Yakuza: Every Game Ranked From Worst To Best

A loving remake of Yakuza 1, Sega took the advanced engine and combat style from Yakuza 0 and gave the original a necessary coat of paint. It’s a vastly improved experience, even if not all aspects can be repaired in retrospect.

Kiwami sports the original's aesthetic and carefully recreated it to the minute detail, even taking the clunky PS2’s motion capture. Regardless, it is peak storytelling for the series, told in a slow-burn yet effective manner, and sparse of the overly complicated conspiracy plot-lines of later titles. It boils down to a grounded crime story told in blood and plenty heart.

Several negative points from the original are repaired; with an original Japanese track, a refined polished combat system, and a vibrant open-world. Still, there are things that the developers can’t improve in retrospect though, such as the plodding series of fetch quests in the first hours, as well as the slight of extra activities and campaign length.

Still, the developers have also added on top of that, with a handful of stellar new cutscenes that flesh out the main plot in organic ways, and extra content such as the hilarious Majima Everywhere side-quests.

Working as a fine refresh of the original, certainly, there are slight things its earlier design lacks when compared to later entries, but this still is a brilliant opportunity to see how this cult series began in a definitive edition.