i played with the music restoration mod my first time so i never heard the normal K2 credits theme literally nothing could’ve prepared me for how horrible that was
@@dalton5229 if 6 was looking better on ps4 than k2 on pc try kiwami 2 on ps4 cause I played both on ps4 and kiwami 2 had smoother graphics and fps than 6 did
One problem I have with Kiwami 2 is that the character models's facial expressions are a lot less expressive. Especially Kiryu. Which is a shame because in 6 he is expressive. Same applies to Ryuji.
Yeah, one that stuck out to me recently was the Fake Kiryu side mission. In the original, Kiryu looks really shocked when he realizes the guy is pretending too be him. In Kiwami 2, he just kinda has his serious normal look. In the whole game, he just looks sad all the time, even in his idle pose.
honestly the jump in kiryu's model between kiwami and kiwami 2 is weird as hell to me, i mean, he still looks the same in a sense, but at the same time, his eyes and his different facial expressions somehow make him look like a VERY different person to me i see a handful of people talk about this and they always just say "well kiryu's getting older" but kiwami 2 is literally only 1 year after kiwami, he shouldn't look THAT different
Going from Kiwami 2 to 3 is much worse though. He's right back to looking like a Tekken character with massive ham hands. The older character models do not hold up side by side
The Kiwami games are the only way I've been able to experience those stories, since I came into the series through 0 and went onward that way thru to 6. But I think it's important the original versions should be preserved and made available. How else to learn from and improve on the past?
I think it's learn more than improve... The originals are absolutely AMAZING and play extremely fun. Most people who say that they're clunky and boring just - haven't played them! It's a huge bandwagon opinion imo. A lot of things people complain about weren't even in the original. I saw someone try and say that they dropped yakuza 2 ps2 because of clan creator :')
It's a tricky situation from a business standpoint I'd imagine. Full on shiny remakes like Kiwami and Kiwami 2 are probably going to get more attention than HD ports of Ps2 games, especially with all the ridiculous flair RGG puts into this franchise. However, like you said, it's important that the original versions are preserved. But when a company drops the money for games like Kiwami, I can't exactly blame them for not wanting to put in the effort to also do a proper porting job of the originals. Having both versions available also potentially eats into the profits on the much more expensive remakes. As a consumer I want both but looking at from a business perspective, especially with Sega as a publisher, can't blame them. Sega has struggled a lot over the years, resulting in things like the Ps3 port of Bayonetta being utter garbage as they tried to make it on the cheap in house rather than get Platinum to do it. Then they dropped the IP rather than fund a sequel. Considering Sega's history of massive financial issues and horrible decisions, I think us RRG fans should be very thankful this series gets the respect from Sega it does. Of course this is a moot point here as Japan does have HD versions of Yakuza 1 and 2. Considering the first has an actual English dub, there's half the work of localization done. Even if you drop the largely atrocious dub, the script is already translated and localized. For 2, just take the K2 script and modify it to fit the original version as needed. But I'm still thankful for the Kiwami version of 1 as it's got my favorite combat in the series. I'm not big on Kiryu's combat in 0 but I love the tweaked version of it in Kiwami. Kiwami Rush style is just too much fun. So for me, I've got no problem going back to Ps2 games but I also really appreciate how Kiwami reworked 0's combat in a way that feels like a reasonable progression from 88 to 05. It feels like a cohesive growth due to the shared combat system. Likewise I love "Majima is everywhere" as it injects some of the goofy charm of later games into the relatively toned down first story, but I absolutely see why so many have a problem with it, from flanderizing Goro to making his actual boss fights feel a lot less special. Haven't got around to finishing K2 yet so I can't comment there but I see K1 as a modernization for new fans that works fantastically in that regard, though it should not be the only version of that story available.
The green lighting in both Kiwami games is still a head-scratcher for me. Hated it so much. Especially in Kiwami 2, when they perfectly captured how Kamurocho looks in 6. As a bonus, Sotenbori in Kiwami 2 has a beautiful orange tinge, making it a feast for the eyes.
Unfortunately removing the filter doesn't make the game look better. It creates darker moodier shadows and makes some scenes look like night time. Without it, it can look really flat and too bright. If there was a mod to have a better filter, I would get it in an instant. But right now, the game overall still looks better with it left on
Kamurucho is a crimefilled city that in crumbling down, I think the green grimy filter fits pretty well. Sotenbori is much more tourist oriented and nicer.
30:36 removing bowling also means we lost a fun easter egg. There's a weapon called "100lb Bowling Ball", and if you had it in your inventory when bowling in original Yakuza 2, you could actually use it to bowl! It even had custom sound effects and physics! The Patriarch's Ball worked for this too. 34:22 (and 52:39) Shindo's original fight track is named "The Grudge", and Jo Amon has the same theme. It made sense, because both characters had a personal grudge with Kiryu from the first game.
For me the biggest problem is that RGGS and Sega seems to take these remakes as the definitive editions of the games, releasing them on all possible platforms in the west, but refusing to rereleasing the original remasters here, when they're basically done and ready, only having the localization left to be done. I really hope they release the remasters here in the West, but I'm losing hope on that.
@@LOLxUnique I can only speak for myself but I'd totally buy them, and I already have both Kiwami games. I'm not a purist but I do enjoy seeing how things started, jank and all, there's a certain charm, a je ne sais quoi to older games that simply isn't around anymore even with the newer stuff done to be as similar to that style as possible, it's not nostalgia either as this applies even to stuff I never touched until I was an adult.
agreed, and ishin kiwami further showed that they seem to think these remakes are somehow objectively better than the originals, since they de-listed the original ishin from the playstation store
Kiwami feels like a large DLC expansion to Zero. I wasn’t a fan of YK2 however. I think all your complaints are valid even to a brand new Yakuza fan like myself
I didn’t know what you meant until I heard the sirens at 44:36 and realized he just decided to keep recording and not wait for like a minute for the sirens to pass.
Something that has to be said about these remakes is that they are both B projects with barely a year of developement. Kiwami was made after 0 but while 6 was in developement, and Kiwami 2 was made after 6 but while Judgement was in developement. Each game in the series tends to get more than 1 year of developement time, so if you cut that time short, there's gonna be a lot of cut corners. And also either RGG or Sega really wanted these games to come out on the 10th aniversary of the originals, so the strict deadlines in between games were always gonna be there. Also, the only nitpick i have with the Majima saga is this: At the end of 0, Makoto got a clear view of how Majima looks, even if she wasnt 100% recovered yet. Majima's look is quite striking, just like Kiryu's. I dont think anyone else would even dare to try and copy his style. So, you're gonna tell me Makoto doesnt recognize this shirtless, snake jacket-wearing, bowlcut hairstyle motherfucker? Really? I know its almost 20 fucking years later, but still, REALLY?
I can overlook the appearance thing, but you're really telling me no one said Majima's name out loud ONCE? Not Lee? At the very least, she knew Majima has only one eye, and I don't know how many one-eyed people there are in Japan, but come on now. Maybe they really just wanted a bittersweet ending to Makoto, but they could have just had the watch scene be the finale to that whole conclusion.
I'm surprised you didn't mention Ryuji's total lack of expression in cutscenes. His face is so static in every Kiwami 2 scene, missing that cocky, arrogant vibe he originally had.
@@DrJellyFanguzzz Uh, I'm pretty sure his expression is the exact same in the home release as well. No idea what you're trying to say with this comment.
Why is sound mixing such a foreign concept to so many youtubers? When your audio goes into the red on your EQ, that's your cue to mix it DOWN. Like, fuck, dude, this is a solid video but it's almost unwatchable because of the spikes in volume.
You hit the nail on the head with this one. I really like the 2 Kiwami Games (mostly because I haven't played the originals) but even so you really covered my problems with these games. I still like them but I am very willing to accept their flaws
@@TheFightingMan101 they took a few wrinkles off of his face on the YK2 model but it didn't even fit in 6 when Date says he looks way older. everyone in the dragon engine apart from Majima and Daigo looked way different from how they looked in 5.
That comparison with the cutscenes where Takashima is revealed to have issued the hit against Kaoru got a whole mood change with the music. Just 52:22 onwards is damn sinister, despite the prettier sunset.
Can't forget about that one section in kiwami 1 where they replaced the for violence theme in shindo's fight and the part where you save shinji with the generic long battle themes. And they left the for violence theme in that one fight in Serena.
Eyy, was looking forward to this video and I'm glad it didn't disappoint. I think you nailed the main issue most people and I had with these games, but you also talked about problems I wasn't even aware about (like the replaced cutscenes tracks for K2 and removed details in K1, for examples). Also, those closing thoughts about the fate of the original games are pretty sad to think about.
Earrape sections aside, this video was fairly interesting and gave me a lot to think about. I was aware of the Yakuza series since 2015, but was only properly able to try it with Yakuza 0's PC release and the subsequent Kiwami releases. I absolutely loved the way Yakuza 0 played and how it was written, spent several hours on the minigames -except the wrestling gambling game, that shit was rigged beyond belief- and occasionally replay the main story for its memorable bossfights. Kiwami 1, to me, felt like an acceptable remake to me despite some writing jank with the addition of Majima Everywhere. I appreciated the way I was able to use the same fighting styles that were available in 0, but the bossfights felt a little tedious due to the new "kiwami move" addition, which you need to use to stop your enemy from regenerating. While neat at first, the mechanic became awfully repetitive since each fighting stance had only one animation for that function. Even a little more variety would have solved that problem. Kiwami 2 felt far more janky to me from the very start and took me several hours to get used to, especially in combat. I didn't know that they reused the animations from the original game, but I did notice that the animations felt really off at times, so I have to thank you for giving me that eye-opener. My two other pet peeves were the constant reusal of background music -especially on some of the bossfights- and how some of the bossfights felt less impressive compared to the previous installments. With that in mind, I really want to try and get myself a copy of Yakuza 2 and experience that, the clips you used on your video really impressed me with how different the remake can be at times.
A very well thought out point, 10 points also on the topic of reusing animation i think all the games in some way use old animations like some animations from 5 made it into zero and kiwami and so on and so forth
i also started with 0 and found kiwami to be a downgrade! haven’t played k2 yet because kiwami left such a bad taste in my mouth (the writing esp) but i might try it sometime
@@zq5127 The quality of the writing of Yakuza 1 and 2 can't be helped, as they are a product of their time. Playing the first two games, Kiwami or Original, puts a bit of a damper on new players who started with 0, because the bar is set so high for them. 1 and 2 are still good games, even if the stories are simpler. My gripe is with the gameplay.
@@Hellsing1138 that’s definitely a great point but, if the game wasn’t going to overall bad writing/lighting/cinematography/direction etc., like it did the voice acting for ex, i think they shouldn’t have made a remake… i’m sure if they never made a remake, some people might’ve protested, but i’d rather they just keep the originals as they are and not remake them instead of downgrading to a bad remake. i think the original games can only be faulted for so much due to technical limitations, but the fact that the kiwamis were too faithful to the originals’ flaws (as i understand them as someone who can’t play those originals, so maybe my perception isn’t fully on point) is what makes them disappointing.
The fact that every boss’s heat aura is all red is stupid to me. Like dude, give Kiryu the red aura for his Legend Style, royal azure for his Oryu Style, and mauve for his Extreme Heat. Then, give every enemy either a gray aura (if they are insignificant) or a different aura color for important enemies, like yellow for Ryuji, lime for Daigo, and so on.
Majima not using white aura is bs considering he starts to be more unpredictable later in the fight, same with mad dog, more heat you had, more distance you covered.
27:42 I think the problem with the dodge is that you come to a full stop and can't do anything for a second after you do it. Plus it just doesn't cover much distance. So if an enemy is being aggressive, that short pause can make it feel slow and like you've already lost any distance you've made from the enemy or lost whatever time you had to strike. Its not like that in the previous games.
Also dodging on pc is impossible I cant use the dodge button to go right at all due to the fact that they are stacked and you have to use every finger for combat.
My gripe with Nishiki's additional scenes is just how obviously they stick out as being new additions. The clash so much with original cutscenes in terms of direction, style and camera angles, like it's a night and day compared to original's slightly choppy and at times outdated animations.
Thankfully there's a Retranslation Patch for Yakuza 1 (and it's very good) So if people want to play the original Yakuza, they don't have to deal with the dub.
I finally got around to watching this vid, but I wanna add context for the Crazy Ken Band Song in Yakuza 2 during the rain scene. If you know the translated lyrics, it's more reflective of Kiryu's relationship with Kazama (Or Fuma if you're a OG lol) because the reason his life (and Karou's as well) ended up that way was due to his ties to the Yakuza. The line "Papa de gomen ne" is repeated throught the song, which roughly translates to "Papa says he's sorry." It's more reflective of the both of them, and gives a great extra spice to the game. I'd recommend listening to it with translated lyrics because there's way more to dissect in that song. I do like SiM's songs and while K2's vibes go in a different direction, I can vibe to it to an extent. The cartoon sound effect stab as well as ABRACADABRA for the credits was so damn tone deaf. I do like that the timer in K2 for the bomb is in real time, because imho it's presented like Kiryu and everyone else are taking in their final moments making every second count, and the music fades out while the looming beeping of the countdown keeps going in the background, and then that cut to silence on the last beep imho just makes it really hit. BUT THEN ABRACADABRA. Using silent night honestly would have been PERFECT in all honesty with that new direction. I do remember asking the Localization team/Scott before release if they were going to change the songs for the localization due to budget/licensing, but this was one of the cases where they were able to afford the license for the songs. A bit disappointed, but hey it was a good sign that the series was thriving, and actually being profitable. I really enjoyed the vid, and agree with alot of what you said. Personally I like K2 more than K1 because it's just "6 but better," but your critisism perfectly nail what was off and wrong about these games as remakes, and why I recommend players play both versions to see what they prefer.
was interested to hear what you say. stopped when i couldnt deal with your earrapes. also consider audio leveling because your voice is faint and suddenly music is twice as loud and then back to talking, youre faint again. either lower music or higher your voice. and stop with the yelling. interesting points but couldnt be bothered to watch the rest after.
As someone who was only able to experience 1 and 2 through the kiwami remakes, this was an interesting and enjoyable watch. I personally didnt have much issue with the earrape sections and I thought the humor was good.
An old housemate and I used to get shitfaced during pre-drinks and pretend to get heated with eachother (y'know, as you do in the UK with buddies) and one big argument was whether the PS2 originals or Kiwami 1&2 were superior. We had incredulous guests trying to mediate in our stupid fuckin argument and they'd get nowhere until I actually tried to deck him when he admitted he hadn't played the PS2 games
You only become a real fan of something once you realize that something you like so much has flaws, and that it's ok to point them out. You pretty much summarized my issues with both Kiwamis. I think they're good games that improved massively upon the original, but also dumbed down or created new problems that the og didn't have. RGG Studios didn't quite hit the mark, which is a shame. I never played the originals, so it's not a case of nostalgia.
"bUh MuH fUnNy MaJiMa" After playing most of the series (0-5) Seeing Majima the way he is in Kiwami 1 makes me sad. He has interesting dialogue sometimes that references events and people such as Saejima but overall I think it really hurts his character when contrasted with how he comes across in say, Yakuza 5. But the Majima saga in Kiwami 2 sort of makes up for it but relies on the pre established connections from 0, and thats its whole list of issues.
He's fine in kiwami 1. He was still developing his mad dog projection, so it tracks that it'd be so intense. The older he gets, the less he cares about his outward appearance
@@fumeknight9796 except that's not true if you look at the original majima it makes a lot more sense because he's not "bro so whacky!!!!" In yakuza 1 he's just a dickhead yakuza with no boundaries who's main goal is making enemies and civilians piss scared of him. We can see that he has this in him in yakuza 0 like on the rooftop and his heat actions. Yakuza 0 was made to lead into yakuza 1. Not kiwami. And I'll stand by that forever
Ay sucks I didn't find this video sooner. I completely agree with you 100%. We desperately need the hd collection rereleased to save these goated entries.
A good video with good points that is completely ruined by "LOUD IS FUNNY XD" ear rape. I wouldn't mind sharing a version with actually decent EQ, but otherwise I can't recommend it to anyone.
Yeah, I had to constantly switch volumes because his voice sounds too quiet, but when I turn it up I get hit with a surprise ear rape. Still a good video.
Loved the critique and the points you made, Kiwami remakes are undoubtedly flawed but still a decent way to experience the game. They were fine to me as a newcomer to the series, though to this day I find it weird that Kiwami 2 had to be made using Dragon Engine, especially combat-wise. At least they improved on it in LAD (although LAD isn't exactly comparable) and Judgement. Wish I could recommend the video though, I myself had to stop watching and then come back three separate times because of the screaming. Loud equals funny to a degree, but the same effect could have simply been achieved with a change in tone (which you already do), audio distortion and volume compression, keeping the loud while normalising it with the rest of the video. Really wish I could share this vid with others, but I value their hearing.
51:57 Look how dirty this alley in Champion district looks! It has graffiti sprayed on its walls, the trash is littered on the ground. It really reminds you of the fact that Komaki is essentially a homeless bum. In Kiwami 2 that betchass has Soda machine installed there.
Fr tho, In yakuza 0, I didn't spend a solid 30 minutes fighting a boss not because i kept dying but because I dealt peanuts worth of damage and he keeps healing off all that damage.
As a player who got into the series with yakuza 0, and played all the games until 7, I can definitely see the copy/paste across the games. The most memorable ones 0, K1, K2 to me, like you said, really have some issues in the package especially K1. But there’s a thing, after playing 0 and enjoyed it so much, I never cared about the reused assets. When I first got to the cabaret mini game in K2, the first thing that I got in mind is “hell yeah, cabaret is back baby”, not “recycled bullshit, boring!”. I think it’s very difficult to explain but there really are some magic in these games that you can look past the copy/paste content but not in other games like in Assassins creed
Another thing to add is that the Kiwami 2 credits theme was used once before in the game, during the Amon bouncer mission, which fit there because it helps represent the Amon brothers’ final push against Kiryu, which is why it’s so aggressive, but it doesn’t fit the somber K2 ending at all
fuck kiwami 2 how did they manage to downgrade the combat so bad from 0 and kiwami. we traded in so much for ragdolls, which were impressive around the time the original Yakuza 2 came out, that ship has kind of sailed K2 team..
What lol K2 combat is so good. The grab and throw, the weapon animations are better, the regular combat animations look way better, the movements are so much more fluid
I think my least favorite part about the jrock song in the kiryu stab scene is that the jazzy noir song sounds like something kiryu would listen to. Something that fits a man of his age and demeanor during this trying time, as if he's thinking about that song. Putting the amv jrock is like a sad nightcore remix playing, it might fit the emotion, but the style was the whole point there as you mentioned in the video
PC mods have done a lot to fix these issues but I wish they were already in the base game, and some issues like completely removed areas and such are pretty much impossible to mod into the Kiwami versions
What I really don't like about the Kiwami games even though i enjoyed playing both is the contrast between the new cutscenes and the olds, basically every scene that was in the PS2 game is reusing the same motion data in the Kiwami games but the new ones like Nishiki flashbacks and Majima's side story has all new animation so you are going back and forth between two styles that don't really fit. The newer more detailed models look like shit with the ps2 motion data.
The fight in the hotel with Majima in Kiwami 1 is my favorite fight in the whole series. Only being able to see the two of them via their heat aura, the fast paced action, whole thing was fucking sick
Please stop screaming, it isn't funny. Please fix your sound balancing. It was unbearable when you screamed and played music, meanwhile at a tolerable volume I could barely hear you.
Seeing this video makes me glad that I originally played K2 on PC with the copyrighted stuff modded in. I can't imagine how I would've reacted to the ending otherwise. Much love for all the modders who add the original Japanese material to western releases!!
I'm seeing a pattern with the music. It's like everything nowadays; they're trying to remove the music of the time period from the game and ultimately a series as a whole. They've done the same thing with sonic. Rock was the best for for that series, but they abandoned the style because "times changed"
I will give some praise to Kiwami 1. It got me interested in the series. I might’ve seen some reviews and mistook it for GTA clone like many others. When I played it through PS+ a few years ago, a couple of bells rang in my head. Like it reminded me of something. When I realized what it reminded me of, I was hooked. I wanted to know more about the series. The rest is history.
I think the dragon system worked okay in kiwami it is the only one to my knowledge to let you do legend on a clear game save so your 2nd run is pretty fun
I was planning on a piece like this and why I think the original 2 games shouldn't be ignored. They are indeed different experiences and have their own merits. Sadly, they are lost to history and relegated to emulation, and 0 will forever be the starting point for the vast majority of newcomers to the series. 0 has put the series in a situation where it sets an unrealistic precedent for the later chronological entries. With a total of 10 games before its release, RGG has had a lot of time to make it the masterpiece it is. Following up to it is a tall task, but apparently RGG's way of doing that is to make literally every game released afterwards pay lip service to it. Both Kiwamis do so as you highlighted here, with Kiwami's styles, combat system, reuse of Pocket Circuit, Mr. Shakedown 2.0 (Majima Everywhere), and the car chase (which is somehow more terribly designed than the original as at least you could save before that point; doing it on Legend is basically the biggest fuck you in the entire game), and Kiwami 2's Cabaret Club and Majima Saga. Even Like a Dragon brings back Kiryu’s styles, all of Majima's 0 animations, and Pocket Circuit Fighter. The whiplash going from Kiwami 2 to 3 is massive too, and the Remastered Collection obviously doesn't have the standard of a remake (how could it if they're basically just 3 older titles with better localization and some restored content in 3's case). This makes playing in chronological order with the Kiwamis have an awkward middle bump as opposed to playing all games in release order. 0 is by far the most played game, and it's easy to see why there aren't that many people that have actually stuck to playing the rest of the series. It's not like most of them are particularly long games (only 5 and Like a Dragon are hard commitments), but I've seen people drop the series after Kiwami 2 and skip to Like a Dragon (or even start there instead), and it's due to the age of the Remastered Collection that still shows.
Yakuza 1 does have 2 huge demerits - combat and especially camera. Wow the camera sucks. It's a bit of a suffering to try to orient Kiryu to be able to see enemies, the only way being abusing L2 to center the camera, and even then a lot of times the camera will rotate somewhere else again. Compound that with a combat system that is only acceptable when you get the Komaki techniques...ugh. Yakuza 2 fixes the combat, but not the camera. Yes, you can move the camera with the right stick now, but the camera will still automatically move rather erratically instead of tracking enemies properly. That said you can attack everywhere now so it's not as bad.
Ever since I saw this for the first time I keep finding things where my brain wants to shout "WHY IS EVERYTHING GREEN". I guess everything really is green.
