Yakuza Kiwami

Yakuza Kiwami
The cover art shows a colored render of a young girl walking through a city, framed by a gray-scale render of two men's faces.
Developer(s)Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio[a]
Publisher(s)
Director(s)Koji Yoshida
Producer(s)Mitsuhiro Shimano
Designer(s)Kazuki Hosokawa
Programmer(s)
  • Koji Tokieda
  • Yutaka Ito
Artist(s)Nobuaki Mitake
Writer(s)Masayoshi Yokoyama
Composer(s)Hidenori Shoji
SeriesYakuza
Platform(s)
Release
January 21, 2016
  • PlayStation 3
    • JP: January 21, 2016
    PlayStation 4
    • JP: January 21, 2016
    • WW: August 29, 2017
    Windows
    • WW: February 19, 2019
    Xbox One
    • WW: April 21, 2020
    Amazon Luna
    • US: December 22, 2022
Genre(s)Action-adventure
Mode(s)Single-player

Yakuza Kiwami[b] is an action-adventure video game developed by Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio and published by Sega. It is a remake of Yakuza, the first game in the Yakuza series, originally released on Sony's PlayStation 2. Yakuza Kiwami was released on PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 in Japan on January 21, 2016, and on PlayStation 4 in Europe and North America on August 29, 2017.[2][3] It was also ported to Windows via Steam worldwide on February 19, 2019,[4] to Xbox One on April 21, 2020,[5] and to Amazon Luna on December 22, 2022.[6]

Like the original PlayStation 2 game, Yakuza Kiwami explores the life of a man named Kazuma Kiryu who is demoted from his clan after taking the blame for his boss's murder. After a decade in prison, Kiryu searches for his old friends who have gone missing. The remake adds extra elements to the story, including Akira Nishikiyama's corruption during Kiryu's imprisonment and constant struggles between Kiryu and his rival Goro Majima. The gameplay was improved to resemble the prequel Yakuza 0, adding more depth to the fighting system.

Sega had ideas to remake the first Yakuza game in 2015 as part of the series' 10th anniversary but were unsure about developing due to their team focused on making Yakuza 0. Following the success of Yakuza 0, Sega started working on the remake of the first game and aimed to add new elements to the story while trying to make it more enjoyable than the original game. The game was well received, earning positive sales. Critics praised the simplicity of the combat but were divided by the handling of the storyline and side missions. Nonetheless, the Majima Everywhere system was praised for its comedic value. Yakuza Kiwami was followed up by Yakuza 6: The Song of Life later in 2016, and another remake based on the second game titled Yakuza Kiwami 2 was also released in 2018.

  1. ^ Lab42 Games [@Lab42Games] (January 22, 2019). "We're proud to announce we've been working with our friends @SEGA again, this time to bring Yakuza Kiwami to PC, out Feb 19th and available to pre-order now!" (Tweet) – via Twitter.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference DestructRev was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ "SEGA and Deep Silver to Publish Yakuza Kiwami for PlayStation 4". Anime News Network. December 4, 2016. Retrieved December 10, 2020.
  4. ^ Sarkar, Samit (January 21, 2019). "Yakuza Kiwami coming to Steam in mid-February". Polygon. Archived from the original on January 23, 2019. Retrieved January 22, 2019.
  5. ^ Hernandez, Patricia (November 14, 2019). "Yakuza is coming to Xbox for the first time". Polygon. Archived from the original on November 14, 2019. Retrieved November 15, 2019.
  6. ^ New on Luna+: Yakuza Kiwami, retrieved December 23, 2022


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