Yakuza Kiwami

Kazuma Kiryu is a legend in the Yakuza world, known throughout Japan as the Dragon of Dojima because of its actions and, above all, its ferocity and unbeatability in any kind of clash.

Things are going well for Kazuma, until a tragic event forces him to blame for a murder he did not commit, having to spend ten years in prison. On his return, he came out of jail, but things did not seem to be as before and Kazuma will be involved in a strange affair linked to the disappearance of ten billion yen, where the key to everything seems to be a mysterious little girl named Haruka.

Yakuza’s plot is certainly one of the many strengths of the game (and more generally of the whole series), full of numerous shots and, above all, of characters with an incredible charisma, even if children of a writing typically Japanese who often tends to extricate some actions and behaviors strongly based on the canonical cliché of the classic malevitious who puts pride and respect over everything.

 Let us also mention the great work done on the dialogues and the movies, here completely rewritten and redistributed, and also to add, compared to the original, 30 minutes of unpublished scenes that will deepen some events that had not been contemplated (such as flashback on Nishikiyama, Kazuma’s best friend).

Yakuza Kiwami abandons the traditional combat and character progression system to adopt the ones we have learned to learn about the recent Yakuza 0, that is, the styles. As in the prequel, Kazuma can use three different fighting styles: Rush, Beast and Brawler. Rush focuses on skirmishes and fast combo, Beast on slow but powerful shots, and with the ability to use weapons (especially big ones such as bikes or sofas), while Brawler is a more balanced style half between Rush and Beast.

Each of these styles, in addition to being freely used by simply pressing one of the 4 directional keys, can be developed and enhanced by spending accumulated points at each level up in the three different available branches, namely Soul, Tech and Body . Soul serves to develop the Heat Action, ie the special moves that can be activated with the triangle key (once filled with the special bar) renowned in the series for their power and violence with which they are performed. Tech instead serves to learn new abilities for each of the three fighting styles, such as longer combos, jacks and counterattacks. Body instead to increase the HP (waist points) and power of attack.

There is actually a fourth and unparalleled style we have not mentioned yet and it’s called Dragon and it’s the real news of this Kiwami, in a way. In fact, the classic style of Kazuma Kiryu, which he has always used in the series, as well as the most powerful one, was to exploit it in full power through a cute and original play mechanics called Majima Everywhere.

Goro Majima, for those who did not know him, is the famous “Mad Dog of Shimano”, one of the most famous characters in the narrative universe of Yakuza, but that in the first chapter had been exploited very little. After having been co-star in Yakuza 0, the development team has therefore decided to highlight the Goro figure with this “Majima Everywhere”.

In a nutshell, turning around the Kamurocho neighborhood, you will be constantly attacked by Majima, who will challenge you to a duel and, once beaten, you will unlock a move and / or upgrade the Dragon style. Each time you defeat him, the level of affinity with him will rise and to unlock the next rank (dictated by a valuer from F to SSS) you will need to complete a specific secondary mission that will involve him in eccentric and out of the ordinary.