Open-world games have evolved a lot in the 19 years since the original Yakuza was released. Quirky fetch quests and meandering storytelling were often characteristics of the genre, as was the sense that the developers were gleefully mashing together ideas and holding everything together with an offbeat sense of humour. It’s a positive, then, that this 2017 remake, Yakuza Kiwami, now released on the Switch, updated and modernised much of the 2005 original, so much so that they’re effectively two distinct games.
For example, the remake completely overhauls the original’s fixed-perspective, Resident Evil-style Tokyo streets. The 2005 game featured just one combat style, while the remake has four — Rush, Brawler, Beast, and Dragon — a development first seen in a similar way in the much-superior 2015 prequel Yakuza 0. The game’s story was also significantly fleshed out by developing an important subplot concerning the game’s tragic antagonist, Nishiki.
For us, these were good decisions, but — and yes, there’s going to be a 'but' — Yakuza Kiwami still arguably has a little too much of that retro 2005 DNA. We came into the game with open hearts and minds, but an overabundance of cutscenes, criminal (ahem) pacing, and often brutal difficulty spikes gave us pause for thought multiple times during this 15–20-hour action adventure. We enjoyed a lot of our playthrough, but we also sometimes found ourselves genuinely frustrated. More than once we asked ourselves if we were really having any fun at all.
The opening couple of hours highlight some of Yakuza Kiwami’s strengths and weaknesses. When we were first set free to wander around the fully 3D Tokyo streets, we spent a silly amount of time exploring the nooks and crannies and appreciating all the little true-to-life details. Tokyo is a city like no other, and it was a delight seeing it replicated so well in Kamurocho – from the street-side vending machines to the brightly lit signs and arcades. We enjoyed strutting into supermarkets with colourful ramen packets. We stared happily into the little stairwells and lifts that lead to those iconic private-room-style bars, or the entrances to baseball batting cages, darts bars, and sushi bars. This artistic rendering – the streets filled with pedestrians and stumbling drunks, and groups large and small – day and night, rain and sunshine, made the game environment seem truly alive.
The story starts off well, too. We followed Kiryu, initially the Lieutenant Advisor of the Dojima Family crime syndicate, who at the start of the game seemed pretty happy with his life. He openly expresses his lack of desire to rise up the ranks and seems much more concerned with impressing Yumi, a childhood friend and love interest. Early on we meet other important characters too – including the previously mentioned Nishiki, Kiryu’s friend and equal.
Of course, Kiryu’s ‘happy’ Yakuza life soon goes south. Without going into spoilers, there’s a time jump and power dynamics shift between competing factions of the organised crime family. A lot of money goes missing, and some important people too.
Yakuza Kiwami’s storytelling ambition is evident, even if at times there were so many characters that it was difficult to follow everything. It’s likely no coincidence that the original game was made while The Sopranos was reaching its final season and reigning supreme as the king of television drama. But there’s a cost too: for long periods gameplay takes a back seat to an abundance of cutscenes.
Clearly, players will have varying levels of patience when it comes to how much time they’re happy to sit back and watch the story play out. For us, the truth is Yakuza Kiwami pushed us a little beyond our limit.
Beyond the occasional, artificially dragged-out fetch quest, brawling is, of course, the soul of the game. And on the surface, the fighting system is fun. We were often tasked with fighting large groups in combat that felt a little like Rocksteady’s Batman games – though much more nuanced, complicated, and chaotic.
'Y' unleashes a quick attack, 'X' ups the ante with a knockout blow, 'A' grabs, and 'B' saves face (literally) by letting Kiryu dodge incoming attacks. The 'L' button blocks too, and all of this can be mixed and matched via the four combat styles in order to string together combos and unleash powerful ‘heat’ attacks that inflict a higher amount of damage.
With the different fighting styles and a huge number of upgrades and moves to unlock — uppercuts, space-clearing rush attacks, extra feints and dodges — we had fun whenever the game let us get into a decent flow. Kiryu’s animations, whether ducking and weaving or throwing his bodyweight into a punch, add massively to the experience. Sure, at our worst, because our poor brains are only capable of holding so much new information at a time, we were guilty of spamming the same few moves, but when we had the space to experiment we had a lot of fun pushing ourselves out of our fighting comfort zone and discovering the limits of Kiryu’s destructive force.
But around two hours into the game we hit our first bottleneck – a fight with a pretty menial bouncer outside of a funeral that took us about half an hour to beat. Moments like this scattered throughout the game wouldn’t have been a problem, but far too often any sense we were making progress and mastering our moves would be undermined by what felt like extended sequences of unfair fights.
On normal difficulty, whether in a cage fight or a gambling den, these would stop our progress dead for what felt like hours – over and over again. Because these moments were so frequent, we started to feel as if we didn’t have any time to develop our skills in between. We like a challenge, but we’re not convinced that Yakuza Kiwami has this part elegantly balanced. The most egregious of these moments came in a fight with 10 or so enemies in a very small space in a gambling den. We could hardly see Kiryu to control him, let alone time evasive moves.
As we progressed, we felt the game was losing focus. The consequence of the difficulty spikes was that we needed to keep stocked up with healing items, which we’d buy from supermarkets. Often doing that meant heading quite far out of our way. When we wasted five minutes heading down to the shop for the fifth or sixth time in a row, this once-novel idea started feeling tedious. Even worse was that every 20 or so steps we’d trigger a random battle. Often we couldn’t avoid these battles if we tried.
