Yakuza Kiwami Review for Steam

Yakuza Kiwami is a fighting game by SEGA wherein you play as a Japanese gangster (known as a “Yakuza” in this game) who fights other gangsters and hoodlums as he searches for who stole 10 billion yen from one of the crime families and tries to readjust to life after being in prison for 10 years for a crime he didn’t commit.

Most of the standard fighting game elements are present in this game: a combo system, a “special move” meter, and guarding and dodging mechanics. The game allows you to take one of 3 battle stances when fighting enemies and bosses: balanced, quick/light, and slow/heavy (there’s technically 4 stances, but from what I can tell the 4^th stance is just an advanced version of the balanced stance). While each of the 3 stances has its own strengths and drawbacks, I found myself using the balanced style most frequently.

As you defeat enemies, you gain experience. As you might expect, you can use gathered experience to unlock a larger health meter or more combos for each of the 3 styles. However, combos for the 4^th style, “dragon” style, can only be unlocked by completing various challenges littered throughout the game. There are also sidequests and minigames that you can do to gain loot or experience, but from what I can tell, doing these is purely optional.

Most chapters in the game follow a set formula: you walk through an area, take down a horde of lesser enemies, and end with a boss battle. Taking down the horde amounts to little more than button mashing, as long as you don’t stand in one place for too long you will eventually come out on top. The boss battles are where the game gets interesting.

Each boss character feels different from one another. Some are heavy-hitting brutes that are easy to predict and avoid while others would be quick and aggressive. Unlike the horde, fighting these characters actually requires some thought and strategy to beat them. I would usually try to play defensively until I learned the boss’ attack patterns, but sometimes a boss would force me to fight more aggressively to stand a chance of winning.

Overall I enjoyed my time with this game, as such, I think a fair rating for it would be 7.5/10.

Check Out the Yakuza Kiwami Trailer:

Yakuza Kiwami is available for PC via Steam.