Chapter 3: Funeral of Fists | Yakuza Wiki | Fandom

This is a pretty long post, just to let you know going into it.
So I've done a couple of these reviews/character study's of characters from Yakuza, but they've (Shindo and Hayashi) have had small roles in their respective games. Plus, they've had generally positive reception by fans. But Jingu is widely regarded as one of the worst villains in Yakuza by many, for good reasons. No matter what you think of him, the fact that his first actual appearance is in the last chapter in the game is objectively terrible. There's traditional twist villains, and then there's just introducing the villain in one of the last scenes in the game. But I've grown on Jingu. Less so because of the character himself, more because of what he represents. With the fluff out of the way, let's talk about Jingu.
Let's get one thing out of the way. This isn't me saying that there's a bunch of layers to Jingu's character. In fact, he and Lao Gui from 0 might truly be the only 100% pure evil characters in the series. And you know what? That's fine. Hell, it's kinda telling that even among fierce, ruthless Yakuza like Shimano and Nishiki, the politician is the most evil of the bunch. Don't judge a book by it's cover I guess. Not saying that Shimano, Nishiki, or anyone in the Yakuza are saints (though for some, it's usually a grey area), but Jingu works as this contrast from what we've seen before.
When talking about Jingu, we got to ask: Does he work as a twist? To which I'll answer: Kinda. Like, the player that questions a lot about story details will get relatively satisfied with Jingu. The father of Haruka is something I'm sure most would be curious about. And the fact that the 10 billion yen ties back to him is kinda neat. Plus, throughout the game there's been various hints that there's more at play then just Yakuza. Let's go through his involvement in the game first.
He's first introduced to us in chapter 12... of 13. Already not a good start. Kazama tells us his backstory. He met up with Yumi after she lost her memory, and they had Haruka. Jingu had lot's of ambitions, and chairman Sera helped him whenever he could. But he got a proposal to marry the daughter of the prime minister, and he just couldn't resist all that power he'd have. But of course, he got caught up in a scandal. A journalist tried to blackmail him using Yumi and Haruka, so Jingu just offed him. At this stage in the game, he didn't want to lose his position, that's all he cared about. He called Sera to help him, and requested to have Yumi and Haruka taken out as well, so this event didn't repeat. Of course, that didn't happen. Jingu is the reason the fake identity "Mizuki" was created. And this is where we learn the 10 billion was Jingu's money. Before we learn more, Shimano does his thing.
His next appearance is in the last chapter, to take back the 10 billion from Yumi. And he's bringing MIA to finish the job. He establishes himself as emotionless evil bad guy by attempting to take Haruka's life without a second thought. Like I said, Yumi and Haruka to him are just getting in the way of his success at this point. He does say that what he does is for the good of the country, but I doubt he actually cares about it. Jingu has his own vision of what the country should look like, and that's about all care he shows. Man's on a power trip, and he wants more of it. He also shows himself to be a backstabber, switching sides from Tojo to Omi. Jingu is incredibly ambitious, as he wants to control both politics and organized crime in Japan. He also approached Nishiki about this, and basically put all the terrible ideas in his head, knowing he too practically lived to rise to the top. Kiryu also helped him out considerably, obviously unintentionally. Kiryu tries to shut this down by revealing that Sera knew of Jingu's betrayal, and shows him that Kiryu is the next Tojo chairman.
After beating some MIA, Date and Sudo show up, and attempt to arrest Jingu. The charges are bribery and illegal firearm's. Jingu proves he's innocent by shooting at the chopper. Smart. Jingu realizes the only way out of this for him is to kill everyone, but Kiryu just casually beats down both him and ALL of the MIA members with him (with some badass music to go with it, "The Wicked" is such a great track for Kiwami). Jingu's last scene is after the fight with Nishiki. The 10 billion yen vault is open, but Jingu suddenly shows up and shoots Kiryu in the leg, as well as fatally shooting Yumi. Before Jingu finishes them off, Nishiki comes in for his final save, stabs Jingu, and shoots the bomb, which of course sends the money flying. And that's the end of both Nishiki and Jingu (though I don't believe we ever see their body's, but come on, they're dead).
So role in game wise, yeah. Jingu kinda sucked. Just shows up in the last chapter and reveals to be the mastermind behind everything. In a way, he also undervalues just about every one of Nishiki's actions too. But looking at it a bit more, there's a lot of symbolism with Jingu. We'll get the obvious ones out of the way. His fight takes place on top of the millennium tower. He's a politician, he's practically got the world in his hands. Obviously, he's top of the world. And like I said before, the guy who's not even Yakuza is one of the most evil bastards in the series, which line up with the themes this series often shows.
But then there's more of the subtle things. How he's a parallel to Nishiki. Both want to rise to the top, and both eventually do. However, Nishiki went through hell and back to do it. It took him everything, and he lost himself completely, but HE did it. Jingu? Dude didn't earn shit. He married the prime ministers daughter, now he's got power. There's the obvious similarity in that both are the main antagonists. And how Jingu represents what Nishiki is becoming. We never get to see it, but Yumi brings up how Jingu wasn't always this power hungry murderer, but he eventually became it. He sold his soul to change his fate, and it turned him into this. Which is exactly what Nishiki did once his sister died. The extra cutscenes in Kiwami show this well too. To Nishiki, he had nothing left, so he worked his way to the top, and fully intends to go as high as possible. So when he see's Jingu with a gun to Kiryu's head. It's like looking in a mirror. He realizes what a monster he's turned into. That's partially why he stabs him, why he blows up the money (and himself plus Jingu), why he saves Kiryu and Haruka.
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So in conclusion: is Jingu a bad villain? At face value, absolutely, no contest. But looking at him at another angle, there's a bit to consider. He especially puts a deeper meaning to Nishiki's character, for one. He's a fairly well done plot twist, and he's entertaining to watch, if nothing else. I made this to see if Jingu was a definitive good or bad villain. And as if the themes of the story itself confronted me, I found that nothings black and white about him, though writing this has made me appreciate him a bit more. Thanks for reading, and sorry for the long post. Have a good day/night, everyone.

