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.

There are a lot of things I like about this game, mostly being Kiryu being more of a dad, some of the substories being really fun, and I like characters in it. I'm just not a fan of the amount of substories to do in the game to get a swing of amon, and I really wish every enemy wouldn't block so consistently. Especially with heavies it was really annoying.

Also I'm not the biggest fan of the story. It has good moments, but it feels overall marred by a lot of pacing problems, and it's not really doing much skimming the line as more a political drama than a crime drama. I do really like the first few chapters before we get into the big mystery, I like the substories and time with Rikiya (though I didn't much care about his death), and I think Mine is one of my favorite antagonists in the series.

It can be relaxing, but can also be boring and frustrating at times with the enemy encounters.

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.

It's pretty ok for a shooter made by platinum.

It's got some good moments, mainly through gameplay and some bits with its characters (mainly sam and his habit of smoking while in near-death scenarios), and it's got a lot of flair to it, especially seen in the cutscenes.

My main problem though is that it's gameplay is more limiting at times. Like a lot of the cooler options, you can do are tied to a meter. If it drains, you have to wait for it to cool down, which is fine... on paper. The problem is tied to a few things it drains, how they drain, etc. The things that drain it are Melee Attacks, Slowing Time, Boost Sliding, and a Laser Gun also drains it. The latter two are fine, but the combat and especially time slowing is not.

The problem with attacks is that it doesn't let you do it enough. Like if you land one hit, then that takes up all of the meter, no matter how close it is to being full or empty, and forces it on cooldown. That makes it feel too situational, especially since the combat actually can help you take back some advantage in a fight, especially against enemies that like to get you out of cover, which is a lot them.

The Time Slowdown has the opposite problem, it can't help but let you use it. You can activate it manually by evading while aiming or shooting while sliding, which is fine and make some sense, but then every time you are near death, it kicks in with no way to stop it until it drains out, and forces you on cooldown. I know the intent is basically to be used to help a player who is near death stay away from death, but it honestly feels more intrusive more often than not because now i'm locked into waiting on it to stop, which can be helpful, but also mostly enforces a retreat more often than not so i can do other things, which is harder to do if i'm getting caught between so many enemies fire, some that can kill you outright, which especially near end game, is very common. It just feels bad, and compounds with the other issues since if i'm constantly waiting on cool down, i can't do anything other than get into cover or hope for the best.

I probably would've just made melee combat not tied to the meter but made it a bit laggier to compensate, and just give you more agency over the slow-motion mode. I also probably would have made your ammo count and health a little more visible. You can see how much ammo you have for a weapon, but not specifically how much is in a clip, just a little hard to see bar near the reticle. And health's got a few indicators i guess, but one of them is the slow-mode, and the others are the screen having the red lines indicating you're hit and pointing to who did it, aswell as a red tint at critical health points. I found out later in the game that sam's suit also has an indicator as it swaps between red, yellow, and green. It's a neat effect, and i do like some of these, but it does get kind of hard to read when you are in the midst of battle, especially when you go critical when you're in cooldown, it's kind of why I like health bars more as they get information across a bit better to me, but that might just be a me thing. Enemies have one, why can I?

Anyways that's kind of it for gameplay notes, it can often feel stifling and clunky when you try to do more than run and shoot, but it can set up for cool things and is generally really fast and exciting. Though despite how faster paced it can be, I did kind of start to run out of steam for the game like, an hour or so before i saw the admittedly kind of cool credits.

STORY SPOILER STUFF START

The last thing to mention is like, the story. And it's very there. I dunno, like i did like some bits with Sam, and his little chats with Burns, but that's kind of it. Not a lot of the plot really stuck with me, and neither do a lot of it's characters, though they want you to since they have like, two back to back fake out deaths from Sam, and a cliffhanger bit before the story ends. It's kind of odd cuz I feel i'm supposed to interpret more from this, but at least it makes sense in that sequel we totally have (we don't have it). Also on a side note, like I know Sam and Raiden have different VAs, but I keep hearing Sam's voice like he's trying his best impression of Raiden and I think it's kind of funny.

STORY SPOILER STUFF END

Overall, I think it's certainly an ok game. Probably one of the weaker games from Platinum Games I've played... eh, it's at least still kind of cool.

(BTW, I count Mastered for getting the Platinum Trophy, i don't think i've done EVERYTHING the game has to offer, (infact i looked, 91.27%) but i'm satisfied at calling it at the trophy earning)

Anyways Horizon. I feel kind of odd about this game, because i think that compared to it's predecessor, it does many things better, or just as well as before. It's a fun experience that helps to greatly expand the main gameplay loop with the introductions of more machines, weapons and weapon types, elements, valor skills and weapon stamina, and ways to approach a fight with it's added focus on combat. It still does great as a Horizon game with it's lore and worldbuilding being top-notch, with a whole new set of ruins and collectibles littered about to give context to the world of the old ones. I also feel that many of the new groups shown in this game were cool.

