Yakuza Kiwami - 100% completed

What I did in the game: Completion List: 100%. Substories: 78/78. Abilities: 48/48 for all 4 Upgrade Trees.

The One Picture I have taken: Completion List screen.

It seems that after Yakuza 0 completion, I just got addicted to the series, and just started Yakuza Kiwami almost right after. I wanted more Yakuza in my life after so many years of not being able to play them. And once again, it didnt disappoint. Kiwami is a remake of the PS2 first game in the series, but I'm SO very happy to have played Yakuza 0 before it. Kiwami takes places 17 years after the event of its prequel, and since the remake was actually created AFTER it, you actually have direct connection between 0 and Kiwami that would have been lost to me if I had played Kiwami before. It's mainly in the substories and the new Majima Everywhere system, but it also give more depth to some characters in the main story, so it really elevated the game for me. So if anyone asks you in which order you should play them, start with 0, then Kiwami, trust me. So yeah, I'll be comparing both games a lot, because I truly feel like they both are neatly tied together.

Gameplay-wise, it's more of the same. You have your four styles of fighting and you upgrade your abilities with actual Experience Points (except for one special abilities grid) and not money this time around. You also partake in all the activities Kamarucho has to offer. Unfortunately compared to 0, it's somewhere where Kiwami doesnt hold up. There's way less stuff to do, and what is here are mostly repeat of something you were doing in 0 except for maybe 1 or 2 things. More importantly, gone are the full Sega arcade games. You do have access to Sega Club, but all they offer is the UFO Catcher and some card games that is a clone of the catfights in 0. But on the other hand, we've got something that might be one of my favorite feature between the two games I've played so far. The Majima Everywhere system. The name says it all. To train you in becoming a stronger fighter, Majima will start stalking you EVERYWHERE in Kamarucho, in every crazy scenarios you can think off. He will be there when you fight a random thug, he will hid in a garbage bin, he will appear out of nowhere during a mini-game. There's no end to him, and it made me laugh during all my playthrough.

As far as completion goes, it was a shorter game to 100%. You go back to only have 1 character to control, Kiryu (which I actually like. I prefer having my focus on only 1 character, so I'm scared of when I'll reach Yakuza 4 and 5), and with less activities, the completion list is filled up quickly too. One thing though are the weapons and gears collecting. If in 0, you could go raid the North Pole to find everything easily, not so much here. You have to get 100 weapons and 70 gears normally, and there's not a lot more to find, so your margin is really thin. You'll have to do a lot of money grind, Coliseum fights and some gambling too to find enough to reach 100%. Another highlight of the completion would truly be getting all 48 Nodes of the Dragon Abilities Grid filled. They're all tied to Majima, or some training sessions with an old master (I don't remember his name, but it's the same one who was training Majima in 0). It was a fun way to level up besides just getting XP. And once you have done everything with Majima and have done 77/78 substories, you get another boss fight with an Amon, though he was highly cheesable, which was good because he was hitting like a truck and had a crazy amount of health bar (plus a second phase where he regains 100% of his health after dying once).

So that's it for Yakuza Kiwami. Another masterpiece that felt even more like a complete experience having played 0 beforehand. I believe it was the last game that the team used their old PS3 engine, since Yakuza Kiwami 2 is using the Dragon Engine, which was introduced with 6. One sad thing for Switch 2 is that if 0 and Kiwami were running at a smooth 60FPS, being old PS3 games and all, Kiwami 2 with its bigger engine only runs at 30FPS. I'll see if it makes a difference for me, or if like many games I was playing on Switch 1, I just don't care. I just don't know if I'll once again start right away with Kiwami 2, or if I will really take a break this time.