![]() For example, players can expect to see the same progression system whereupon you make gains in a number of different areas, attack, defense, heat and so on, and then use those gains to either level up stats or purchase entirely new skills. In addition to the substantial visual refresh that the Dragon Engine provides, Yakuza Kiwami 2 also benefits from co-opting many of the in-built systems that Yakuza 6 leveraged earlier in the year. ![]() The opposite is also true too – after Yakuza 6’s extensive renovation of Kamurocho earlier in the year, playing Yakuza Kiwami 2 can feel like stepping back in time as closed down businesses seen in that canonically most recent entry in the series are bustling with custom here, while the new enterprises seen in Yakuza 6 are little more than boarded up buildings awaiting demolition for something new to spring up in their place. With its twinkling skyline and colorful, neon sprawl, Sotenbori has never looked this good before now. ![]() Likewise, the passage of in-game time since then (some 18 years) also means that the city has aged and just like Kamurocho it’s fascinating to track the new buildings that have both sprung up and also those which have replaced the old outright. The last time we saw Sotenbori was in Yakuza 0, and though an attractive place to look at even then, it is nowhere near as resplendent as it is depicted here. Perhaps nowhere is this substantial uptick in visual quality better evidenced than in Sotenbori, Osaka. ![]() Character models now boast tremendous levels of facial detail, lighting and shadows are massively improved and more than that, environments are also rendered with a much higher degree of fidelity. In adopting the Dragon Engine, Yakuza Kiwami 2 simply looks like one of the best entries in the series. The Dragon Engine Breathes New Life Into Yakuza 2Īs welcome as those minor improvements are, it’s really the Dragon Engine which was last used in Yakuza 6 that provides Yakuza Kiwami 2 with a truly sizable makeover. In Yakuza Kiwami 2 however, some weapons can be picked up and stored for use later – an actual godsend if you find yourself carving through goons before for a boss fight you might be otherwise ill-prepared for. Weapons that you came across in the middle of battle in previous Yakuza titles were always disposable affairs because you could never take them with you once the fight had ended. This is a big, big deal not least because in previous games you had to seek out a difficult to locate quest finder which would do the same job – but here, you can seek out Yakuza Kiwami 2’s wealth of substories and side missions very easily and much earlier on.Īnother neat mechanic that has been introduced into Yakuza Kiwami 2 concerns combat. One of these key improvements that Sega has wrought with this remake is that you can earn a skill very early on in the game that allows you to see all the substory givers that appear in each chapter. Though the shift to the Dragon Engine has brought with it a wealth of macro improvements (something we’ll get to in a bit), Sega have also made a number of much smaller nips and tucks that all help to make Yakuza Kiwami 2 a much more satisfying experience.Īs ever, the absurdity of the substories provide a welcome comical foil to Yakuza’s more serious main story. ![]() Carefully Considered Micro-Improvements Make Everything Better In Yakuza Kiwami 2, there is always something interesting to do. In addition to a range of era appropriate arcade machines (arcade perfect takes on Virtua ON and Virtua Fighter 2 are formidable time sinks on their own), Yakuza Kiwami 2 also lets the player indulge in some cabaret management, clan battle, competitive urinal pissing (I kid you not) in addition to range of more tame past-times such as darts, golf and baseball to name just a few. Kiwami 2 wouldn’t be a worthwhile entry in the Yakuza canon if it didn’t have a range of minigames for the player to spend tens, possibly hundreds of hours getting stuck into and Sega’s latest doesn’t disappoint here either. Whether you’re dealing with an impostor looking to make bank off of Kiryu’s reputation, or trying to help out a guy with a case of the severe craps, Yakuza Kiwami 2’s substories frequent err down the wacky end of spectrum and are all the more enjoyable for pushing the envelope in this regard. Long understood to be the absurdist foil to Yakuza’s otherwise ultra-gritty, po-faced story of super hard tattooed Yakuza lads kicking the shit out of each other, the sub-stories in Yakuza Kiwami 2 aren’t just highly amusing and entertaining, but they also rank among the series best too. Speaking of the side-missions and sub-stories, Sega have outdone themselves here. ![]()
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