(There's also gonna be Yakuza 1/Kiwami spoilers in this post, so be warned if for some reason you played 2 but skipped 1)
Mainly making this post to see if my opinion's valid. I didn't care for Yakuza 1's story at first, but after giving it some time to settle in, the reason's I disliked it (how much characters died) is exactly what makes it a good story. Kiryu managed to come back from all this death and pain. He essentially had everyone he knew and loved die on the same night, but he came back from it, because he knew he had to. That's some powerful stuff right there. Not saying 1's a masterpiece, it's villains leave something to be desired (except for Nishiki, who's still probably my favourite in the series). Some portions of the story seemed like filler, and more suited for substories. But the pros outweigh the cons, and now I look at 1 extremely fondly, especially it's first and last act.
And it's not like Kiwami 2 doesn't start well. Kiryu mourning the deaths of his loved ones and essentially being forced to help the Tojo are pretty good. Terada's "death" was shocking, considering I was confident that even if he died, it wouldn't be at the start of the game. But that of course leads to my first point for why I felt Kiwami 2 was underwhelming compared to others. Terada is Jingu 2. Show's up and reveals his true colours in the last chapter. Is the fake final boss. Then dies not long after he shows himself. However, Jingu's main problem was his sudden inclusion, but I thought he was genuinely entertaining. He's slimy, he's no Yakuza, and he gets others to do his dirty work. Not to mention the presence of a third party besides the Yakuza has been hinted at quite a bit. But Terada? Dude showed up, and died in chapter 1. The ONLY foreshadowing that there might be more to it is Majima mentioning that it's weird how the Omi killed Terada. Then he shows himself in the last chapter, and (while he has his own unique motivations) is more or less generic bad guy pulling the strings number 200.
It's not just Terada either. Sengoku is generic bad guy that wants chaos and wealth number 400. Though to be fair, the game seems to realise this, as he's sorta treated like a joke in his last few scenes. Takashima is so forgettable I didn't realise who he was when he was on screen for quite a bit. He's Terada's Jingu, and there's even less to talk about there. Shindo was admittedly pretty cool, and he's got a bit to him, but he's really only in the story for 2 chapters. And yeah, Ryuji's awesome, but he's the good in the bad lot. This was a issue in Kiwami and to a lesser extent 0 as well. With some exceptions, the villains are just kinda underwhelming.
The ending was kinda bad as well for me. We'll talk about the fakeout ending first. Kiryu and Kaoru getting blown up. I don't like it. I think it's out of character for Kiryu to just kiss Kaoru and abandon Haruka and everyone else, without even really trying to get out of there. You could make the argument that he knew that by Terada telling him to have faith, that the bomb wasn't gonna go off. But Kiryu said himself he didn't really know. And no disrespect to the band, SiM, but the song that plays in the background, "Sound of Breath", just makes the scene so much worse for me. IN fact, the song may be the actual problem. It was like this for the scene where Kiryu gets stabbed, too. The song itself is fine, but I just don't think it should be playing in scenes like these. And then it's revealed that the bomb was fake. It's going for the feeling of Yakuza 1's ending, and maybe it would've worked if not for the fakeout earlier, but I just don't think it does.
I also both like and dislike how everyone was involved with the Jingweon incident. Like because we get to see more character's in action. Like, it's cool as fuck to see Shimano and Kazama in their element. But it almost gets comical at certain points. "Kawara? Kurahashi? Kaoru? Kiryu? Terada? Everyone's related to the incident, fellas!" With that being said, some characters went severely underused. Daigo is meant to be this saving grace the Tojo needs, but he doesn't really DO anything of note. Kashiwagi get's shafted from the main story for the 2nd (3rd if you play in chronological order) time. I'm glad the dudes alive after the bloodbath that was 1, but give him something to do. Yoyoi and Majima are introduced well, and have good scenes, but I wish they had a bit more to do. Those last 2 are probably just me, though.
The game has good moments, even great moments. Watching how far the Tojo has fallen is interesting. The game isn't afraid to put humour in the main story, which is appreciated. Majima's bomb disposal is still a top tier scene in the series. I like the growing relationship Kiryu and Kaoru have. Act 1 is fantastic, honestly. The game is just hurt by it's frankly underwhelming last couple chapters. But hey, that's my opinion. If you like this story, great! I do too, it's not like it's bad. But after being told this story rivals 0's, I'm left thinking it's the worst one in the series so far (keep in mind I've only played 0, 1/Kiwami, and 2/Kiwami 2). Maybe it'll grow on me in time, I don't know. Anyway, that's all I wanted to say. Thanks for listening to some guy ramble about funny Yakuza game.

