engine. Much of the physics, weight, speed, general feel of the game doesn't feel nearly as good since i'm prone to getting punished while trying to hit because the wind down from getting a hit blocked is really long, early on Kiryu can't really move very well because the evasion stat is so low, and trying to crowd control is annoying since you either have to rely on a less effective dropkick, or more accurately rely on throwing and throw finishing guys into one another. That's kind of how I know the grab finishers aren't really good in these games compare to earlier ones, because while I think they don't take up heat, they have a good chance to get interrupted really easily due to walls or objects in the enviroment that will snap the enemy out of your mitts. Plus while it's expanded the reprotoire of heat actions, it still doesn't feel like theres that much new, putting a lot of weight on the weapons to carry the intrigue, which tbf it does kind of do.

Whatever the case, onto side stuff, and there is quite a bit to discuss. Firstly, a lot of gambling stuff returns, the coliseum returns finally, the arcades have a neat selection to work from, and the game juggles 3 very important side modes that carry the majority. First is the return of Cabaret Club Management from 0, but now Kiryu is leading Club Four Shine against the returning Club Sunshine and the many other Cabaret across Sotenbori. It doesn't have as much energy as 0's (nor as interesting of a cast), but there is some good. Majima, Yuki, and Youda make a return and meet up again after those long 18 years, Majima becomes an announcer after plot stuff and he's Majima so it's good, and the addition of the Oil Baron at the end of rounds does certainly make things more interesting, even if it is just a button mash. It's pretty cool.

Next is Majima Construction. This is the reworked version of Clan Creator, now turned into a Tower Defense affair rather than a simple RTS point and click kind of affair. Majima is in the midst of building the hills, but a bunch of real estate folk want a piece of the kamurocho pie, and they even bring an army to do it. Majima ain't gonna turn down a fight, but he also has a job and needs the equipment to do it, which is what they target... Never fear, because Kiryu comes to assist the battles by guiding forces into the most optimal spots to defend the hills. Clan Creator has always had this "mashing action figures together" feel since you can build the roster out of any of the availble roster, and i mean more than just the main cast and some side cast, I mean every thug, yakuza, tough guy, police, or freak in the cities of Kamurocho and Sotenbori are up for grabs. It also probably helps my autistic-ass brain since you can choose up to 10 units rather than just 6 like in Y6, so a lot more of an oddball team is guaranteed. I also just like an army vs army kind of thing, it's cool. It's not always the most interesting, and in some ways I kind of like 6's clan creator mode a tad bit more, but this is the better of the two, I like this.

Lastly is the Bouncer Missions. Unfortunately this and the last game don't really have the Ultimate Match mode, a list of challenges laid in a seperate part of the main menu that lets you face some of the trickies challenges the game wouldn't normally throw at you otherwise. K2 makes up for this with these, basically versions of that with the context of being a bouncer, and getting random thugs to mafia and arsonists out of Kamurocho and Sotenbori respectively, all culminating in really REALLY hard matches against an army of assholes led by atleast 1 of the 4 Amon Clan members you fight in this game. Which kind of sucks because I think 2 of them suck to fight, really either of the ones armed with Explosives or firearms can go fuck themselves, otherwise Kazuya and Jo are fine. It's a really cool way to contextualize it, and if for some reason they don't do the challenge mode again, I hope they try something like this again, it was genuinely really fun.

Underneath all of that you got the coliseum which is pretty fleshed out this time around with a lot of returning formats of fighting as well as the new 8 fighter matches that pit you against all the contestants at once, which can and does include tigers. Fucked up. And from my exprience the Substories were overall pretty alright. I remember liking them for the most part. Some of my favorites include Yakuza Sunset, The Charming Councilor, The Granny's Request Quadrilogy, The Fake Kiryu substory (it's called the Legendary Dragon), We're All In This Together!, Rags to Riches (because i'm a sucker for straw millionaire plots), Embracing My True Self, Clearing the Fog, Stolen, and of course the one most people know Y2 for, Be My Baby. It's not my favorite, but the eagerness of the game to get you into it, and the weirdness of the situation tackled by Kiryu being Kiryu is really funny, My favorite is probably Yakuza Sunset because I really like seeing Kiryu go see the movie to get an opinion and having a chat with a dude about it for some fuckin' reason, but it also made me cry a little by the end so yeah...

With that let's head into the main plot, which i'll be honest, I really don't have much of an opinion on other than "Yeah it's pretty good". I mean it's probably a lot better than Yakuza 1's plot due to the ramping of tensions and the webs and webs of stuff going on being pretty fun in the moment to follow. Kiryu also Tiger Drops actual Tigers, like canonically, and it's really cool and funny simutaneously. I think one can argue the amount of surprise "I'm actually part Jingweon" reveals is a little much, but i'm not too bothered by it, especially since it makes certain characters a bit more thematically interesting. I really like Kaoru as one of the leads, she's pretty fun to see fight, her introduction is pretty neat, and the following story with her slowly opening up and getting shaken by a conspiracy she was truly willing to see through no matter how much it hurt her was pretty neat to watch unfold, especially since it helps compliment Kiryu's parts of the story, makes some character reveals later on sting all that much more, and it does make the ups and down with her and Kiryu fun to see. I don't exactly buy these two as a couple, but that's more later game hindsight than anything else, and I can see how it could make sense here, with Kiryu still reeling from a lot of the trouble of the first game's events and trying to stable himself with someone who brings a similar but differing contrast than what Haruka brought. Where Haruka was child with a more optimistic and hopeful look on things, Sayama is a Naive Adult wrapped up in an ever entangling conspiracy. Kiryu is ready to face things with his honor and humility as always, but it does cost him at points. It's a neat contrast, and it does help me get why they would probably have feelings for one another, but I kind of like the idea of them being friends more than anything, so I'm like 75% glad that's the route they went with for 3 (the other 25% is kind of sad she never really came back afterwards, she'd be really confused with everything that happened with Kiryu).