Spoilers Section START

Aside from the Main group made up of multiple members from all over, and Far Zenith, we have the different groups of the Tenakth, the Utaru, and the Quen. The Tenakth were probably my favorite to explore due to them being made of multiple clans, but the Utaru and Quen were fun too. The Quen especially were neat due to them having older focuses that indicate a society with a much greater knowledge of the past than most, but also less than what Aloy has, and often stifling and limited due to their organization of it's cast, it's reliance on overseers, and their utter adoration of those of the old world, regardless of if they were actually good or not (looking at Ted Faro).

Spoiler Section END

The good is that it's a horizon game, it's still fun to trail off to explore anything i want, approach fights with near complete freedom, and work slowly to uncover the past and the dark future ahead. Also like the last game, this place is gorgeous, and fun because it's based off the west coast of the US, and i have yet to find where I'm at on there, but i'm guessing plainsong if the desert has anything to do with it?

Anyways, the bad is at best, just a bit stifling that could be reworked, and at worst, a little conflicting to how I feel about the game.

The non-spoilery side of it is I feel that the combat while cool and a lot more fleshed out from the last game is also very janky, and sometimes unruly with it's execution. It's cool to do the cool stuff, like string a combo togehter, and launch off someone for a chance to blow up a resonator spot for a ton of damage, but sometimes how enemies and your attacks just look off. Like sometimes hits that should land don't, and their tracking leads them to sliding half way across an arena to smack you into next week, which made fighting hammer guys even more annoying, especially since they deal heavy damage and can stun you. Also unrelated, but strike from above feels really hard to land at times, to the point some stealth kills failed because it took away the prompt right as i was pressing it... fun.

Nah but my other issues are more related to story and sidequest stuff. So spoilers.

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Generally I think the story is very neat, I think the focus on Aloy needing to learn to let people in and to open up herself is done pretty nicely. Much of the new cast and old are written pretty well, my favorites being Erend and Kotallo. The escalation of conflict at least until the end feels really cool as Far Zenith answers a question of "how far could humans develop if they managed to avoid the reset brought upon by the faro plague, and were able to keep their hold on knowledge often thought to be lost with apollo's erasure." It's really neat. And I also think that a lot of the sidequests are really fun. There are some that are genuinely really heartfelt, some that paint sides of Aloy that she doesn't explore much, as well as help get a better idea of whatever place you're in.

I think the only side quest i didn't like was the last in a series of them in Scalding Spear. It was where Aloy had to side with who should be the new commander of the town. The current leader who seems way too infatuated with her title, and had a very mixed approach to handling their water crisis, or some guy from a village nearby who is sick of her, and would try to find better ways of handling the water, at the cost of coming off very naive and idealistic, and sending someone that accident or otherwise, would've stopped the water altogether if Aloy didn't involve herself. My problem is that neither side is willing to back down from conflict. Both have good points, but more notably bad points. The current commander is too obsessed with the title, and handles the water crisis with paranoia, distrust, and lies. Yet the guy who's opting to take her title comes off a bit too naive and idealistic, and also kept trying to deflect responsibility for the problems caused by the person they sent to figure something out. Sure, no one could've known for sure, but when it does come out to light, he doesn't really try to take any responsibility for it, instead trying to vy for the title more than before, leading to the two to a duel that would determine who would become the new commander of scalding spear, and only one side can win. You can't talk either side down even though the game gives you the option, you just have to choose who wins. I did eventually just decide on the idealist because i wanted to see how being a leader would impact him as a character (spoilers: he's well meaning, but a bit too focused on public reception to the point of being a bit grating). I just don't like this quest because I think both sides suck, yet you need to pick a side, you can't just leave the two of them to duel it out or just talk them out of it.

That sidequest aside though, the rest are really neat. There are few I can think of, but i want to get to the other point of contention.

The last thing i feel an issue with is that while I think some character do very much get some fun beats both in the main story and in side quests, I feel like some missed out on chances to flesh the characters out a bit more. I mainly mean Varl and sort of Beta. See in the main game, you'll have a bunch of people go through the base as guests, but do take up time their for one reason or another. GAIA, Varl, Zo, Erend, Kotallo, Alva, Beta, Sylens, Tilda, Regalla if you spare her, and Talanah (tho she only stops by to get to another thing so don't count her). Out of those 10, only 4 of them get a major sidequest that involves them and helps flesh them out. 5 if you do sort of count Talanah. And each of them are fine, Erend helps put to rest the groups that took her sister away aswell as helps stops Regalla's forces, Kotallo builds a new robotic arm after losing his old one at the beginning of the game, Alva discovers more about another Old One and has a bigger revelation of the morality of the old ones, and Zo finds a way to heal the land gods of Plainsong and bring life to it anew.

