You can only imagine my surprise when I see another copy of Yakuza Kiwami 2 in my Steam Library after a long day at work.
In addition to the release of Yakuza 0 Director's Cut on Steam, the original remakes of Yakuza 1 and 2 would receive an update containing additional languages (such as an English Dub) and cut licensed music from the intro and credits. What wasn't explained, however, was that these would actually be separate products entirely. While it's not an issue for me, I was still surprised to see they didn't just.. well.. update the existing games. Like, the miles-long list of changes could've been a patch update, let's be real here.
Even though I have to pay 2 bucks for a new version of Kiwami (Yippee!), existing players like myself get Kiwami 2 free of charge. That makes this the perfect excuse to play the game again!
What to say about Yakuza Kiwami 2? A lot of people didn't like this remake when it came out, and to this day you have people bashing the recycled content and sometimes problematic writing while others praise it's beautiful scenery and hilarious substories. My opinion? I liked it; I didn't mind the clunky combat or having to do the cabaret club minigame all over again. I enjoyed my time with it! That being said, I was still fairly fresh to the series- By this point I've only played 0 and Kiwami.
Our story begins in the early 80s. Detective Jiro Kawara is on the hunt for a gangster on the run.
What seemed like a simple task soon escalates when he witnesses the murder of a korean mob boss at the smoking gun of a Dojima family lietenant. In his dying breath, the unnamed mob boss pleads Kawara to rescue his wife and son upstairs. Opening the door on the next floor, Kawara sees roaring flames everywhere. The building was set on fire!
Kawara barges through each door in the smoking hallway, one by one, desperate to find survivors. It wasn't long before one of the rooms contains a woman holding a child, about to jump out of the window. He arrived in time to save them both.
After a fast forward to December 14, 2006 and a series of short vignettes, we have our hero waking up from a bad dream, haunted by the massascre that took the lives of his friends and family only a short year ago.
Not sure what it is about TAA, but every light gets a lens-flare effect and bumps the saturation up on everyone's skin to the point they're pink. The sky turns white like the raptures coming to take everyone away. I don't have this problem with any of the other anti-aliasing settings. Also, today I learned there's a whole subreddit dedicated to hating TAA.
I've never bothered to go through it until now, but the game gives a fairly decent summary of what happened in Yakuza 1. It's good for those of us who need a refresher, or even for anyone playing for the first time! Ain't nothing like actually playing the game, though.
Just then, our old pal Chairman Terada arrives.
Turns out he's been followed: