Yakuza Kiwami 2

amazing games as always but if you played 0 and did not like it just stop playing the series

Peak story like always especially on majima's saga

Kiwami 1 was disappointing to me so Im glad Yakuza 2 has a much better story.

Might have just become my favorite game. They story is PEAK. Amazing game!

The story in Yakuza 2/Kiwami 2 took longer to enable unlike the previous games in the chronological order of the series but what stood out better here is the way the story gripped me that I felt had the closest drama beats like 0 did.

With this being the first Dragon Engine game I've played, getting to experience both Kamurocho and Sotenbori in the quality this game presented was breathtaking for sure for someone who's so into Japan these days thanks to the series.

Unlike Kiwami, I actually gave some points out due to my personal experience of grappling with the much more streamlined combat system where I expected to have the same complexities as the modern Yakuza games (0 and Kiwami 1) as I personally found the initial adjustment period clunky due to how new the system is apparently in the release history of these games but in the end I found the combat manageable though I heavily prefer the past game engine's combat.

Kiryu's legend maneuvers more into paths less travelled by the one's who aren't chosen but I'm sure to be with Kiryu all the way seeing these through. Even if the massive downgrade of gameplay systems and fidelity will be expected. But I trust myself not to judge the Remastered games just because of what Kiwami 2 accomplished.

The combat is beyond horrible, the game makes you grind for hours to have a fraction of your power from previous game and this degradation of Kiryu isn't explained in any way, even after 10 years in jail he still remembered four fighting styles and here your first enemies are the guys with unloaded pistols... and there is a lot of bullshit like this in the game but the story is TOP TIER, there are still some questionable main quests but a lot less then in kiwami 1 and everything else is very engaging. There are some dumb unrealistic moments but i can close my eyes on them. Fun fact: there is a side quest in this game that criticises itself for combat, side quests are fantastic too, not every one of them turns into a fight like in kiwami 1 and most of them are hillarious.

the main antagonist in this game is one of the most likable in the whole series
combat feels great and the boss fights are unique with lots of style in them
story is emotional with better turns than most of the games
unfortunately the ending is instantly ruined by the intro of 3

Only 7 h in the game and I'm already convinced this is better than 0 and kiwami. Yes, you didn't misread, BETTER THAN 0... fight me about it. :3
It has better storytelling, better fighting mechanics (the ragdoll is hilarious, dragon engine all the way) and it has that japanese anime humor which made me cackle a couple of times. :>

Aight, cya.

The game overall was a big jump in graphics, style, and feel from Yakuza Kiwami 1 and everything felt more realistic. The combat is still not that great, but they've changed it from how it was previously by making it more streamlined. The side stories and minigames are fun as always.

The story had more plot twists than a Bollywood drama, but I guess that's what you come to expect from Yakuza games. I think the story wasn't as good as the previous game. Spoiler: the plot regarding Sayama and all her family dying was trash, many deaths took me out of the immersion with how stupid they were. The ending was mid asf too.

The bonus story in the Majima Saga was awesome. Spoiler: Majima meeting Makoto again had much more meaning and feel than the whole plot of the game.

Overall it was aight.

A good Yakuza for sure, but the Majima Saga is a very meh experience IMO and the cabaret club of Yakuza 0 is somewhat still a better experience (not saying it's bad tho')

Holy Molly! what an experience, If you played the others Y0 and Y1 You would be happy to continue your journey through this game as well, this also has much needed improved combat over 0 and 1 and faster pace of combat! side activities are just as fun.

Terrific story, the game draws you in to actually feeling conflicted about defeating the other dragon. The game play was very fluid even with the removal of the stance system, however, I think the single fighting form was dynamic enough to still flow well. Kiryu is just the most badass character, he take hits like a champ and smashes his way through enemies like they are flimsy plywood.

I immensely enjoyed this game. It's such a good sequel both in story and gameplay. The heat actions in this game are really fun; I particularly enjoyed all of the grappling variations in this entry. All of the big reveals that happen towards the end of the game totally caught me off guard, but at the same time they felt like very satisfying and I think were ultimately justified with the narrative buildup and payoff they're associated with. Moreover, I really liked the small but fun role that Majima played in this entry, especially in the Majima Saga chapters. (9/10)

10/10, my favorite game in the Yakuza series so far. The combat and story are just amazing. Ryu Ga Gotoku just doesn't miss.

