This is the “oldest” right now, since the preceding games were all re-remade, and this one was only remade, and that’s how the timing worked out. Hot take? I kinda liked that. The Dragon Engine did not make Kiwami 2 enjoyable, and I’d much rather have some old school jank than a bunch of technical problems. In some ways, it was refreshing.

Gameplay#↑

Gameplay was… fine. No multiple styles like Zero or Kiwami, but at least we’re back to predictable enemy fall animations that I can combo off of, and no more dumb physics-based ragdolls. No sprint button, but the world was small enough that I didn’t miss it too much. People call this one “Blockuza” due to the enemy AI spamming block, but I didn’t really find this to be anything more than a mild annoyance at worst. Just press grab :5Head:. I’d put this combat above Kiwami 2, but under the rest so far.

Story#↑

Story was much better. One of the best so far. Not quite at the level of Zero, but definitely far above Kiwami and Kiwami 2. The orphanage scenes were a great, wholesome change of pace. They really got me to care about that damn place, and all the characters involved. Gave me a really strong emotional reaction later on when it all came tumbling down . The mystery had several twists that really got me, and was very interesting even when I knew what was going on. The story felt like a strange mirror of Zero, though Zero came out later so maybe Zero is actually this story’s perfected mirror. It explores Kiryu’s motivations, his personal ties, and his particular brand of what it means to be a Yakuza. Unfortunately there was one chapter that served as nothing but a big information dump while you sat in a room with an NPC to ask them questions. “Oh that mystery you’ve been chasing? Well now that you’ve found 20% of the answers, let me give you the rest!” I would have preferred that information to be brought up more naturally, but it’s not the end of the world. Definitely a flaw in this otherwise pretty great story though.

Hard to say too much more without spoilers, and this is the most spoilable story since Zero, so I’ll leave it there. But it was good.

Rating#↑

8/10. Great game overall, even if it definitely shows its age.

Not sure if I’ll keep going on the Yakuza train, or take a break for some other backlog stuff for a bit. I’m about 1/3 of the way through the series, and as I understand it, it’s all uphill from here. But maybe I’ll give the beat-em-up gameplay a bit of a break so that it’ll feel more fresh when I get back to it.