Among them, I also think Ryuji is a really good villain, partly because all of his fights are great, but also because I think his M.O. being to punch his way through the conspiracy rather than plan through it all makes him an unpredictable and fun villain to see in motion, especially when paired with other characters and even organizations that think they can outsmart him. The other Omi villains are pretty ok, Sengoku is somehow more one note than Jingu but it's not really that bad since he also pathetic and gets his ass handed to him by Ryuji. Takashima is the true "mastermind" but is also handily knocked down by Ryuji and he's ok for what he is. His model change is kind of dumb but i'll explain that soon. The Jingweon are more a group of people rather than a couple figureheads, hell technically Ryuji and Kaoru are both Jingweon, but we get a couple faces, including Terada who turns out to live than consequently die right after his "im actually alive" speel. It's kind of eh.

Majima makes his glorious return, and hey, he's certainly a lot less aggressive, and much more prone to a funnier side. He's one of Kiryu's strongest allies, even getting a fight of his own early on, and it's really cool. We'll get to Majima later tho. I do feel for Nishida, his right-hand man in the buisness, but that's because he's gotta play straight-man to this mad dog's tune. In terms of the Tojo, while it's pretty fucked with a succession war tearing it apart over the last year and the recent "death" of Terada leaving it pretty weak, we do get some cool people involved. Not Shindo, he just kind of sucks but gets a cool fight. No no no, we get Daigo, who in hindsight is cool, not much in this game but he has some good moments. And his mom Yayoi, who in K1 is really cool for her substory, and is really cool here as she takes the helm as interim chairman, and she doesn't fuck around either. Honestly i'm suprisied she never came back... Date gets some extra stuff in this game that's pretty cool, but also doesn't really go many places and really only serves to make the police seem pretty useless near the end of the story... which hey that's not suprising, especially for this series, but still. No a lot of the intrigue I think is behind is his old partner, Jiro Kawara who is pretty cool, and plays pretty deep into the workings of the plot.

That's all I really feel like tackling in terms of cast, but it's overall pretty fun, if a bit complicated to explain out in detail with all the different organizations and groups in on the conflict. I think it's a fun story, the only thing I could really address now is the stuff the remake changed in term of story relevance. One whole city got removed (being Shineicho) tho i'm not sure how much you got to do in it, and a lot of stuff like music changes and even model swaps affected the story in different moments. I could certainly feel it in the music department, it makes both the Kiryu stabbing scene and ending credits worse because it loses it's jazzier piece along with Silent Night for more techno-pop-esk songs (i'm not very good at identifying song genres), they don't really add much is what i'm trying to say. Same for a lot of the songs that were replaced for certain fights. Biggest example is Evil Itself, Hayashi's track during his boss fight got replaced for the generic boss fight track, which kind of kills the mood a little. Not by a lot it's still a fun fight, it just doesn't have the same flair. I'll save the Takashima point for later since there is something to mention with it, but if I have two things I do like that they did here... they added Dynamic Intros into all of the major fights which all rock, and they remade A Scattered Moment into A Scattered, Eternal Moment which just amplifies that fights emotions a lot, like it sells it as one of the best in the series, Dragon Engine or not.

And that's about it. Kiwami 2 is a really solid game, a lot of it's side content and story stuff is cool, there is somethings that are weird about what has changed, and the major detracting factor is the Early Dragon Engine for me, but it's still like a 13/20 or so. It's still good.

Now the Majima Saga is where I think things go from Good to Great, which is really funny for a short little mode that you unlock alongside the main story, but this is completely original to the remake. You spend it in early 2006 as Majima, still apart of the Tojo. This story is meant to connect some of the dots on how Majima got to Majima Construction since 2005, and brings closure in some odd ways when he heads to Sotenbori.

First the "major" negative to lob at the part is admittedly Majima's moveset. It's not bad for what it is, but it is a heavily HEAVILY stripped down version of his Mad Dog Style. Only the basic 4 hit combo with the double finishers, a couple heat actions either for single targets or 3 at once (which are kind of cool), his tornado move, andddddd that's it. It is helped that his knife will cut through guarding unarmed opponents, but there is a lot lacking here. Heat actions are fine to be a little lackluster, but a bunch of the more franetic things about the moveset like the Finisher Extension: Mad Dog's Bite where he runs around and swipes at opponents is missing, his extra really far reaching dodge is gone, i'm not even sure if he has his counter anymore. Majima's K2 Mad Dog Style kind of sucks is my point, but I don't think it's that much of a detractor i'll be honest. You can finish the entire thing in like 3 hours or so, even with fighting the mini-bosses and whatnot, and the bigger value out of the side mode is the story more than anything, so while it is a negative, it's not that big of deal.

Now the cool part is the story of it all. Yeah Majima gets to connect dots back to the main game on how he ended up where he did, and it was kind of sweet that he A) Was friends with Kashiwagi, and B) Help Kiryu and Haruka with funds on the occassion. The real cool part was on Majima's visit back to Sotenbori. Not only does he get to visit the Grand a couple of times, even having the 2 final boss fights there, and he gets to meet up with his old rival and almost meets up with Yuki again, the real seller is his meeting with Makoto again. And not just for a small cameo either, the two get a few scenes with one another which not only are pretty funny with Majima needing to keep his identity a secret, but also sweet in that the two in one way or another got some closure after what happened in 88'. Makoto was able to live a good life like Majima wished, and even left a final goodbye gift for her, probably helping her key in just who she was helping. In a weird way, it's a happy little ending for the two of them in this certain way, and certainly helping in explaining why Majima steadily loses the Mad Dog persona as the games continue on. He's gotten distance from everything that happened, and is starting to confront his past, for better or for worst... Honestly I think it's just a really sweet little send off. They didn't need to do it, but if they brought him back for Sotenbori, then I guess they needed somethin'.

