Yakuza Kiwami | Full Game Walkthrough | No Commentary

It might surprise you to find out that I actually lived in Tokyo for 8 years and I have very warm and happy memories of my time in Japan. I have always been a fan of Japanese popculture since I was a kid and I instantly fell in love with the Yakuza series back when I played the first game on the PlayStation 2. That game was only available in English in the west, but later parts also had the excellent Japanese cast available.
Yakuza in essence is a spiritual successor to Shenmue where you follow an epic story but also have a ton of optional content and minigames to partake in. We follow the charismatic Kiryu Kazuma who is a yakuza with a golden heart. On a fateful night he takes the blame for a gruesome incident that revolves around his best friend and also his love interest. After doing his time he returns to Kamurocho and now has to deal with the aftermath as Tokyo's yakuza families are dealing with a tragedy of their own.
The story is absolutely fantastic and the pacing is also great. There isn't any filler content in the main story until chapter 6 and even the filler content is not all that bad. What I adore about the Yakuza series is how it accurately portrays Tokyo and everyone who has been in Japan will instantly recognize the familiar sightings. From the accurate convenience stores to the restaurants or even products like Boss Coffee or C.C. Lemon drinks. Usually licensing is a bit jarring in video games, but in the Yakuza series it actually benefits of making it more believable.
Kiwami is the remake of the original PlayStation 2 game with some extra content here and there and a lot more minigames. This playthrough of mine does its best to showcase you a lot of extra content while also still being focused on the main story experience.
By now there have been many games in this series and I have only played up to Yakuza 3, so I hope this time to continue the epic story and see what Kiryu's story has in store for me next!

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