I'm surprised you didn't mention how comical Kiryu looks in Kiwami 1. My man's brows are carved out of stone, fixated, incapable of movement. Homie looks like he's both filled with the rage of a thousand cursed souls and trying to push out the most legendary shit the Yakuza has heard of simaltaneously. Bro's face looks like something that'd be tattooed on the back of a final boss. I don't even understand how this happened. In 0 he looks completely fine. He was still just pissed for most of the game and wasn't as emotive as in the early titles, but his face looked human and he expressed emotions other than pure, unfiltered madness. And in the original title he's so emotive! He looks so much like an actual guy despite the limited graphics due to his really expressive face, he actually seems to have emotional reactions to things around him, feel human things like surprise and sadness. He feels so much more understandable and relatable because of it. There's a mod meant to restore the original expressions and it helps but his whole face model being carved out of diamond-hard stone to express nothing but anger makes it next to impossible for him to be anywhere near as human as in the original. I mean I had an issue with 5 making Kiryu extremely unemotive but in that game at least he looked and sounded neutral most of the time, like he just didn't care. Which still isn't great but it's better than him being constantly pissed off beyond measure to the point of looking like a cartoon character. Like I said, it's just comical. Especially when the voice acting is actually more reserved and trying to display different emotions but his face is telling me he's been constipated for 3 weeks and just now took some pills against it and in this moment he's trying his best not to become known as the legendary shitter of Dojima.
I played Kiwami 1 and 2 with almost no frame of reference. I thought they were both great as a result despite some chapters feeling derivative, which I later realised was because they changed stuff from the original and it can be pretty noticeable at times. But, my main concern came when I got to the end of Kiwami 2. I was literally holding back hysterics and momentarily thought there was a problem with my copy and there was a glitch in the track selection or something. I think I'm going to go back and play the PS2 originals, or at least Yakuza 2. I was hesitant because I usually don't like re-experiencing things so soon, especially videogames, but considering how different it looks it might broaden my perspective a bit.
Before this I knew about differences between Yakuza 1 and Kiwami and I thought almost there aren't (except OST and Majima Saga) between Y2/Kiwami 2. After this film I realized there're so many more differences and it's worth try singly play Y1/YK1, but also original and remake of Yakuza 2.
they really need to put up the original yakuza 1 and 2, i think 1 is a good enough remake, but 2 legitmately ruined it for me, i dont like the dragon engine fighting on it to the point where i didnt even care about the story, i just wanted it over and go onto 3 (which is insanely better to me), im hoping i find out how to emulate it just so i get a better end to the game
I played the Kiwami 1 and 2 on PC so I had access to mods and almost all of the issues in this video have been fixed. Like the ugly green filter, the music for the rain scene and end credits. Seeing those scenes for the first time with the original intended music is something else, I had no idea how shitty of an experience the console players have it for these games lol.
Speaking of remakes, this video would greatly benefit from being remade without all the pointless screaming and loud music that make it painful to listen to, especially with headphones.
Nice review! I still really enjoy the Kiwami games, though that might just be because I don't have a personal connection to the original PS2 games. I just recently got into Yakuza 3 through the remastered collection so I'm really interested to see how those stand compared to these games.
this issue of mine is more story based but i didnt understand the point of kiryu and sayama's romantic relationship in the first place? like it felt really forced and rushed just so it could have the generic impact of sayama watching the two men she loves fight to the death but in yakuza 3 she leaves to the states so Kiryu is back to square one of being single. like if sayama wasn't going to be in any if the future games, then their whole romance bit was pointless imo i feel it would've just been best if they stayed platonic kinda like kiryu and date's relationship
It could be awesome if in kiwami you found fighter sad cause poquet racer aint popular and start an unofficial pocket race in the park near de pocket circuit stadium
I’m doing second playthroughs of all the games now, and Kiwami is just as frustrating the second go around in how long it takes to level dragon style and how the game lives to rip itself out of your hands for a cutscene every fifteen seconds.
yeah the kiwamis don't help that mind set people have that yakuza is just the same game with a different story. i feel like after 5 the dev team got burnt out as it was the last time they tried to be more ambitious. because from zero onward it's clear they wanted to recapture the feeling of the first game as this was evident in 0, kiwami 1, and 6.
Игры
i LAUGHED SO HARD at the kiwami 2 credits, there is no way a human person put it there and thought "hmm yes. Fitting."
this game putted one of it's best music at the worst places.
n they did it 3 times
The fucking POINT of playing silent night is to tell the viewer
HEY
THEY'RE ALIVE
THERE WAS NO EXPLOSION
IT WAS A SILENT NIGHT
What were THEY THINKING
My bad
@@KeyToWite they do a little trolling
i played with the music restoration mod my first time so i never heard the normal K2 credits theme literally nothing could’ve prepared me for how horrible that was
When Kiryu gets stabbed in the ps2 version, there's no sound effects, but the controller makes a sutile rumble. It's such a good detail.
My favorite color is green so that makes the Kiwami games the greatest of all time
I basically bought a PS4 for Y6 and Judgment and it was really wild to me how Y6 on a PS4 looked better than K2 running at 1080/60 on my computer
@@dalton5229 if 6 was looking better on ps4 than k2 on pc try kiwami 2 on ps4 cause I played both on ps4 and kiwami 2 had smoother graphics and fps than 6 did
@@dalton5229 kiwami 2 worked great on my Xbox Y6 was very laggy
For sure, he doesn’t have to stab my ears about it every thirty seconds.
I’m wearing headphones, for God’s sake-compress that shit.
@@dalton5229 that sounds like an exageration
One problem I have with Kiwami 2 is that the character models's facial expressions are a lot less expressive. Especially Kiryu. Which is a shame because in 6 he is expressive. Same applies to Ryuji.
Yeah, one that stuck out to me recently was the Fake Kiryu side mission. In the original, Kiryu looks really shocked when he realizes the guy is pretending too be him. In Kiwami 2, he just kinda has his serious normal look. In the whole game, he just looks sad all the time, even in his idle pose.
@@RGR490G Yup. I especially love Ryuji's arrogant smirks. His expressions wonderfully establish his prideful and narcissistic character.
honestly the jump in kiryu's model between kiwami and kiwami 2 is weird as hell to me, i mean, he still looks the same in a sense, but at the same time, his eyes and his different facial expressions somehow make him look like a VERY different person to me
i see a handful of people talk about this and they always just say "well kiryu's getting older" but kiwami 2 is literally only 1 year after kiwami, he shouldn't look THAT different
@@swaggymungdaal it's the same model from Yakuza 6
Going from Kiwami 2 to 3 is much worse though. He's right back to looking like a Tekken character with massive ham hands. The older character models do not hold up side by side
The Kiwami games are the only way I've been able to experience those stories, since I came into the series through 0 and went onward that way thru to 6. But I think it's important the original versions should be preserved and made available. How else to learn from and improve on the past?
I think it's learn more than improve... The originals are absolutely AMAZING and play extremely fun. Most people who say that they're clunky and boring just - haven't played them! It's a huge bandwagon opinion imo. A lot of things people complain about weren't even in the original. I saw someone try and say that they dropped yakuza 2 ps2 because of clan creator :')
It's a tricky situation from a business standpoint I'd imagine. Full on shiny remakes like Kiwami and Kiwami 2 are probably going to get more attention than HD ports of Ps2 games, especially with all the ridiculous flair RGG puts into this franchise.
However, like you said, it's important that the original versions are preserved. But when a company drops the money for games like Kiwami, I can't exactly blame them for not wanting to put in the effort to also do a proper porting job of the originals. Having both versions available also potentially eats into the profits on the much more expensive remakes. As a consumer I want both but looking at from a business perspective, especially with Sega as a publisher, can't blame them. Sega has struggled a lot over the years, resulting in things like the Ps3 port of Bayonetta being utter garbage as they tried to make it on the cheap in house rather than get Platinum to do it. Then they dropped the IP rather than fund a sequel. Considering Sega's history of massive financial issues and horrible decisions, I think us RRG fans should be very thankful this series gets the respect from Sega it does.
Of course this is a moot point here as Japan does have HD versions of Yakuza 1 and 2. Considering the first has an actual English dub, there's half the work of localization done. Even if you drop the largely atrocious dub, the script is already translated and localized. For 2, just take the K2 script and modify it to fit the original version as needed.
