it's a bad remake! feels more like an expansion to yakuza 0 than anything else and i'd easily recommend just playing the original PS2 game (emulate it if you have to) over starting with this as a substitute, and kind of assumes the player has already played yakuza 0 to begin with, both within its gameplay design and added story content. it feels like the RGG team didn't want to choose between just making a straight up remaster and making a full-blown, completely different remake, so the lion's share of the original game's content is all intact with JUST enough tweaked mechanics and new content available to make it different.
how they handle the main plot is kind of a reflection of this - a lot of the clunky story beats from the original game are still there and aren't really improved, and you can REALLY tell they just straight up lifted a lot of the PS2 cutscenes and just painted over them with nicer looking textures rather than just completely re-doing them. this is REALLY evident when you contrast it with the new cutscenes involving main antagonist nishikiyama that actually look like they were made with the PS4's graphical capabilities. it's like the new blood showing the old guard up! the "majima everywhere" mechanic is also an example of this weird both-waysing deal kiwami's got going on. the mechanic is definitely a fun addition, gameplay wise! but the entire thing cuts into majima's character so badly that it kind of overtakes his role in the actual plot from the original game.
that being said! it's still a yakuza game, and there are way worse games you could lift game mechanics from than yakuza 0. i had fun with it - and if i'm being honest, it's not SIGNIFICANTLY worse than the original version of yakuza 1 (in fact, it definitely plays better, gameplay wise) - but i'd still recommend just starting with the original playstation 2 game for series newcomers and playing through the series in release order, if only because it's satisfying seeing the progression of everything as the series continues. i guess i just wish the RGG team took more care with making kiwami to rationalize remaking yakuza 1 in the first place.
how they handle the main plot is kind of a reflection of this - a lot of the clunky story beats from the original game are still there and aren't really improved, and you can REALLY tell they just straight up lifted a lot of the PS2 cutscenes and just painted over them with nicer looking textures rather than just completely re-doing them. this is REALLY evident when you contrast it with the new cutscenes involving main antagonist nishikiyama that actually look like they were made with the PS4's graphical capabilities. it's like the new blood showing the old guard up! the "majima everywhere" mechanic is also an example of this weird both-waysing deal kiwami's got going on. the mechanic is definitely a fun addition, gameplay wise! but the entire thing cuts into majima's character so badly that it kind of overtakes his role in the actual plot from the original game.
that being said! it's still a yakuza game, and there are way worse games you could lift game mechanics from than yakuza 0. i had fun with it - and if i'm being honest, it's not SIGNIFICANTLY worse than the original version of yakuza 1 (in fact, it definitely plays better, gameplay wise) - but i'd still recommend just starting with the original playstation 2 game for series newcomers and playing through the series in release order, if only because it's satisfying seeing the progression of everything as the series continues. i guess i just wish the RGG team took more care with making kiwami to rationalize remaking yakuza 1 in the first place.