idk what flairs to put so yakuza 6 and kiwami 2 spoilers ig
but
there are two specific themes i'm looking for, the first one only appears in 6 but the other one appears in both games.
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those being -
what i'm assuming is the jingweon mafia theme, it plays in the scene where joon-gi han burns that guy's face and after that, i heard very similar themes to it in the other chapters where jingweon appeared in.
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and the other theme, i first noticed it in kiwami 2 but later, when replaying 6 - i noticed it in that game as well. it's the theme (in kiwami 2) in the scene where daigo and kiryu are on the train talking about the go-ryu clan (if i remember correctly) and later it's also heard in the scene where kashiwagi tells kiryu and his friends about the jingweon mafia (before that kazama/shimano/dojima cutscene).
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can someone help me out with this? lol

Hello! It's me! Sora. Today I would want to request Yakuza Kiwami! The sequel to Yakuza 0, it's a game I would want to get my hands on; considering I tried getting it on a giveaway, but instead, I decided to request the game, although I originally planned to get the full bundle with Yakuza 0, but instead, why not get the game from that bundle? But I'll have to be mindful about it, let's get this started, shall we?
If you don't know Yakuza Kiwami, let me give an explanation for ya, okay?
Yakuza Kiwami is an open-world, action game developed by SEGA in 2016 in Japan then later in 2017 for North America and Europe, This is rather than a new installment for Kiryu's chapter, but It is a complete remake of the Original Yakuza for the PS2, The plot itself remains the same, except they added new story elements such as Nishikiyama's soon to be corrupted journey during Kiryu's jail-time as well as Kiryu and Majima's constant fights, thanks to the Majima Everywhere feature. The fighting system has been improved after Yakuza 0, as I said about Majima Everywhere, it's kinda like Mr. Shakedown's system in Yakuza 0, but, unlike that system, Majima Everywhere not only increase the player's rank experience of the system, It also unlocks each and every Dragon of Dojima moves for Kiryu's Dragon Style.
You get to play as Kiryu Kazuma, who is now known as "Dragon of Dojima" soon takes the blame for Dojima's death, as a result, he was sent to prison for 10 years... TEN YEARS. After being a free man, he soon discovers his good childhood friend Akira Nishikiyama became a powerful corrupted Yakuza boss, Kiryu's childhood friend, Yumi went missing, the 3rd chairman Sera's death and now the ten billion yen has been stolen, with the help of Haruka, Yumi's daughter, Kazuki, and Yuya, the founders of Stardust and Makoto Date, a detective whom Kiryu met in 1988 and saved his ass from a horde of Tojo Clan members. Together, they unravel the secrets behind what truly happened and find the true villain behind everything.
Meanwhile, as you finish up the chapters, you will soon get cutscenes of Akira Nishikiyama, explaining what happened to him ever since Kiryu's prison time, each chapter shows more and more lore of how Nishiki went from becoming Kiryu's Judgement Singer, ahem I mean GOOD FRIEND! to the greatest enemy he has to face 10 years from now.
As for Majima now, we get to see him also in 1988, before Kiryu's prison time, describing him as sadistic and brutal, because he's the Mad Dog of Kamurocho, or we like to call.. The Mad Dog of Shimano! The moment Kiryu comes back to Kamurocho, Majima took notice of Kiryu's now rusty but shitty style has emerged, no longer has the greatest fighting style he had from Yakuza 0. Thanks to that, Majima will have to keep an eye out for him, thus Majima Everywhere feature became real, you get to fight him through random battles, once you get to a certain point, before leveling up the gauge of the system, you get to fight a couple of disguises from Majima except one.
The reason why I wanted to get the game entirely is that, while almost done with Kiwami 2, to say the least, I really wanted to try the first Kiwami, even though I already have gotten a brief explanation at the beginning, but nevertheless, I really wanted to try the game for myself and see what's now different from Kiwami 2.
If you were reading till the end, good job. Now about the whole bundle thing, I'm willing to let you guys decide if you want to buy the whole bundle or just buy the game I've requested. (Because I got advice from various users from my discussion page, including u/bruzk2**, I hope this should be it..)**
So if you can gift the game or not, it's all fine. I'll keep waiting patiently, no worries. And besides, you gifters decide to get the whole bundle or just the game only as I said before.
Here's my Steam ID:
https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198803043306/
Here's the link to the bundle with the game there:
https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/13660/The_Yakuza_Bundle/
Anyway, I hope you took time in reading this, and have yourselves a Merry Christmas in a few days.
And just so you know, no matter where he fights, Kiryu NEVER EVER KILLS ANYONE! Alright?
Thank you for reading.