But I'm still thankful for the Kiwami version of 1 as it's got my favorite combat in the series. I'm not big on Kiryu's combat in 0 but I love the tweaked version of it in Kiwami. Kiwami Rush style is just too much fun. So for me, I've got no problem going back to Ps2 games but I also really appreciate how Kiwami reworked 0's combat in a way that feels like a reasonable progression from 88 to 05. It feels like a cohesive growth due to the shared combat system. Likewise I love "Majima is everywhere" as it injects some of the goofy charm of later games into the relatively toned down first story, but I absolutely see why so many have a problem with it, from flanderizing Goro to making his actual boss fights feel a lot less special.
Haven't got around to finishing K2 yet so I can't comment there but I see K1 as a modernization for new fans that works fantastically in that regard, though it should not be the only version of that story available.
@@zeroattentiongaming820 At least Kiwami 1 has the best game play in the series. Kiwami 2 feels like such a down grade.
@@sladejosephwilson2300 sadly true
Just emulate them. Nobody wants to buy an outdated ps2 game nowadays. I mean, not a majority of gamers anyway unless you like bad English Dubs
The green lighting in both Kiwami games is still a head-scratcher for me. Hated it so much. Especially in Kiwami 2, when they perfectly captured how Kamurocho looks in 6. As a bonus, Sotenbori in Kiwami 2 has a beautiful orange tinge, making it a feast for the eyes.
Yea, while the color of Sotenbori is defo orange or sm similar, there's no way green is the 'color of' Kamuro *blue imo*
I agree
Unfortunately removing the filter doesn't make the game look better. It creates darker moodier shadows and makes some scenes look like night time. Without it, it can look really flat and too bright.
If there was a mod to have a better filter, I would get it in an instant. But right now, the game overall still looks better with it left on
Kamurucho is a crimefilled city that in crumbling down, I think the green grimy filter fits pretty well. Sotenbori is much more tourist oriented and nicer.
@@theheadpriest Sotenbori is equally as crazy if not more
y1 restored >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> kiwami 1
30:36 removing bowling also means we lost a fun easter egg. There's a weapon called "100lb Bowling Ball", and if you had it in your inventory when bowling in original Yakuza 2, you could actually use it to bowl! It even had custom sound effects and physics! The Patriarch's Ball worked for this too.
34:22 (and 52:39) Shindo's original fight track is named "The Grudge", and Jo Amon has the same theme. It made sense, because both characters had a personal grudge with Kiryu from the first game.
For me the biggest problem is that RGGS and Sega seems to take these remakes as the definitive editions of the games, releasing them on all possible platforms in the west, but refusing to rereleasing the original remasters here, when they're basically done and ready, only having the localization left to be done. I really hope they release the remasters here in the West, but I'm losing hope on that.
localization costs money and they probably dont think they can make it back (and a profit) when they already have spent time and money on the remakes
Remastering Yakuza 1 would be awful lol
@@LOLxUnique I can only speak for myself but I'd totally buy them, and I already have both Kiwami games. I'm not a purist but I do enjoy seeing how things started, jank and all, there's a certain charm, a je ne sais quoi to older games that simply isn't around anymore even with the newer stuff done to be as similar to that style as possible, it's not nostalgia either as this applies even to stuff I never touched until I was an adult.
@@monkeman5895 the Japanese remaster for ps3 already changed up some wonky elements of gameplay to at least the standard of it predecessor
agreed, and ishin kiwami further showed that they seem to think these remakes are somehow objectively better than the originals, since they de-listed the original ishin from the playstation store
Kiwami feels like a large DLC expansion to Zero. I wasn’t a fan of YK2 however.
I think all your complaints are valid even to a brand new Yakuza fan like myself
The irony of this guy complaining about audio
akechi 🇮🇱
akechi 🇵🇸
I mean. This is a free RUclips video made by one guy. Not a paid for experience made by a team of developers.
@@orngcreator6115 Still valid since he's so adamant about sound he could probably do with a better one. You tards just avoid any criticism.
I didn’t know what you meant until I heard the sirens at 44:36 and realized he just decided to keep recording and not wait for like a minute for the sirens to pass.
Something that has to be said about these remakes is that they are both B projects with barely a year of developement. Kiwami was made after 0 but while 6 was in developement, and Kiwami 2 was made after 6 but while Judgement was in developement. Each game in the series tends to get more than 1 year of developement time, so if you cut that time short, there's gonna be a lot of cut corners. And also either RGG or Sega really wanted these games to come out on the 10th aniversary of the originals, so the strict deadlines in between games were always gonna be there.
Also, the only nitpick i have with the Majima saga is this: At the end of 0, Makoto got a clear view of how Majima looks, even if she wasnt 100% recovered yet. Majima's look is quite striking, just like Kiryu's. I dont think anyone else would even dare to try and copy his style. So, you're gonna tell me Makoto doesnt recognize this shirtless, snake jacket-wearing, bowlcut hairstyle motherfucker? Really? I know its almost 20 fucking years later, but still, REALLY?
Fym 20 years later
@@guy229 1988-2006: Almost 20 (18) years later
I can overlook the appearance thing, but you're really telling me no one said Majima's name out loud ONCE? Not Lee? At the very least, she knew Majima has only one eye, and I don't know how many one-eyed people there are in Japan, but come on now. Maybe they really just wanted a bittersweet ending to Makoto, but they could have just had the watch scene be the finale to that whole conclusion.
I'm surprised you didn't mention Ryuji's total lack of expression in cutscenes. His face is so static in every Kiwami 2 scene, missing that cocky, arrogant vibe he originally had.
When your say original I assume you meant the Western PS2 release
@@DrJellyFanguzzz Uh, I'm pretty sure his expression is the exact same in the home release as well. No idea what you're trying to say with this comment.
I’m pretty sure Ryuji was still pretty expressive in kiwami 2
@@seunglee6990 I think kiyru barely had any facial expressions besides angry face
@@seunglee6990 Ryuji in kiwami 2: >:|
I didn’t know RGGS made a shrek game with all the goddamn green they put in the remakes
Why is sound mixing such a foreign concept to so many youtubers? When your audio goes into the red on your EQ, that's your cue to mix it DOWN. Like, fuck, dude, this is a solid video but it's almost unwatchable because of the spikes in volume.
Nerddddd
@@kortomor8003 Damn, if caring about your hearing was nerdy then your average John Smith must be deaf, man
Ears do be hurting
Loud is funni I laff
People haven't discovered compressors yet
i was rewatching this video in class and pretty sure some of the final “sound effects” blasted through my headphones
You hit the nail on the head with this one. I really like the 2 Kiwami Games (mostly because I haven't played the originals) but even so you really covered my problems with these games. I still like them but I am very willing to accept their flaws
Why does kiryus face in kiwami 2 make him look like that sad kitten meme
Because he’s 48 in the first game with the dragon engine
@@seunglee6990 are you saying they didn't bother changing kiryus design from Yakuza 6?
@@TheFightingMan101 the did, he looks more old
@@TheFightingMan101 they took a few wrinkles off of his face on the YK2 model but it didn't even fit in 6 when Date says he looks way older. everyone in the dragon engine apart from Majima and Daigo looked way different from how they looked in 5.
@@dillankempter5780Even Majima looks weird in the dragon engine, his face is weirdly smooth
That comparison with the cutscenes where Takashima is revealed to have issued the hit against Kaoru got a whole mood change with the music.
Just 52:22 onwards is damn sinister, despite the prettier sunset.
Can't forget about that one section in kiwami 1 where they replaced the for violence theme in shindo's fight and the part where you save shinji with the generic long battle themes. And they left the for violence theme in that one fight in Serena.
Majima everywhere is fun until it's served it's purpose, then it's just annoying.
You summarized my exact feelings on Kiwami 1, awesome video!!
the fuck was the reason for the screaming
Eyy, was looking forward to this video and I'm glad it didn't disappoint. I think you nailed the main issue most people and I had with these games, but you also talked about problems I wasn't even aware about (like the replaced cutscenes tracks for K2 and removed details in K1, for examples). Also, those closing thoughts about the fate of the original games are pretty sad to think about.
