Yakuza 6 Pc Performance
Danny Hosford
However, his former life comes calling back to him when a group of loan shark toughs threaten to take back the orphanage. As fate would have it, a yakuza family is looking to take over the land and develop it into new real estate and offers Kiryu a sizable lump of cash to vacate. He refuses, which kicks off a sprawling saga of political intrigue, feats of improbable badassery, and yet another reason to fight inside Millennium Tower.
Yakuza 3 Remastered is the definitive version of my second-favorite Yakuza entry. The restoration work done on the game ensures that newcomers who hopped on the Yakuza 0 bandwagon will have a great time playing these older games, while people who enjoyed them the first go-round will love to see the restored content, new translation, and expert facelift.
Yakuza Kiwami 2 has a lot of quality life improvements over Yakuza 6. The first example of this is with enemies health. No longer does every random enemies health appear on a giant bar on the bottom of the screen as well as over their heads, the new enemy health feature opens up more space and makes it easier to keep track of bosses HP. Speaking of bosses, multiple health bars now return for bosses. Instead of having bosses with one giant health bar and high defense to compensate, bosses will now all have the series standard multiple bars of different colors. I honestly prefer this method. As this causes a lot of bosses to be easily cheesed in 6 with the usage of Extreme Heat, or it could make you feel like your attacks have little to no effect on the enemies.
Overall, the combat system of Yakuza Kiwami 2 is much more in depth than Yakuza 6. It honestly feels much more rewarding as I have to plan out my attacks more carefully and not mash away through everything. If the combat system is more refined now, I am honestly excited to see how the combat system will continue to evolve in future entries of the series.
Yakuza Kiwami 2 is the second game from SEGA to use their new high fidelity graphics engine, The Dragon Engine, and it really does show. A common issue I ran into Yakuza 6 was the frame rate. While I used the PS4 Pro, I would still notice occasional slowdown when exploring Kamurocho or when the physics engine was in full effect. I would hate to imagine how bad it would be on the base PS4. Now with Kiwami 2, I find myself not running into this issue nearly as much or at all really. The game manages to keep a much more consistent 30fps no matter what is happening on screen. Kamurocho and Sotenbori are also much more condensed with people compared to Kamurocho in 6 and Onomichi. With the amount of added people on screen Kamurocho and Sotenbori really did feel like being in the busy streets of Tokyo or Osaka.
The visuals of Kamurocho and Sotenbori look better than ever in the remastered version. I really thought that Yakuza 6 looked good, but Kiwami 2 has managed to take the cake in the visuals department. Both cities are extremely vibrant at night, and I always found myself taking my time from destination to destination to take in all of the sights of both cities. I am just amazed as to how much they were able to improve with the game visually. I can only feel like the performance will just continue to improve with each new Yakuza entry from here on out.
Now we have to address something about Yakuza Kiwami 2: how does it hold up to the original Yakuza 2 and is it as good of a remake as Kiwami? Well the answer to that question, in most regards, yes. However it does find fault in some areas. Yakuza Kiwami 2 does an amazing job of sticking true to the original story, and reshoots almost every scene perfectly. While everything looks brand new, they manage to keep everything the same and not deviate too far from the original plot. There are also some pretty good remixes of tracks from the original Yakuza 2. With my personal favorites being Outlaw Lullaby and Roar of Twin Dragons.
Some of these tracks I could listen to all day long, but the problem is, a lot of the music from the original Yakuza 2 did not make it over into Kiwami 2. Instead of custom boss themes for a lot of non major bosses, they just re-use some of the same tracks over and over again.This would get rather underwhelming at times, there were also tracks that were replaced with new ones too, while some of them were good replacements and helped better fit the mood there were quite a few that fell flat. All of that said, none of the changes were completely bad changes, just a bit disappointing compared to other entries.
Thankfully though, Yakuza Kiwami 2 definitely gives more to the player than takes away. With the inclusion of redone scenes, improved combat, and a plethora of side content and an entire new seperate campaign, I can definitely live with a lot of the changes made from the original Yakuza 2. The game still holds true to the originals integrity, and honestly made it more enjoyable to play through and watch.
