I'm on a Yakuza Binge!

Last year I beat Yakuza 7: Like a Dragon, the first turn-based game in the franchise. That game didn't really require too much knowledge on the lore of Yakuza to get into, and I already knew a bit from a dropped playthrough of Yakuza 0 and Youtube videos.

I absolutely loved the experience I had playing that game, so I decided to undo my wrongdoing of starting on the 7th entry and started playing the games canonically.
I had a Yakuza 0 save that was midway through the game on PC Gamepass, so that's where I started.

• Yakuza 0

I absolutely loved the Kiryu-Majima dynamic on this one, and how chapters would switch between the main protagonists. I thought that was a great way of introducing the most well known faces in the Yakuza series.

The side-stories never failed to entertain and the main plot about Kiryu trying to prove his innocence and Majima protecting that girl Makoto and trying to get back into his clan whilst his superior breathed down his neck was absolutely thrilling and I couldn't wait to get more of each chapter to know what would happen next.

I also liked managing Sunshine and making bank.

The combat felt good enough, although I didn't really like style switching, and this is something that carries onto the next game as well.

• Yakuza Kiwami 1

This one was much of the same when it comes to the sub-stories, but the main story was simply quite incredible. I liked it way more than Zero, even if it was just a single protagonist now.

The time-shift really sold me and made me hate Nishikiyama and get interested on what the hell happened for the past 10 years. It was a great story full of twists and turns and a lot more drama.

The combat again kinda let me down, style switching just isn't my thing and I ended up playing the game using just Rush style. It worked well enough for me, but it felt a little bland.
I also didn't like the upgrade tree, it felt way too hard to get new upgrades unlike on Zero.

I also didn't care much for the side activities besides the sub-stories, so I ended up finishing this one at just 17 hours of gameplay, which is a little bit on the short side for a Yakuza game. But for me, the best part about this one was the story, so I have no complaints about it since I loved that part.

• Yakuza Kiwami 2

This one I started a couple of days ago and I'm already 20 hours in and on chapter 12. The story has been... interesting so far. It definitely deviates a lot from the things that happen on the previous games and introduces a lot of new faces, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing.

I'm loving Kaoru and the Yakuza-Police dynamic and I'm very interested on where the Jingweon plot goes, as I already know some of it from playing 7 and meeting Joon-Gi Han's body double.

The substories here also feel a lot more fun and engaging and I've been doing every single one that shows up on the map.

Side activities have been greatly expanded too, now you can even play Virtua Fighter 2.1 and Virtual On (which I really didn't like), I think this is the first game in the series with that as a mini-game. 7 had Virtua Fighter 5, and Kiwami 1 and Zero had older SEGA titles as far as I remember.

The cabaret club sub-story/side activity is really really engaging here, it feels more fleshed out than when it was on Zero and it's great seeing Majima return to the fold, this time as a narrator for what's going on in the Cabaret Club world.

Video by Colmarr

But definitely what I've been loving the most about this game is the combat. No more style switching, just a "basic" move-set which you get to build on by getting more and more upgrades... And getting those upgrades is fun as hell. Even mowing down randos on the street is fun, there's a huge variety of new heat attacks and funny/cool finishing moves.
It's just a better game overall, even the physics engine is more fun, with enemies flailing about when you land hard enough attacks. It's incredibly satisfying and I hope the rest of the series plays like this as well (apart from the new titles, of course, those are turn-based).

It's been the best Yakuza experience so far and I can't wait to see where the story will lead to.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go rescue Haruka from the Go-Ryu Clan.

Thanks for reading!