Quick Look: Yakuza Kiwami

Kiryuuuuuuu

Take it there's no playtrough of this then, dissapointed but the QL should be fun I guess

Almost a month late to do this quicklook huh.

Oh good I really want to hear Dan's well-researched thoughts on criminal justice systems

It's never to late to cover a game. Giantbomb isn't about day one coverage, its about what interests them and their community.

I beat the game within a week of getting it but I still enyoy seeing their reactions and opinions on it well after release.

Do they mention in the video if they'll be doing a Beast in the East on this?

Seems a bit weird to do a Quick Look for this, specially since it's shown a couple hours into the game. Hope this doesn't mean they're canceling Beast In The East.

@puchiko: Sure but I find it funny also bearing in mind the Beastcast last week where Alex didn't seem to have realized that Kiwami was out already, saying that 0 was the latest release in the west.

Also Alex should probably have played a bit more of the story to actually have shown off the Majima system (and why it can be super overbearing), but oh well.

I think this game would make a bad Beast in the East. It's got a pretty bad story, and so much of everything else is recycled from 0. While it's a full remake they didn't change the story much so it's still from before the series really found its stride, same with the side missions really.

It's pretty easy to avoid Majima since he shows up like Mr. Shakedown on the map. The ambushes are the only annoying ones but if you know where they are they can be avoided as well.

From a gameplay standpoint, fighting him is the easiest way to level up, combined with the XP multiplier gear I got to max level about half way through the game from just leveling up my Majima Rank.

I keep confusing this one with Yakuza 0 for some reason.

@puchiko: Same but I still thought it was annoying having to take a detour to avoid him on the street, then 5 minutes later you are just walking and he attacks you during one of those fake random encounters. This is especially annoying if he fights you in his Breaker style which takes a while to wittle down, and he keeps coming even when you have 9999 spare XP and the Dragon style maxed out. They really just needed some way to bribe his people to distract him or something else to take him off the street.

Then again this was a budget game made by the B-tier, and I had a lot of fun for 30 bucks, but it's also somewhat annoying how many things that would've been a lot better with some tweaking, not to even mention how they really should've changed the story more.

I'm floored that out of all the things you know about Norway it's our prison sentences.

I enjoyed the story despite how predictable it was. The Niskiyama flashbacks are new and flesh out his character. This game was a budget release so they didn't do much to it. The Zero stuff was added to update the game so that why it was recycled and made it more appealing to modern gamers and not just people who have nostalgia for the original game.

It would be like Alex skipping all the bad Mega Mans in his Blue Bombing show then they would have less games to play.

Never give up hope! Beast in the East Kiwami will happen!

ALEX, when guy is glowing match your style with the glow they are emitting...purp-rush, blue-brawler, yellow-beast and if ya got enough heat built up you can peform a powerful heat move

Not as much money flying out of people in this one.

This seems less polished than 0. ..the cleavage woman vanishing, the club owner extending her hand twice. I don't remember seeing that type of thing much in Beast in the East, even in side quests.

Folks, I asked Alex at pax about if they would do a beast in the east for this game, and he said with the onset of shows they have going on right now, that it’s not in the plans right now,

but that all 3 of them are interested in seeing the story of kiwami and continuing the series

Given October is when every game is coming out, and then November they are likely gonna go into Game of the year production, id say Weill see beast in the east return in January at the earliest.

So I've played through this game, and they remade Yakuza 1 without really fixing any of its serious flaws. Bosses that are pointlessly frustrating are just as bad in Yakuza Kiwami. It would make for a _really_ bad Beast in the East, because it's really not that good of a game. Yakuza 0 is an exceptional intro to the series, and Kiwami is such a weak follow-up, because the original story just can't hold a candle to 0. Games have come a long way since 2005, and Kiwami just makes that painfully obvious. The entire thing just reeks of PS2-era boss & level design.

I got it for a little bit of mindless grinding, and it's fine for that, but it's really not worth the money.

I think Alex had already been playing this by that point; I took it as meaning, "0 is the latest new game in the series released in Western territories" (whereas Kiwami is a remake of an old title).

PS, Vinny and Alex if your reading the comments, the kamurocho hills project from 0, under sera was abandoned I believe, and that empty lot that was important in 0, became the millennium tower, which is super important to this games story.

And Haruka becomes a prominent figure in kiryus life throughout the games.