In terms of the final bosses, both gun users... they're ok. It's one of Majima's subordinates that makes a mess of things, and another more Buisness-minded Yakuza name Kei Ibuchi who ends up trying to start a war with the Omi by using the subordinate to kill an Omi man and start the war up (early), which is promptly shut down by Majima torching his spot in the Tojo as repentance, and starting Majima Construction in a place of work. It's like an ok fight due to the limited Majima moveset, but this is where I saved the Takashima point for. I assume the game was shipped with Majima saga in tow, so like, why did they give Takashima the older model to work off of while this random ass character in the Majima Side story thing get the young buisness yakuza schemer look? I mean it's hard to say if there was much intentionality with the choice, it's just hard not to notice considering being an older guy sort of goes against the point of Takashima's role in the story. It's not a big thing, but it's weird.

Either way, that's the Majima saga basically. I didn't really mention much side stuff because the most you got is fighting mini-bosses as Majima which gets you money and items, but it's just kind of there more or less. You can also do Kareoke as Majima, and he gets not only his personal rendition of Pride from Despair, but he also gets a song to his own As Long as You're Happy, which is just one of the prettiest but kind of melancholic songs in the series. It's not like "Today is a Diamond" where it's cheerful sounding music with fucked up lyrics, it's more on the nose and very emotional, but it also gets across some of Majima's feelings when it comes to everything with Makoto, and it's a sweet little song.

If the main game is like a 13/20 or somethin', the Majima Saga is solidly a 15/20. For what it is, I think it's a really sweet little story that connects dots and brings closure to one of my favorite characters in the series. I like it. Overall, this is a good game, just hampered more or less by Dragon Engine stuff, but does also conveniently have some of the best yakuza stuff in it... so ehhh. Good game and then some.

Unlike other ones that take me a while to come back to, I think I can give out my thoughts on this story pretty easily, from game to story to whatever else.

So Kaito got his own DLC, even got me to play Lost Judgment a second time in preparation for it, and I remembered liking it a lot. Coming back to it now, I feel I have a better grasp on why.

Starting with gameplay because that's my favorite part to breakdown in these games, the Kaito Files is basically as fluid and snappy as the main game is. Keeps a bunch of it's mechanics like the snappier style switching and the mortal reversals, but now puts it in the hands of someone like Masaharu Kaito.

His two styles are takes on Kiryu's Brawler and Beast styles in the form of Bruiser and Tank. Bruiser while keeping the basic combos and ideas of the style add in some new double finishers for the 3 and 4 chain and gives Kaito a sort of repel that is used right as an opponent attacks. Hitting this will give Kaito a massive speed boost. It's especially good with Tank's charged rush combo or the EX Combo unique to Bruiser that ends with launching foes, and both are great for juggling, so long as the boost is still active. The only downside is that instead of a normal grab, Kaito's grab is a command grab that makes him unable to carry weapons or foes in his mits, luckily that's where Tank comes in. Tank is pretty unapologetically just Beast, but that's far from a bad thing, because Beast is just a good style what with it's focus on raw damage, defense, and grabbing shit off the street to smack someone with it. They made it work pretty well here by making the Perfect Iron Guard the center piece of the style, whereby guarding at the right time, Kaito can just tank attacks like an iron wall, and take little to no damage, as well as lead into grabs, attacks, etc. That and this style very much makes grabbing shit of the street fun. Listen, you don't wanna be talking shit when you're in range of a bicycle rack.

Both styles are really fun to play around with. Even if Kaito doesn't have as much as Yagami's other styles, he still brings to the table some really interesting takes on his gameplay. I should also probably mention that his search sections are really fun because of his enhanced senses of smell and hearing. Even if you're not getting too much, some of the stuff they do with it in the game is really neat, like being able to sniff out a trap, or hear a guy mumble to himself about losing an item that you can pick up for yourself. I like that, and I feel that does a bit more with it than Yagami's detective tools (plus it doesn't have the sensor beeping, and I applaud that).

Moving onto the story, I think it's really good. For a shorter told story in like, 4 chapters, I think it makes the most out of it with a ton of neat moments with newer and older characters while telling a pretty neat little narrative tying back to Kaito. I said before I really like stories that bring the character's past back into sharper focus, and tie it into the modern day, and we get that with Kaito. He's typically the comedic muscle to the duo of the Yagami Detective Agency, but seeing him lead and getting to know him more because of it, especially when the story digs into his past and puts him alongside a pretty reckless and cocky kid like Jun brings out a really neat side to the dude. He really is the Ex-Yakuza Hero i'm rooting for. I also really like a lot of the main cast, both in some protagonists or supporting characters like Mikiko, Igarashi, Shirakaba, and especially Jun. Though as for antagonists, I think the main two in Kenmochi and Kyoya are pretty damn interesting.

Kyoya is a malicious force by the end, who I think they get across fine enough. I like seeing him at the beginning and middle where he's mostly shown as pretty understanding and non-threatening, if a bit more absent than he should, but the little hints they throw in makes sense on how he could be as cold as he is by the end. Plus, he is kind of fun seeing just how casual and performative he is in setting up his winning play. At least before he gets outplayed by sheer character growth.

Though I think Kenmochi is one guy in particular who stuck with me more for his portrayal throughout the game, and mainly in the fact that he probably isn't all there. I mean he spends most of his time drinking until he pukes, he comes off pretty intense in how he talks of getting back at people, and we see from chapter 3 onwards the reason he's such a wreck. Its his role in the plot that left him constantly seeing visions of the people he killed, and constantly being haunted by them. Even by the end, where he's taking out Kyoya in a last, desper ate, and grief infused anger by wringing his neck, he still comes off more depressing than anything. Sure, he's done or was about to do some pretty shitty stuff throughout his story, but man, he needed some kind of help...