These bugbears were surpassed by a few tedious fetch quests and by some chapters shifting focus, halting the story, and shining a light on side characters. We were already feeling as if our playthrough was a little ‘stop and start’, and just when we urged to push on with the main story, the game threw an unwelcome curve ball. Arguably tightening up a few of these moments may have helped Yakuza Kiwami better highlight its more positive traits.
After seven-and-a-half years with the Switch, we’re all aware that there may be more beautiful versions of the game elsewhere – but the bottom line is that this version of Yakuza Kiwami is a fully functional and equivalent experience. Sure, we experienced a few stutters while running around the open world, but more often than not the game runs smoothly. Handheld mode features a little blurriness, but certainly not as bad as some ports of other games from the same era, and we quickly got used to it.
There were other moments when the game’s quirkier personality really clicked for us. We were amused by its commitment to secondary distractions – the likes of slot car racing and darts. It’s just a shame that the flow was so often interrupted by cutscenes, or another sequence of pace-killing battles that sucked away much of our goodwill.
Ultimately, for players interested in trying out the first game in such an iconic series, we think Yakuza Kiwami on the Switch might be a great place to start, especially if you don't have access to Yakuza 0. Otherwise, for those looking for a tightly-paced, more satisfying experience, we reluctantly recommend looking elsewhere.
Conclusion
No matter how significant the Yakuza/Like a Dragon series might have become, this first instalment is a mixed bag. At times Yakuza Kiwami is full of life and ambition. At other times it’s as frustrating and seems too willing to draw things out in a slightly over-indulgent way. Experimenting with the battle system is satisfying for as long as the game gives you space to do it. But the game’s pace-killing negatives, the difficulty spikes and the quickly diminishing returns of wandering the Tokyo streets, marred by random battles and fetching items, hold it back from being an easy recommendation. You may well enjoy yourself during your playthrough, but we’d bet a few thousand yen that some of the less-streamlined elements will test your patience.
Comments 146
Sounds like an 11/10 to me.
They should have ported 0 first.
I’ve never played a Yakuza game, but I’ve heard too many good things about them for this low of a rating to make sense.
Complaining about cutscenes in a Yakuza game…
This amuses me.
That summary doesn't really look like a 6/10. I would say part of it is that you can change the difficulty, though i agree yakuza can at times do spikes in difficulty. The other one i guess is just preference, but yeah I think every yakuza game has tons of sidetracking, or weird super slow parts. I get not liking that though i suppose.
I feel like this review was a bit biased. This game definitely deserves a higher score. The video review was a bit cringe with the trip reference. This game is a 8 because the pacing is part of the story and difficulty adds a challenge.
There are some parts of this review that leave me perplexed and even more so as a newcomer to the series - it mentions how the game is at normal difficulty, but what other difficulties are there, only higher ones or also lower ones? Can you switch difficulty on the fly for the more difficult and arguably unfair fights and then switch it back?
Anyway, still interested in this despite the difficulty spikes and the abovementioned doubts about them (don't think I'll particularly mind the other negatives myself), just have to see if I can get it physically - no, the LRG release doesn't count since I'm from Italy - and if not I'll get it digitally instead!
I didn’t comment on the Romancing SaGa 2 review because despite my gut feeling that it was extremely odd I have not played that game yet.
This I have played and it was actually the first game in the series I played and it hooked me from start to finish and I 100% completed it without even intending to because I didn’t want to stop playing it. Reading this review was like trying to decipher someone speaking a different language.
I dunno what’s with NintendoLife giving 6s to potential stone cold classics recently but I hope this is some isolated weirdo takes.
Kind of wish Switch got a port of Yakuza 0 first but guess can't complain about having a decent port of Kiwami on Switch. Already got this one on PS4 but will probably grab this eventually when it inevitably gets discounted in one of Sega's MANY sales.
@Mrkittyhead this review is a little harsh, I played this game earlier in the year after playing yakuza 0 and I personally would of rated it much higher if we arent talking about technical hang ups
I have heard about this game difficulty spikes but I think that I won't mind them that much so I'm still getting this as soon as I'm able. Glad to see that it performs well which was my main concern.
LMAO. A 6??? This should have been an 8 at MOST.
"WE enjoyed a lot of OUR playthrough, but WE also sometimes found OURselves genuinely frustrated. More than once WE asked ourselves if WE were really having any fun at all."
How many of you are there? 😜
"Like a drag-on"
Drag-on deez nu-
Yeah I agree with others that this review seems harsh. I can't really comment on the quality of the Switch port, but I played the game on ps4 and I don't really recall any huge difficulty spikes, and if you understand well the combat system it's actually easy to cheese the boss with weapons. As for the pacing issues, I do agree that some cutscenes can be quite long, but if you're into story type telling game it's really not worse than, say the Xenoblade franchise.
Okay first Romancing Saga 2 now this. What is happening Nintendolife? Would you be kind enough to make an explanation in a proper manner before deleting the messages of those who criticize you?
@Yodalovesu Strange choice of wording, since a review is supposed to be a personal reflection, so the pronoun "I" would've been perfectly suitable and appropriate.
"We" is common in other types of writing, namely journalistic writing, which most gaming media isn't, but this indeed is a very strange choice of wording for a review. 🤔
The royal "we" vs the Queen's royal Wii.