That's all fine and good, and i have nothing against them. They are fun ways to explore and finish out arcs for each of those characters now given new solutions thanks to Aloy and the Focuses they've trained with.And for the other 5, well GAIA technically is more a system and much of the game revolves around her so that's not much to talk on, and Sylens and Tilda are only important for endgame stuff and nothing more. Same applies to Regalla and that's only if you spared her. There is not much to do with those 4.

The last 2 though, Beta and Varl i'm a bit more iffy on. With Beta i'm closer to leaning on the story for why we didn't get much for her, as she's mostly very cut off from everyone, and only comes around before she gets taken by Far Zenith again. I do kind of wish that we got at least a small thing, like maybe help her with planning or getting materials, or something, but it's not the worst thing, and I assume the third game would flesh her out a bit more anyways, whenever it comes out.

Varl is the only one i feel this issue with strongly, and it's just because that there is a lot that changes with him from the first game, he in sticking with Aloy is able to help her in ways she couldn't without, and he's able to not only get a focus and start learning from it, but also begins a relationship with Zo that is build through the rest of the game, especially after he's gone. He's a very important person, and his death is well earned through that, as a proper knife twist at the "darkest hour" moment. My problem though is the most we really get to interact with Varl through this game his the chats you can have with him that every other character gives, or through story events. What i'd want is just a chance for him to flesh out in someway, like maybe a time-sensitive quest that can only be done before his time in the story is done. Where we get a chance to explore something about him more like maybe something involving his reflection of where he is now to his home back east in with the Nora, maybe a sweet little story where they take the stuffed animal dialouge mentioned and actually try to make something of it, like they say to make a doll, and that doll is passed on to Zo who will then pass it on to their child. Something sweet like that, something to connect him now back to the first game, and make that knife twist of his death hurt all the more. My main problem with Varl isn't him, but that there is more that can't be said due to how the game structured base side-quests. Just some potential now missing. Otherwise he's a fine character.

Before the spoiler stuff ends, I think the last reason why this game makes me feel mixed is the unveiling of Nemesis, what looks to be another type of apocalypse approaching earth that far zenith were trying to escape. The reason i feel conflicted is it sort of makes the ending feel a little flat to the first game. Like there, we save meridian, and we're able to let the allies get a chance to celebrate and being to rebuild, as well as a scene for Aloy to track down Elisabet's old home, as a sweet little way to bring the story all around. Only for a post credits scene featuring Hades escaping to Sylens overseeing a valley of decommissioned Horus units, hinting there is still so much left to see, with threads of another plot being brewed. And wouldn't you know, that was carried on by this game. I said it before, that this game feels like a step up tonally and stake wise. Where before we were stopping a rouge AI from reawakening an ancient plague that wiped out the old world, now it's the new world fighting against the remnants of that old world, those with nothing but time and power to wield. And you know what, I should feel a bit more intrigued here, as our next threat is the force that wiped out most of those highly advanced remnants, were fighting a new age force of doom and destruction that threatens more than just to reset the biosphere or destroy it, but completely wipe out the planet.

The stakes are higher sure, but I don't feel it. The ending had a nice little send off with everyone getting ready to approach the new threat, but that's it. Nothing to incite anything, just the credits and then back to the post game. I feel very mixed about it, because while we do have a set-up to the next threat, there is so little fanfare about it that it feels a bit hollow. It retroactively makes all we did to get to this point feel JUST like stepping stones, and the next threat feel sort of out of scale to what Horizon set itself as. I'm fairly sure that this feeling will aleviate as news of Horizon 3 comes around, but as of now, I don't feel much other than a story that is slated for a continuation. The story didn't stop, it did conclude this tale, but it doesn't feel that grand and I'm honestly a little unsure of how to feel about that looking forward.

Anyways that's it for Spoilery Stuff

Spoiler Section ENDS

Overall I feel very certain that this is a good game, but I'm a little hesitant to say I like it more than the first game. It's sort of like a Judgment and Lost Judgment thing, at least on my first feels of those 2 games. The gameplay loops in both is really fun, and the second game does a lot to make that feel even better than before. But certain things about the story or character direction makes me feel a little less attached to the things I cared about in the first games. It's definetly not as big as what i'd use to feel between Judgement and Lost Judgement, but I do feel an odd disconnect from the game due to some of the things i mentioned. Though that is purely on a story basis, gameplay wise, they are great. I like this game, I wouldn't have spent so long typing otherwise.