Yakuza Kiwami 2 has easily become one of my favorite games in the Yakuza series. From the action packed story, to the overabundance of side content provided, to the ability to play as Majima again, I honestly have a game that keeps me wanting to come back for more and more, and never want to put the controller down. For fans coming into the series off the backs of Yakuza 0 and Yakuza Kiwami, going right into Yakuza Kiwami 2 is definitely your best bet. All of that said, if you can, try and play the original Yakuza 2 sometime as well, while I love Yakuza Kiwami 2 and see it as the defacto way for newer players to enjoy the installment, you should really go and see what this game was like when it originally came out and see what the game managed to get away with as a PS2 title. My time with Yakuza Kiwami 2 is far from done, and this will be a game I will be trying to Platinum.
If being a member of the yakuza means that, at one point in my life I'll find myself squaring off against a room of diaper-clad adult men, I could toatlly rock the job, because that seems like cake. Or maybe it's all about sitting back and accepting that it's super fun to play games at urinals that force me to be mindful of the strength of my pee stream.
In all honesty, it's probably more about honor and integrity, acceptance, and stopping to lend a fellow hand to those in need. Wait, that sounds off, too. What's being a yakuza all about, anyway? If I had to go by what powerhouse Kazuma Kiryu, the Dragon of Dojima, does in Yakuza Kiwami 2, I might have a pretty skewed image of what being a part of the Japanese criminal gangs might be like.
But you know what? That's perfectly fine, because every time I have a rendezvous with this massively enjoyable series, I always enjoy myself immensely. In the case of the latest remake, the now-definitive way to enjoy Yakuza 2 on PlayStation 4, I'm both thoroughly impressed and ready to dive back in at any time. While Yakuza 6 acted as the perfect swan song for Kiryu's tale, it's just getting started in Kiwami 2, and it's a tale you've got to experience at least once.
Yakuza Kiwami 2 is, for lack of a better description, more of the same delicious meal we've been chowing down on since Sega decided to start hand-feeding us regular remakes and Yakuza sequels. It's the continuation of Kiryu's story from the first game, of course, with plenty to sink your teeth into.
Technically, Kiryu is now an ex-yakuza, having left the Tojo Clan in the previous game Yakuza Kiwami. He's pulled right back into the streets again when the clan's Fifth Chairman is murdered. The lowlifes behind this heinous crime, the Omi Alliance, are looking for blood, and if it were up to the rest of the Tojo Clan, they'd get it. Kiryu is called upon to find a new chairman for the clan, while working against the "Dragon of Kansai," Ryuji Goda, part of the Omi Alliance. Oh, and there's a whole side story about a potential love interest for Kiryu, but I'll let you unravel and unpack that all on your own as you make your way through the game.
Of course, Kiryu isn't the only star of Kiwami 2. Fan-favorite loose cannon Goro Majima is back for another intriguing tale, with his own scenario "The Truth of Goro Majima," the "Majima Saga." This vignette explores the Mad Dog of Shimano's back story, and how he ended up leaving the Tojo Clan himself. For fans of the relatively unhinged Majima, the particular chapter of the story is a welcome addition to the rest of the game, and a shining example of how even supposed "minor" characters can make or break the narrative.
Unraveling the threads of this gripping story is your main goal, of course, as you complete various chapters of the narrative. But there's so much more than that going on as you hit the town in the fictional Japanese districts of Kamurocho and Sotenbori.
But Yakuza is and has always been all about spectacle, and Kiwami 2 delivers it in droves. Whether you're singing your heart out to some of the cheesiest Japanese tunes in a seedy karaoke joint or whiling hours away in a small arcade with a UFO catcher, it's feeding you flashy distractions one after another. There's always something more to do, like hitting the batting cages or even taking part in a separate hostess club simulation that really ought to have its own spinoff series by now.
This isn't the first game to feature the hostess club mechanic, but it's back with a whole new set of girls, clothing, accessories, and a purpose. Managing the cabaret club is one of the most rewarding parts of the entire game, and one element that I spent far more time on than I really should have, despite the sense of urgency attached to the main campaign. Who has time to faff about with yakuza politics when there are girls to hire and patrons to serve? It quickly, as expected, turned into one of my favorite parts of the game, so much that I wanted to go back and explore its other iterations even further than I had previously. The clan creator seen in Yakuza 6 makes its triumphant return as well, which is another entire subset of content you could spend hours with, if you're not careful.
c80f0f1006