If pacing issues is such a big con I expect NintendoLife to review this entire franchise low sadly.
I’ve played all games including stuff like FotNS: Lost Paradise and Judgment and these games just constantly interrupt you with cutscenes, side stuff and more. I don’t think that’s a bad thing honestly.
Yakuza is difficult???? Some of the fights are BS because of enemies who don't stagger but I wouldn't call it difficult.
Regardless, I’ve never played a Yakuza game. And at $20 I can’t pass it up. 🤷♂️
It's an amazing game/series, with better voice acting and story than pretty much every other series around.
Even an average port of Yakuza Kiwami should be 9/10. One of the most fun games of all time, with a huge amount to do. Great story, great characters, great combat, side quests, minigames, everything about it is good.
Wow, what a fair score lol.
Someone never played a Yakuza game before Xd
Cheers for the review. The content of the review makes it read like a 7 at the very least.
Definitely will get this game once the physical launch.
@EVIL-C They do it in every review and it's so cringe.
I've only played Like a Dragon (the turn-based RPG), and that game also had insane difficulty spikes. A shame that the series started that way, and they never fixed it.
We played Wii Sports and we loved it. We found ourselves weeing all over the floor from the sheer fun we had with our Wii. We've now cleaned up our wee and we want to tell you that we love you Nintendo and we love our Wii.
I played Kiwami shortly after completing 0 and I can't really disagree with the review's complaints. I gave it a 7. It's a fun game, but compared to other entries it really does suffer with pacing issues and other rough edges.
Honestly, it may be better not to play 0 first since the (so far) four games I've played since haven't lived up to it. Then again, whichever game you play first gets the advantage of being novel.
I can't say much about the difficulty as I've mostly played the Yakuza games weaponless, and if possible without healing during battles, which has made them tough. The game offers to reduce the difficulty to Easy if you fail a boss a couple of times in a row. (I believe it records that you changed difficulty, but I don't think it penalises you.)
Anyway, I love the series and recommend it.
@anoyonmus So you agree with the score?
We are never ever ever gonna give Yakuza a high score. Weee are never ever ever gonna get together. Oh wait the lines got mixed up
I played this a few years back. Decent fun. Tbh, I too would use the words "not bad" to describe it. Haven't played another Yakuza since.
@MARl0 There's one difficulty spike when you fight Majima but the game actually warms you it's going to get harder and even tells you to level up in that fight rush dungeon. And yeah, if you don't, it's brutal. Other than that, I'd say it was a pretty easy and consistent experience.
All the games are like that, there might be the odd minor spike but they're pretty smooth in terms of difficulty curve. I'd love to see footage of this writer's gameplay with these supposed difficulty spikes. I get the feeling it'll be Cuphead all over again.
in most Yakuza games where you only control Kiryu / Majima you can easily abuse the special attack bar if you equip a weapon and keep filling it using items.
I have seen others use low health attacks and poison items the same way for even more damage.
There are however really hard side missions and optional bosses...
@Gavintendo 😂 😂 "We" think you made a good point, lolol. 👍
I played this on PS4 years ago and sorta agree that the first few bosses/special fights can be a bit annoying/long winded (I think you have a number of them before the game really opens up), but I don't remember them being that hard.
It only gets easier once things open up too. By endgame I always had enough healing/special bar filling items at my disposal that I could practically cheese all the bosses, even the final one.
The screenshots look incredibly blurry. Is this really how it looks on the Switch?
What I'm picking up from this review is the game is pretty difficult and I should play on Easy for a more enjoyable experience. Fair enough.
there is tons of games without difficulty if yakuza is too difficult. did the difficulty play much into the rating? otherwise it seems like a solid 7 to me.
That's killing me now. So you rate the game badly and not the port ?! You can tell you're on a Nintendo site here. Masayoshi Yokoyama was right, not the right target group ^^
@contractcooker no I do not. It should be a 8 at best.
the original game surely has plenty of fans... why bother reviewing this if you aren't one of them? 🤔
@UNCLDNS Many people had different opinion on the game they play, it's likely this game is not the reviewer's cup of tea. Sega and the Yakuza creator also had themselves to blame for not releasing this game on the Switch sooner cause not many people know about the series. Had they never sabotage the series on Nintendo from the get-go it would had done much better and they wouldn't had restart from square one.
@UNCLDNS all this does is prove his point. This game should at least be an 8. I played 0 once and that was fun as well.
Is there an easy difficulty setting? With very limited playtime between kids and work I don’t have much patience for frustrating difficulty.
Also, one of my biggest concerns is reports of performance issues and a possible memory leak. But, it sounds playable I guess so I’m going to give it a try.
@cosmograph there should be one, yes. Zero had one too iirc. Just saying.
I don't wanna sound harsh, but do any of your reviewers like video games at all? lmao
Compared to the pros, seems like the cons there really shouldn't take away that much from the score. It's been a while since I've played this one, but I don't remember the game being that hard. Overall, sounds like a great port. Looking forward to playing this on the Switch, as well as hoping for more Yakuza games on Nintendo platforms.
@Mrkittyhead As someone who's played a lot of them, this review makes perfect sense. One of the most overrated series out there.
@anoyonmus I think you mean at worst.
This review and score has the feeling of when IGN said Pokemon had too much water.