Yo, I'll start by saying that I'm new to the series, Yakuza 0 is the first one I've ever played, but I alredy got Kiwami and Kiwami 2 in my steam library. And I'm new to reddit too, even understanding how to make a post was a struggle.
I spent like 3 days only playng the cabaret just to have that 4th style, so when I started playing today, I went straight to the coliseum to try it out, but when I was there I couldn't trigger it in any way. I've come to the realization that it might be some post game shit (I'm at chapter 12) cuz it is called "Mad dog of Shimano" and technically I'm not under Shimano yet, but it seems a bit stupid to me since is something unlockable before the post game. Now to the real topic of the post, IF it is even possible before the post game, how the fuck do I switch to the 4th style?
Thank you all <3

I got to the Shimano fight at Tojo HQ and gave up. Yakuza 0 is one of my favourite games ever but I just don't enjoy Kiwami so far. The combat feels so limited and unresponsive, especially compared to 0. Kiryu feels so weak. And the music is a massive step down. I loved the Tojo HQ fight song in 0 but in Kiwami it just felt bland and generic. Is the rest of the music like that too? Cause the amazing OST was one of the best things about 0. The story also feels way less engaging, I absolutely hate how you're forced to run around doing stupid fetch quests, like getting the ring in the first chapter.
Should I stick it out? Or skip to Kiwami 2 instead?
PS: I really enjoyed what I've played of Judgment so far, though I had to stop cause my PS4 broke.
Edit: thanks for the kind advice everyone. I decided to give it another shot and changed the difficulty from normal to easy. Holy shit, it such a difference. It feels much more like 0 now.

I hate yakuza kiwami so far and im only on chapter three, i have been contemplating on uninstalling, I hate the boss fight with shimano makes me want to kill myself, is all boss fights like this? Is there a way to make me to more damage.

