RULING DIES OUT
I don't really know how to start this review. It's hard for me to put into words how I feel about this game, it's perception given by others, and my already strong feelings for the source material it's based on. I should preface this review by saying I don't think Yakuza Kiwami is a bad game, but I think it's an absolute failure as a remake and several other things. Everything about the original game that made it so unique is... simply gone. The fantastic atmosphere, stellar soundtrack, rock solid pacing, it's not present anymore.
Visually this game is just extremely bland. The aesthetic is simply copy pasted from Yakuza 0 but now without the 80's flair from that game, making it look so bleak and uninspired. The game still looks good, sure. But none of it's original vibe is even close to being present. The dingy, lived in streets of Kamurocho, filled with a nasty underbelly hidden from the average citizen... missing. Everything feels just a bit too sterile. The residents of Kamurocho no longer feel like individuals who live here and have their own lives to attend to, it's just generic NPCs transiting.
The combat is "technically" better than the original, but I also don't care. It's the exact same as Yakuza 0 with some slight enhancements, that's great! Maybe make your enemies better designed around this. I won't act like Yakuza 1's bosses were particularly amazing, but they were fun and quick. Now these bosses have became absolutely loaded with health, even having the ability to entirely regenerate full bars if you don't have the correct heat action to stop them. Everything is so much more bloated for NO reason. All of these enhancements to 0's combat would be perfect in a game that ISN'T THIS ONE. Every boss is worse than the original, the only one even being close in quality is the final boss... yeah. I'm being serious.
Even the music is worse. They're not exactly bad remixes I guess but they're so much less interesting and several tracks are flat out missing. It doesn't help that this game doesn't ever USE any of the music it has for normal battles aside from like, 3 themes. The remix for the chapter 10 boss, Turning Point, is horrid. It maintains nothing that made the source so atmospheric and emotional, now becoming a lame trap remix pretty much.
Pacing was another major strength of Yakuza 1. While I still managed to finish Kiwami in a similar length of time, everything generally felt more drawn out for no reason. For example, in chapter 3 you pick up this one item pretty quickly and move on. Kiwami, however, decides to slightly draw this out by adding a couple extra steps after finding the item and like - literally what is the point. SERIOUSLY. Thanks for wasting my time, I guess?
Majima everywhere is another detriment to both the pace and tone of the story. Majima in og 1 only appeared like three times, and I a story context it made sense. For some reason in this game however Majima has gone full cockstalker mode and will stop at nothing to fight you in both scripted events and random battles. Now, to be nice for a second, I like the scripted events! They're charming. But why are they in this game? It's extremely inconsistent with his presence in the main story, now being this goofball of a character compared to his gritty maniacal self in the main narrative. Who is this even trying to appeal to? Majima didn't act like this in 0, nor did he in 1. It's like RGG thought the original game was too mature so they needed the game to be sillier like 0, so they threw in a popular character from that game and wrote up a bunch of wacky scenarios. I don't get it man.
And that's sort of just what my problem is. I don't understand what this game wants to be. Is it trying to turn Yakuza 1's story into a sequel to 0's? Well, I'm sorry but... the game wasn't written like that. It was meant to be viewed in it's original context with no future retcons or whatever. Then is it trying to be a remake of 1 that preserves what the original intended to be? Well it surely didn't do that either! Copying 80% of the content and assets from 0 alongside even cutting a couple substories, cutscenes, and songs from the source material is a major red flag and a sign that your remake isn't working. The game is simply just lazy.
I'm tired of this whole common mentality that Kiwami is better than 1 because it has new things to tie into 0, because Kiwami doesn't improve upon... ANYTHING from it's source. I genuinely can't think of a single thing this game did better than the original. "They added Nishiki backstory cutscenes!!" They're superfluous. They elaborate upon things we didn't need to know and isn't enough to warrant a full blown remake of a perfectly solid game.
I don't really know how to structure or end this review at all, because quite honestly I'm just writing off of pure instinct. I'm sorry this review has been so negative but like, I'm just disappointed. It's a pointless remake that isn't worthy of replacing Yakuza 1. At all. Easily the weakest RGG game I've played so far, being ""okay"" at best. And that does not cut it for this studio period. Skip this one. Play the original instead.
I don't really know how to start this review. It's hard for me to put into words how I feel about this game, it's perception given by others, and my already strong feelings for the source material it's based on. I should preface this review by saying I don't think Yakuza Kiwami is a bad game, but I think it's an absolute failure as a remake and several other things. Everything about the original game that made it so unique is... simply gone. The fantastic atmosphere, stellar soundtrack, rock solid pacing, it's not present anymore.