Decent Yakuza game (I've only played Y0 Y1 Y2 so far)
Combat starts off fun as you unlock a lot of moves but by the 70% mark kinda gets stale.
Story has some pacing issues (and some asspulls).
Majority of the substories and side content were great as usual. And that makes it worth the playtime if you're into chasing these side content. As for the major side content chunks: Loved the Cabaret section/questline. The Clan Creator section/questline could've used a lot more polish tho.

7/10

It's not an action game, it's a dice simulator. you roll 1-3 - your atack is blocked. you roll 4-5 - your atack is evaded. You roll 6 - congratulations, you hit an enemy.

More of the same amazing content in line with Yakuza 1 and 0. I did not play the original, but I really love how amazing this game looks and feels. Definitely only play if you at least played 1 first as it is a direct sequel. Small gripe is the ragdoll effect in fights - unrealistic, but funny.

I will never get the Majima construction theme out of my head for the rest of my life.

This is a really great game, it's very addicting. Just don't use the in-game V-sync, use Nvidia control panel, as it worked way better for me.

5 minutes spent on gameplay, the rest on mahjong

Basically a newer version of yakuza 0 with yakuza 2 story.

love the Yakuza games. great rich story with great fighting.

Love the improved combat system and seamless world. The combat is SO MUCH better than yakuza 0 and kiwami 1. The plot and presentation is extremely inconsistent oscillating between very captivating to absolute dogshit with idiotic story beats and setups that go nowhere. Thoroughly enjoyed all the Majima bits as usual. As with previous games, all of the side content feels like it was written by a toddler.

I continued my playthrough of the Yakuza franchise, which was highly recommended to me, by diving into Yakuza Kiwami 2. It took me almost three months to finish the game because I played it on and off. However, each time I returned, I quickly remembered what I needed to do to progress.

I enjoyed experiencing the Dragon Engine, although I'm not ready to go back to the PS3 era for Yakuza 3 Remastered. I appreciated all the callbacks not only to Kiwami 1 but also to Yakuza 0. The way they tied up the loose ends from Yakuza 0 provided a perfect send-off. The story itself has been quite thrilling and revealed many unexpected twists that kept me engaged.

If I were to have a saying for this game, it would have been "I don't kill people!" or "Harkua, please stop requesting me to gamble. I don't know how to play Koi!".

Now that all that business is finished, I wonder what’s next for Kiryu’s adventure!

Love this series, it's probably my favourite series of games and I can't recommend them enough.

Combat and XP is kind of doodie but its ok I forgive it the story is really good

Too many bugs, I was even playing it in lowest graphical setting and i just arrived at sottenbori put it in first person view and the game crashed. It's too bad it's a good series and good game. I had no problem on the console but not working for me here. Had no problem with yakuza zero or kiwami 1 which I ran at max graphical settings.

Yakuza Kiwami 2 is the second, or third counting Yakuza 0, in the series. The basic game is that of a third person beat 'em up. However, this is like a hub of the game play of meany spokes of mini games the series is know for. As well as decent crime melodrama story.

The beat 'em up game play is satisfying. It isn't the best I've played even compared to 2000s peers. But solid enough that I find it fun. It certainly does invoke the same as Yakuza 0, but still good if a little simple. The mini games here are: cabaret club, clan creator, photo shoot, bouncer and a number of others than are quite common in the series.

Cabaret club is the stand out. I can see why it was included in Yakuza 0. It's still decently fun here, and I didn't think it wore out its welcome. Clan creator is basically a stripped down RTS game. It's okay, but nothing I wanted to spend much time with. Photo shoots use actual video of women with the player stringing together replies. It's a common RGG mini game, and I've never been overly impressed with it. Bouncer is basically a gauntlet of beat 'em up encounters. It's fine, but there was no way I was going to do all 70+ of them. Doubly so once a timer was involved.

Beyond that, shogi, mahjong, blackjack, poker, batting cages, golf driving range, karaoke and a couple of Sega arcade games are present. As well as few other mini games as well. Honestly, most of them aren't my thing, but Yakuza games are like a buffet. You play the parts you want to and enjoy the game's story.

Yakuza Kiwami 2 is a good entry in the series with a fun side stuff that kept me entertained and enjoying the experience. It's certainly not the peak of the series, but far from the low as well.

The story is good. Often contrived, but that's just how Yakuza games go. You either get used to it, or you don't really enjoy the plots. There's noting spectaulcar here, but it's good. If it feels a little padded at times.

Yakuza Kiwami 2's the game I enjoyed the least in my playthrough of the series so far. The game holds many shortcomings, both from old and new stuff, that makes the experience a lot less enjoyable than the other Yakuza games I've played. That said, it's still a very solid game, and if you ignore most of the side content, it doesn't take very long.

