Double Dragon

YAKUZA KIWAMI 2 is a return to form for the singular crime series.

- Phil Savage

Welcome back to Kamurocho. Things are different here now. The Tojo Clan is in disarray after the events of Yakuza Kiwami, Majima has started a construction company, and there’s Virtua Fighter 2 in the arcades. But more dramatic than any of these small developments is Yakuza Kiwami 2’s big change—the series’ new Dragon engine, and the many improvements and tweaks that it brings.

Yakuza is an economical series that rarely reinvents the wheel. It often reuses assets and animations, because the focus is always on the same handful of districts, and the small ways they change over the course of decades. Kiwami 2 isstill a Yakuza game, which means it’s still a crime drama interspersed by fights, exploration, minigames, and substories full of slice-of-life character moments that help humanize protagonist Kiryu—making him more than the hardboiled stereotype he could easily have been. It’s also a remake of 2006’s Yakuza 2 that, despite looking significantly better now, features mostly shot-forshot recreations of its cutscenes.