#Happy Birthday Kiryu Kazuma <3< /div> Explore tagged Tumblr posts

[realyauza]

桐生一馬さん、お誕生日おめでとうございます！

[bitternace]

the father, the son, the end of the world (x)

[ID: two digital drawings of three iterations of kiryu kazuma that are intertwined in a downwards sequence. the background is a night sky with two framing clouds, and city lights, moon backlightning the three figures. the colors are tinted blue, and the image is held in a frame that is transparent on the outer part.

on top, kiryu is shown in his yakuza 3 okinawa outfit, in the middle in his yakuza 0 pinstrip suit and at the bottom, in a black shirt as he appears in infinite wealth.

y3 kiryu curls his right arm around y0 kiryu's neck, hand in a fist, his right hand comfortably lying on top of lad8 kiryu's head. his expression is a deep frown, as he stares at the audience.

y0 kiryu is turned to the left side of the image, as if running away, his left arm resting over y3's left forearm, hand slightly curled into a fist. his right arm curls forward over lad8 kiryu's shoulder protectively, palm held upwards. he is frowning at something off-frame, mouth slightly open.

lad8 kiryu has his right hand in a fist over his stomach and the left one reaching up to hold y0's left forearm. his expression is blank, as he stares at nothing, mouth slightly agape.

The second image is the same, only slightly less dark for visibility. /End ID.]

(ref) (edited)

[xuanelle]

Happy Birthday, Kiryu Kazuma [06/17/1968]

You walk alone in the dark long enough, it starts to feel like the light'll never come. You stop wanting to even take the next step. But there's not a person in this world who knows what's waiting down the road. All we can do is choose. Stand still and cry… Or make the choice to take the next step. You pick whichever one feels right to you. I can get you as far as the starting line.

[yakuzacanons]

hello once again prefacing with saying i love ur blog and ur headcanons :3 tbh amongst all the relationship hcs this one feels almost odd to ask but idk this is what i care about: what kind of cake flavours do u think the fellas like? if u were gonna treat em to something or get them a birthday cake, u gotta know what theyd like, right?

Last one for tonight, also anon how did you know I've literally been musing on this idea ever since I first started this blog? Same braincell fr fr. Your mind is huge and wrinkly and powerful. Long one since this now includes characters all through Yakuza 7. Enjoy!

Also, INBOX IS OPEN AGAIN. I finally have less than 10 asks so I feel comfortable taking more on. Hit me with em.

Kazuma Kiryu

Most people think he doesn't like sweets, but in reality he's just kind of neutral on them. Grew more accustomed to them when Haruka was younger as she really liked them. More than anything he's just baffled and really touched that you'd want to treat him to cake of any kind.

He likes simple cakes, preferably without frosting or a lot of decorations. Things like bundt cake or castella cake are great choices for Kiryu.

Majima Goro

Also kind of shocked that you'd want to treat him to cake but also at the same time is very excited at the prospect at being treated to cake. If you surprise him with some, he'll give you a big hug and a very enthusiastic thank you.

Tends to lean towards richer, darker flavors. Chocolate cake with a simple dark chocolate frosting is great for him. Also enjoys Black Forest cake, if you can find it.

Saejima Taiga

The poor gentle giant cannot remember the last time he had cake. It's not really something they serve in prison. Genuinely treasures the gesture and really savors it.

Honestly hasn't got a favorite. Likes cakes with some texture to them, like carrot cake. Does get easily wowed by fancy decorations or toppings.

Akiyama Shun

Out of all the boys, the most likely to return the favor of treating you to cake immediately the next time he sees you. The others would save it for an occassion but Akiyama would immediately pay you back by treating you to your favorite cake.

He's a sucker for Devil's Food cake or Red Velvet cake. Likes cream cheese frosting as it provides a nice tart contrast to the sweet intensity of the cake itself.

Tanimura Masayoshi

People rarely treat him to much of anything so he's giddy as all hell to be treated by you. Would totally love to treat you to your favorite meal on your next date as a thank you. He'd treat you to cake himself but he doesn't really know where to get good dessert. He's better with savory foods.

Likes fruity flavors, especially if they're leaning towards citrus. Pineapple upside down cake or a lemon cake would be good.

Ryuji Goda

His position means he's been treated to a fair share of desserts but it means a lot coming from someone that he personally and emotionally cares about deeply. If you make him a homemade cake, he would be speechless.

Likes cakes with some creaminess of some kind, like Boston Cream Pie (which is in fact a cake despite the name) or any kind of cheesecake.