I've noticed in the Yakuza games, as well as unrelated Yakuza stories there's a lot of show don't tell, for instance actions taken where the motives and even sometimes the perpetrators are implied rather than outright stated: so I thought I would go over all the elements that confused me about Yakuza Kiwami and my personal views and theories on what's actually going on (also, I refer to both Kazama and Sera both as having "stolen" the 10 billion, for obvious reasons).
1: In Chapter 4, in search of Mizuki, Kiryu goes to Bacchus to find the location of Ares, only to find all the staff dead and Haruka hiding behind the counter, however, the game never states who did this or why, leaving us to deduce. The motive behind the killing is obvious: someone wants to erase leads to Mizuki, leaving only those who know about her connection to Ares as suspects: at this point in the game that's Kazama, Terada and Nishiki. It's stated later that the Tojo clan performed their own investigation and found out the thief was Yumi, yet if the other clan patriarchs already knew about Ares then there would be no reason for Bacchus to be eliminated. My theory: Nishiki killed everyone in Bacchus to prevent Kiryu from getting closer to Yumi and the ten billion.
2 & 3: Nishiki shoots Kazama, though it's not explained why he did this; Nishiki enlists the Omi Alliance to capture Kiryu, it's also not explained why he did this: my explanation for these two actions is the same as my explanation for question 1, Nishiki was trying his best to prevent Kiryu from getting to the 10 billion and Yumi before him.
4: Why did Kazama plant Yumi's ring at the scene of the theft? As Mizuki disappeared after the crime, this seems to paint a massive target on Haruka's back, as she becomes the only lead on her location; It could be that Kazama was planning on removing her from Sunflower but she escaped before he could do so, however it would be incredibly hard for him to do this without a missing person's report being filed. I believe the reason he did this was to frame Yumi in order to throw suspicion off of Sera and himself, sending all the clan patriarchs stumbling over themselves on a dead end trail to Ares (though it's... not very wise to lead them straight to the money they're looking for, even if it's behind lock and key [Also, this puts Serena and Bacchus at great risk, being Mizuki's former workplace and the go-to place for bar info respectively]). If this was his intention then it's clear by Nishiki's previous actions that it didn't fool him, he could tell Kazama had some involvement, and thus prevented him from speaking to Kiryu in private (this or he believed that Kazama and Kiryu working together to find the 10 bil would be unstoppable).
5: Why did Nishikiyama send thugs to kill Kiryu if he was his only connection to Haruka? Kiryu and Date said they were going to bring Haruka to Purgatory in front of Reina, who was a mole.
6: What is Terada doing? At the officer's meeting in chapter 2 Nishiki cites Terada as his source for the missing 10 billion, however, Jingu states that he was the one to tell him, so if Terada wasn't his source, then what was he doing? Kazama said he sent him to spy on the Tojo clan, and Shinji said that Terada was helping Nishiki go independent, so suffice to say Terada was gaining Nishiki's trust by helping him in unspecified ways; though I do wonder why he didn't cite Jingu at the officer's meeting, perhaps the relationship between Jingu and Sera was kept secret from the other clan patriarchs? Then Terada betrays Nishiki for Shimano, who promises him 2 out of the 10 billion, but what did he do to deserve this money? It's already been established that Nishiki knew Haruka was at purgatory, and if Terada was working closely with Nishiki it would also stand to reason he has that info as well, and as Nishiki gave up working with Kiryu right before the gangs stole Haruka, it stands to reason that Terada gave Shimano Haruka's location, as well as the secret of the pendant, the question is: why? Terada is taking orders from Kazama, so he knows about Kiryu and his... ahem... abilities, so it can be deduced that either Kazama or Tereda believed Kiryu would have an easier time of rescuing Haruka from Shimano's faction than Nishikiyama's. '
7: Why did Shimano let Nishikiyama out bid him for the pendant? When he shows up at the end of the game, all he wants is Haruka, so, just like Lau, Shimano sensed that Haruka had a value beyond the pendant, and sought that out; I believe he let Nishiki have the pendant so that he wouldn't have to deal with him and could focus solely on getting Haruka, so why did he involve the Triads? Shimano said he was tailing Terada, so he must have known he worked for Kazama, and if Kazama was playing Shimano and Nishiki, then he must be betraying Nishiki in order to keep Haruka out of both of their hands: he knew that someone was coming to rescue her, so he gave Haruka to the triads so he wouldn't have to deal with an attack, then, all Shimano had to do was wait for Haruka to arrive at Kazama's base and take out his greatest rival and steal Haruka in one move.
8: It's clear Jingu knew about the stolen 10 billion as he used it as well as he used the will to spark a civil war in the Tojo clan using Nishiki, however, when Kiryu tells him that Sera stole the 10 billion to take it away from him, he's confused... how did he know that Sera stole the 10 billion without knowing his motive for doing so? I can't think of a reason for this one, maybe sloppy writing or a mistranslation.
9: If Nishiki knew that Jingu was using him to spark a civil war, then what was his plan? Either he believed he could get to the 10 billion before Jingu and use it to blackmail him, or he believed that he had the skills to lead the weakened Tojo clan to victory against the Omi. In order for the former to occur, he needed to know that the money was laundered, and here we get into the question of just how much Nishiki knows. It's clear from the conversation in Serena (because he'd have to reason to lie here) that he doesn't know Yumi's true identity, and thus doesn't know about Jingu's plot to kill her, nor does he know the truth behind Kazama's plot to steal the 10 billion; he could know about the laundered money, but it's not confirmed, all that's confirmed is that he knows Jingu is using him to weaken the Tojo; thus I conclude that both plans are possible however the latter is more likely.
10: Who was the girl with Mizuki's tattoo who was killed by the Nishiki family? As Utabori said, there were many artists who copied his work: I believe that, as this fake copy was floating around, many people must have had it, and thus some girl with a passing resemblance to Yumi who also had the tattoo was unlucky enough to get captured by Nishiki. Crazy coincidence but this game is full of those.

I watched streams of yakuza kiwami about a year and a half ago, and it inspired me to get zero. After i finished zero about 3 weeks ago, i got yakuza kiwami 2, and the movie at the beginning was a good enough refresher to put me back into the story, but there are a few parts I'm still rusty on.
Mostly, i kept worgetting that shimano is dead, and in chapter 5 when you have to get Majima, he is a civilian.
Thing is i have absolutely no recollection of why he left the tojo clan, so could someone explain pls?