As you might not be aware, Yakuza 6: The Song of Life (and every game made after that point) uses the innovative brand-spanking-new Dragon Engine, launching the series into a more modern era. However, this feels more like a 6 steps forward, 2 steps back type thing. While it's undoubtedly super cool to just be able to walk into stores, with a pretty good level of detail, the physics can be extremely wonky at times, combat doesn't feel very good with Kiryu's moveset being entirely changed, and the controls are generally a lot less snappy than the other games. While this probably won't be much of an issue for you if you're just going through the main game, engaging in a set of side missions this game has that essentially replace Climax Battles will really put your patience to the test.

The story is a very common criticism of Yakuza 2, and for good reason, with easily the worst ending in the entire series that ruins an otherwise very solid successor to the previous entry. The story by nature has to remain pretty much unchanged, unless they planned on remaking every subsequent game, too. The new story that they managed to cram in, The Majima Saga, is extremely bland, taking only about 2 hours to complete with all the side content, with basically zero impact to anything, just giving you an excuse to play as Majima while also provide an ultimately unnecessary context for the events of the game.

That said, I did think it was overall enjoyable; there was a lot more crap I had to work through in completing this game than I did the previous ones, though the Majima Construction part is genuinely very fun. The iconic, super-satisfying Tiger Drop is not nearly as good as it is in Kiwami 1, but this is quickly offset by getting access to a new "Kill everybody in the game instantly if you can mash heavy attack like 10 times a second" heat action, so it roughly evens out. If you've already played through Yakuza 0 and Kiwami 1, you're pretty much obligated to play through this game to see how the story continues.

For many die-hard Yakuza fans, Kiwami 2 is probably their 2nd or 3rd favorite game in the Kiryu saga (pre-RPG games), but I have mixed feelings about this game.

First, the good. The port is great, especially compared to 0 and Kiwami. No bugs, no save glitches, everything's well done, and the graphics are amazing. Probably the second best soundtrack in the series, if a little bit "emo music". The final boss fight's music is among the best. The only potential issue is the Toylets mini-game, which can be solved by capping the frame rate at 30 or using the Silent Patch (via PC gaming wiki).

While chronologically, Yakuza 6 obviously comes later, Kiwami 2 was originally released a year after 6, and the improvements and lessons learned from RGG Studio's first foray with the Dragon Engine really shows. Compared to Yakuza 6, Kiwami 2 has much better inventory management, better implementation of vending machine drinks, and an actually finished Kamurocho. Clan Creator is simplified and improved on as well. The Club Cabaret side story is back from Y0 and IMO, improved as well, especially in the dress-up department, as it is easier to get your hostesses to both look good and have triple S ratings. You can easily sink hours into just the two aforementioned side stories.

Now for my gripes. The big issue for me is the action combat. Compared to Y0 & Kiwami 1, it feels much more sluggish. The inputs/frames have a delay. This is noticeable with the heavy attacks or triangle string in a combo. Yes, it's a different engine, and eventually RGG Studios refined their action combat to buttery smooth as seen in the two Judgement games, but still, for this game, they haven't quite figured it out just yet.

As an extension of this problem, you really don't deal heavy damage, especially in the higher difficulties, with your "regular" attacks or combos. The main source of damage comes from your heat actions. So instead of fighting your foes like in the previous two games, your best option is grabbing an object or whipping out a weapon, walking up to your opponent, and pressing triangle. In fact, to 100% the game, the last three bouncer missions plus the Amon substories are almost impossible to beat with just your fists. The combat is not nearly as satisfying compared to the two previous games (chronologically).

Story is all over the place, and it's hard to explain without spoiling, but to me, this is when the Yakuza series' story telling starts going off the ledge into ass-pull territory. Of course, you will have to judge it for yourself.

All in all, it's still a good game, and I recommend it. If you're going for 100% completion, you're headaches will come from 1) having to play through the story twice, as there is no instant legendary difficulty unlock like in the previous two games even with mods; and 2) the final bouncer missions will be a GRIND. I would still consider it one of the easiest to platinum, with much less requirements in the completion list, and easier Haruka's Whims objectives. As always, I recommend following CyricZ's guide if you're stuck at some point.

P.S. Unspoken rule in the Yakuza fandom: final boss fight, make sure you UN-equip your gear and do NOT use weapons. As one of the manliest, man ever in video games says: "A real man ought to be a little stupid"

Not even close to as green as I was lead to believe. The ending was awesome because I had more trouble fighting the unnamed man in black on the elevator than the actual bosses.