Nishikiyama Akira

Says something like "Ah, for me? You shouldn't have!" but inside he's like "Oh wow, they got me cake? I don't know if anyone's ever done that!" and he's really happy.

Impressed by cakes with fancy layers inside, like opera cake or battenburg cake. Crepe cakes are also a good idea. Cakes with fillings are also nice. He's more about what's inside the cake than outside.

Daigo Dojima

Similar to Ryuji, his position has shown him a fair share of desserts or birthday celebrations. However, someone treating him personally is a little new. If you make him something homemade, he might actually cry a little.

Partial to coffee flavored things. Although it's not a cake in the most traditional sense, he does like tiramisu. However, a regular coffee cake is also greatly appreciated.

Mine Yoshitaka

Probably the only boy that is kind of opposed to cake. He appreciates the gesture but he just doesn't have a sweet tooth. However, as long it's milder in flavor and not intense in sweetness, he will eat it.

If he had to pick a favorite cake, he'd go with Baumkuchen as it's pretty popular in Japan and easy to get. The sweetness is pretty mild and he likes the vanilla taste as it's not super saturated.

Shinada Tatsuo

Has the strongest sweettooth out of all the boys, even more than Ichiban. Just happy to be having cake with you, honestly. You don't have to be fancy with him either. In fact, fancier cakes are kind of lost on him so don't go getting him something complex like you might do for Nishikiyama.

He's a little embarassed to say it as he thinks it sounds girlie for some reason but he likes strawberry shortcake. Victoria sponge cake is also good, as it's basically the same flavor profile but built slightly differently.

Kasuga Ichiban

Second most fond of sweets of all the boys. Type of guy to share cake with all of his friends. He's more about enjoying it all together than eating the whole cake by himself, if that makes sense.

Genuinely has no preference over what kind of cake you get. Ichiban's got a pretty open mind when it comes to food. He likes the texture of chiffon cake the most as it's super light and fluffy. When it comes to flavor, he likes the caramel taste of flan cakes a lot.

Joon-Gi Han

A sucker for a pretty and aesthetic dessert. Likes his cake almost too pretty to eat. Similar to Nishikiyama in that he will hide how excited he is to be having cake with you.

Likes chocolate cake the most in any form. As long as it's chocolate flavored in some aspect, whether it's the cake itself or just the frosting, he likes it. Dobos cake or Sachetorte are great if you really want to impress him.

Tianyou Zhao

Prefers Eastern style cakes to Western style cakes but will eat both. Actually likes more bite size desserts like cupcakes or moon cakes.

For flavors, he likes coconut or mango cake. A box of really nice moon cakes will also do but it must be at the appropriate time during the year or else he's going to wonder why on Earth you're giving those to him. Also fond of those pineapple cakes from Taiwan.

[infyimmm]

Happy birthday Kiryu <3

I don’t mean to get like sad or anything but this is Kiryu I’m talking about so I will.

The past 6 months Yakuza has been all I really played by starting 0 in January and finally reaching Infinite wealth just 3 days ago and Kiryu has made such an impact.

In 0 I thought he was just like Kratos your average loud when fighting silent when talking kind of guy that was till the scene of chapter 6 with Nishiki, it’s the scene that breaks me every time as Nishiki pleads for Kiryu to run and never turn back in hopes that the Tojo clan doesn’t get him but Kiryu doesn’t back down and in that moment I realised the kinda mc Kiryu was.

As the games go on and Kiryu is constantly dragged back into Tojos mistakes we see Kiryu become vulnerable another 4 times in the series. The Tojo clan is the blood that will stay on Kiryus hands as he couldn’t save the ones he cares for, because despite wanting to just settle down with his kids at morning glory Kiryus ties to Tojo will always follow, with them always following Kiryu’s determination to get back to his kids also never fails, till it does.

Despite his somewhat cold attitude he opens up and a conversation in 5 where he admits to Saejima that he was scared runs in my mind constantly. He cares for the people around him especially the kids at morning glory and Daigo (heck I’ll be reckless and even say Majima and Saejima too)

He has been such a beautiful character who my love has grown for I can’t write all my thoughts out on but I hope infinite wealth treats him well

Happy birthday Kazuma Kiryu <3 (mc of the year)

[squishiki]

Awhile back, I scribbled out a portrait of Nishiki in the style of the Persona 5 palace security meters…and now here we are….just in time for his special day… (:

This post is a collection of notes and drawings and a few reference images that I’ve been working on for the past couple of months! Since Nishiki is someone who very obviously suffers from reality distortions like the palace rulers in P5, I just thought it was too fitting not to do a whole big fuckin thing about! Before I start off, I wanna establish that I’m going to be referencing the legend of the dragon and the koi A WHOLE FUCKIN LOT since its obvious in the games that that’s what Nishiki’s struggle and hence, his distortions, were based on. It’s also what gave me the basis for what his shadow and palace would be.