So I finished a 100% run of yakuza 0 today (still need the legend playthrough for the platinum) and i wanted to take a break from 0 so I started kiwami. Well has anyone else noticed that the fight with Shimano in chapter 3 at the funeral involves almost identical attacks from that of Mr Shakedown in yakuza 0? Its not b perfectly exactly but a lot of Shimano's attacks were the same attacks I was dodging in yakuza 0 by Mr Shakedown. Just an interesting connection I made today.

I would like to preface this by saying I am one of the many people whose first game was 0. I actually checked Google for info on a Kiwami PC port as the Y0 credits were rolling and saw it came out in 9 days, so Y0 is still very fresh in my mind.
That being said, I came into this with lowered expectations. I saw a few people mentioning online that Kiwami sticks pretty close to the source material, and while I've never so much as seen footage of the original, it shows.
Spoilers for Kiwami, and technically a small bit from Kiwami 2 (just skip the last paragraph.)
I don't really hold it against the game, though. The plot might not be anything all that special, but for a game from the times when the plot was usually an afterthought, it's honestly pretty good. The gameplay also had a distinctly different feel from 0's, despite using the same engine, but I'll get into that later.
First things first, who the fuck had the bright idea to put the Kiryu vs Nishiki pre-fight cutscene as literally the first thing you see? I'd already spoiled myself on that particular tidbit because I made the mistake of looking at a piece of media's wiki without having consumed most of it, but it feels like developers are going "lol, you already know what's in store, let's just get to the good shit." I'm sorry for making such a big deal out of this, but it really left an impression on me. I still haven't actually watched the whole intro, actually. I should probably get on that.
The first thing I noticed was the pacing of the cutscenes. Everything feels like it's going super fast compared to 0's cutscenes, which were like 40% stuff happening and 60% meaningful facial expressions. One cutscene that I could literally imagine with PS2 graphics was Kiryu's talk with Utabori. "Let's get you a touch up, your tat's gotta be on point for that final boss. btw you got a big ass dragon on your back and the other dude got a fish." This actually got better as the game went on, and the final cutscenes were pretty good.
Speaking of cutscenes, I am 99.9% sure those end-of-chapter Nishiki scenes were not in the original, since they're paced completely differently and were honestly some of the most compelling parts of the game, even if it was more less the "watch Nishiki's life go down the shitter" show.
Having now played both 0 and Kiwami, I think you should definitely start with 0. The plot works far better with the added context of Kiryu and Nishiki's bromance in 0 than it would without. Though there's the weirdness that is Reina. She seems weirdly... upbeat? in this one. She didn't really strike me as Majima's sister-in-Kiryu-chan in 0. Speaking of her, her death is probably my favourite just because getting her bullet-riddled body tossed in front of you without so much as a chance to say goodbye is honestly a lot more effective than the dramatic "hold me in your arms as I slowly say my meaningful final words and my hand dramatically falls to the ground" treatment most other chracters got. It actually took me out of a few scenes because I'd be too busy snickering as a third character gets functionally the same death.
Other than that, Majima is pretty hilarious, Haruka grew on me cause she seems to have mental fortitude grown men can only dream of and generally doesn't cause you any trouble plot-wise that's not beyond her control. The one time she does she admits it was dumb and doesn't do it anymore. Kiryu is Kiryu, still a dork and still a badass, Date's cool, though I still don't get why what is esentially a glorified substory involving his daughter is part of the main story. Sure, he needed the character focus, but they honestly couldn't come up with a way to tie it to the rest of the plot? Hell, that one substory where Yuya calls you up to brag how hot his stripper girlfriend is feels more closely tied to the plot. The Florist is also pretty cool, but I'm kinda weirded out how Kiryu seems prefectly okay with the knowledge that there is а surveillance system so extensive it would seem like overkill if it was in 1984.
Jingu is just an asshole. He's a guy you're supposed to hate and want to punch in the face, no real complicated motivation beyond power, and I can respect that. Nishiki's turn from bro to douchebag makes sense with the added context, though the way he slicks his hair back in that one cutscene makes me imagine he now exclusively uses blood as hair gel.
Okay, so, gameplay. I played the entire game on hard.
Gameplay is mixed. I actually like the changes to the combat system, mostly. Beast apparently got nerfed, but I'm pretty bad with it and only use it in the presence of two-wheeled vehicles and tables, so that didn't sting too bad. Brawler also got nerfed, which was for the best.
Dragon starts off completely garbage, then it's just Brawler but shit, then it becomes Brawler but better, then you get Tiger Drop and you win the game. I felt kind of bad that I basically ignored 3/4 of my moveset for the last few chapters, but man, that damage. It's a really fun style after you upgrade it though, even if you ignore the Tiger Drop, really makes you feel like a badass. Just a shame it renders Brawler pointless.
Rush is weird. I used it a lot more than in 0, though I feel that has more to do with the encounter design. At the same time, there's this weird knockback to the first part of the combo that I don't think was there before, which made me whiff quite often. I ended backing myself up against a wall pretty often so I can actually get a good hit in when I get behind them, because holy fuck Rush does no damage. For the longest time I was in this dilemma where either I would fight in Rush and fights would take forever or I would not fight in Rush and go through half an inventory's worth of healing items just to stay alive.
I don't consider myself an expert by any means, but I like to think I've got the basics down, considering I switched to hard in 0 in about chapter 4 and found the rest of the game not overly difficult. I swear, like half of all bosses come with a weapon that makes guarding about as useful as nipples on a man and a whole goonsquad to make sure you get your appointed proctology exam even if you manage to snatch a stray weapon off the ground. And don't you even think about trying to turn your attention to the cannon fodder, lest the boss decide to unleash their biggest combo and give you a back massage that would cause Lee to shed a single, proud tear from up in heaven. The Majima fight at the batting cages was the first fight in the series to make me legitimately angry. Like, put down the controller and take a deep breath angry. I eventually figured out it's a lot easier if you follow monkey see, monkey do and just go to town on everyone with a bat, which somehow made the AI forget it's supposed to attack you.
Honestly the main issue is the bosses. "Dodge and punish" is fine in street fights and the arena, but I don't have time to wait for McBumblefuck to finish staring at me like a confused Koala when I've got Majima up my ass. The second Shimano fight gave me a feeling of deep terror as I imagined not having Tiger Drop.
None of this makes the game impossible or anything, just obnoxious. Like, you can't really go out of your way to have fun and set up specific heat moves you wanna do for fun cause beating these bosses is just all about being a cheap bastard. The boss fight with the dice dealer was just me using items and weapons for cheap and easy heat moves. I'd love to use Beast for its intended purpose, unfortunately it seems the 10 years of prison made Kiryu forget what balance is and he now gets knocked over by a stiff breeze. The fight vs the two gang brothers in the club I'm pretty sure accounts for roughly 50% of all times I've ever been grabbed total. I didn't really take damage, I barely used any items, but any and all combos were interrupted two hits in, such that any enemy that goes for the big two-handed grab now makes me cringe. Again, not difficult, just obnoxious.
The only fight that was truly "hard" after I got the Tiger Drop was Jo Amon. He was pretty difficult, and I would be lying if I said I didn't say "bullshit" out loud after a single spin shaved off the entirety of my maxed-out health bar. He took me total of about 8 tries.
Figured I'd just do an entire section on Majima Everywhere.
I've seen quite a few people complain about it, but I honestly think it's fine assuming one thing - that you can counter.
The first few fights he goes down like a chump, the middle fights are really the only ones that require active concentration, and then after that you get the brawler counter and eventually Tiger Drop, which melts through even his obscene amounts of HP by SSS. If you had to go through that much HP with combos alone every 5 minutes, I'd probably wish I could just stomp on the manhole cover so the fucker drowns in the sewer, too.
Other than that, I particularly like all the non-combat stuff with him. Everything from best girl Goromi, to Majima bullshitting Kiryu with cheap booze and then calling him out for refering to glorified piss as classy, to him getting super into MesuKing and Pocket Circuit, and even when you reach the M.E. cap for the chapter and then go talk to him at the edge of town and he just tells you "piss off, man, I'm thinking about stuff" is all great.
Overall, I'd say 0 is probably the better game overall, but that's not really Kiwami's fault. It's working from what is esentially outdated sorce material and design philosophy, but still manages to deliver a satisfiying experience.
Here's hoping we see Kiwami 2 and the rest of the series on PC in the future, though I'm not at all confident I'll be able to hold out, considering youtube has been dangling "Yakuza Kiwami 2: Majima reunites with Makoto" in my recommendations for a while now. Unfortunately I don't have the disposable income for a PS4 right now, so I might just end up watching playthroughs of the rest of the series.

