Yakuza Kiwami Reviews
As a Switch title, Yakuza Kiwami is perfect and feels right at home on this hardware.
Yakuza Kiwami comes to Nintendo Switch with good, solid port that faithfully brings the lights and sounds of Kamurocho onto a handheld. Despite some flaws in performance, Yakuza Kiwami on Switch retains its smooth and fun combat system, rich and compelling story, and all the content of existing console and PC versions.
The Switch version of Yakuza Kiwami might not be the absolutely ideal way to play the first game in the Like a Dragon series, but it runs quite well on the system and remains an absolute delight.
I’ve ended a lot of reviews of Switch ports over the years saying some variation of this may not be the best version of the game, but it’s worth your time if the Switch is your preferred platform. That’s not the case for Yakuza Kiwami. This version simply isn’t worth your time and it doesn’t matter whether you have another way to play the game or not. It isn’t just inferior; it feels terrible to play. Hopefully, the team behind this port will keep working on improving performance because there’s still a solid title underneath this version’s issues. Still, there are too many great experiences on the platform to spend your time on a game that feels like this.
Yakuza Kiwami continues to be a great game. I had as much fun as I did the first time I played it, and I really think it's a good choice for both those who have never played it and those who want a good distraction to pass the time.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Yakuza Kiwami has really brought me back into loving the Yakuza series again by remaking the very game that made me drop it. Now that is exactly what a remake should do. Now I’m really looking forward to the sixth game and the remake of the second. In the meantime, I shall catch up on all that I have missed.
Yakuza Kiwami does a remarkable job of bringing a PS2 era cult classic to modern audiences in a fresh way, even if some poorly aged parts drag it down a little.
Now while I wouldn’t say that Yakuza Kiwami is a perfect experience, it’s damned fun and I can see where other brawlers got their inspiration over the years. With a solid story, great mechanics and characters that you actually care about, I regret having taken this long to get into the craziness of Kamurocho with Kazuma Kiryu.
Yakuza Kiwami is a remake of the original Yakuza, which not only updates it in its technical section, but also knows how to implement all the improvements and possibilities of the most current Yakuzas. Without being perfect or as complete as the last installments, it is still the perfect entry point to the franchise, especially if we have never played any, or made it to its first installment so many years ago.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
With Yakuza Kiwami, SEGA have brought the series starting point up to a modern standard and created the perfectly jumping in point for the series.
If you've never played a Yakuza game before then Yakuza Kiwami is a great place to start.
Yakuza Kiwami follows hot on the heels of the prequal and save for a much more compact narrative nothing is drastically different and that's perfect. Yakuza is still the undisputed king of punching bad people in the face very hard and with more Yakuza games potentially on the horizon, it's never been a better time to flex Kiryu's muscles.
Yakuza Kiwami is a great game. Certainly not everybody’s cup of tea, especially those that aren’t a fan of Japanese culture or media in languages other than English. But I thoroughly enjoyed my time spent with Yakuza Kiwami. While not as long as other games in the Yakuza franchise, it’s great story and substories(side quests) combined with it being the perfect jumping on point for anyone looking to dive into the series for the first time make it well worth the asking price.
Yakuza Kiwami has been another great addition to a series with nothing but great games. While I would say that its high notes aren’t as good as Yakuza 0’s, this can be excused for the most part as it technically is the first game of the series. Either way this game will please fans new and old so don’t miss out on it!
Yakuza Kiwami was like a rollercoaster ride with the most satisfying combat, the mini games were fun and exploring Kamuroch was a blast. There’s never been a better time to try out the Yakuza series and Kiwami is definitely the best game to start with.
On one hand, playing Kiwami was like returning to visit an old friend, on the other it was like playing it for the first time. Scenes that made an impression and stuck with me, such as my breathless escape from a funeral gone wrong, thrilled me as much now as it did the first time.
Careful research, great character writing, and a stunning feeling of being true-to-life carried the original game far, and Yakuza Kiwami marries those qualities to more refined gameplay and slick HD graphics.
Kiwami doesn’t replace the original. The original Yakuza is an interesting retrospective, featuring a somewhat more down-to-Earth depiction of Kamurocho. However, Kiwami serves as a brilliant follow-up to Yakuza 0 in its own right. It was honestly really hard to put down in order to even write this review. Yakuza Kiwami is just an absolute blast.
It may not be on the same scale as 0 but Yakuza Kiwami still hits those highs. The retelling of Kazuma Kiryu's original outing shows some of the source material's age while still maintaining a quality overall experience.