The thing about Yakuza games is they're not really designed to be rushed. Walk around the city, do mini games, fight randoms - grind (for want of a better word) your skill levels and the difficulty spikes aren't that harsh. I'm an averagely skilled gamer and I only had a few tricky bits on normal difficulty, but stocking up on items/weapons/buffs really helps.
You have to buy-in to cutscenes, it's part of the games.
I'm currently playing 2 and loving it. 0 was amazing but I think this, 1, is the weakest in terms of drawing you in. But it's still a solid 8/10 in my view.
This game along with every other chapter deserve a solid 10/10. The stories are sublime, the humor is infectious and the mini games are absolutely hilarious. Buy this game, buy it in such quantities they port us the rest onto Switch and the Switch 2. I want the Dragon on the go!
NO way! I've played Kiwami before and it's great on the Switch too!
9/10 on Switch for me!
@cosmograph Yes there is
Seems a live action Yakuza Like a Dragon series just dropped on Prime Video. Maybe it's been on for a bit in other countries. But it looks good.
So... I guess I wanted to let you guys know.
Eesh, Kiwami isn’t my favourite Yakuza but ouch.
I respect the reviewer's choice of score - it wasn't their cup of tea.
Not all reviewers have to like the game. It's okay to disagree. That's why a person should consult multiple reviews of games and read them.
I'd probably give the game a 7, though. It has a lot of distractions that get old after a while.
@Yodalovesu A very French review.
I bought it in the hope that successful sales leads to further series entries on Switch. And $20 seems very reasonable
@contractcooker No, I meant this should be at least an 8. 6 is low.
@GamingFan4Lyf It really makes me wish review sites had more than 1 person review each game, since not everything is for everyone and even just one or two more people might give a wider range of opinions. Because if not sometimes you get ridiculous situations, like choosing people who hate Rick & Morty to review a game by the Rick & Morty writers, which they obviously won't like and that's your one review.
@SpiderTom93
IGN opinion = opinion rejected
6/10 years in the joint
Hahaha hours for one fight? I know some people are new to the series but this was hilarious 😂😂
Story of the original packs more of a punch than zero, and zero profits from being played afterwards.
Kiwami's definitely not one of the best games in the series but a 6/10 is far too low imo. And complaining about cutscenes in a story-heavy series is just weird.
Generally I only see people struggle with fights if they don't bother doing any side content - which makes up pretty much half the game. Did the reviewer not do any substories or play any minigames at all?
@rushiosan I agree. I started with 0, and worked my way through the whole series (spin-offs and all.) 0 does a much better job at setting up the whole Yakuzaverse if the player is new the franchise.
"Frustrating difficulty spikes"
This is one of the reasons why Yakuza Kiwami 1 is not a good starting point, it uses Yakuza 0 combat but without its learning curve, Yakuza Kiwami pretty much just gives you all the combat styles from the get-go and expect you to know how to use them.
Early game is quite hard even for people that played 0 first, the game really likes to have you fighting multiple enemies in small spaces, sometimes all of them uses unblockable weapons.(I'm talking about that awful fight at Serena)
Also, Majima Everywhere fights are more enjoyable when you played YK 0 first because he uses his moveset from that game, so that you can inmediately strategize based on your YK 0 knowledge instead of getting destroyed.
That aside, Yakuza Kiwami also has the weakest storytelling and pacing in the franchise, while Yakuza 0 offers one of the most engaging stories in gaming, and it also does a better job at setting and potraying Yakuza Kiwami characters than Yakuza Kiwami.
Thou the score may be a little bit low, this is a great review overall. Kudos to the reviewer! And overall, I recommend to wait for Yakuza 0 to be ported.
@Friendly The Dragon engine has never run well on any console. Not surprising if those screenshots show how the game really looks. Gladly, the devs used UE4 for Ishin, and hopefully keep using it for future games.
While this is great review that captures a given take on the game, for people who are still unsure as to if they should try it out, let me offer a slightly different take.
This is one of the best video games ever made, in one of the best series in existence.
While the switch is obviously not the best place to play it, if it's your only opinion, you should take it. Yes, the gameplay is a little wonky and the difficulty spikes if you don't just spam items to win every encounter ... but honestly, that's not the point! This game is an opportunity to run around in one of the wildest, weirdest, and most enjoyable game worlds every created.
It's like if every Western stereotype about Japan was true, but one man missed the joke and is taking everything at face value and SUPER serious.
Can't recommend enough.
Here are my scores
Yakuza 0 10/10
Yakuza Kiwami 8/10
Yakuza Kiwami 2 9/10
Yakuza 6 10/10
Yakuza Like a Dragon 10/10
Infinite Wealth 8/10
The Man who erased his name 9/10
Ishin 7/10
Judgment 10/10
Lost Judgment 10/10
Thats the Games i plalyed
I have this game on PS4. If the port runs well this seems like a harsh score. But, y’know, sometimes a reviewer just doesn’t like a game (or movie or what have you). The great Roger Ebert gave zero stars to Blue Velvet, for example. You can’t really explain it, it just doesn’t work for them.
Another 6/10...??? What's going on in Nintendolife??
I used to think this was a site to consider.
@Savage_Joe they already returned to Dragon Engine for Gaiden and 8 and said they’re never returning to UE due to bad experience.
Although saying they returned to DE is a bit deceptive. It’s basically Dragon Engine 2 which is why Gaiden and 8 run much better.