I’m gonna write this as if you’re going through the palace…so basically, it will be in chronological order if this were an actual palace you could play through. No, I don’t have any ideas for how the Metaverse works or how Kiryu and everyone else fits into this aside from the fact that he’d be the one going through Nishiki’s palace. Also not to mention I didn’t design this for gameplay so I don’t have any gimmicks planned out for the palace or anything…

Oh! Last little thing! I’m not that great at writing! I have so many thoughts about this au that it’s hard to keep organized, and there are so many things I want to say but condensed for the sake of this post not being any longer than it already is….so please forgive any weirdness or ramblings… Nishiki is a character who means so so much to me, so I really hope I’m able to do him and his story justice here…

ANYWAY ALL THAT BEING SAID. Here we go (:

o The Palace (Exterior)

Nishiki’s palace is heavily story based. By which I mean his palace tells his story, similar to how the additional cutscenes in Kiwami showed his descent. That’s basically what his palace does in this au.

We start outside of the actual palace, similar to Futaba’s palace (which I referenced a lot when making his palace). This works to show his isolation, as well as to help the general narrative of his palace. The palace exterior represents everything that happened before Y1/YK1…to an extent.

The sunflowers..well I think that’s pretty obvious. Same with the koi filled stream…which you can occasionally see little trinkets and memories of the past in. As you go up the river, things start to change, however. There’s less fish, and the sunflowers start to wither and die. Occasionally, a dead fish will float past, and a potent red slowly trickles into the clear blue water, becoming more apparent until its source drifts into view.

Sohei Dojima’s bullet riddled body floats down the river, blood pouring from his wounds and tainting the river. The stream slowly succumbs to this red as the other bodies of people Nishiki killed float down the river, until the water is completely stained with blood. This is…again, pretty obvious in what it represents. At this point, the surrounding land begins to fall away to a barren, rocky landscape, which further deteriorates into a sea of floating rocks. Enter Nishiki’s palace.

o The Tower of Envy:

The koinobori may seem like an odd choice..I promise I’m not using them just because they’re koi. I decided to include them as a symbol of innocence rather than merely referencing Nishiki’s koi motif. Since koinobori are most associated with children’s day, I figured that they would be a great way of showing Nishiki’s loss of innocence, emotion, and passion as you go up the tower, each floor representing one of the events that led to Nishiki’s downfall. Also…the increasingly crude manner of how they’re strung up starts to look more and more like a fence of barbed wire…showing how Nishiki is trapped in his distortions. Speaking of the pagoda’s exterior, it may be hard to see, but there’s a dragon statue on the roof…this very specific grey dragon design will come back later so keep that in mind….

Now…I’m pretty sure the reason Nishiki’s palace as a tower is pretty obvious. But if it’s not, let me explain!

Since I’m heavily referencing an old legend, I figured a more traditional Japanese aesthetic would work really well for the theme of his palace. The pagoda works excellent as his actual palace, then, for several reasons. For one, it embodies the traditional aesthetic I’m going for. But more importantly, it further emphasises the koi’s struggle of swimming up the river…in the Tower of Envy, you have to travel up the pagoda to reach Nishiki’s shadow. And beyond the legend itself, Nishiki constantly references this idea of “getting to the top” of the Tojo clan. Nishiki himself being at the top of the pagoda serves several purposes as well, highlighting his isolation and his distortion of believing he has beaten the dragon and become one himself (this, again, will be important later). Furthermore, the reference to his final moments and his fight with Kiryu being at the top of the Millennium Tower just work way too well for his palace NOT to be a sort of tower... I would also like to point out and appreciate the storm like aura around Nishiki during his fight, showing his turbulent state of mind..hence the storm clouds around the top of his palace.