Visually this game is just extremely bland. The aesthetic is simply copy pasted from Yakuza 0 but now without the 80's flair from that game, making it look so bleak and uninspired. The game still looks good, sure. But none of it's original vibe is even close to being present. The dingy, lived in streets of Kamurocho, filled with a nasty underbelly hidden from the average citizen... missing. Everything feels just a bit too sterile. The residents of Kamurocho no longer feel like individuals who live here and have their own lives to attend to, it's just generic NPCs transiting.
The combat is "technically" better than the original, but I also don't care. It's the exact same as Yakuza 0 with some slight enhancements, that's great! Maybe make your enemies better designed around this. I won't act like Yakuza 1's bosses were particularly amazing, but they were fun and quick. Now these bosses have became absolutely loaded with health, even having the ability to entirely regenerate full bars if you don't have the correct heat action to stop them. Everything is so much more bloated for NO reason. All of these enhancements to 0's combat would be perfect in a game that ISN'T THIS ONE. Every boss is worse than the original, the only one even being close in quality is the final boss... yeah. I'm being serious.
Even the music is worse. They're not exactly bad remixes I guess but they're so much less interesting and several tracks are flat out missing. It doesn't help that this game doesn't ever USE any of the music it has for normal battles aside from like, 3 themes. The remix for the chapter 10 boss, Turning Point, is horrid. It maintains nothing that made the source so atmospheric and emotional, now becoming a lame trap remix pretty much.
Pacing was another major strength of Yakuza 1. While I still managed to finish Kiwami in a similar length of time, everything generally felt more drawn out for no reason. For example, in chapter 3 you pick up this one item pretty quickly and move on. Kiwami, however, decides to slightly draw this out by adding a couple extra steps after finding the item and like - literally what is the point. SERIOUSLY. Thanks for wasting my time, I guess?
Majima everywhere is another detriment to both the pace and tone of the story. Majima in og 1 only appeared like three times, and I a story context it made sense. For some reason in this game however Majima has gone full cockstalker mode and will stop at nothing to fight you in both scripted events and random battles. Now, to be nice for a second, I like the scripted events! They're charming. But why are they in this game? It's extremely inconsistent with his presence in the main story, now being this goofball of a character compared to his gritty maniacal self in the main narrative. Who is this even trying to appeal to? Majima didn't act like this in 0, nor did he in 1. It's like RGG thought the original game was too mature so they needed the game to be sillier like 0, so they threw in a popular character from that game and wrote up a bunch of wacky scenarios. I don't get it man.
And that's sort of just what my problem is. I don't understand what this game wants to be. Is it trying to turn Yakuza 1's story into a sequel to 0's? Well, I'm sorry but... the game wasn't written like that. It was meant to be viewed in it's original context with no future retcons or whatever. Then is it trying to be a remake of 1 that preserves what the original intended to be? Well it surely didn't do that either! Copying 80% of the content and assets from 0 alongside even cutting a couple substories, cutscenes, and songs from the source material is a major red flag and a sign that your remake isn't working. The game is simply just lazy.
I'm tired of this whole common mentality that Kiwami is better than 1 because it has new things to tie into 0, because Kiwami doesn't improve upon... ANYTHING from it's source. I genuinely can't think of a single thing this game did better than the original. "They added Nishiki backstory cutscenes!!" They're superfluous. They elaborate upon things we didn't need to know and isn't enough to warrant a full blown remake of a perfectly solid game.
I don't really know how to structure or end this review at all, because quite honestly I'm just writing off of pure instinct. I'm sorry this review has been so negative but like, I'm just disappointed. It's a pointless remake that isn't worthy of replacing Yakuza 1. At all. Easily the weakest RGG game I've played so far, being ""okay"" at best. And that does not cut it for this studio period. Skip this one. Play the original instead.