The hardest part of this, is me trying to remember which Yakuza games I played and which ones I skipped.
ea cash grab a 8 this classic a 6 seriously
This is why we can't give you kids nice things! You ruin them. Kiwami is an 8 or 9 in my book. And it deserves a +1 for showing up on Switch, imo. Edit: Plus little Haruka? Have you no heart, man?
@carrey23 I'm with you. If anything is a 6 in this series it's Ishin. I wouldn't argue that.
Reviewing ports of older games can be tough. Do you just review the graphics, performance and improvements, leaving the other elements alone? Maybe.
Games and movies/TV shows are totally different, but writers on Blu-Ray.com still review the content themselves. Most people that read a review of a Blu-Ray have already seen the content and just want to know how the audio and video stack up, and what extras are included. They could care less if a writer loved or hated it.
Some of the comments here are disappointing. You need to accept that people have different opinions than yourself and read a bunch of reviews for a better idea of what the game will be like before you make your own decision. I guess fanboys will hate any review lower than an 8 though.
Also, the idea that nintendolife should only have a staff member who is a fan of a series review it is beyond stupid and not how the real world works.
@the_beaver Reviews have always been horrid on this site. Any time they review a game that’s more than 5 years old and doesn’t control exactly the same like the latest 3rd person game, it’s “aged poorly”.
I don’t respect reviewers that seem to only look at video games as disposable products to be consumed and then shoveled along to the next product.
Sounds like a IGN review.
The Yakuza games are heavy on story, so complaining about it, is like putting "too much platforming", under "cons", when reviewing a 2D Mario game...
@rushiosan Agree, I can't imagine playing Kiwami without having played 0 first. I don't understand how the story had any impact without 0. 0 is a much better game, too.
I’ve played through Yakuza 0 and Yakuza Kiwami. They are fantastic games worth playing. This review score perplexes me.
The SwitchUp review of this and Alex's take at the end are more accurate than Oliver's take on this game.
having played up to 4 this is more than fair (kiwami 1 and 2 are easily the weak spots so far, albeit ive heard people say the originals are much better, earlier comment saying kiwami 1 is meant to be played with expectations of 0 gameplaywise is spot on)
I think the fact a quarter of the comment section went to bashing the sitewide writing format doesn't really paint the review as ill informed or childish
@Mr_Nutz
0 was made ten years after the series initially began, so having played it after Kiwami didn't bother me at all. 0 is great but it's not necessary. It adds to Kiwami, but is not necessary.
"Far too many interruptions and pacing issues." That's a Yakuza game! I can't do it. The characters never shut up.
Lost Paradise is wonderful though.
What kind of review score is this? 6/10? I bought the game and it looks and runs amazing, it’s classic Yakuza and it’s on Switch for the first time, it’s easy a 8/10, your final score is trash, you praise the game then give it a mediocre score, what’s that about?
You definitely haven’t played Yakuza 5 if you think Yakuza Kiwami has pacing issues, Yakuza 5 goes on forever….Kiwami is a breeze compared to 5.
First Romancing Saga and now Yakuza getting a 6 is not necessary. I admit that Yakuza Kiwami might not be their best Yakuza game and it DOES suffer from filler in the main story but no way it warrants a 6. A 7? fine but this feels wrong. And complaining about pacing issues on a Yakuza game? What is this?
I am sorry but some of these recent reviews is losing me here. I can see why some people are upset in the comments
Still want to pick this up now that they finally brought this series to Switch.
Another case where the summary + score doesn’t sound like they match. Big list of pros and the cons is filled with smaller weirder complaints, but apparently that is enough to tank the score.
That 6/10, would expect the Switch port job was unplayable trash (which ironically is the opposite since it plays fine), but no it was just full with…weird complaints to put it mildly…If Switch gets more ports you might want to grab someone else. FYI Yakuza 1 is one of the weaker entires of the series, but not 6/10 levels of weak. 7.5 at the lowest easy.
If Yakuza 0 gets ported (considered one of the best in the series) I have a feeling if they go in just like with this review they might just give a 7 at best lol.
@dskatter
Yup this was the moment that pretty much told me “they should have got someone else to review this.” if something like that filters you lol. Yakuza games are narrative driven. What do you expect? Just mindless fighting all the time like a Musou?
@dskatter It's why I don't play the games, but also not something I feel they should change for people like me.
Aw, the game too hard and I must lower the game's score to make myself feel better?
GIT GUD SCRUBS
@Lightsiyd SwitchUP in general has always been a better place for Switch game reviews. They even review games again after some critical patches land.
@Arawn93 True. I've been using them for a while now, and I usually come off with most or all of the information I need to decide whether to buy a game or not, whereas on here I get told next to nothing because they want to please the anti-spoiler crowd...
It's not just SwitchUp though. YouTube content creators have generally become a more genuine source of information than video game journalist sites like IGN and Kotaku. That's because these sites are often compromised beyond hope and their integrity is severely diminished.
This is the most off base review I have read in a long time. Even the commentators that toe the line and praise everything put out by this site think this review score is a joke. that should tell you something.
Nintendolife reviewers always tries to be different. When you see these other gaming reviewers giving a game a high score you see NintendoLife always trying to "Just trying not to fit in" meme by lowering it way more than it should've. "Every reviewer has a different opinion" Sure. But people would agree on the reviewer if the review is good now, would it? Everyone knew that Kiwami isn't the best game either which makes it even funnier. At this point I am here for the comments. Hopefully people don't be like. "Ah yes NintendoLife gave it a 6 this game is totally not worth it" Because I know there's people like that here
Also, "Game too hard/ Game have not much dialogue ah I know! let me deck off 2-3 points and have like only 2 cons when the game has more pros! Brilliant!"