As for the palace interior, I have a few more notes. Each floor represents one of the pivotal moments in Nishiki’s descent; basically, each floor serves the same purpose as the Nishiki focused cutscenes in YK1. These moments start with Dojima’s murder and are represented most blatantly through tapestries (once again, kinda like the murals in Futaba’s palace). In these tapestries, Kiryu is represented by a dragon, and Nishiki through a koi. There’s a slight twist here though. The thing about these tapestries is that they’ve been obviously tampered with. Kiryu is scratched out of any moments he may be in, and instead, his draconic attributes are superimposed over Nishiki. There are a few things at play here. The fact that the tapestries weren’t originally made in Nishiki’s image hints at how even he doesn’t really believe in himself, and has to really force himself to adhere to this image that everyone wants him to be. Furthermore, it implies that these tapestries, representing an old legend, have been here for awhile, which gets to my idea that Nishiki has had his palace long before Y1/YK1. It’s very apparent that even in Y0, Nishiki struggles with his self loathing and inferiority complex, which is one of the main reasons for the sunflower field, which I see as the sort of “beta palace” before his distortions got so unbearable that they formed the Tower of Envy.

The other thing I wanted to mention about the palace interior are the shadows inside. They’d take the shape of members of the Nishikiyama family, obviously, but there’s a catch; none of them try very hard to defend Nishiki at all…like I mean most of the shadow fights in here (if they even chose to fight instead of moping around complaining about Nishiki) are stupidly easy, especially for Kiryu. And when beaten, they’ll only complain about Nishiki more, revealing crucial elements of how to progress up to the tower, alluding to his shadow, and eventually, how to defeat him when the time comes; most of what they say will be lines from the game that Nishiki has others hear about himself, about how useless he is and how they’d be better off with Kiryu instead. There are two major reasons for this. The first is because the way I see it, Nishiki has no actual care for himself left, only for his delusion to “get to the top”; his self loathing and inferiority is so intense at this point that even in his cognition, he can’t bring his subordinates to defend him. The other reason for this is because it shows that, in some sense, Nishiki wants Kiryu to get to the top of the tower, either so Nishiki can finally beat him, or perhaps even to be saved by him. And while we’re speaking about making it to the top of the tower…

o Shadow Nishikiyama/Boss Fight:

Remember how I mentioned Nishiki’s distortion of believing he had beaten the dragon and become one? As well as the tapestries he tampered with? Well, all of those concepts are at play here. Nishiki knows, deep down, that he’s not a dragon, that he’s not Kiryu. This is represented through the only naturally occurring inhuman bits being those of a koi; all of his dragon parts are artificial and were knowingly constructed and worn to give him the appearance of a dragon. Even though he’s all alone at the top of his tower, Nishiki constantly wears these fake dragon bits in a sad effort to try to convince himself that he really is a dragon. Nishiki’s isolation here highlights his paranoia and how he won’t let anyone get close to him emotionally, as he fears they would see through his facade.

From here on out, I’m going to be making more references to Kiryu specifically instead of just the imaginary player going though Nishiki’s palace, as this is where I envisioned the most emotional and personal parts of the story going down for Kiryu. I like to think that he’s at least somewhat aware of the dragon imagery in Nishiki’s palace and how that may relate to him, but he doesn’t really see it until he sees Shadow Nishiki for the first time; he sees just how much Nishiki is trying to force himself to be ���like Kiryu”.

Now, since its a palace au, and there’s been no prior minibosses or anything…there has to be a boss fight. Despite Kiryu’s desire to make up with Nishiki, he knows that the only way to get Nishiki to come around is through a fight, just like at the end of Y1/YK1. Nishiki knows this too, as he’s aware of Kiryu making his way through his palace, and has been preparing himself to finally fight the dragon; in some sense, he hopes that actually beating kiryu will make him into a real dragon.

The boss fight starts similar to any yakuza fight: lots of fist fighting and shit. Nishiki is significantly weaker than Kiryu at this point, especially since his fake dragon parts are slowing him down, hindering him. It’s also important to note that he tries to mirror Kiryu and often fails imitating his moves. Kiryu makes a conscious effort to target his fake dragon parts, hoping that by getting rid of his delusions of dragonhood, he can just have a talk with Nishiki. This only makes matters worse though, Nishiki getting more and more frantic and desperate as his dragon parts are stripped away from him. The fight ends with a bloody, shaken Nishiki, removed from his false dragon parts. In a final, desperate attempt at something, Nishiki cries his raw emotions into the sky…everything is still and quiet. Kiryu extends a hand to help Nishiki up. Nishiki is quiet…the ground starts shaking until suddenly, the river of blood leading into the tower erupts from below them, writhing and swirling around Nishiki, taking the shape of something all too familiar……