Aside from those two though, the antagonists of the story are not that much to ride home about. I do think it is funny that the Bato guys get pretty easily sniffed out by Kaito, and in turn gets the cops called on them. It's a pretty funny moment. We also see Fudo Oshikiri from the Boxing School Story in LJ's main story make a return to fight Kaito, and uhh, hey I guess glad his arc got a resolution, I hope he ends up doing some good with that.

Though if we're talking fights, I think pretty easily the two with Kenmochi and one with Kyoya are highlights, and I do like the Blood-Drunk Master even if he is a Tesso reskin, but above all else, I really like who the actual final boss turns out to be. He's not as tough or dirty of a fighter as Kyoya is, but he's not to be underestimated. That's for sure.

Overall, I really like this little DLC story. It pulled out a lot of tricks to make the minute-to-minute gameplay really fun, Kaito's styles are pretty cool takes on older styles to use, and I think the little tale told is really well done. Good side-game.

Alright, now that i'm back in with the Dragon Engine stuff, I probably should give Yakuza Kiwami 2 a proper look before I forget too much about things. Even then, I doubt my thoughts on a lot of Kiwami 2 will be as meaty or well informed as the rest of the series. But that is partly because it's the game I want to compare and contrast the most with it's PS2 counterpart, and that'll take some strong overlooking of both. So to make up for it partially, this review will consist of both the main Kiwami 2 stuff, and the Majima Saga as a bonus, since I got a lot of nice things to say about that.

Honestly in terms of Kiwami 2's gameplay, it is very much a step-up from 6. It retains a lot of things about 6's gameplay, but makes some appropriate and much need additions to make it better. How you upgrade with the 5 different stats still remain, how you unlock new abilities via a set few menus are pretty similar, and Kiryu's moveset basics are still here, including the dropkick, parry, tiger drop, bounding throws, etc.. In return, Kiryu gets the older version of the heat bar where it's an actual bar this time, not the heat orbs. Kiryu gets a lot more heat actions to do with just his basic fists, including a heat move that hits ground opponents, finally. His weapon and gear is a lot more emphasized in this game with a ton of old movesets returning such as spears, bats, golf clubs, tonfa, etc., as well as the gear slots now being a full 3 of them rather than just plainly 2 of them. Also because this is Yakuza 2, not only does unlocking a lot of these moves come from substories, completion, or just random interesting things around the cities, but they also come with a friend system. This system gives Kiryu a bunch of unique heat actions to open fights with. There's not much more than that, but they can be cool otherwise. To sum it up, it's 6's systems, but rounded out with amount of versatility that you'd probably expect from Kiryu. It's not all great since lunging punch is still here and it sucks, komaki knockback is back and it got knocked down a peg or 6 in terms of usefulness, but it's overall pretty good.

It relies a lot less on the still present Blue Heat Dragon Spirit mode, even taking out a lot of the 6 heat actions involving it. And relies a whole lot more on Kiryu's strength without it, and of his regained weapon mastery. Seriously this game is one of the few in the series that really pushes me into wanting to use weapons more, and it even sweetens the deal with a late game ability that refreshes used weapons on their durability, making it a really fun way to go ham in the late game. And you'll need it especially for the Amons and Bouncer Missions (we'll get to those later).

While i'll explain it more in depth in the 6 review, my issue with it is less that Kiryu's moveset sucks, which it doesn't, it's perfectly fine and much better than 6's, even has a unique edge not many in the series before could say it had to me, but it is in early dragon engine. Much of the physics, weight, speed, general feel of the game doesn't feel nearly as good since i'm prone to getting punished while trying to hit because the wind down from getting a hit blocked is really long, early on Kiryu can't really move very well because the evasion stat is so low, and trying to crowd control is annoying since you either have to rely on a less effective dropkick, or more accurately rely on throwing and throw finishing guys into one another. That's kind of how I know the grab finishers aren't really good in these games compare to earlier ones, because while I think they don't take up heat, they have a good chance to get interrupted really easily due to walls or objects in the enviroment that will snap the enemy out of your mitts. Plus while it's expanded the reprotoire of heat actions, it still doesn't feel like theres that much new, putting a lot of weight on the weapons to carry the intrigue, which tbf it does kind of do.

Whatever the case, onto side stuff, and there is quite a bit to discuss. Firstly, a lot of gambling stuff returns, the coliseum returns finally, the arcades have a neat selection to work from, and the game juggles 3 very important side modes that carry the majority. First is the return of Cabaret Club Management from 0, but now Kiryu is leading Club Four Shine against the returning Club Sunshine and the many other Cabaret across Sotenbori. It doesn't have as much energy as 0's (nor as interesting of a cast), but there is some good. Majima, Yuki, and Youda make a return and meet up again after those long 18 years, Majima becomes an announcer after plot stuff and he's Majima so it's good, and the addition of the Oil Baron at the end of rounds does certainly make things more interesting, even if it is just a button mash. It's pretty cool.

Next is Majima Construction. This is the reworked version of Clan Creator, now turned into a Tower Defense affair rather than a simple RTS point and click kind of affair. Majima is in the midst of building the hills, but a bunch of real estate folk want a piece of the kamurocho pie, and they even bring an army to do it. Majima ain't gonna turn down a fight, but he also has a job and needs the equipment to do it, which is what they target... Never fear, because Kiryu comes to assist the battles by guiding forces into the most optimal spots to defend the hills. Clan Creator has always had this "mashing action figures together" feel since you can build the roster out of any of the availble roster, and i mean more than just the main cast and some side cast, I mean every thug, yakuza, tough guy, police, or freak in the cities of Kamurocho and Sotenbori are up for grabs. It also probably helps my autistic-ass brain since you can choose up to 10 units rather than just 6 like in Y6, so a lot more of an oddball team is guaranteed. I also just like an army vs army kind of thing, it's cool. It's not always the most interesting, and in some ways I kind of like 6's clan creator mode a tad bit more, but this is the better of the two, I like this.