First I must say this is the second yakuza game I finished, first one being of course 0.
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Now, I know kiwami is a remake of the first game from ps2 while 0 is a whole new game on its own,but it doesn't have to rigidly follow the things in a game from different gen different era. So many things could have been better.
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1. Soundtrack. This is the first thing I noticed right away coming from 0 that kiwami just do it comparatively worse. There's a lot of song pumping me up in 0,while in kiwami most are so grating and repetitive to the point I turned off the music several times. In fact,the only memorable song comes right before I finished the game,namely credits song 2 !
2. Character & Story. I feel kiwami does a lot of injustice to interesting characters from 0,killing them off abruptly or insignificantly (Shimano could have been done better considering his involvement in 0), while the new characters just don't hold any candle to former cast. In 0 the three lieutenant are memorable and stunning. In kiwami I just kind of rush through story without caring about any characters. Even the final villains are boring and stiff imo. The guy's laugh is really cliche evil guy laugh,which is sad considering he's supposed to be a top politician mastermind. Though I have to admit that they did a great job preluding Nishikiyama's descent into ruthlessness,showing how everyone around him just keep fucking him over because they think Kiryu is better,despite the patriarchcide.
3. Bosses. Or just any mook fights in later stage of the games. Simply put,they guard too much,instantly scurrying around you while reading your input, and have a huge loads of health bars. It feels like every boss I fight from midgame onwards in kiwami turn into mr.shakedown. I also feel like they scale the enemy difficulty too quickly without regards to player's progression, so your attacks end up doing pitiful damage to them thanks to lack of upgrade. However, the majima system in turn undermines this completely by giving out huge amount of exps that you will end up maxing everything except dragon even before the final chapter. This still doesn't circumvent the guarding issues,however. Thankfully though, the game has a move you can unlock through sidequest that end up solving this whole boss sponge shenanigan.