Earrape sections aside, this video was fairly interesting and gave me a lot to think about.
I was aware of the Yakuza series since 2015, but was only properly able to try it with Yakuza 0's PC release and the subsequent Kiwami releases.
I absolutely loved the way Yakuza 0 played and how it was written, spent several hours on the minigames -except the wrestling gambling game, that shit was rigged beyond belief- and occasionally replay the main story for its memorable bossfights.
Kiwami 1, to me, felt like an acceptable remake to me despite some writing jank with the addition of Majima Everywhere. I appreciated the way I was able to use the same fighting styles that were available in 0, but the bossfights felt a little tedious due to the new "kiwami move" addition, which you need to use to stop your enemy from regenerating. While neat at first, the mechanic became awfully repetitive since each fighting stance had only one animation for that function. Even a little more variety would have solved that problem.
Kiwami 2 felt far more janky to me from the very start and took me several hours to get used to, especially in combat. I didn't know that they reused the animations from the original game, but I did notice that the animations felt really off at times, so I have to thank you for giving me that eye-opener. My two other pet peeves were the constant reusal of background music -especially on some of the bossfights- and how some of the bossfights felt less impressive compared to the previous installments.
With that in mind, I really want to try and get myself a copy of Yakuza 2 and experience that, the clips you used on your video really impressed me with how different the remake can be at times.
A very well thought out point, 10 points also on the topic of reusing animation i think all the games in some way use old animations like some animations from 5 made it into zero and kiwami and so on and so forth
i also started with 0 and found kiwami to be a downgrade! haven’t played k2 yet because kiwami left such a bad taste in my mouth (the writing esp) but i might try it sometime
@@zq5127 The quality of the writing of Yakuza 1 and 2 can't be helped, as they are a product of their time.
Playing the first two games, Kiwami or Original, puts a bit of a damper on new players who started with 0, because the bar is set so high for them.
1 and 2 are still good games, even if the stories are simpler. My gripe is with the gameplay.
@@Hellsing1138 that’s definitely a great point but, if the game wasn’t going to overall bad writing/lighting/cinematography/direction etc., like it did the voice acting for ex, i think they shouldn’t have made a remake… i’m sure if they never made a remake, some people might’ve protested, but i’d rather they just keep the originals as they are and not remake them instead of downgrading to a bad remake. i think the original games can only be faulted for so much due to technical limitations, but the fact that the kiwamis were too faithful to the originals’ flaws (as i understand them as someone who can’t play those originals, so maybe my perception isn’t fully on point) is what makes them disappointing.
Seems to be everyones attempt at humor, someone should start reviewing reviews. "Hurr hurr *SCREEAAAM* FUNNY*
Great Review/Rant of the Kiwami games my guy. You shed some light onto me on the original ps2 games.
The fact that every boss’s heat aura is all red is stupid to me. Like dude, give Kiryu the red aura for his Legend Style, royal azure for his Oryu Style, and mauve for his Extreme Heat. Then, give every enemy either a gray aura (if they are insignificant) or a different aura color for important enemies, like yellow for Ryuji, lime for Daigo, and so on.
Majima not using white aura is bs considering he starts to be more unpredictable later in the fight, same with mad dog, more heat you had, more distance you covered.
27:42 I think the problem with the dodge is that you come to a full stop and can't do anything for a second after you do it. Plus it just doesn't cover much distance. So if an enemy is being aggressive, that short pause can make it feel slow and like you've already lost any distance you've made from the enemy or lost whatever time you had to strike. Its not like that in the previous games.
Also dodging on pc is impossible I cant use the dodge button to go right at all due to the fact that they are stacked and you have to use every finger for combat.
Kiwami 2’s combat is just kind of shit in general. In that coliseum Majima fight it almost felt like Yakuza 3
My gripe with Nishiki's additional scenes is just how obviously they stick out as being new additions. The clash so much with original cutscenes in terms of direction, style and camera angles, like it's a night and day compared to original's slightly choppy and at times outdated animations.
Especially with how alot of enemies still have their old qtes and heat actions from the og game
no they dont
Thankfully there's a Retranslation Patch for Yakuza 1 (and it's very good)
So if people want to play the original Yakuza, they don't have to deal with the dub.
Somehow ishin is even more lazy than kiwami 1
I finally got around to watching this vid, but I wanna add context for the Crazy Ken Band Song in Yakuza 2 during the rain scene. If you know the translated lyrics, it's more reflective of Kiryu's relationship with Kazama (Or Fuma if you're a OG lol) because the reason his life (and Karou's as well) ended up that way was due to his ties to the Yakuza. The line "Papa de gomen ne" is repeated throught the song, which roughly translates to "Papa says he's sorry." It's more reflective of the both of them, and gives a great extra spice to the game. I'd recommend listening to it with translated lyrics because there's way more to dissect in that song.
I do like SiM's songs and while K2's vibes go in a different direction, I can vibe to it to an extent. The cartoon sound effect stab as well as ABRACADABRA for the credits was so damn tone deaf. I do like that the timer in K2 for the bomb is in real time, because imho it's presented like Kiryu and everyone else are taking in their final moments making every second count, and the music fades out while the looming beeping of the countdown keeps going in the background, and then that cut to silence on the last beep imho just makes it really hit.
BUT THEN ABRACADABRA. Using silent night honestly would have been PERFECT in all honesty with that new direction. I do remember asking the Localization team/Scott before release if they were going to change the songs for the localization due to budget/licensing, but this was one of the cases where they were able to afford the license for the songs. A bit disappointed, but hey it was a good sign that the series was thriving, and actually being profitable.
I really enjoyed the vid, and agree with alot of what you said. Personally I like K2 more than K1 because it's just "6 but better," but your critisism perfectly nail what was off and wrong about these games as remakes, and why I recommend players play both versions to see what they prefer.
That is a really cool detail, thanks for the context and for checking out the vid!
was interested to hear what you say. stopped when i couldnt deal with your earrapes. also consider audio leveling because your voice is faint and suddenly music is twice as loud and then back to talking, youre faint again. either lower music or higher your voice.
and stop with the yelling. interesting points but couldnt be bothered to watch the rest after.
Do not speak again
You're a pussy
Stfu
Agreed
It doesn't matter how good your message is if you can't convey it properly. I agree with you completely.
every few months i rewatch this video to hear this man spit facts
As someone who was only able to experience 1 and 2 through the kiwami remakes, this was an interesting and enjoyable watch. I personally didnt have much issue with the earrape sections and I thought the humor was good.
liked the video but consider less ear rape in the future
I dunno, i liked the ear rapes. It's a stupid form of comedy, but efective.
@@theoarguellopaz1454 No.
An old housemate and I used to get shitfaced during pre-drinks and pretend to get heated with eachother (y'know, as you do in the UK with buddies) and one big argument was whether the PS2 originals or Kiwami 1&2 were superior. We had incredulous guests trying to mediate in our stupid fuckin argument and they'd get nowhere until I actually tried to deck him when he admitted he hadn't played the PS2 games
You only become a real fan of something once you realize that something you like so much has flaws, and that it's ok to point them out.
You pretty much summarized my issues with both Kiwamis. I think they're good games that improved massively upon the original, but also dumbed down or created new problems that the og didn't have. RGG Studios didn't quite hit the mark, which is a shame. I never played the originals, so it's not a case of nostalgia.
Kiwami 2 removed that Kamarucho Lullaby substory and it got rid of that small 3rd map from Yakuza 2
"bUh MuH fUnNy MaJiMa"
After playing most of the series (0-5) Seeing Majima the way he is in Kiwami 1 makes me sad. He has interesting dialogue sometimes that references events and people such as Saejima but overall I think it really hurts his character when contrasted with how he comes across in say, Yakuza 5. But the Majima saga in Kiwami 2 sort of makes up for it but relies on the pre established connections from 0, and thats its whole list of issues.