@jbick89: The lack of polish is a bummer, even stuff like cutscene transitions (there are no more cool lead-ins to bossfights, just fade to black and then you're fighting). It feels a bit more cobbled together than they usually do, but it's still a good time if you mainline the story. The side stuff isn't as great this time.

this game was so good!! Hopefully Beast in the east returns someday!

@alex I also had some trouble with the kiwami moves (kiwami is japanese for extreme and yes I shouted extreme EVERY time when I did those moves), because they take the ability away from you almost immediately after they teach it to you. They need to be unlocked in the soul menu, if my memory serves me right, but they only cost like 3 or 5 points. When the boss glows and is regenerating health you can perform a powerful kiwami move, if you have enough heat and the corresponding style equipped just by walking to him and pressing triangle when the icon appears.

I do hope they return for Beast in the East eventually. It may not be as good as Zero, but the thing about it being a remake of a PS2 game means it has less content, making it a much shorter game. I did an extreme amount of side activities (and I don't just mean substories, I mean like I did all the slot car racing, filled out the entire dragon style tree, etc.) and I clocked in at just over 50 hours. You can easily finish this game in 30 hours or less.

@Alex@vinny@danryckert

• The empty lot and its vicinity are now Millennium Tower.
• The Dragon Style changes overtime. In order to gain heat, you need to learn it from a trainer, or defeat Majima
• There are at least 4 new 'finisher' heat moves that are specific for boss fight, to stop boss' health from regenerating.
• It's almost line for line / scene for scene same with original Yakuza. But in every chapter there's always new cut scenes focusing on Nishiki.
• Sadly throughout the series you will keep going back to Kamurocho, but there's always changes to the environment.
• Haruka will eventually become Kiryu's main focus throughout the series. And yeah, you could play as her in Yakuza 5.
• Sunflower orphanage is where Kiryu and Nishiki grew up. There are stories of real Yakuza operating orphanage for tax evasion / money laundering purposes
• Baka Mitai basically means 'Like a fool'. It's a song about regretting? liking someone.

@napstar Sadly in 2005 Japan is still in economic malaise after the bubble burst. So, not much money flying around.

For all those curious, it takes a lot of grinding of the Majima anywhere system to turn the Dragon style in to a fighting style worth using. I don't like it or the new Kiwami system.

They really drew that dog scene out longer than the original, and it was annoying then lol.

This game still captures some of the best random things and puts them together. The karaoke in Yakuza reminds me of this little clip of Jack Ma singing.

With the exception of 4 they also always add new locations that you go to as well, such as Okinawa in 3 or Sotenbori in 2

If they DO do a "Beast in the East" on this, I don't think Dan should play it. This game has far more bullshit than 0 did, and I honestly believe Dan wouldn't enjoy the combat. Hell, there were times I hated the combat, and I LOVE Yakuza games.

Vinny: "You know it's owned by Nestle?"

Dan: "Maine?"

God damnit, I love this website.

@notnert427: I had a mouthful of tea when that was said. It didn't hang around.

I'm about 10 hours into Kiwami. It's very good but hasn't been hitting the same heights as Zero did, although that might be because it's only been a handful of months since I finished Zero.

It's probably for the best there's no beast in the east for this one. Zero is a much stronger game overall and the chapter 2 boss fight would have can put a controller through a wall.

Nani?

I'm very excited to get to these games. I have to play series in release order though so I did Yakuza 1 over the summer and I'm about to finish up Yakuza 2 now. One day I'll get to 0 and Kiwami!

They made a couple of really good changes to the combat system that make it much better than the one in 0. Getting a lot of XP from substories and fighting Majima means that you don't need to grind for money with which to upgrade your abilities. Because of that you'll probably have all the upgrades for the three basic styles by the time you finish the game.

The Dragon style needs a bit more attention since you need to trigger specific events and fight against Majima while he's in certain "forms", but it's pretty fun and not that much extra work to do.

They also added "supers" for each style. These give you buffs of various kinds that last for a while and persist even if you change styles. For example, you can pop the Rush style super, which increases your attack and movement speed, and then swap to Brawler or Beast and wreck shop. This gives you a nice alternative for Heat Actions.

I played through 0 in early august and finished Kiwami a few days after release. The Yakuza fatigue was real bad for a few hours in the beginning, but once the story picked up the pace and the upgrades started to roll in, I got back into it. The story is more concise and doesn't feel like it drags on like the story in 0 sometimes did.