@Arawn93 Agreed. I think they need to have a meeting on what type these reviewers like in a game. If these people don't like heavy amounts of story/cutscenes then it's not meant for them. This is like asking your friend what he thinks about a Pop song when he's clearly into Metal.
Ok review, but yeah right audience for reviewers let alone sales if this hopefully does well. I wish Sega would offer other IPs even though they have some but eh they shoot well with Yakuza and it hasn't gone to Switch? Or just overseas it hasn't huh I guess better late than ever right?
Even if Wii U 1 & 2 came overseas and wasn't Japan only it still wouldn't have succeeded because right audience.
Depends what the reviewer is into and even then the review is a bit awkward at times.
I'm not into the games though I did buy 3 randomly on PS3 and I'm interested to give it a go. I can take the wacky and serious it offers even if not into many open worlds I'm willing to branch out a bit and bought a few crime thrillers due to the gameplay not the themes but I can experience them and go yeah I might enjoy this.
Mind you if Streets of Rage or other beat em ups, or the Turtles games sure but Yakuza with a few more elements hmm.
Not gonna waste much energy on it but I'll say this; This site reviews is becoming less credible than looking at IGN reviews. First SaGa, now this and I am sure plenty of others recently I haven't look at yet. NL might as well review just first party Nintendo games since those are the only ones they give high reviews with actual sense with the Pros/Cons thing they always do
@LikelySatan I’m always all about the story in these games. The more cutscenes the better!
@gluccos Well, I mean…they’re owned by IGN now, sooooo
@dskatter I guess IGN sent their own employees to them then. No wonder their reviews are so watered down and sometimes it feels like I am reading an IGN article. Truly sad.
@Mrkittyhead They are really overrated tbh. The pacing is pretty terrible, especially on the first 5 games.
Removed - disrespecting others
I played the holy heckins' out of Yakuza 0 and went into this hoping to be similarly enamoured but...honestly it's just the same game, but I care less about the story and characters this time round. The repetition is maddening and half the side activities feel you need a spreadsheet to understand them. I want to love this franchise but it's an uphill battle.
@JohnnyMind as a series veteran since PS2, reviewer spat absolute and utter nonsense. First of all, there's no difficulty spikes in this one, only the player's skill issue. If the game seems hard, you can always grind fights for experience, but it is not needed.
They really should have started with 0.
Its the far better game and Kiwami felt more like an expansion of that even though the original came first.
That being said I do think this review is a tad too harsh on the game due to the reviewer not being skilled at it, I personally had no difficulty spikes outside of chapter 9 on the hardest difficulty but I had played 100 hours of 0 beforehand.
@YourDaddy Good to know there's that option if needed, thanks for telling me!
To everyone dissatisfied with the score here, it's worth a reminder that 6 is not a bad score — very explicitly 'Not Bad', in fact!
So far this month we've published 22 reviews of new Switch releases, with another 8 or 9 in the works. Naturally, they come from a lot of different reviewers and not all of them will jibe with your own opinions. It's fine to disagree with this one, but Oliver's points here are valid and the score reflects his overall opinion: the game isn't bad, but it has some issues.
I totally reject 'Nintendo Life reviewers try to be different', too - we assess games as they are, and the chips fall where they may. Sometimes a reviewer's opinion aligns with the majority, sometimes not - that's the nature of reviews! Of the 30~ we're publishing this month, there'll likely be a handful you don't agree with. That's fine, but please, let's not start questioning the validity of others' opinions or their suitability to write about the game just because their take doesn't match yours.
Lastly, using 'we' is historically a fairly common convention and something we've done for a long time now. However, we (ha) are considering a change at some point, which should help clear up any confusion it seems to generate.
@UNCLDNS @anoyonmus One reviewer on this site disliking this game doesn't mean Masayoshi Yokoyama was right that "Nintendo isn't the right platform." Calm down, lol.
Other platform review scores indicate it is a good game.
This review is helpful though, by stating it is a pretty darn good port. So I will buy!
@dartmonkey Personally, more than the score what left me perplexed is that there are pieces of information glossed over if not straight up skipped in this review as already partially mentioned in my first comment:
Difference of opinion should be celebrated and reviews are subjective, but I'm thinking about all the new eyes that will be on this and will skip it because of that score and damn...
This is my favorite game of all time and it just hurts to see it that low.
"The game doesn't give us a chance to improve our fighting skills."
and
"There are too many random fights on the streets."
Well, which is it? If there's as many random small fights in between main ones as you want, then surely the game is giving you ample opportunity to learn its combat mechanics?
@JohnnyMind
I play on easy and have no issues and I suck at games. Some boss fights can spike and be long and tedious out of nowhere but a full inventory of energy drinks (the games healing) will see you through it with no issues.
@Nidorom Good to know, then I am 100% getting this eventually, as mentioned in my very first comment I just have to see if I can get it physically or have to get it digitally instead!
By the way hi, nice to see you back here on Nintendo Life!