Lastly is the Bouncer Missions. Unfortunately this and the last game don't really have the Ultimate Match mode, a list of challenges laid in a seperate part of the main menu that lets you face some of the trickies challenges the game wouldn't normally throw at you otherwise. K2 makes up for this with these, basically versions of that with the context of being a bouncer, and getting random thugs to mafia and arsonists out of Kamurocho and Sotenbori respectively, all culminating in really REALLY hard matches against an army of assholes led by atleast 1 of the 4 Amon Clan members you fight in this game. Which kind of sucks because I think 2 of them suck to fight, really either of the ones armed with Explosives or firearms can go fuck themselves, otherwise Kazuya and Jo are fine. It's a really cool way to contextualize it, and if for some reason they don't do the challenge mode again, I hope they try something like this again, it was genuinely really fun.

Underneath all of that you got the coliseum which is pretty fleshed out this time around with a lot of returning formats of fighting as well as the new 8 fighter matches that pit you against all the contestants at once, which can and does include tigers. Fucked up. And from my exprience the Substories were overall pretty alright. I remember liking them for the most part. Some of my favorites include Yakuza Sunset, The Charming Councilor, The Granny's Request Quadrilogy, The Fake Kiryu substory (it's called the Legendary Dragon), We're All In This Together!, Rags to Riches (because i'm a sucker for straw millionaire plots), Embracing My True Self, Clearing the Fog, Stolen, and of course the one most people know Y2 for, Be My Baby. It's not my favorite, but the eagerness of the game to get you into it, and the weirdness of the situation tackled by Kiryu being Kiryu is really funny, My favorite is probably Yakuza Sunset because I really like seeing Kiryu go see the movie to get an opinion and having a chat with a dude about it for some fuckin' reason, but it also made me cry a little by the end so yeah...

With that let's head into the main plot, which i'll be honest, I really don't have much of an opinion on other than "Yeah it's pretty good". I mean it's probably a lot better than Yakuza 1's plot due to the ramping of tensions and the webs and webs of stuff going on being pretty fun in the moment to follow. Kiryu also Tiger Drops actual Tigers, like canonically, and it's really cool and funny simutaneously. I think one can argue the amount of surprise "I'm actually part Jingweon" reveals is a little much, but i'm not too bothered by it, especially since it makes certain characters a bit more thematically interesting. I really like Kaoru as one of the leads, she's pretty fun to see fight, her introduction is pretty neat, and the following story with her slowly opening up and getting shaken by a conspiracy she was truly willing to see through no matter how much it hurt her was pretty neat to watch unfold, especially since it helps compliment Kiryu's parts of the story, makes some character reveals later on sting all that much more, and it does make the ups and down with her and Kiryu fun to see. I don't exactly buy these two as a couple, but that's more later game hindsight than anything else, and I can see how it could make sense here, with Kiryu still reeling from a lot of the trouble of the first game's events and trying to stable himself with someone who brings a similar but differing contrast than what Haruka brought. Where Haruka was child with a more optimistic and hopeful look on things, Sayama is a Naive Adult wrapped up in an ever entangling conspiracy. Kiryu is ready to face things with his honor and humility as always, but it does cost him at points. It's a neat contrast, and it does help me get why they would probably have feelings for one another, but I kind of like the idea of them being friends more than anything, so I'm like 75% glad that's the route they went with for 3 (the other 25% is kind of sad she never really came back afterwards, she'd be really confused with everything that happened with Kiryu).

Among them, I also think Ryuji is a really good villain, partly because all of his fights are great, but also because I think his M.O. being to punch his way through the conspiracy rather than plan through it all makes him an unpredictable and fun villain to see in motion, especially when paired with other characters and even organizations that think they can outsmart him. The other Omi villains are pretty ok, Sengoku is somehow more one note than Jingu but it's not really that bad since he also pathetic and gets his ass handed to him by Ryuji. Takashima is the true "mastermind" but is also handily knocked down by Ryuji and he's ok for what he is. His model change is kind of dumb but i'll explain that soon. The Jingweon are more a group of people rather than a couple figureheads, hell technically Ryuji and Kaoru are both Jingweon, but we get a couple faces, including Terada who turns out to live than consequently die right after his "im actually alive" speel. It's kind of eh.

Majima makes his glorious return, and hey, he's certainly a lot less aggressive, and much more prone to a funnier side. He's one of Kiryu's strongest allies, even getting a fight of his own early on, and it's really cool. We'll get to Majima later tho. I do feel for Nishida, his right-hand man in the buisness, but that's because he's gotta play straight-man to this mad dog's tune. In terms of the Tojo, while it's pretty fucked with a succession war tearing it apart over the last year and the recent "death" of Terada leaving it pretty weak, we do get some cool people involved. Not Shindo, he just kind of sucks but gets a cool fight. No no no, we get Daigo, who in hindsight is cool, not much in this game but he has some good moments. And his mom Yayoi, who in K1 is really cool for her substory, and is really cool here as she takes the helm as interim chairman, and she doesn't fuck around either. Honestly i'm suprisied she never came back... Date gets some extra stuff in this game that's pretty cool, but also doesn't really go many places and really only serves to make the police seem pretty useless near the end of the story... which hey that's not suprising, especially for this series, but still. No a lot of the intrigue I think is behind is his old partner, Jiro Kawara who is pretty cool, and plays pretty deep into the workings of the plot.