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All in all I get the feeling that kiwami is made as sort of an expansion for 0, It has many things that compliment what makes 0 great,but at the same time it also lack those quality elements that make 0 memorable. I feel that had Sega put in a bit more effort with kiwami,they could have made it as good or even better than 0,though perhaps it's because they were busy transitioning to dragon engine that they didn't invest more in this game. A shame,really.

Do not play Yakuza Kiwami as your first just go get Yakuza 0 I unfortunately am playing it right now on hard and the combat is making me want to die idk if it is because I'm on hard but I don't think so because it's only the final boss battles of certain chapters Shimano and Majima at the batting range are some of the must frustrating and annoying fights I can't express the anger I have towards who programmed those bosses and how stagger works with kiryuu and those two I haven't finished the game but I already feel like dropping it because of how shit these bosses are and the spike of difficulty these bosses seem to have. Is this is what the future holds it's not looking good. But I'm just gonna say it once more play yakuza 0 like everyone is probably already saying honestly imo don't play kiwami just look up the story or play on normal
Thanks for the replies guys I get hotheaded when I play action games. I'm gonna take my sweet time with Kiwami and have a good time with it. Thanks for the thoughtful replies.

I recently got my paycheck and wanted to know the in's and out's of Kiwami before i start, because i've been looking to get Yakuza Kiwami digitally.(The reason it's digital even though the gamestop version is 20$ is that i dont like Gamestop and i dont want to support them in any way, and my PS4 has a habit of randomly ejecting even though most of my games are digital and there is no disc in the PS4.)
I want to know your guys opinion because even though i love this series and want to support it(i pre-ordered Yakuza 6 and kept it after the full game demo and beating the game in Japanese), i cant find myself buying a product im not going to enjoy at all since i dont run into a lot of money at this point in my life, im only 17.
There will probably be SPOILERS, because i have beaten the original Yakuza 1 twice.

1. Is Kiwami really that frustrating? I play through Yakuza games on the hardest difficulty i can at first to give myself a real challenge, but i've heard there are some really poorly designed sections of Yakuza Kiwami that make for some immensely frustrating gameplay. Such as bosses not being redesigned, and Shimano's super armor like Mr Shakedown, and the infamous JINGU
   
2. Is there any thing added to Kiwami that's significant? My least favorite part about the Yakuza games is how they tend to lengthen themselves in the story. Saejima's chapters in my opinion in Yakuza 5 being the worst example of this, i already know about the games opening where you are chasing a ring and that looked kind of boring. Is there anything else like this, or is the rest a straight remake with a few changes and a few new cutscenes.
   
3. Substories Are they the same as Yakuza 1, which has some of my least favorite substories in the series, or are they changed a bit. They probably added new ones to harken back to 0, but did they remake the old substories as well?
   
4. Combat Besides making transitioning faster, did they make any new improvements to combat?
   
5. Majima Everywhere How the hell does this system even work, and is it annoying, if so, how annoying is it?
   

If anyone answers this, thank you so much for being a wonderful community.
And depending on the answers is if Kiwami gets another sale. It will eventually get one from me maybe, but not for a few more months, however, i could purchase it right now.

So I bought Kiwami, though when I first played Kiwami I noticed the combat was kind of lackluster compared to 0 but attempted to ignore it, so im enjoying the story up to the point where Kiryu goes to jail, Everything so far after this has been kind of... boring to watch which waa the opposite case with Yakuza 0.
Im only on Chapter 4 but so far the boss fights have been the worst part of the game for me, I find them SOOOO god damn boring, my latest fight was Shimano and I was bored out of my mind while fighting him, I don't know what it is though, why are the bosses from 0 so much more fun than the ones in Kiwami? Also im not really interested in the story right now. Does it get better?