Yakuza 0 was a entertaining game that has a very complex understanding of controlling emotion and tone. It was, in my opinion, a perfect game. A game that had highs so high that the flaws didnt even matter to me because any flaw that it had would be more than made up for in other ways. Can I say the same for Kiwami?

The unfortunate answer is no. Kiwami is a very inconsistent, and confused game that felt very messy and even with its very very high highs, it had some very miserable lows.

My biggest problem with this game is its gameplay. It feels like a huge step down in ways from 0. The fact enemies can just heal and you need to have the right heat and a specific fighting style in order to stop them from healing and if you are fast enough even deal some damage. Its mot a bad idea in concept but its excecution was really unfair on the player. The health healed way too fast that if you hadn't guessed the right fighting style, were holding a weapon, and/or didnt have any heat, the enemy would essentially gain health unless you were already prepared which is near impossible since its random (at least i think it is?). Not even to mention the game did a very poor job of explaining this. It had a vague tutorial that was very confusing then just never mentions it again. I didnt understand it until halfway through which made things very annoying.

The boss design is so unbelievably inconsistent. Some bosses were a lot of fun, I loved the breakdancing dudes and Majima's second fight was lovely. But it also had a lot of bosses I just did not find fun at all. That big dude who you fight on the docks was just. Not very good. Majima's first main story fight was also not fun for me. A lot of these fights felt like I was just running around baiting attacks waiting for me to get a few hits in or I'd get hit with some bullshit combo or they'd quickstep literally everything I do. It felt like every boss fight began with me being anxious over whether it would feel like a chore or not.

I did like parts of the gameplay though. The game did make me use the other styles and experiment way more than 0 ever did. I liked that they all (except dragon but I will get to that) felt important and utilised properly. Brawler was a good way to fight while minimising damage and dealing it in a way that felt balanced. Rush was good for slower enemies and especially ones that had tight defences. It also helped to take out enemies fast. Beast has a great damage output and is good for dealing with several enemies at once (and my personal favourite style). Dragon though. Dragon was uh, I think I used it like 3 times. It was a cool concept but I really didn't want to fight Majima a billion times just for it to become decent and it just wasn't very fun to use. I liked the idea of a style you slowly learn and becomes basically the "strongest" one but once again: I did not enjoy the excecution of it.

I don't have any complaints about the side stuff. I very much enjoyed myself in the minigames and side missions. But they weren't really on the same level as 0s and a lot of the side quests relied on find specific item for person to get a cutscene and maybe a fight. They didn't really feel as creative as 0s. The random Majima system was hilarious and I loved every second of it. Majima popping out of trash cans and returning after being "killed" countless times was a huge highlight for me.

The story was fantastic. Nishikiyama's descent was very well done and made me eager for the final showdown even if he didn't have much screentime. Haruka was admittedly a lot more interesting than I thought she'd be and I was very glad to see her have a happy ending. My only real problem is with the ending. That guy I cant even remember the name of who laundered the 10 billion was introduced way too late for me to really feel anything for him. Him being the real villain in the end felt like Nishiki was just built up for nothing (especially since the actual boss itself was rlly fucking easy) and his motivations in the end felt out of character. He just kills the dude with the money and dies? Like why didnt he just kill the dude and leave with the others? It felt very bizzare and I'm not sure that I liked that decision. It made his whole arc feel kinda pointless. Like he was just there for a cool final boss and some filler time and thats it when he could have been more.

I don't usually give out .5s bc idk I just don't but I really don't know how else to sum up how I felt since an 8 felt too harsh considering I did enjoy 90% of the game, but a 9 wouldnt be genuine since its flaws rlly did have an impact on my overall experience. So this is where its at. Its a very inconsistent game that, while it isn't 0, deserves respect for what it tried and is probably a great stepping stone for the series to leap off of into the apparently much better later games. Overall I'd say my experience was positive, I just complain a lot lmfao.