Buried in a mess of blood, bones, and mangled koi parts, Nishiki shambles towards Kiryu and once more begins his assault. This segment of the boss fight is significantly harder, considering Nishiki’s enhanced dragon form…as for his abilities/attacks, he uses his bones and has a vague control over the blood making up his body, as well as other general draconic attacks. I should mention here that even as a dragon, Nishiki isn’t that much taller than Kiryu…he’s scarier and stronger than before, for sure, but he’s still no match for Kiryu. Kiryu manages to slowly wear him down, and as Nishiki desperately lashes out with his own blood, he loses more and more of it until something catches Kiryu’s attention…some vague, glimmering orb that Kiryu feels drawn to. Saving his own energy, he focuses on dodging Nishiki’s attacks until he manages to grasp the shimmering orb sticking out of Nishiki’s body….Nishiki roars in pain, and Kiryu realizes this may be the only way of getting him to finally stop. Pulling out the orb, Nishiki’s dragon dissolves into a bloody heap on the floor, seeping through the wood, leaving Kiryu to finally, truly understand what was causing Nishiki so much pain.

o Nishiki’s Treasure:

The dragon knife..I feel like if Kiryu can finally get it, then the implications are pretty obvious; after all, the dragon on the handle of the knife is unmistakably Kiryu’s. This knife has been lodged in Nishiki’s side as long as he’s had his palace…it’s only been wedged in deeper and deeper the more he’s compared to and expected to be like Kiryu. I thought this was a particularly clever choice for a few reasons. The less meaningful one is the connection to that sharp, stabbing pain one may feel at such a painful moment, the seeds of Nishiki’s distortion and desire to be a dragon being driven deeper into him; you could say, people have been twisting the knife inside him. Now as for the more meaningful connection, the main reason I chose his treasure to be a knife. Remember this?

Yeah. Yeaahh. The knife represents this moment specifically as the moment Nishiki snapped and his distortions took over. Furthermore, YK1 implied that in this scene nishiki was about to kill himself. By having the knife in his abdomen, where he was aiming and the way to presumably stab himself, Nishiki essentially killed his real self in place of this false shadow version of himself who believed he was a dragon. So..take a moment to process that.

Kiryu is hit incredibly hard by this revelation. Once the treasure is finally out of Nishiki, he can see things for what they really are…and he can finally find it in himself to accept Kiryu’s help out of the tower. Well..whether he wants to or not, Kiryu’s carrying him out before the tower collapses.

At this point, I don’t have too many specific story notes. All I know is they escape the palace before it collapses, and find a way to make up in the real world. Oh, and I guess now is a good time to mention his treasure in the real world is the Kazama family pin…I feel this is pretty appropriate considering that I interpret a lot of his distortions coming from the yakuza life, and even from Kazama himself who very blatantly favors Kiryu..so it serves a sort of dual purpose as to the start of his distortions. I would go more in depth with this but like I said, I think it’s pretty self explanatory.

Back in the real world, Nishiki’s distortions are mostly gone through the destruction of his palace, but his habits and ways of thinking are still very much in tact. Basically what I’m trying to say here is he’s not immediately better. He still has a long way to go, but this time Kiryu’s here to help him, which honestly helps Kiryu since it’s obvious from Y2/YK2 that he feels immensely guilty and even responsible for Nishiki’s downfall. The two make up and help each other heal because god damnit they deserve a happy ending…

o Music Inspirations:

That was a lot..if I’m being completely honest this au has been very emotionally draining to work on because of how personal some of this got. So I’ll try to end this on a lighter, more reflective note. Music! I have lots of ideas and inspiration for how the music during his palace might sound. I highly recommend listening to some of these since they’re very pretty and helped me get into a mindset where I could work on this…

I’m not a composer at all but! I do have a general idea for what his palace theme might be like. For the Tower of Envy, For Your Sake will be woven in and out of the overall palace theme kind of like how Life Will Change is woven into Counterfiet Phantom. And to be honest I imagine most of the theme being like For Your Sake, but just a little different to better fit the Persona 5 vibe and stuff I guess…and yes, it definitely gets more intense as you climb up the tower…and I’m thinking the intensity will come through a sort of deafening silence, the music getting slightly out of tune, quieter, with instruments being gently dropped, which once again plays into Nishiki’s isolation, loneliness, and loss. I also love the idea that despite the lack of music near the top, you can hear the sounds of the tower creaking, heavy rain, and the distant rumble of thunder.