This was a really good game, SO much better than the 1st kiwami imo. graphics are beautiful, combats fluid but a little clunky, the story is pretty good, very japanese, albeit with a pretty crap ending. Minigames were pretty good too. One critisism i have is that i wish ryuji played a bigger part as the villain, especially in the ending- also a few plot points imo are pretty poorly done. Still, a rly good game

Another amazing game for this series. Being able to walk into stores seamlessly and also bring enemies into the stores was a blast. The conclusion of the story in this game, similar to the two games before this one, was nothing short of an absolute emotional experience. I absolutely recommend this game.

Runs like garbage despite my best attempts to fix it but it does feels good to play whenever it decides to not stutter like crazy

If you have a super powered pc you might have less trouble

Absolutely fantastic once more. The gameplay is gold. The improvements that the Dragon Engine brought are definitely worth it. Everything from the fighting (even if it was imperfect, I know), to the skills, to the hilarious physics, it's so awesome. Obviously, so glad seeing Kiryu and Majima once again, actually teaming up some more too. Also Majima's introduction was amazing, especially that coliseum entrance. And of course, I'm glad to see Haruka again as well, even if it wasn't much until the end of the game.

The story was a once again amazingly crafted, with everything tying together perfectly once more. An incredible story overall for sure. Ryuji makes for such an awesome character, I ended the story with so much respect for him, Sayama was an awesome and well made character and love interest for Kiryu as well, and I'm so glad seeing tons of returning characters. I was also so heartwarming to see Haruka and Kiryu visiting the graves of past characters, Kazama, Nishikiyama, and beloved Yumi. Only issue I have with that is that there was no reference to Reina at all, which is so sad, she was wonderful in the previous games.

That ending man. Everything was wild. The plot twist, the story reveals, the characters. I absolutely loved it. Those scenes with Sayama and Ryuji were SO good. Actually killed me. Then Date and Haruka come out of nowhere in a helicopter, like what the hell. Haruka calling out to Kiryu from the helicopter was so damn adorable. THEN that damn scene with Sayama and Kiryu, oh man, it's SO good. If the heartwarming scene wasn't enough, I died of laughter at Date yelling at them from the helicopter, then after that, felt heartbreak from Haruka yelling for Kiryu as they leave. A fucking roller coaster of emotions, it's just such an amazing finale, hands down. Oh right, THEN they pop out the Japanese heavy metal at the end LMAO. PEAK. Seriously though, such an incredible ending. That post-credits scene was so wholesome too, aw man.

The Caberat Club Grand Prix was also an absolutely awesome return from Yakuza 0. I especially enjoyed that minigame in Zero, so seeing it return in Kiwami 2 is perfect, especially with it's story connecting back to Zero. Not only that, but we get to see our favorite hostess, Yuki, once again; returning with a vengence as both a manager, and later a hostess. Such an amazing comeback, and Yuki looks so damn attractive, especially in her manager outfit, like damn, Yuki aged like fine wine. Koyuki and Yuki are such a perfect duo and I absolutely loved their introduction, but of course, the other hostesses where also on point. The story overall was amazing, not only getting to see Yuki come back but also getting to see Majima and Youda as well, plus Club Sunshine turning out to be the big evil rival, such an awesome callback. And Majima eventually ending up as the Grand Prix host is so peak, Caberat Club Grand Peak. Majima construction caught me off guard quite a bit, but it was such fun. A really creative way to add a top down "rts" style defense game on top of another game. There isn't really that much to say about Majima construction honestly, it's really fun, but that's all it is, a defense strategy game where you take down land sharks.

Speaking of Majima, Majima's Saga was SO damn amazing. Getting to see my beloved Makoto again was such an an amazing surprise, and I'm so glad she finally got the closure she deserved. RGG loves playing with my emotions during this shit, the assholes. And of course, the fact that you get to play as Majima once again outside of Zero is top tier. Such an amazing addition to an already amazing game. Edit: The achievement did bug with Majima's Saga, which didn't actually complete at first until I reloaded the save and completed the last part of the story again. Freaked me out at first but it worked in the end, but damn RGG.

This game was so good. Story was very slow to start, but ends up getting very good. Graphics look absolutely amazing if you are coming straight from Kiwami 1. The combat can feel more repetitive at times since there is no fighting styles anymore, but generally fights were still very fun.

I already know its going to be hard to play Y3 after this, which is the only real complaint I have.