That's all I really feel like tackling in terms of cast, but it's overall pretty fun, if a bit complicated to explain out in detail with all the different organizations and groups in on the conflict. I think it's a fun story, the only thing I could really address now is the stuff the remake changed in term of story relevance. One whole city got removed (being Shineicho) tho i'm not sure how much you got to do in it, and a lot of stuff like music changes and even model swaps affected the story in different moments. I could certainly feel it in the music department, it makes both the Kiryu stabbing scene and ending credits worse because it loses it's jazzier piece along with Silent Night for more techno-pop-esk songs (i'm not very good at identifying song genres), they don't really add much is what i'm trying to say. Same for a lot of the songs that were replaced for certain fights. Biggest example is Evil Itself, Hayashi's track during his boss fight got replaced for the generic boss fight track, which kind of kills the mood a little. Not by a lot it's still a fun fight, it just doesn't have the same flair. I'll save the Takashima point for later since there is something to mention with it, but if I have two things I do like that they did here... they added Dynamic Intros into all of the major fights which all rock, and they remade A Scattered Moment into A Scattered, Eternal Moment which just amplifies that fights emotions a lot, like it sells it as one of the best in the series, Dragon Engine or not.

And that's about it. Kiwami 2 is a really solid game, a lot of it's side content and story stuff is cool, there is somethings that are weird about what has changed, and the major detracting factor is the Early Dragon Engine for me, but it's still like a 13/20 or so. It's still good.

Now the Majima Saga is where I think things go from Good to Great, which is really funny for a short little mode that you unlock alongside the main story, but this is completely original to the remake. You spend it in early 2006 as Majima, still apart of the Tojo. This story is meant to connect some of the dots on how Majima got to Majima Construction since 2005, and brings closure in some odd ways when he heads to Sotenbori.

First the "major" negative to lob at the part is admittedly Majima's moveset. It's not bad for what it is, but it is a heavily HEAVILY stripped down version of his Mad Dog Style. Only the basic 4 hit combo with the double finishers, a couple heat actions either for single targets or 3 at once (which are kind of cool), his tornado move, andddddd that's it. It is helped that his knife will cut through guarding unarmed opponents, but there is a lot lacking here. Heat actions are fine to be a little lackluster, but a bunch of the more franetic things about the moveset like the Finisher Extension: Mad Dog's Bite where he runs around and swipes at opponents is missing, his extra really far reaching dodge is gone, i'm not even sure if he has his counter anymore. Majima's K2 Mad Dog Style kind of sucks is my point, but I don't think it's that much of a detractor i'll be honest. You can finish the entire thing in like 3 hours or so, even with fighting the mini-bosses and whatnot, and the bigger value out of the side mode is the story more than anything, so while it is a negative, it's not that big of deal.

Now the cool part is the story of it all. Yeah Majima gets to connect dots back to the main game on how he ended up where he did, and it was kind of sweet that he A) Was friends with Kashiwagi, and B) Help Kiryu and Haruka with funds on the occassion. The real cool part was on Majima's visit back to Sotenbori. Not only does he get to visit the Grand a couple of times, even having the 2 final boss fights there, and he gets to meet up with his old rival and almost meets up with Yuki again, the real seller is his meeting with Makoto again. And not just for a small cameo either, the two get a few scenes with one another which not only are pretty funny with Majima needing to keep his identity a secret, but also sweet in that the two in one way or another got some closure after what happened in 88'. Makoto was able to live a good life like Majima wished, and even left a final goodbye gift for her, probably helping her key in just who she was helping. In a weird way, it's a happy little ending for the two of them in this certain way, and certainly helping in explaining why Majima steadily loses the Mad Dog persona as the games continue on. He's gotten distance from everything that happened, and is starting to confront his past, for better or for worst... Honestly I think it's just a really sweet little send off. They didn't need to do it, but if they brought him back for Sotenbori, then I guess they needed somethin'.

In terms of the final bosses, both gun users... they're ok. It's one of Majima's subordinates that makes a mess of things, and another more Buisness-minded Yakuza name Kei Ibuchi who ends up trying to start a war with the Omi by using the subordinate to kill an Omi man and start the war up (early), which is promptly shut down by Majima torching his spot in the Tojo as repentance, and starting Majima Construction in a place of work. It's like an ok fight due to the limited Majima moveset, but this is where I saved the Takashima point for. I assume the game was shipped with Majima saga in tow, so like, why did they give Takashima the older model to work off of while this random ass character in the Majima Side story thing get the young buisness yakuza schemer look? I mean it's hard to say if there was much intentionality with the choice, it's just hard not to notice considering being an older guy sort of goes against the point of Takashima's role in the story. It's not a big thing, but it's weird.

Either way, that's the Majima saga basically. I didn't really mention much side stuff because the most you got is fighting mini-bosses as Majima which gets you money and items, but it's just kind of there more or less. You can also do Kareoke as Majima, and he gets not only his personal rendition of Pride from Despair, but he also gets a song to his own As Long as You're Happy, which is just one of the prettiest but kind of melancholic songs in the series. It's not like "Today is a Diamond" where it's cheerful sounding music with fucked up lyrics, it's more on the nose and very emotional, but it also gets across some of Majima's feelings when it comes to everything with Makoto, and it's a sweet little song.

If the main game is like a 13/20 or somethin', the Majima Saga is solidly a 15/20. For what it is, I think it's a really sweet little story that connects dots and brings closure to one of my favorite characters in the series. I like it. Overall, this is a good game, just hampered more or less by Dragon Engine stuff, but does also conviently have some of the best yakuza stuff in it... so ehhh. Good game and then some.

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.

This game took a long time for me to actually sit down and play, but I think it's pretty good. Not as much as say, A Link Between Worlds, but this one is really fun regardless.

I have a couple negatives, being that kinstones were at first a little confusing (though I got over it after figuring out how to get kinstones a bit easier), and the temple of droplets is probably my least favorite dungeon due to it's ice physics being pretty annoying. Still has a cool boss and set up tho.