@JohnnyMind
The only thing I can sort of agree with in the review is the pacing. If you are trying to just beeline the main story then you will get interrupted a lot, but that's not really the point of these games. They are made to just exist in; soak up the atmosphere, do some substories, do some mini games ect. Also some quests make you go back and forth a little but the town is not huge and you'll know it like the back of your hand after playing a while, so I never saw it as an issue.
Awesome I really hope you enjoy it!
I really do think they should have ported 0 first but I'm sure it will be enjoyable nonetheless to start here.
Haha thanks nice to see you too!
Honestly Yakuza/LAD is the reason I'm not here much anymore. I started playing this year and haven't been able to play much of anything else since, it's just that good that it's ruined other games for me. 😅
I never play games in the same series back to back, even if I love them but that's exactly what I've done with this series, think I've played 2 other games this year 😅 Not only that but I've replayed them over and over too, squeezed every last drop I can.
Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii is my most hyped game of my whole life and I'm 32 and been playing since I was like 6 years old. But then I am high key in love with Majima xD
@Nidorom That's the impression I always got from the Yakuza games based on what I've seen/heard of them and is exactly why I was confused by the absence of any mention to the side content in the review.
Yeah, it's unfortunate that they didn't port 0 first, fingers crossed that will eventually come to Switch and/or its successor, too!
Glad to hear you've been enjoying Yakuza/LAD to the point of playing and replaying the games back to back even though it's the reason why you haven't been around here (and not surprised at all to hear that you love Majima) XD
It's been interesting reading these comments! 6/10 doesn't reflect a bad game by our scoring policy. I can't lie that I went into this game wanting to love it, but found my enjoyment suffered often. I had to reflect that in the review, and wanted to be objective. Not everyone is going to love this game, but sure plenty of people will.
I also tend to agree that it might have been better to have released Yakuza 0 first. Hopefully what I wrote reflects a little of my genuinely conflicted feelings when playing through the game!
@JohnnyMind been a while since I have played this one but as I recall after boss fights at least (which sounds like the difficulty spikes mentioned in the review) you can, I think, choose to reduce the difficulty level. There are some cheap feeling attacks but I have played all of the games released in the West and I don't recall any boss battle really being a progress wall if you keep your upgrades at an even pace and carry a few healing items. I think describing these games as "beat em ups" is a bit misleading because the format is probably more RPG-like (LAD directly so), just with action combat. There are even essentially random encounters.
My own take, as a big series fan, this review is harsh but I can understand somebody not liking the series. However, it does pay very little service to the world and mini games which are a massive part of each entry and a huge part of it's appeal and style. Lots of the downtime pacing-wise can be balanced by messing around in the hostess and karaoke bars and batting cages. This is, however, also one of the biggest problems with this entry since there is generally less to do around the game world than the other entries. And that is one of the main reasons, I suspect, why so many are saying that Zero would have been a better first port choice. But this is still a great time if you enjoy the loop and atmosphere.
EDIT : Looks like Nidorom covered most of this already too 😆
@dartmonkey I hope you don't think my comment is trolling or topic just for the sake of arguing but this is the third time the site has come with this defense of a review which I can't understand at all.
If you leave comments open for a professional review of a game, what are you expecting of people to comment? Just agreeing and/or disagreement with no substance or opinion? The same way a professional reviewer left his opinion on a game, you should be well aware that people are going to a forum to dispute or acknowledge that opinion. It's a public site after all.
And this idea of " let's not start questioning the validity of other's opinions or their suitability to write about the game just because their take doesn't match yours", I would ask exactly why not? Of course you want to avoid personal attacks and insults to the reviewer but questioning the validity of a PROFESSIONAL review is exactly what you should do! Is the reviewer experienced enough to know what he is writing? Does his experience in the genre show in the article he wrote? Is he missing key information that should be provided in the review? This is all constructive feedback and to try to group as we "we all think different so let's leave it as it is", leads nowhere. Challenge opinions and dispute them to reach an understanding of a piece of media. We are not talking about how a person feels or what he believes in (which is hard to dispute ) but rather a professional opinion that if someone else disagrees I would encourage to express and even challenge the view on why is so.
@Warioware Thanks, between your comment and everyone else's here now all my questions have been answered, looking forward to playing this when I can and even more so other games in this series - fingers crossed those will come to Switch and/or its successor, too!
@Wisps Criticism is fine and welcome! But when it veers into "Oof, I like this game and other sites gave it 8s and 9s, so this person patently doesn't know what they're talking about" and "NL does this all the time to be edgy!", that doesn't feel constructive to me.
The 6 here reflects the criticisms in line with our scoring policy, and it's not a bad score. Personally, I'm interested in trying this as I've wanted Yakuza on Switch for ages! So I read the review, balance that against other opinions and my own personal gaming tastes, and make a decision.
Criticism is welcome, but insinuations that we're giving a game a certain score for what, clout? To stand out or provoke outrage from series fans for 'engagement'? That's rubbish.
That this, Shadows of the Damned and Romancing Saga 2 getting rather low scores while loads of buggy and half-arsed indie games get much higher scores feel a bit weird to me. I'm ok with a review being subjective in part, but I really feel high production values should be factored in much more. Mainly because I would like to see more games of this type on the Switch.
@JokerCK are they seriously doing that?
It ain't a hard game, but if you found it difficult, might be because you ain't been upgrading your skills.
Have been really looking forward to playing this on Switch and as others have said the review reads more like a 7 or maybe an 8 than a 6/10. Anyway it's averaging 74 currently on Metacritic and most reviews say it's a decent port, so that's good enough for me to add it to my LRG wishlist.