Overall, I believe this game to be an improvement over Kiwami 1, especially in the writing aspect. The combat, however, is very different after the change over to the Dragon Engine, so I couldn't really like it for much of my playthrough. To me, the combat in Kiwami 2 is a lot more defence-focused, and also a little unbalanced and therefore not quite as fun as 0 and Kiwami 1. By the end though, I found the combat to be...alright. The incentive to use weapons in this game was okay (since they are very strong) but I don't really like this as A) I like punching things and B) weapons across yakuza games have always felt clunky to me. Despite that though, I enjoyed the weapons at play.

The story here was good. A lot less filler from Kiwami 1 (which suffered massively from it). The villain in Kiwami 2 isn't quite as good as 1's but I still really like him. I also really enjoyed the characterisation Kiryu got in this one (the rooftop scene, for example) and the final few scenes. The music in this game also kicks ass but to be honest the music in all the games has been great.

Sotenbori and Kamurocho looks great in the Dragon Engine but there's a weird green filter, especially in the latter. I got used to it though but damn it looked ugly at times.

Overall, good game.

riveting story fun gameplay AMAZING side content its kiwami

Game just doesn't work. I bought the game a few years ago along with the first one. I played and beat the first one, then i started the second one. I played over 30 hours of the game but put it down due to life stuff. Years later i attempt to continue where i left off and it's impossible to play. After pressing a/x on the title screen the game is pressing directions rapidly. I unplugged everything keyboard and all and the directions were still being pressed somehow. Then i plugged everything back in and attempt to load the game, Once i got the game to start everything spins and is impossible to play. Once again I unplug everything controllers, mouse, keyboard and everything still spins, i turn off steam input still spinning. What the hell did you guys do to the game? Fix it or give me back my money.

The Yakuza series has fast become one of my favourites and this game is no exception. Graphically this one is fantastic and the story is great. I really enjoyed the change in combat in this one, moving away from the styles. Overall a fantastic game, one of the best I've played.

great 8 hours got to be up another dragon, start a carpet club, an proceed to walking to a bunch of men in diapers.

Really really enjoyed playing this. Picked this up straight after finishing Kiwami, and the differences are striking. It's a great looking game, with great combat, a really good story (if a little cheesy in places), and a whole lot of fun. Whereas I was playing Yakuza 0, and Kiwami to get through the story in time to get to Pirate Yakuza coming out next month, this game kept pulling me in. Really good fun.

I find it fun but I definitely enjoyed yakuza 0 and kiwami 1 better, this game only has one fighting style for kiryu, so I just find combat a bit repetitive. Other than that its a good game

A remake of the second game of the Kazuma Kiryu epic that makes the original ps2 game obsolete, regardless of what purists would tell you. The combat is a bit too easy especially if you use weapons a lot, and a couple "twists" in the final chapters aren't the greatest. But this is a generally good game that I can recommend to fans of modern RGG games. The sub stories lack a bit of depth, but this is technically a ps2 game and RGG was still finding their identity. Solid minigames and a dope cast of supporting characters make this a solid remake of a PS2 classic.

7.5/10

its good, the story was more engaging than the first imo but the ending was really bad. a lot of cut scenes look really cheap too and it turns out they re-used a lot of animations and even voice lines from the original ps2 game which is pretty jarring considering the ps2 audio is noticeably worse than a lot of other voice lines.

That final chapter was probably the funniest, out-of-pocket endings I've ever encountered in a game. Solid game overall.

Just wished they expanded more on the Majima Saga esp with revisiting/closing the story of 0

Yakuza K2 significantly improves the franchise. Its the sequel to Yakuza 0 that we wanted. It actually is the sequel to Kiwami 1, which itself felt more like a DLC to Yakuza 0. We brought back the Cabaret Club, we got Majima Construction. Everything in this game felt polished and I loved it since the developers put the time in to prove to me they did too. There can only be one dragon.

Better combat than the game that it's based on (Yakuza 6), though they overcorrected and made this game piss easy instead.

Blud actually Tiger Dropped two tigers 😭😭😭

Solid story, combat was fun and the substories were enjoyable. Of course the New Dragon engine was chiefs kiss.
Majimas playable short chapters were Well executed.

Overall an 8/10.

Combat damn fun bro pastu story like soap opera really damn lawak dgn entertaining highly recommend
-your common malaysian yakuza fanatic

the majima saga got me tearing up it was just beautiful

and the base game is amazing too, but I'm just really in my feels from the majima saga lol