My favorite dungeon on the other hand is probably the Fortress of Winds, partly because it's boss is really cool, but also because i like that despite how open ended the dungeon seems at first with how many doors you can go down, you gotta worm around to find a soluble way through until you get the mole mitts, where then you can go back and tear the dungeon apart. It's a fun feeling, even if the mole mitts aren't my favorite item.

I do like the item selection here though. Stand outs being the roc's cape, the gust jar, the flip cane or whatever it's called, and I really like the deal with the four sword being able to split link up into 4, it's pretty neat on how it's used. I also like the deal with the minish stuff. Both in characters because they are typically adorable mice guys, and in ability as link can shrink to being a minish himself, making up some really neat scenarios with the shrunken point of view.

The only question i have is whats the deal with the light force? I know it's a canon thing since this game i believe precedes OoT, so what it's deal? It doesn't seem to have much to do with the tri force or hylia or what not, though it is similarly sought after due to it's power. Even has a connection to the Hylian Royal Family, so eh?

Either way, I like this game, and i especially like it's sprite work.

So part of the thing going into this "Kirby 100% marathon" was mainly just an excuse to replay Planet Robobot, as I have a lot of connection with it over the years. Never did 100% it though since I didn't get past the final final phase of the True Arena and the stickers. But I also just wanted to come back and see if it's still as good as I remember it being since it has been... a few years I think? I don't think I've touched this since sometime in my last year of high school, which uhhhhhhhh.... fucked up. That was around when I got my switch too, so I guess that checks out.

The biggest revelation playing this after Triple Deluxe however is just wow, this game is if that game was actually really cool. Now as I said before, that game is still good, just not very standout, and a little exhausting to play through, but I had to think for awhile why that was. What clicked with me was finishing the first world.

Hell, the first couple levels of each are very on point. Triple Deluxe's first 2 levels start with a tutorial followed by Kirby being introduced to the game's gimmick ability, the Hypernova ability, and then a pretty standard cave level after. It's not bad, they're fine levels, but they don't really do much interesting outside of introduce the fruit, which even then is just "oh hey look at this fruit that just appeared, cool."

Planet Robobot is still under the context of Popstar being invaded by a mysterious invading force that mechanizes the planet. So the first level doesn't actually show the new gimmick form that kirby relies on, but is instead a tutorial followed by a chase by a rampaging robot drill tree. And like yea, you can beat it for a rare sticker, but it's the vibe of unfamiliar hostility that it creates that gives some texture to the adventure more than normal, like this is out of Kirby's range of normalcy, and you kind of feel that with this first level. The following stage then is the robobot armor introduction, where Kirby is attacked by one of the robobot mechs and has to fight it. Only after beating it does kirby think to get in it, and just like that, we got the new game's gimmick ability.

It's much more dynamic way of showing Kirby getting access to the ability, and lemme be honest with you, Robobot armor is very easily a more interesting gimmick ability than the Hypernova, and even the Super abilities. Hypernova is an evolution of Kirby's inhale, which is a smart way of showing Kirby's versatility with being part vaccum. And the Super Abilities are flashy, and fairly versatile due to there being 5 of them, but there's a certain formula with them. You'll have one level with them, and one level with out, and a lot of times it's just set up as a designated "use this ability" spot.

The Robobot Armor doesn't really adhere to that fully. Sure there are parts where you'd have to unlock it for some reason, but sometimes you have whole levels where it's nothing but Robobot stuff, some have only a few sections with it, some don't even use it at all. Usually when it's used, it's to one up the stage's hazards or for puzzle solving, but there are occassions where Kirby has to split from the armor to do something only he can do without it, usually travelling through smaller areas to open the door for the big armor.

And the armor itself is cool because normally, it's got a basic but strong moveset where it punches and can break blocks and stuff, but it can also copy abilities like Kirby. There are 13 out of the 27 abilities that can be copied, and they all usually have some kind of applications for puzzle solving, combat, traversal, or some combinations of the three. Some levels are even completely unique for the Robobot Armor because they heavily rely on Wheel for race themed levels or Jet for side-scrolling shooters akin to the landia shooter section from RtD. It's honestly such a neat way to bring that little diversion back, even having a couple bosses to itself. Notable favorites are bomb for it's neat little puzzles for guiding bombs, stone suprisingly for it being an improvement on the punching the main mech could do, and mike because it's visual noise is very satisfying to see in action.

Also inspeaking of that ability list, this is a great list returning and new. Sure a lot of mainstays like fire, hammer, sword, ninja, ice, beam, cutter, and whatnot return, but they also brought back a few new ones from the recent games like archer and leaf. They even brought back older ones that haven't seen use in awhile like Jet and Mirror, both also seeing some small moveset additiosn to make them more fun. I should also just mention, they added back the extra moves to Spark, and it's fun again. Great ability. The new ones in ESP, Doctor, and especially Poison are some of my favorites in the series actually. Poison sticks out to me not only for being a surprisingly good boss killer, but also just being a really novel reworking of water. Poison in games doesn't get much more than the status, so seeing a moveset like this puts a smile on my face.

25 of these abilities are pretty standard, but 2 are stowed away through hidden rooms and completion/amiibo support. Smash Bros., a copy ability from Amazing Mirror that basically gives Kirby a reworked version of his smash moveset which is really cool to see, and UFO, something you most likely won't get until 100%'ing the game, but the fact they hid it just for people to find is really cool.

What helps make these abilties and the robobot stuff be as cool as it is is because the abilties are normally pretty heavily utilized in the myriad of scenarios the game has, like remembering a given path put up on a monitor, which can contain puzzles in itself, or using the stages hazards to aid you like the cyber space blocks acting as platforms or the multitude of things you can slam back with robobot armor moves like large metal cylinders, waddle dees in cars and buses, cue balls, dice, giant cue balls that chase you, the casino levels were kind of fucking wild. Oh the level themes in general are actually pretty cool. Because yeah, it's basically popstar but mechanized, and it thus would take some familiar stuff and just add like, metal everywhere, right?