@dartmonkey That is a fine sentiment but is a different issue than what I mentioned and what you wrote on your first comment (and also on other similarly toned defenses of reviews).
Getting frustated because some people are making fun of the site or that they are judging Nlife as bad/sus/unprofessional because of other review sites is for sure annoying. I can understand your point there and also on how frustating it is to see that other people are assuming stuff about the site intentions.
But this was not the main issue that I was refering but rather the idea that somehow we are not supposed to question the validity of the review because its a personal take on something (you said it yourself and have seen it 3 times now for other hot debated reviews). Maybe the real concern here is not whether we question the reviewer or how we think they are doing a bad job but instead how people are insinuating things that are not true or that feel like an attack to the website goals? Anyways thanks for the response but I feel this is a point where we are talking in different languages.
Yet another bad review by Nintendo Life!
Hard to take this review seriously when you mention you both spent a silly amount of time exploring the city and also only spent 15-20 hours playing the game.
Positively speaking, it looks like I would need to have time on hand to just take in the game and catch its flow. Nothing bad. I just don't have that kind of time... but if I ever do, I'll still give this (hopefully) first Yakuza game a go.
Don't know if I'd give it a 6, but out of all the Yakuza games I've played so far, Kiwami was my least favorite. I thought Zero was much more enjoyable in every way, and Like a Dragon was just awesome.
FYI it’s not even just about the score. An outlier review score on its own isn’t a bad thing itself
If it was scored 6/10, but the review itself had detailed reasons why it should have got the score then at least I can see where maybe reviewer was coming from.
Hell even the summary section at the end makes it even more confusing to figure out since just by once glance you would think it would be a typical 8/10.
The issue why this review is being heavily criticized is the actual criticisms in the review itself feels largely glossed over and vague. People are confused why it tanked the score this much as a result. Like what was the scoring criteria for this?
It’s fine to have different opinions, but some people expect more professionalism on a review so it’s taken more seriously as a source of “should I get this game or not?” that people often use reviews for. Especially when “critic” reviews are supposed to be placed at a higher pedestal than normal user reviews. It’s not even just with this game, but several in the past. It’s not simply downplayed as “you just didn’t agree with me.”
Also it doesn’t matter if NL considers 6/10 as “Not bad” when that is far from what the common consensus for how a 6/10 (or for other critics a 60/100) is generally viewed which is on the lower end of “good” at best especially with how gamers are obsessed with Metacritic scores. Hell 6/10s has a stigma of “you barely didn’t fail”.
Speaking of 6/10s though and the argument of “it’s not a big deal it doesn’t mean it’s bad!” keep in mind you rarely see any actual new Nintendo 1st parties get that score with that thinking and that even includes highly controversial Nintendo games like Scarlet/Violet which still got a higher 7/10 on NL so this again goes back to “NL may benefit from getting more non Nintendo gamer bias reviewers”.
reviewer has skill issues, bet he never played similar game like yakuza
Not surprised he's gonna bring up the "But 6 isn't a bad score!" Yeah it's not bad but it's so inconsistent with the review like pacing issues and complaining about it doesn't have time to develop with the "skills" when you literally fight thugs everywhere? To me it just doesn't sound like the reviewer doesn't like the game that much that's why he doesn't even bother to care or learn what to do
If a 6 isn't a bad score write it like it's MEANT for a 6 and not people being confused on the stuff you wrote
I've seen my fair share of pieces of garbage getting a solid 8 out of 10 here, so it's surprising to see a Yakuza game receiving such a low score.
https://mynintendonews.com/2024/10/27/yakuza-studio-says-yakuza-kiwami-on-switch-is-selling-like-hotcakes-predicted-numbers-too-conservative/
@nintendolife apparently Kiwami is selling well on Switch.
@UNCLDNS @Serpenterror actually according to Yokoyama himself, he said it is selling like hotcakes. So they probably had low expectations but it seems Kiwami sold really well and beyond their expectations. Seems nothing to worry about I guess.
https://mynintendonews.com/2024/10/27/yakuza-studio-says-yakuza-kiwami-on-switch-is-selling-like-hotcakes-predicted-numbers-too-conservative/
Yakuza's fans only see the positives and excuse its issues.
I’ve never played a Yakuza game, but it sort of reminds me of Shenmue. Can you play Sega Arcade games in this ?
I'm playing it for the first time and I'm getting the feeling the reviewer missed the point. It's all a very unique and bizarre package, the soap operatic crime drama stuff being told in long cut scenes and separated by completely cartoonish superhuman fight scenes and clearly intentionally aggravating fetch quests (finding the pocket tissues when you're looking for a mourning band is kind of a hilarious f* you to the player) and bizarre side quests amd minigames are all part of the deal.
It's a weird game, and the frustrating elements aren't accidental, for better or for worse.
I do like the difficulty spikes as well. Fights with random goons are not difficult at all, so the strategic depth of the combat really comes out in the more difficult sequences, especially at high difficulty.
@Gerald sadly not this one, the other yakuza games have lots of sega arcade games within. The only playable things at the arcade are the UFO catcher and photo booth.
The other minigames are great though, the bowling, billiards, and darts are all pretty deep and fun
@demacho thanks
Amazing price for this game. One of my favorites of all time. I just might have to play it again.
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