Recent reviews by LoOuU2

Apparently it wasnt a great decision to try this out while fasting for 12 hours on 3 hours of sleep after 5 hours of University lectures. If my brain wasnt fried then , it sure was cooked medium rare an hour playing this.

Edit : so took me 6 more hours to finish this. Honestly, the game was pretty hard for a monkey brain like mine, had to consult the walkthrough video few times. Credit to the creator for coming up with a great concept and implementing it even better. Make a few hours longer and slap a good story with it , you can basically call it Portal 3.

First off , thanks to a random Reddit stranger for electing me as the recipient of this game`s giveaway , really appreciate it.

The game is basically the remake of the very first entry in the Yakuza series (released exactly 14 years and 6 days from the day of this review) . Before remaking the older titles for newer gen machines , the devs Sega released a completely new entry in the series a few years back titled "Yakuza 0" which basically acts as a prequel to this game and it eventually got ported to PC too . Since this game is 0`s sequel , my review is basically going to be centered on the comparison between the both games implying that if you have played 0 before , the review will make more sense to you,

Graphics : The graphics of both games are almost identical (since both games are on the same engine , not sure though) and they are neither dated nor so stunning . But that didn`t personally really bother me since i played both games on a potato GPU

Setting/Atmosphere : The game is set in one district out of the two from Yakiza 0 i.e Kamurucho only . Even though the game is set 10 years after the events of 0 , the district looks exactly the same as it used to in the previous game , you wouldn`t be able to tell them different. Just like 0 , the game is full of ♥♥♥♥ ton of side missions which are funny , original yet kind of repetitive as well as various side activities which have enough aura in them to distract you completely from the main story and can provide entertainment for really long hours and are completely opposite of the dark theme that the main story carries in both games.

Combat/Gameplay : The combat , for almost the whole part is exactly the same as that of 0. Same 4 styles as that of the last game , the same health and heat mechanics and the same potion/tonic/healing method from the last game which saves you in mid of any and every fight . That being said there are three changes to the game`s combat and gameplay compared to its prequel . First being the fact that the AI in this game is tough af , like completely on a whole new level compared to 0 and unlike in the last game where i only had my inventory full of aiding items in last few chapters , i had to keep myself stocked up since the early chapters to assist me in my quest. Second that although you need to unlock the skills to get better , Yakuza 0 had you unlock them through the money you earned in the game but they replaced that with "experience points" in this game which you get by completing missions and defeating opponents/enemies , The third change being the "Majima Everywhere" system , which we will get to later on in the review for it deserves a special paragraph of its own.

Story : On its own , the story of Yakuza Kiwami is good and wont get you tired or bored or annoyed but wont get you curious for more as well. Compared to its predecessor however , the story is weak , like really weak (0 arguably has one of the best stories among the videogames i have played and trust me , i have played many). Playing Kiwami before 0 doesn`t matter and effect as well as matter and effect the main story of the game at the same time . Sure you know that your protagonist is a Yakuza who is about to have his own family but he gets tangled in some ♥♥♥♥ by playing hero for the deed committed by his friend/sworn friend and comes back after 10 years to find the missing person because of whom the tangling ♥♥♥♥ happened but whats actually the backstory of your protagonist ? Whats and how`s your relationship with Nishiki ? How is your main guy getting his own family right at the start without knowing any of his struggles ? Why did Kiryu , out of the whole district picked Serena as a place to get the drink at the beginning ? Whose`s this Majima guy who just wants to fight you and seduces you randomly on the streets by yelling "KIRYUUU-CHAAAAANN". Who`s this Kazama guy that they all respect about , whats his relationship with your hero ? You can play the game without playing 0 but what fun the story is when you aren`t aware about development of any character ? But one thing that Kiwami improves upon story is the pacing that it goes with which is suitable for a game like this and doesn`t getting tired or gives you a feeling of getting stretched at the end which Yakuza 0 gave to me at least , but the story with 2 protagonists , in 2 different districts , with 2 different stories which co-relate at the end , with more than 4 combat styles in play , with really great boss fights top this game with ease.

Soundtrack : now i am someone who takes the soundtrack in the game serious (its literally the only music i listen to) but throughout the game , i couldnt remember or recall any great tune or music from the game unlike the previous one where there were some absolute bangers throughout (that main menu theme for Western World is SICK).

Now that we are done with the main aspects of the game to review upon , one thing that Kiwami has is a system called "Majima Everywhere " which replaced the "Shakedown" from the previous game . For those who don`t know , you would encounter a random unusually enormous guy aka Mr.Shakedown in the streets who would fight you and if you lose , you lose some of your money . They replaced that system by making the 2nd protagonist of the previous game appearing in the streets or popping out of the random side activities you are doing to challenge you to fights . Whats changed that unlike losing your money , by fighting against Majima , you get to unlock abilities for your 4th and signature combat style aka Dragon of Dojima which is really useful late in the game and actually gives you an excuse to brawl with him unlike running away from Mr.Shakedown. Also you get to interact with the most wackiest and the best character from this franchise so its basically a win-win situation.

Final verdict ? Play Yakuza 0 if you havent before trying this and if you liked that game for whatever reason other than the story , you are gonna have some great time with this one as well . Just dont expect the story and its length to be same as that of Yakuza 0.

Around 670 hours on record at the time of writing this review and i have finally reached a breaking point forcing me to negatively rate it .

Hear me out , i like the game , infact i love it . Best coop game i ever played after L4D2 , it infact forced me to switch from L4D2 . Absolutely love everything about the game . From gameplay to soundtrack to guns to maps to the community and devs support ( regular updates with new seasons , new maps , guns and ♥♥♥♥ , worth applauding) , everything is absolutely perfect about the game except for one thing , the Bugsplat crashing errors.

The game tends to randomly crash , alot . Would sometime run for hours without crashing and most of times would crash 4 times within a single hour. I enlisted my query in bug report tab under discussion for like 5 times now and none of the dev bothered to further reply me there , I have filed the tickets on their support site twice and i just got a lame ass reply long time ago . The issue has been around for a long time now and it just aint me annoyed by it , you can literally find alot out there suffering from the same problem and yet to find a solution.

Consider this negative review as a from of protest from my side which would never change under any circumstances until and unless the developers haul their ass , listen to the community and fix this major bug. I would keep on playing and supporting the game even though it makes me enrage a lot at times because of this but its a really really great coop experience.

0/10
Needs more lesbo ♥♥♥♥ that LiS franchise is famous for

Pros :
Nice looking graphics
Decent enough gameplay
Mediocore Story

Cons :
Lack of weapons variety
Very short
Lack of soundtrack

Personally i enjoyed the game but a bit more interesting story and a lengthy game would have made it more interesting and worthwhile . Overall , its worth it for timepass