This is a review of Yakuza Kiwami on the Playstation 4. It?s a remake of the very first game in the Yakuza series that was released in 2005 for the PS2. In the game you play Yakuza with a conscience Kazuma Kiryu, the Dragon of Dojima. The game takes place in fictional part of Tokyo called Kamurocho which is based on the real Tokyo red-light district of Kabukicho. In this review I?m going to briefly go over what I consider to be the three main parts of the game: story, combat, and mini-games. Those three things pretty much combine to make the sum total that is Yakuza Kiwami.

Story: 5/5
Yakuza has built its brand on story. You can sort of think of it as Grand Theft Auto: Yakuza in so far that you have a great deal of flexibility in how you progress and the cavalier attitude towards violence, but that?s about as far as the comparison goes. In Yakuza the story is very strong and pulls you through the game. I?ve played plenty of other offerings, (I?m looking at you Skyrim,) where the main story takes a distant second place to the side quests. Yakuza is not that. Yakuza?s story is fantastic and I wish games would get back to this era.
I don?t want to spoil anything, but the basic overview is that your character gets sent to prison for a crime he didn?t commit in order to help out someone dear to him. When you get out, Kazuma?s skills have atrophied greatly and he starts out from square one. It?s only through progressing the story, and a great deal of combat, that you can even...