For the palace exterior, I have a few ideas. The first bit will be sort of melancholy and relaxed, playing softly in the background as you can hear general outside ambience like the bubbling stream, the sunflowers rustling in the wind, and the songs of insects and birds. My major inspiration is a blend of Pentimento, In the Light, and the first part of Passage, all by Toshifumi Hinata (which, can I just say…his music is so pretty….). The theme changes to something more akin to Impromptu after seeing the first body, and continues to intensify until it transitions into the Tower of Envy theme.

I don’t have boss fight themes.. sorry, I’m not that versed in music to think of anything beyond the palace themes..although it would really hurt to weave Judgement and Tonight in there somewhere…hmmm…. Maybe I’ll revisit this someday with a clearer idea of the boss fight but for now, this is what I’ve got.

If you made it to this point, wow! Thank you for taking the time to read my ridiculously detailed thoughts about this silly little au! Nishiki means a lot to me and by extension, so does this au…especially since his struggle is so damn personal to me…. All that being said… thanks for sticking around (:

[cleotetra]

I haven’t drawn in a hot minute but happy birthday to Kiryu :3

Ur an old man now Kiryu

[dailykiryu]

i really liked this sketch oka

@dailymajima

[operationrainfall]

​

Title Yakuza Kiwami Developer Sega Publisher Sega Release Date August 29, 2017 Genre Action-adventure Platform PS4 Age Rating Mature Official Website

With the success of Ryu ga Gotoku 0: Chikai no Basho, or simply Yakuza 0 in the West, Sega went further in celebrating the 10th anniversary for the series by re-releasing Ryu ga Gotoku or Yakuza as almost like an expansion. This time, not as an HD Remaster like the one released prior on the PS3, but a full blown remake with the same engine used for Ryu ga Gotoku Ishin and Yakuza 0. Bringing forth improved visuals texture and character models, frame rate, combat, and new added content which includes expanding portions of the story like the transformation of Kiryu’s sworn brother Nishiki from an ally into an antagonist. Since the HD Remaster never made it to Western shores and given how dated the first game can feel, it made perfect sense with 0 being a prequel and a new good starting point for those who wanted to dive into the franchise without dusting off their PS2s. With how well Yakuza 0 fared, how does the remake of such a classic stand up with these benefit of these new mechanics and added content?

Yakuza Kiwami begins 7 years after the events of Yakuza 0, with Kiryu now considered a rising star at this point who continued serving under the Dojima family banner. After doing the usual rounds of collecting debt money, Kiryu meets up with his old friends Nishiki and Yumi at Reina’s bar in celebration for his new future prospects. As the day goes by, Kiryu goes to visit the head of the Kazama family and his foster father, Shintaro Kazama, to catch up. Before they can go into details, Kiryu gets a call that Dojima kidnapped Yumi in his usual drunken haze and Nishiki was going after him. Knowing things would get bad, Kiryu rushes to Dojima’s office only to arrive too late with the sight of Dojima lying dead from Nishiki shooting him in self-defense. Knowing what fate his friend would face as a consequence of murdering one’s family head, Kiryu decides to take the fall and goes to jail in his place. Ten years pass and things have only gotten worse for the Tojo clan as the clan’s fortune has been stolen and the Third Chairman of the clan, Sera, turns up dead the day after it was discovered. If that was not enough, during the 10 years Kiryu found out that Yumi disappeared without a trace. After being released, Kazuma heads back to Kamurocho to help his foster father and locate his childhood friend and old flame Yumi, as well as protect a little girl named Haruka who shares a strange connection to Yumi.

For its time, the game’s plot was riveting and had just enough twists and turns to keep me interested with a well-rounded cast from all walks of life. Some of the twists haven’t aged that well, but some have been given a much-needed update to make them a little more believable. At the end of every chapter now, we get a glimpse of how Nishiki went from being a lowly officer to eventually becoming a villain. While I wished we had more to go on like his sister, I’m glad we got something as the original game presented us with friends with a long history but that was something we never got to experience until Yakuza 0. Even Yumi got some love with an entirely new section in the first chapter dealing with her birthday and Kiryu going out of the way to get a ring for her. It feels like padding but it was funny and emotional enough that I felt it was worth putting in. On the other hand, the additions to what they did for Majima I personally believe were not only unnecessary and hurt the narrative a bit but felt unwarranted. I won’t dwell on it, but they introduced a new game mechanic called the “Majima Everywhere” system that rears its head in the game’s plot. It is what it is, fan service and nothing but. It’s good to flesh out the beginning of the game with how he wants to test Kiryu’s convictions, but was it really necessary for him to get severely injured not once but twice just so you can justify his presence for this game mechanic, only for him to be taken out of commission just before the last story boss fight, when in the first game his early injury did just that? It’s superfluous and beyond stupid. Is it nice that they answered why Majima was obsessed with fighting Kiryu, something that the original game and the prequel Yakuza 0 skimmed over. Hell, not even the sequel Yakuza 2 ever explained it. But is it a good idea to shove this character in my face far more often even when it’s not necessary when it could have instead used that time for other characters? No.