My playtime was 40 hours and 24 minutes, that's with every substory complete and all the fighting styles maxed out.

P.S. Rush is still the best fighting style and using it against Majima while he's in Mad Dog mode is awesome.

The different combat music from Yakuza 0 is actually a bit of fanservice. Yakuza 0's Brawler theme is a remix of the Yakuza 1 battle theme featured in Kiwami, Rush is from Yakuza 2, and Beast from Yakuza 3. They took this out for Kiwami to make room for a remaster of the nostalgic original battle music.

Bought this because of Beast in the East - and since the story of Yakuza 0 had a such a dramatic and over the top-action-heavy story. The story so far in Kiwami (about 15 hours in, up to Chapter 7) has felt a lot more subdued and not as attention-grabbing. I've heard that this is the weakest of the games' stories, and become closer in tone to 0 as they progress, anyone know which game it is that makes that turn?

Otherwise, the gameplay is fun, if not a little grindy. Combat is a lot less repetitive if you hit the triangle button every now and then instead of mashing square.

Ugh, disappointed in GBE. But I guess they didn't like it after all.

@pxbart: Yakuza 2's story is already a lot better than 1's. 3 takes a bit to get going, but once it does it's good as well. Haven't played 4 and 5 yet so I can't say anything about these.

I am starting to get a bit bummed that it seems like the Beast crew doesn't know how similar these games are, they are/were essentially an annual game series for a long time. Like I love the games but expectations need to be managed about how much is new game to game. I think people sometimes get fooled into thinking these are AAA games because any individual game by itself will seem that way (especially more recent ones) but the reality is that the series has never been rebooted or completely retooled so recent games have a lot of very refined systems and lots of activities in them that have been iterated on for 13 years by the same team and eventually piled up into having a huge game with lots of diverse activities in them.

Basically every 2-3 main series games they do a major refresh/overhaul of the engine and systems, between those its mostly small incremental improvements but VERY similar everything else. I would basically group the games like this which each group being a fresh overhaul over the last. (western releases only)

Yakuza 1 and 2

Yakuza 3,4, and Dead Souls

Yakuza 5, 0, and Kiwami

Yakuza 6

I would actually be more interested in seeing them play a bit of the original Yakuza 1. Not necessarily a full play through or anything but it is really interesting to see how far the series has come since the ps2 games.

Whatever they continue the series or not, I can't really blame them for not tackling it yet, because this looks so similiar to Zero. Even if it wouldn't be Dan holding the reins, I'd imagine they all still want a break from doing this as a full series.

Watching this video, I didn't really feel any urge for a second "season" myself. I think I had my fill with Zero.

@pxbart: if ur looking for more action heavy stories, 2 and 4 gets going pretty quick and keep the cool dude moments flowing.

The first half of 3 is very character heavy for kiryu due to where he ends up at the start of that game, but the 2nd half gets going back into yakuza conspiracy action pretty quick

Currently working through 5, and so far it’s almost a 50/50 mix of inner character moments and yakuza action, and sort of makes sense as by this point the characters are way older

1 is more subdued due to it being kind of an origin story for kiryu, as to be vague about it, the events of this game have lasting effects throughout kind of the rest of the series

Too bad Dan didn't like Yakuza

Just finished Kiwami a few days ago and really enjoyed it. Picked it up after loving Beast in the East, and having watched that a lot of the story beats hit much harder. Really hope they continue the series at some point, but I'm glad that I got converted at the very least.

Glad to see Alex is playing these at least, not sure I'd want another beast in the east tbh. A lot of good moments and connectivity between games that rewards playing them all.

Kamurocho doesn't really change drastically, but a lot of the little changes have story reasons and going back to Kamurocho for each new game feels like revisiting a familiar town which for me works to it's benefit.

Almost like [the Heat system] is real finicky

You see a triangle, you hit X... It's real easy.

Also, @alex, FWIW, Dragon is useless at this point of the game - there's a reason it's couched as relearning that style. Once you level it up, it's a nice balance of the three styles, but it's a pretty long road. For the "charging-up" sections, you have to be in the right style (colour match), and do a Heat move called a Kiwami Heat action to stop them recharged and do major damage. What the game doesn't make clear is that you need to unlock those moves on the sphere grid.

That's kinda what I want from it though. It's the next chapter in an on-going story - I wouldn't really want, e.g, the combat mechanics to get overhauled every time.