Not the game’s fault for 0’s poor bridging the gap between serious Majima and the one we literally see in every other Yakuza game not being 0.
I think he´s fine in Kiwami 1, altough I do get what you mean
He's fine in kiwami 1. He was still developing his mad dog projection, so it tracks that it'd be so intense. The older he gets, the less he cares about his outward appearance
@@TheSaxAppeal na, thats the retconning he suffered from the kiwami treatment (y0,k1,k2)
@@fumeknight9796 except that's not true if you look at the original majima it makes a lot more sense because he's not "bro so whacky!!!!" In yakuza 1 he's just a dickhead yakuza with no boundaries who's main goal is making enemies and civilians piss scared of him. We can see that he has this in him in yakuza 0 like on the rooftop and his heat actions. Yakuza 0 was made to lead into yakuza 1. Not kiwami. And I'll stand by that forever
Ay sucks I didn't find this video sooner. I completely agree with you 100%. We desperately need the hd collection rereleased to save these goated entries.
That scream when majima everywhere came up was so perfect like jesus wtf lol
A good video with good points that is completely ruined by "LOUD IS FUNNY XD" ear rape. I wouldn't mind sharing a version with actually decent EQ, but otherwise I can't recommend it to anyone.
Yeah, I had to constantly switch volumes because his voice sounds too quiet, but when I turn it up I get hit with a surprise ear rape. Still a good video.
Loved the critique and the points you made, Kiwami remakes are undoubtedly flawed but still a decent way to experience the game. They were fine to me as a newcomer to the series, though to this day I find it weird that Kiwami 2 had to be made using Dragon Engine, especially combat-wise. At least they improved on it in LAD (although LAD isn't exactly comparable) and Judgement.
Wish I could recommend the video though, I myself had to stop watching and then come back three separate times because of the screaming. Loud equals funny to a degree, but the same effect could have simply been achieved with a change in tone (which you already do), audio distortion and volume compression, keeping the loud while normalising it with the rest of the video. Really wish I could share this vid with others, but I value their hearing.
51:57 Look how dirty this alley in Champion district looks! It has graffiti sprayed on its walls, the trash is littered on the ground. It really reminds you of the fact that Komaki is essentially a homeless bum. In Kiwami 2 that betchass has Soda machine installed there.
Fr tho, In yakuza 0, I didn't spend a solid 30 minutes fighting a boss not because i kept dying but because I dealt peanuts worth of damage and he keeps healing off all that damage.
As a player who got into the series with yakuza 0, and played all the games until 7, I can definitely see the copy/paste across the games. The most memorable ones 0, K1, K2 to me, like you said, really have some issues in the package especially K1. But there’s a thing, after playing 0 and enjoyed it so much, I never cared about the reused assets. When I first got to the cabaret mini game in K2, the first thing that I got in mind is “hell yeah, cabaret is back baby”, not “recycled bullshit, boring!”. I think it’s very difficult to explain but there really are some magic in these games that you can look past the copy/paste content but not in other games like in Assassins creed
Another thing to add is that the Kiwami 2 credits theme was used once before in the game, during the Amon bouncer mission, which fit there because it helps represent the Amon brothers’ final push against Kiryu, which is why it’s so aggressive, but it doesn’t fit the somber K2 ending at all
dawg if you're gonna scream into the mic at least adjust the damn volume
fuck kiwami 2 how did they manage to downgrade the combat so bad from 0 and kiwami. we traded in so much for ragdolls, which were impressive around the time the original Yakuza 2 came out, that ship has kind of sailed K2 team..
What lol K2 combat is so good. The grab and throw, the weapon animations are better, the regular combat animations look way better, the movements are so much more fluid
blame 6.
@@mannyescuela3511 no they ain't lmao combat isn't fluid at all
@@Ibrahim-wr5fs yeah i just got 6 and I see what u mean now lol. I take back what I said
I think my least favorite part about the jrock song in the kiryu stab scene is that the jazzy noir song sounds like something kiryu would listen to. Something that fits a man of his age and demeanor during this trying time, as if he's thinking about that song. Putting the amv jrock is like a sad nightcore remix playing, it might fit the emotion, but the style was the whole point there as you mentioned in the video
I dunno. I found the OG2 music cheesy as hell. Too upbeat to match the somber tone.
@@ZX3000GT1Wrong
One thing I can say that the more cloudy aspect of the heat actions made it feel more powerful for some reason
wow original yakuza 2 looks amazing i only own xbox but i wish they ported the original 1 and 2 to xbox so i can experience them :)
The quality content that i crave for, agree with all the points you made.
Keep up the good work.
christ do you have to scream into my ear multiples times
Yes.
PC mods have done a lot to fix these issues but I wish they were already in the base game, and some issues like completely removed areas and such are pretty much impossible to mod into the Kiwami versions
I had this in my watch later for around 2 years, but it wasn't until the screaming compilation that I actually watched it. Agree with most of it
Another solid video Dunkey. Love you! I am you’re greatest fan!!!!
Honestly wish you'd do more of this style of content
Same
What I really don't like about the Kiwami games even though i enjoyed playing both is the contrast between the new cutscenes and the olds, basically every scene that was in the PS2 game is reusing the same motion data in the Kiwami games but the new ones like Nishiki flashbacks and Majima's side story has all new animation so you are going back and forth between two styles that don't really fit.
The newer more detailed models look like shit with the ps2 motion data.
The fight in the hotel with Majima in Kiwami 1 is my favorite fight in the whole series. Only being able to see the two of them via their heat aura, the fast paced action, whole thing was fucking sick
Thanks for the video man. I bought both the original 1st two games for the ps2. Kiwami 2's game play and physics really brought it down for me.
Kiwami 1 had the coldest fucking wakeup call of a Combat system. Remove the Finisher system, and you make it like Zero's
Please stop screaming, it isn't funny. Please fix your sound balancing. It was unbearable when you screamed and played music, meanwhile at a tolerable volume I could barely hear you.
Lol
ratio
Kiwamicucks still seething and malding at this video
Not really. The argument made here was ruined to the point of actually making the Kiwamis look better than the originals.
@@Name_man Ok Kiwamicuck
@@mistermista2927
The right term is Kuckwami.
@@Name_man No it's not
@@mistermista2927
Damn you really seething and malding at that comment
I was almost about to defend that rain scene until you played the full original.
Yeah, nah Original has Kiwami 2 there beat harder than Hayashi.
Seeing this video makes me glad that I originally played K2 on PC with the copyrighted stuff modded in. I can't imagine how I would've reacted to the ending otherwise.
Much love for all the modders who add the original Japanese material to western releases!!
These are interesting criticisms that I never really considered, as I've never played the original. Really interesting from an outsiders perspective
The lighting on Kiryu's suit in K2 makes him look like Leisure Suit Larry
I'm seeing a pattern with the music. It's like everything nowadays; they're trying to remove the music of the time period from the game and ultimately a series as a whole. They've done the same thing with sonic. Rock was the best for for that series, but they abandoned the style because "times changed"
I will give some praise to Kiwami 1. It got me interested in the series. I might’ve seen some reviews and mistook it for GTA clone like many others. When I played it through PS+ a few years ago, a couple of bells rang in my head. Like it reminded me of something. When I realized what it reminded me of, I was hooked. I wanted to know more about the series. The rest is history.
I think the dragon system worked okay in kiwami it is the only one to my knowledge to let you do legend on a clear game save so your 2nd run is pretty fun
I was planning on a piece like this and why I think the original 2 games shouldn't be ignored. They are indeed different experiences and have their own merits. Sadly, they are lost to history and relegated to emulation, and 0 will forever be the starting point for the vast majority of newcomers to the series.
