Yakuza Kiwami - PlayStation 4

Great storyline. Side missions/minigames are just so-so. OK combats, somewhat repetitive. No automatic saves (!) like in Yakuza zero.

Love the game!! If you are a fan of the Yakuza series, then this is a game you will thoroughly enjoy whether it’s your first play through or you’re revisiting the series. The story is great. The game play is great. The graphics are improved. Just a great game overall. If you’re a lover of the Yakuza series, then this is a must.

The Yakuza games are a bit of an acquired taste. The characters talk in broad, emotional language and some of the cut scenes are admittedly quite silly. But the action is great and the story arc is very involving. If you give yourself in to this world, chances are you’ll be addicted.

Kiwami is a remake of the original 2005 Yakuza PS2 game, but the combat is about the same as in Yakuza Zero as well as new side quests that are continuations of side stories from Zero. A lot was added in this remake, but the main story and events of the original game are present, so even if you haven’t played Zero this is a great game to play if you have no experience with the series. Yakuza has received attention for crazy scenarios, but the main story is somewhat tame compared to other entries. The main story is about 15-20 hours, but there’s so much to do in the small open world (small by today’s standards). This open world is one of the most detailed and fleshed out in the medium and it refuses to let you get bored with its variety and randomness. The combat can still get somewhat repetitive, and the story isn’t as great as Zero, but the main character Kiryu, the new “Majima Everywhere” system, and the Japanese open world make up for those small gripes and this game is easily worth $20.

Yakuza Kiwami is a PS4 remaster of the first Yakuza game that was released on PS2 in 2005. The remaster quality is very excellent and brings this classic game to current modern technology. This is Japan crime drama at its best and outside of the main storyline you got many sidequests and additional activities to do, so this game is very worth your money. Just remember that when you finish this game, you still have 5 other games to play before you reach the end of the Kazuma Kiryu saga, although you can mostly play the games stand alone and still get a fairly good grasp of the overarching storyline between the games. Gameplay does feel a bit outdated but it does not really detract from the quality of the storyline too much.

If you’ve played yakuza games before and like them this is a good choice. To play and enjoy the series it takes a lot of patience and it’s very repetitive. The story is engaging but the boss fights can be really hard and annoying. Overall it is time consuming there is soo much to do.

Great action to this series of Yakuza the storyline is good and action and fighting style.

The side quests are what make this enjoyable for me. I'm liking the story as well. I'm not fully enjoying the fight sequence but it could be because I am missing something.