When it comes to the Yakuza games, it’s the standard drill, a beat ’em up action game where you run around doing side stories with many random encounters to beat random punks to level your character with many little excursion possibilities sprinkled throughout the city in the form of mini-games, all the while continuing the plot at your own leisure. Speaking of mini-games, there are plenty though not too many new additions except the return of Pocket Racer with a few familiar faces now all grown up and the rock paper scissor style Cat Fights now with more depth and less frustration in the form of an arcade game called Mesu King; all the women now dressed up as insects and its pretty enjoyable and hilarious with all of its quirks. As for the meat of the game, the game is essentially Yakuza 1 with 0‘s skin, in both the game’s engine and combat system. Kiryu’s three styles from Yakuza 0 are back with of course the Dragon of Dojima style being available from the get go but with a unique twist. Since the bubble era is over, the game returns back to the old style of leveling mirroring the original game. You obtain experience through random fights, eating and finishing sub stories, with 78 in all, under 3 categories with the sphere grid system from Ishin and Yakuza 0 returning for Kiryu’s returning three styles. The aforementioned unique twist comes in the form the previously mentioned Majima Everywhere system, which is more negative than positive and holds the game back.

The fourth sphere grid doesn’t use any experience and instead, each orb has criteria to fulfill which unlocks the abilities for the fourth style, the Dragon of Dojima. When Kiryu left prison after 10 years, he has lost all of his abilities, which include his trademark style, so instead of just continuing on as normal at the beginning of chapter 2 like the original game, you instead bump into Majima who starts a fight and beats Kiryu easily. Not being happy with how weak Kiryu has become he offers to follow Kiryu around and pick a fight by any means. Hence the name “Majima Everywhere” he will literally be everywhere, in a trunk of a car, under a giant traffic cone, he will sneak behind you from an alley way, dress up as a cop to stop and frisk you etc. That’s not all, he will even go as far as to challenge you in several of the game’s minigames, like Pocket Racing, bowling, darts, you name it. I will admit, it at times was entertaining seeing Majma going out of his way to dress up even as a Hostess and the game just goes with it and you play the mini game like normal, dropping some references here and there from the multiple games and the ranking specific events were hilarious. However, to go up said ranks to unlock more abilities you need to fight him a lot and I mean a lot, specifically to obtain all the abilities from Majima’s side, with a few obtained from Komaki’s training, meaning you will have to fight Majima a whopping 50 times. That includes the fights in the story as well and others that are by pure accident as he will continue to hound you on the streets at any and all times. It’s repetitive, at times frustrating as his health grows exponentially and if he so sneaks up on you in his frequent hot spots, you must fight. So I hope you are willing to lay the smack down for another 5 to 10 minutes every time or just load up a save.

More Kiwami on Page 2 ->

Making a great remake isn’t easy, as this game proves that even with good intentions, sometimes added content can be detrimental and hurt the overall product, especially ones that are so tied to the game mechanics and in this rare case as well as the story. Majima Everywhere is when fan service goes too far and becomes more fan disservice — I honestly don’t want to fight Majima for a long time and I don’t expect seeing myself replaying this version of the first game all that often because of this. The first game is dated, yes there is no denying it, but what I loved about it and subsequent releases after was how well they were paced. I can play the story and do most of the sub stories with a mixture of random encounters and my Kiryu will get maxed stats and all abilities outside of training. While this thankfully applies to the other styles, the same can not be said of the style that Kiryu used for the entirety of the original game and subsequent later installments. It’s just not enjoyable having to grind boss battles and fight a character who gradually obtains more and more health bars thus making the grind even more painful unlike the side quests in Yakuza 0 which felt more natural and flowed better. Yes the developer’s are unapologetic and know they have a smaller budget to work with and reuse assets including the game’s engine and fans realize it and accept the games for what they are, as do I. This terrible decision though was self inflicted — they chose to put something this dull into the equation in the name of fan service and it boggles my mind. Another thing I noticed was the bosses now having been overhauled and now with entirely new move sets, which makes sense, but the problem is that they’re all mostly recycled from other bosses in the franchise. This isn’t entirely new, one instance of this was the moves and animations of one of the Yakuza 5 bosses Okita and reusing the majority of them again for Majima’s Dancer style; but that was it, a few instances, not an entire line up. It just screams laziness rather than being their usual efficient selves as a development team.