19 Comments
can you say this is just like certified lover boy
I still have to play y1 for myself so I'll hold off on most comparisons I've already made until I do so unless I've already talked to you about them or smth
but I have to ask what you mean about kamurocho not feeling lived in anymore? I agree that copying the map and art style from y0 was a bad decision that hampers the grittier atmosphere y1 goes for, but I wouldn't go as far as to argue it isn't lived-in anymore; this is a strength both 0 and kiwami 1 share imo because I think things like substories and the little conversations you can eavesdrop on plus the sound of hearty conversation and all the ambience of kamurocho, it prevents it from "not feeling lived-in" imo
but I have to ask what you mean about kamurocho not feeling lived in anymore? I agree that copying the map and art style from y0 was a bad decision that hampers the grittier atmosphere y1 goes for, but I wouldn't go as far as to argue it isn't lived-in anymore; this is a strength both 0 and kiwami 1 share imo because I think things like substories and the little conversations you can eavesdrop on plus the sound of hearty conversation and all the ambience of kamurocho, it prevents it from "not feeling lived-in" imo
@Silverus I'm not exactly saying it DOESN'T feel lived in, but by comparison it's much more sterile. Y1 has a lot of very unique intricacies to it's world design with NPCs such as drunkards, gangsters etc that accentuates the grittier underside to the city, accompanied with lovingly crafted interiors for restaurants and such with unique NPCs and items that makes everything feel more immersive.
Yakuza 1 also asks the player to naturally interact with it's world, make discoveries yourself, be attentive to all the details it contains. Kiwami alternatively feels like 0 with how it tries to shove in substories many times which I don't like. It's like the game trying to create some kind of fomo to the player like "oh, I NEED to do this!!" Idk maybe I'm rambling at this point but I just don't think Kamurocho in 1 and Kiwami are comparable in their approach to world building and exploration
Yakuza 1 also asks the player to naturally interact with it's world, make discoveries yourself, be attentive to all the details it contains. Kiwami alternatively feels like 0 with how it tries to shove in substories many times which I don't like. It's like the game trying to create some kind of fomo to the player like "oh, I NEED to do this!!" Idk maybe I'm rambling at this point but I just don't think Kamurocho in 1 and Kiwami are comparable in their approach to world building and exploration
I see. maybe I'll understand a lot more when I play y1, because stuff like the unique npcs you mentioned I will say I don't remember being in kiwami
i think in terms of 0 that style of substory incorporation works because of how much more lively its world is compared to the other games due to its period of economic prosperity. people are more energetic and there’s a larger influx of people in the cities. i do agree that this doesn’t completely fit with kiwami/1’s vibe as with the mood of the its city is much grittier. people are only willing to involve themselves with you if you take the time to involve yourself with them. i also agree to an extent that kiwami’s kamurocho does feel more hollow than 0’s and 1’s particularly because of how much is stolen from 0. everything feels artificially procured and unrealistic (what city stays exactly the same for almost 20 years?). what makes kamurocho so appealing in this series is its precision in walking the fine line between recognition as a video game and as an accurate portrayal of life while maintaining a natural evolution across the games. kiwami steps too far into the game side of things as the audience who’s played 0 prior can easily pick out what was reused from that game on a technical level rather than on a progressive one.
“ Y1 has a lot of very unique intricacies to it's world design with NPCs such as drunkards, gangsters etc that accentuates the grittier underside to the city, accompanied with lovingly crafted interiors for restaurants and such with unique NPCs” i don’t really get this since kiwami literally also has these things too. i’m assuming what you meant was that y1 is more unique than kiwami in that regard.
“ Y1 has a lot of very unique intricacies to it's world design with NPCs such as drunkards, gangsters etc that accentuates the grittier underside to the city, accompanied with lovingly crafted interiors for restaurants and such with unique NPCs” i don’t really get this since kiwami literally also has these things too. i’m assuming what you meant was that y1 is more unique than kiwami in that regard.
@LoneSpeedsterDX oh you mean most video game remakes?
@Josh_The_Fourth mmmm I guesss, it's a bit hard to explain like I said, I wish I could fully elaborate on what I mean but the words are not coming to me
I agree with everything except what you said about the cutscenes about Nishiki's backstory.
As badly done in terms of story (all of this could have been avoided if Kazama would help Nishiki when he need it but i guess no) I still think it's a key piece to the story, I don't like how in the original all of a sudden Nishiki is a antagonist without a "real evolution" of his character. Maybe it's just me but yeah
As badly done in terms of story (all of this could have been avoided if Kazama would help Nishiki when he need it but i guess no) I still think it's a key piece to the story, I don't like how in the original all of a sudden Nishiki is a antagonist without a "real evolution" of his character. Maybe it's just me but yeah
This comment was deleted
😭
insane comment what the fuck
WHY WAS IT DELETED
@mochamaki josh was on his knees crying begging me to delete it i had no choice
@Josh_The_Fourth yo...
@Reddish idgaf.
@Josh_The_Fourth ily
holy shit they added pinging
@Josh_The_Fourth starts grinding against you
@DomencioDovanna 8/10
LoneSpeedsterDX
1 year ago