0 has put the series in a situation where it sets an unrealistic precedent for the later chronological entries. With a total of 10 games before its release, RGG has had a lot of time to make it the masterpiece it is. Following up to it is a tall task, but apparently RGG's way of doing that is to make literally every game released afterwards pay lip service to it. Both Kiwamis do so as you highlighted here, with Kiwami's styles, combat system, reuse of Pocket Circuit, Mr. Shakedown 2.0 (Majima Everywhere), and the car chase (which is somehow more terribly designed than the original as at least you could save before that point; doing it on Legend is basically the biggest fuck you in the entire game), and Kiwami 2's Cabaret Club and Majima Saga. Even Like a Dragon brings back Kiryu’s styles, all of Majima's 0 animations, and Pocket Circuit Fighter.
The whiplash going from Kiwami 2 to 3 is massive too, and the Remastered Collection obviously doesn't have the standard of a remake (how could it if they're basically just 3 older titles with better localization and some restored content in 3's case). This makes playing in chronological order with the Kiwamis have an awkward middle bump as opposed to playing all games in release order. 0 is by far the most played game, and it's easy to see why there aren't that many people that have actually stuck to playing the rest of the series. It's not like most of them are particularly long games (only 5 and Like a Dragon are hard commitments), but I've seen people drop the series after Kiwami 2 and skip to Like a Dragon (or even start there instead), and it's due to the age of the Remastered Collection that still shows.
Yakuza 1 does have 2 huge demerits - combat and especially camera.
Wow the camera sucks. It's a bit of a suffering to try to orient Kiryu to be able to see enemies, the only way being abusing L2 to center the camera, and even then a lot of times the camera will rotate somewhere else again. Compound that with a combat system that is only acceptable when you get the Komaki techniques...ugh.
Yakuza 2 fixes the combat, but not the camera. Yes, you can move the camera with the right stick now, but the camera will still automatically move rather erratically instead of tracking enemies properly. That said you can attack everywhere now so it's not as bad.
Ever since I saw this for the first time I keep finding things where my brain wants to shout "WHY IS EVERYTHING GREEN". I guess everything really is green.
Now do a follow up for ishin plsss that game is one of the lamest remakes
I'm surprised you didn't mention how comical Kiryu looks in Kiwami 1. My man's brows are carved out of stone, fixated, incapable of movement. Homie looks like he's both filled with the rage of a thousand cursed souls and trying to push out the most legendary shit the Yakuza has heard of simaltaneously. Bro's face looks like something that'd be tattooed on the back of a final boss. I don't even understand how this happened. In 0 he looks completely fine. He was still just pissed for most of the game and wasn't as emotive as in the early titles, but his face looked human and he expressed emotions other than pure, unfiltered madness. And in the original title he's so emotive! He looks so much like an actual guy despite the limited graphics due to his really expressive face, he actually seems to have emotional reactions to things around him, feel human things like surprise and sadness. He feels so much more understandable and relatable because of it. There's a mod meant to restore the original expressions and it helps but his whole face model being carved out of diamond-hard stone to express nothing but anger makes it next to impossible for him to be anywhere near as human as in the original. I mean I had an issue with 5 making Kiryu extremely unemotive but in that game at least he looked and sounded neutral most of the time, like he just didn't care. Which still isn't great but it's better than him being constantly pissed off beyond measure to the point of looking like a cartoon character. Like I said, it's just comical. Especially when the voice acting is actually more reserved and trying to display different emotions but his face is telling me he's been constipated for 3 weeks and just now took some pills against it and in this moment he's trying his best not to become known as the legendary shitter of Dojima.
I played Kiwami 1 and 2 with almost no frame of reference. I thought they were both great as a result despite some chapters feeling derivative, which I later realised was because they changed stuff from the original and it can be pretty noticeable at times.
But, my main concern came when I got to the end of Kiwami 2. I was literally holding back hysterics and momentarily thought there was a problem with my copy and there was a glitch in the track selection or something.
I think I'm going to go back and play the PS2 originals, or at least Yakuza 2. I was hesitant because I usually don't like re-experiencing things so soon, especially videogames, but considering how different it looks it might broaden my perspective a bit.
i didn't even realized that so much of the songs were removed
this is so sad
Before this I knew about differences between Yakuza 1 and Kiwami and I thought almost there aren't (except OST and Majima Saga) between Y2/Kiwami 2. After this film I realized there're so many more differences and it's worth try singly play Y1/YK1, but also original and remake of Yakuza 2.
We need ishin kiwami rant
Enjoying the video but jesus christ you make me jump out of my chair with the random screams D:
Red... RER RED RED RED RED just floored me
While I enjoy yakuza 1 and kiwami greatly, I vastly prefer Yakuza 2 over kiwami 2, it's just doesn't feel right
Plus seeing kuze and shibusawa style in some random dudes in the coliseum is just funny
Yakuza 2 is so clunky. I mean it's a PS2 beat em up. It's not like a turn based rpg where the platform wouldn't matter. It has definitely aged poorly
@@pranav_k__ nah
@@pranav_k__ aged badly is better than bad since creation lol
That fake mizuke substory... If only there was sad substory music playin, the on that plays in every single yakuza game
I'm glad I wasn't the only one who thought the jrock was out of place. And I never played the original.
they really need to put up the original yakuza 1 and 2, i think 1 is a good enough remake, but 2 legitmately ruined it for me, i dont like the dragon engine fighting on it to the point where i didnt even care about the story, i just wanted it over and go onto 3 (which is insanely better to me), im hoping i find out how to emulate it just so i get a better end to the game
I played the Kiwami 1 and 2 on PC so I had access to mods and almost all of the issues in this video have been fixed. Like the ugly green filter, the music for the rain scene and end credits. Seeing those scenes for the first time with the original intended music is something else, I had no idea how shitty of an experience the console players have it for these games lol.
Speaking of remakes, this video would greatly benefit from being remade without all the pointless screaming and loud music that make it painful to listen to, especially with headphones.
Pleaaaaase this. Earrape is a great way to sink a video essay.
0 is overrated
Also, I guess I'll die on this hill, I am totally fine with the dragon engine. The tradeoffs it makes are perfectly fine in my eyes.
I mean LJ proved that Dragon Engine is viable.
Nice review! I still really enjoy the Kiwami games, though that might just be because I don't have a personal connection to the original PS2 games. I just recently got into Yakuza 3 through the remastered collection so I'm really interested to see how those stand compared to these games.
this issue of mine is more story based but i didnt understand the point of kiryu and sayama's romantic relationship in the first place? like it felt really forced and rushed just so it could have the generic impact of sayama watching the two men she loves fight to the death but in yakuza 3 she leaves to the states so Kiryu is back to square one of being single. like if sayama wasn't going to be in any if the future games, then their whole romance bit was pointless imo
i feel it would've just been best if they stayed platonic kinda like kiryu and date's relationship
Please spare a thought for earphone users and stop with the needless yelling.
There’s good content here, no need to go meme funny.
Also, the placeholder tension music from Shindo's scene is the one that plays when *Spoiler alert*
Nishitani gives out his final speech.
........... of course Kiwami 2 would do that
They should've had two dragons playing in a random secondary villain fight at that point
Pretty cool video with a lot of good points. It could maybe have been a bit shorter but I'd mostly just say cut down on the yelling lol
It could be awesome if in kiwami you found fighter sad cause poquet racer aint popular and start an unofficial pocket race in the park near de pocket circuit stadium
I’m doing second playthroughs of all the games now, and Kiwami is just as frustrating the second go around in how long it takes to level dragon style and how the game lives to rip itself out of your hands for a cutscene every fifteen seconds.
Dude I gotta be honest. The video was intriguing and you make fair points. But please, no more earraping sound...they were so annoying.
0:14
The only time it was funny and not annoying.
My god yakuza 2 scene is beautiful and the aura
yeah the kiwamis don't help that mind set people have that yakuza is just the same game with a different story.
i feel like after 5 the dev team got burnt out as it was the last time they tried to be more ambitious. because from zero onward it's clear they wanted to recapture the feeling of the first game as this was evident in 0, kiwami 1, and 6.