Jumping into the Yakuza series for the first time, I found myself really enjoying the first remake, Yakuza Kiwami. I thought the story was great, I loved the characters, I was overwhelmed with things to do in between story moments, and the gameplay was just fun as hell. But I knew the series had far more potential in later entry's, and it was clear the Kiwami didn't utilize what made the later games great like it could've. Luckily, Kiwami 2 changes that.
This is the remake of Yakuza 2 from 2006, and features quite a few changes compared to, not only the original game, but the first Kiwami remake. First things first, the game looks absolutely incredible. Using the game engine that they used for Yakuza 6, the developers did an incredible job bringing everything that made Yakuza 2 so good to the current gen of gaming. Everything from character models, to the overall scale and look of the map was overhauled, and it just looks incredible.
Another change is the gameplay, which I know mirrors the newer games in the series. Combat feels smoother and movement feels more natural. I'm glad Kiryu isn't just sprinting across the city like in Kiwami, it feels more realistic and it allows you to take in the sights of the city more.
The menu layout is also so much better and easier to use. The stats menu took a bit to get used to, but by the end I definitely preferred it to Kiwami. The items menu is so much more organized and easier to tell where everything is, which helps in the middle of battle.
Aside from all those enhancements Kiwami 2 has an absolutely fantastic story. I thought Kiwami's story was great, and the story here is honestly just as good. I liked some chapters quite a bit more than others, and the pacing fell off at times, but all in all it's incredibly solid. Both the returning characters as well as the new faces were well written and voice acted, and the script and cinematic cutscenes were just as great. It had emotional highs and lows, it's as funny as it is sad, and was just great to play through.
When you're in between story missions you have a ton of side activities to complete, because not only do you return to the city of Kamurocho, but there's the new location, Sotenbori. Both locations are filled with side missions that're luckily a lot easier to spot now that they're shown on the game's map, and I honestly enjoyed these side missions a lot more than in Kiwami. Just like the story there's some more serious missions, but a lot of funny and entertaining ones. I laughed out lot so many times during this game. And of course there's all the fun minigames you can play through in between the missions. Overall there's a lot more you can do in this game compared to the first.
Yakuza Kiwami 2 is a huge step up from Kiwami. Aside from it's strong story, characters, and side activities, Kiwami 2 takes a lot from the newer games to modernize it quite a bit more.