When Ryu ga Gotoku Kenzan hit the scene, they added to the series a kind of boss exclusive QTE heat moves and Yakuza 3 followed up with “Feel the Heat” for boss context sensitive heat moves which were somewhat similar. I bring this up because now after so long they come back to an idea similar to those for this title with “Climax Heat” and it came with questionable results. There is nothing more frustrating or just plain annoying than seeing a boss regenerate health. Well in Kiwami each boss, ranging from mid-bosses to simply a strong opponent, has a chance to do just that, multiple times even. Usually, after taking down a health bar down or two from them, they will activate a color coded aura where they will begin to regenerate. To stop this you either use a weapon heat move or a Style Heat Move that corresponds with the color. The problem? Even on Normal the health regeneration can be very quick with them gaining almost an entire health bar back as you switch styles. If you don’t have enough Heat you’re pretty much going to have to either consume an item you carry on yourself that boosts your heat bar or pummel the enemy to gain enough heat, just to possibly get enough damage in so they didn’t regenerate too much health that you just scraped off. Sometimes the prompt just refused to show up and I had to position myself differently to activate it but that allowed them to gain even more health back. It’s a beyond god awful gimmick and it makes Hard difficulty and above unbearable at times.

When the game was released in Japan I heard complaints that the game suffered at times from frame rate dips, and while the game does stutter at times when exploring Kamurocho with a bit of screen tearing, the combat is silky smooth 60 fps with them implementing its updates upon its western release and I’m very thankful. When it came to cutscenes I noticed some updates not just for some new lines to fit the narrative, but even it even updated some of the voice acting which is nice; though the cutscenes themselves are a different story. Being faithful is one thing, but barely updating them shows a lack of effort, and it felt awkward as they just updated the textures and lip-syncing for the old cutscenes but the new ones have far better animation and pacing to them. When it comes to the music, the Ryu ga Gotoku franchise as a whole always delivered and went hand and hand with its gameplay to such a degree that it was ingrained into it and I cannot say the same for these remixes which I honestly felt either were too overproduced or in some fashion butchered them. The long time composer of the series, Hidenori Shoji was tasked in blending multiple musical genres with a modern feel for the game’s 2005 city setting. Doing so masterfully with mixing, hip hop, RNB, rap, rock, heavy metal and jazz to morph into some of the most contemporary and toe tapping music an action beat ’em up could ever have asked for and still feel like a video game soundtrack at its finest. The remix tracks replace real instruments what sounds like for synchronizers and dub step bulldozing what made the tracks not only fitting tone wise but thematically to the scenarios. It’s not all bad, some tracks like the remix for Unrest is fine and the remix for id was serviceable albeit being a departure, but the remixes for say the Funk Goes On and Intelligence For Violence are just terrible. On a side note, not surprising anyone, the licensed tracks are sadly gone, which include the main theme of the game Receive You which was done not in-house but collaborated with an actual famed band in Japan so it didn’t make the cut which I feel was a blow to the game, as it fit Kiryu and served as in introduction to the game perfectly.

Yakuza (2005)

Yakuza Kiwami (2017)

My complaints boil down to poorly thought out new gimmicks and the lack of effort; it’s apparent that this was a quick cash grab, not of the soulless corporate type but of what their general focus was on creative wise. Their development apparatus was clearly being more fully committed to Ryu ga Gotoku 6, or Yakuza 6, and its new engine then it was on for this remake. It’s not a terrible remake, no, but a disappointing one. Doesn’t help matters when one of the series usual strengths, its soundtrack, drops the ball and only makes the above issues I had just seem worse. New fans will likely be satisfied with the low price of $29.99, with this being their first experience of the first game that was chronologically released. As an old fan that played the original, I felt it accommodated me enough but wasn’t as satisfying as it could have been and needed more time to either fix the rough edges, add a bit more content or at least more effort to where the game needed. For the 60 hours I played, I got around 90% of the completion list done and still need to replay it on the hardest setting, so you are getting your bang for your buck. I can only hope that the recently announced remake for Yakuza 2, Ryu ga Gotoku Kiwami 2, will fare better as I hold the second entry in high esteem and near and dear to my heart.

[easyreview cat1title=”Overall” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”3.5″]

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REVIEW: Yakuza Kiwami ​ Title Yakuza Kiwami