Well sure, that's kind of what you get with patched plains or gigabyte grounds, basically areas turned into a dedicated sawmill spot or industrial factory respectively, but then you got the water world where it has an ice cream factory for it's ice levels, the water levels, especially the one before the boss (3-5) is basically bioshock with underwater cities, and while you'd expect a burning lava world for the 5th world, it and the 2nd are are just a city and town respecitively, and the city itself is always shining with bright and flashy lights among the rooftops. Both also have casino levels, and they are both kind of the coolest. And the last world of Access Ark, part of it is just working your way through the ship, seeing the halls with Haltmann's faces plastered over them as his troopers and security drones roam the halls, but then you get thrown into the trenches of Cyberspace, and it's just as cool and bizarre as you'd expect. That also happens to contain some of my favorite levels but either way.

Oh and the boss fights. Clanky Woods is one of my favorite interpretations of Whispy Woods for both it's introduction in the first world, but it's fight is also really good. The Holo-projector is neat fan-service fight, Mecha Knight and the Dedede Clones while at first pretty standard pull out some crazy shit like metal scorpion tail or a cannon. They also bring back some smaller fights like against that crackheaded war blimp that wanted you dead from the earlier games, Kabula, and the security drones scouring the hall are just stock versions of the Metal General from RtD, even having the damage number indicator everytime you hit him.

The fights with Susie and Haltmann are both really good, and also something about Haltmann's voice lines, especially when he pulls out the 3d cube laser that torches his own bots are really funny to me. AND THE LAST FIGHT, there's a reason the final fight from Frontiers I immedietly thought of Planet Robobot, because not only do we fight some big cosmic entity in the shape of a planet sized super computer bent on wiping out all life in the name of "prosperity" but also the game turns into a fucking shooter near the end, and yes, it's one of the coolest fights in the series. Also the way that fight ends is just a major fucking Gurren Lagaan reference, infact a lot of fights with the robobot armor are just that, and I very much appreciate it.

We also got some unique fights from Meta Knight's side mode, which are clones of Dark Matter and Sectionia, finally ending with the Galacta Knight rematch, and while that one is cool, I also gotta feel bad for Galacta Knight everytime we see him, because he's either into two perpetual states. Locked away in a crystal, or destroying planets, and it's never not either of those things. Though while I bring it up, I should probably just mention the side modes row quick.

Meta Knightmare Returns is a better Dedede Tour for two reasons. Meta Knight has a points system that gives him a few abilities that can increase speed, attack, or heal, and those are handy AF, and the mode while still around the same length as Dedede's doesn't feel bloated near the end because of Royal fucking Road. Access Arc is still big, it's the last world of the game with the most levels technically, but it's definetly not as draining to run through. But otherwise, I like both Meta Knight and Dedede pretty equally, though I do like shuttle loop into the upward thrust attack a lot, but I also really like hammer flip.

And the Kirby 3D Rumble and Team Kirby Clash Modes are more interesting to me than Kirby Fighters or Dedede Drum Dash, just because that 3D Rumble led to Blowout Blast and that game is lowkey really fun, and Team Kirby Clash inches ever closer to the idea of Kirby just being a full one turn based RPG, and I like that idea a lot. What we got here is a good take on it using the normal gameplay. Hammer Lord and Time Mage are my favorites, especially when you get a party of mages in the latter.

And the stickers in this game do take quite a few notes from the Keychains from Triple Deluxe. Luckily however, there is only 200 including rare and non-rare ones, and they have a better use than the nothing of the keychains, which is cosmetics to put on your Robobot armor. They're still a bit tedious to fully get but thankfully not nearly as much.

Lastly however is the arenas, and they're about as good as the ones from Triple Deluxe. I will say the True Arena in this game can feel a little daunting towards the end since this game also has an extra last boss after the final boss in their EX form, and that boss has two phases of it's own, alongside some near-death attacks that can kill you if you're not ready for them, so if you're for some reason reading this without finishing the game first, well first hi, secondly why are you reading this? And lastly uhh... be careful.

Anyways yeah, that's Planet Robobot. I know I went into this knowing that this was already one of my favorite Kirby games, but I kind of underestimated how much this game would still find ways to surprise or at least keep me hooked for most of the way through. A lot of the game feels like it took a lot of what Triple Deluxe offered from it's structure and mechanics and whatnot, trimmed the fat where necessary, just went nuts with the new themeing or the new abilities, robobot or otherwise. And look, I don't mean to keep harping on Triple Deluxe because it is still a good game to me, and it has more than a few moments of charm or hype to offer. I just felt with that game, getting through completing it was a little uninteresting and honestly kind of exhausting at points.

Robobot just does more with itself, and that's not just in it's fanservice stuff regarding the return of certain old but well-loved abilities or the return of old but well-known bosses. They even brought back Meta Knightmare. But I also mean that it does a lot of cool things with it's setting, taking full advantage of the theme of a mechanized Pop-Star where once green pastures lay natural and undisturbed now lie in wake of being harvested or metalized by the invading company. They also do a bit more story telling than in Triple Deluxe, though mostly done by Susie, who I think is just a slightly better executed Taranza just due to how we get more direct conversations with her from the third world onward, which I think helps keep me caring on what's going on a bit stronger than Taranza constantly trying to get Kirby off his tail by pissing off the local inhabitants.

Planet Robobot just feels like a better executed game, and it's just really fun to play through. I'm confident in saying it's my favorite so far in this little 100%ing marathon, but Forgotten Land might be some tough competition, and Star Allies could surprise me. We'll see. In general though, this is still probably my favorite Kirby game.

Also it made me feel sad for the robobot armor, how did do that??