Kiwami 2 all about dat main story
The Majima Construction sidestory was pretty fun, but otherwise, yeah, main story is the thing. The substitutes in 2 are an improvement over 1, but they didn’t hit their stride till later.
Kiwami 2 at least moves faster than the PS3 entries. I don’t like looking at Kiryu’s Y6 Model when he should be 10 years younger. I keep thinking that’s the aged Kiryu. He looks younger in RgG7.
And yeah harder to square 2 into the franchise than 1 honestly than what it was, a quick sequel to a surprise hit.
Most of the Omi Alliance Voice Actors are bad, particularly shocked how bad Ryuji Goda is. Noticing it here because I did not notice it in the other 47 games in this series. There is level of “two takes and told to read the lines.”
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Kiwami 2 (and 2) remains pretty rough but gives me appreication that from 3, they cranked these out yearly getting better and better at them until Zero hit.
Looking forward to putting this to bed and going to Lost Judgement.
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2 is interesting from seeing how they went from what was clearly meant to be a one off thing to “how do we expand outward”. The original release of 2 in the US was notable for how they didn’t remove anything at all in terms of the extras, given the weird hackjob to come with the US release of 3.
I will say that the use of Majima in Kiwami 2 was a lot better than 1, which makes it an easier one to recommend to people. And if it annoys you, he’s a lot eaiser to avoid.
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I still gotta finish Judgement. And 4/5. I just haven’t been in a Yakuza place lately.
Hungry for the next one but after Judgment I don’t feel compelled to do Lost Judgment.
Can anyone recommend it? I just found mission-based minigames to be too flumpy and never really felt like detective-ing.
I also had those complaints but the main story line was really good- in Judgement.
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I though Lost Judgment was pretty good, the detective minigames are still there and are still pretty bad though. The Stealth segments are probably the worst.
It probably rivals Yaks 5 and 7 for ‘too much side content’ though, there’s a ridiculous amount of it. Most of it is tied to the School Stories investigation, and if you’re invested in finding out whodunnit you need to complete literally all of the like, 10 or so side stories involved in it. Which means you have to complete all of the janky robot wars minigame, all of the boxing / skateboard / street race / dating minigames etc.
I quit the game in disgust after like 100 hours when I realised that to unlock Secret Command for the Master System I was going to have to beat Amon.
Probably also worth mentioning the story deals heavily with themes of school bullying and student suicide, and doesn’t necessarily handle them very well.
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I almost forgot though, how bad a first impression this game gives. The First Thing You Do when the game gives you control is walk a couple steps before putting you into another cutscene, then you are treated to a full opening tutorial mission that is almost nothing but the detective minigames. I think overall the minigames happen less frequently than the first game, but this first mission might leave you expecting otherwise.
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The absolute worst part of Judgement was how tutorial heavy the first 6 hours are. Which is disgusting! Yeah just play for six hours then it levels out. The drama is pretty great but they really really take your time before you can play the game.
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Yeah the weird part of this one is that a few of the detective minigame things happen in the tutorial, and then become almost completely absent from the rest of the game. Like I think they get you to pick locks maybe three times in the whole game. I think you use the drone once and never again unless you feel like it. I think the first thing they get you to do is tail someone, and that mostly gets relegated to the side content.
Stealth happens a lot though, and it’s so bad you won’t be prepared for how pointless it is
On the upside though, you can skateboard anywhere (well, not on the sidewalk), take a mysterious dog who loves solving mysteries for walks, and find Sega Master System games to play in your office
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Continuing the path that even when RgG Studio games are bad, they are still very good.
Like I have a lot of complaints about Kiwami 2 but these sure are video games you can play.
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Feels like Lost Judgment is one to pick up later down the line. Thanks for the summaries and insights!
I sometimes wanna replay 5 real bad which is surely a symptom of irrational love.
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It’s very Hinge Problems of me to read that and think “that’s pretty good by FFXIII standards”
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I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a plot twist as ludicrous as that coin locker baby plot twist. I know Yakuza is soap but damn. What the hell. I’m still in shock
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I think the big twist in 4 is even goofier but it was in a game I wasn’t very invested in so it was a highlight. Like A Dragon’s dumb twists just soured me on a game I’d loved
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Yeah the game abandons most of it’s good ideas and themes for this.
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My wife walked in during the big reveal on this and she almost lost her mind and I was like “and you didn’t even play 65 hours of this game”
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