Yakuza Kiwami 2

I keep coming back to Kiwami 2 as the clearest proof that a remake can surpass its source material so thoroughly that the original almost becomes irrelevant. Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio rebuilt the 2006 PS2 game from scratch using the Dragon Engine, the same technology that powered Yakuza 6, and the upgrade is immediately felt: seamless transitions into restaurants, bars, and batting cages with no loading screens, combat that drops you straight into street brawls across wide-open stretches of road, and two city maps, Kamurocho and Sotenbori, that feel denser and more alive than anything the studio had shipped on PC before this. The combat is where series veterans coming off Yakuza 0 or Kiwami 1 will need a moment to adjust. Gone are the multiple fighting styles that defined those earlier entries. Kiryu fights exclusively in his Dragon style here, and the immediate impression is that the system is shallower. It is not. The Dragon Engine's physics give the brawling a physical weight you don't feel in the older games: enemies ragdoll into each other, environmental weapons like bicycles and traffic cones have real impact, and the cinematic Heat Moves remain spectacular. The skill tree, borrowed from Yakuza 6, lets you spend experience points across combat upgrades, stat boosts, and minigame-specific perks, which at least gives you something to optimise between story chapters. Build variety is thin by CRPG standards, but the combat loop stays satisfying through the credits. One legitimate gripe: a handful of story-mission encounters drag in holdover mechanics from the original, including damage-sponge brutes and at least one absurd sequence involving a medieval shield. These feel like artifacts of 2006 that the remake should have quietly retired. The narrative is the main attraction, and it mostly earns that billing. Kiryu versus Ryuji Goda, the Dragon of Kansai, is a proper rival dynamic. Goda is present throughout the story rather than saved for a final-act reveal, and his scenes with Kiryu carry a push-pull energy that the series rarely manages this cleanly. Kiryu's developing relationship with detective Kaoru Sayama adds genuine warmth to what could have been a straightforward clan-war plot. The story's weak point is its length and pacing: long cutscenes pile on clan-politics exposition in the first few hours, you don't get full character control for well over an hour from the title screen, and certain tangents in the middle chapters feel like they belong in a different, messier script. It is not as tightly written as Yakuza 0. Nothing yet is. But as a crime melodrama that earns its bombastic finale, it sits near the top of the series. The Majima Saga, a short bonus campaign unlocked chapter by chapter, is worth your time mainly for one quietly heartbreaking callback to Yakuza 0 rather than for its combat, which strips Majima down to a single weapon and no skill progression. Outside the main plot, the optional content is genuinely staggering. There are 75 substories for Kiryu ranging from bizarre one-offs to multi-step character arcs, a Cabaret Club management mode returning from Yakuza 0, a Clan Creator RTS featuring Majima's construction company, and a Club Sega arcade stocked with playable Virtua Fighter 2 and Virtual On. The in-game karaoke, golf, darts, mahjong, and batting cages are the reliable time-sinks they always are. Completionists will see 60 to 80 hours without blinking. The substory quality varies, but the best ones humanise the streets of Sotenbori and Kamurocho in ways the main plot simply does not have time to do. On PC, the game adds 4K support, an unlocked frame rate, a field-of-view slider, and customisable controls, which makes it the version to own if you have the hardware for it. If you have played Yakuza 0 and Kiwami 1, Kiwami 2 is the natural and rewarding continuation. The emotional payoff of the Sayama subplot in particular lands much harder if you know where Kiryu has come from. First-time Yakuza players are technically accommodated by an in-game story recap, but the connective tissue of the series, the weight of recurring characters and prior sacrifices, simply does not function the same way without that context. Start at Yakuza 0, build up to this, and you will find one of the series' most mechanically polished and visually confident entries waiting for you.

Monika · Scout Team

RPGs

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