Yakuza Kiwami

Yakuza Kiwami is a full remake of the first Yakuza game, rebuilt in the Dragon Engine's predecessor and later polished for modern platforms. It drops you into Kamurocho, a dense fictional slice of Tokyo's Kabukicho district, as Kazuma Kiryu, a yakuza foot soldier who takes the fall for a murder he didn't commit and walks out of prison a decade later to find the organization he loved has gutted itself from the inside. The central mystery revolves around a missing 10 billion yen, a childhood friend with dangerous secrets, and enough double-crosses to fill a crime novel. For newcomers to the series, this is exactly where to start. For returning fans who played the PS2 original, it is a chance to experience the story with modern production values and a combat system that actually feels responsive. The combat is the series' signature brawler setup, and Kiwami gives Kiryu four distinct fighting styles to swap mid-fight: Brawler for balanced street punches, Rush for quick combos, Beast for grabbing environmental objects and swinging them at skulls, and Dragon of Dojima, the original style from the first game, which you rebuild over the course of the story through a specific mechanic called Majima Everywhere. That mechanic is both the most charming and most divisive thing in the game. Goro Majima, the series' beloved wildcard, ambushes Kiryu across the entire city in increasingly absurd disguises to help him re-learn his old fighting techniques. It is funny, it is very Yakuza, and it will absolutely interrupt your evening stroll to the convenience store for the ninth time. If you find repetitive ambush encounters annoying by design, the game will test your patience here. Outside of the main storyline, Kamurocho is packed with substories, which are basically side quests ranging from touching to outright ridiculous. You will help a pop idol rehearse, referee a karaoke rivalry, and get roped into scenarios that have no business being this entertaining. This is where the game earns real affection. The tonal whiplash between the serious crime drama of the main plot and the absurdist comedy of the side content is a Yakuza signature, and Kiwami executes it well. The main story runs roughly 15 to 20 hours. Completionists chasing everything on offer will see closer to 40. The XP grind to unlock all abilities is noticeable but not punishing, and most upgrades feel meaningful enough to justify the effort. Where the game shows its age is in pacing and some mechanical stiffness. Boss encounters recycle a handful of the same faces across the story in a way that feels more like padding than purposeful structure. Enemy variety in random street fights gets thin. The map is intentionally small, which gives Kamurocho real character but also makes repetition more visible. The writing in the main plot holds up better than you might expect from a remake of a mid-2000s action game, though some story beats require a patience for melodrama that not every player will share. For RPG-adjacent players who want a character-driven crime story with crunchy combat options and a city that rewards curiosity, Kiwami delivers a solid foundation. It is not the deepest entry in the series mechanically, and it will not compete with later chapters in terms of systemic complexity. But as an origin story for one of gaming's most earnest protagonists, it earns its place on the shelf.

Monika · Scout Team

RPGs

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