Yakuza Kiwami 2: Dragons and Tigers and Explosives, Omi!

 

To say Yakuza Kiwami 2 is hard to follow is an understatement. Following the fairly straightforward first game, Kiwami 2 goes for a convoluted mess of a plot that focuses on the major yakuza family of the west, the Omi Alliance, taking on the major family of the east, the Tojo. But then there are Korean mobsters, weird familial melodrama, a former mobster turned construction magnate, a former information dealer gone legit, bombs everywhere, and a castle underneath another castle. It's a game that asks the question: how can we stuff as much plot as possible into the game while simultaneously feeling directionless?

Kiwami 2 starts a year after the first game with a hit on the current Tojo chairman, Terada, forcing Kiryu back into a life he thought he escaped. He teams up with a cop from Osaka who becomes his love interest, and together they uncover deep secrets about themselves that all lead back to an event in the early 80's.

The story, as I said, is convoluted as it gets and the motivations of the characters require you to believe they'd play the long game the way they have. Ryuji, the main villain, is really cool but his development and plot takes a backseat to a dozen others as the game bumbles along trying to tie together so many pieces. I really enjoyed the game's plot until about halfway through when it started to crumble under the weight of it all. 

Then you go to Osaka Castle and learn that underneath it is another castle made of gold and you fight ninja and samurai and tigers...and the game kinda lost me there. Usually the sillier stuff is found outside the main story and that was the point the game jumped the shark so hard that any further investment was hard to happen across.

What kills me too is the fact the game has so many long periods of nothing. Taking Haruka out on the town, buying items for people...a general lack of urgency during moments in the story that require just that. 

It all leads to an ending that is almost comedic in the amount of melodrama. The manly man fights were cool but by this point I just wanted to see how the game would end rather than cared how it concluded. 

The combat in Kiwami 2 is another downgrade from the first game, relying more on rag doll physics and blocking rather than offering a variety of combat styles to choose from. The upgrade system means you can build on your abilities and acquire new attacks and finishing moves but it's pretty unremarkable overall. You can pretty much get away with using the same combos over and over and get through the whole game.

A major upgrade from the last game is the side content. Kiwami's side stories were very cut and paste and easily skippable. Kiwami 2 has a wider variety of stories it tells with some hilarious adventures to be found if you decide to leave the main story for a bit and help Kamurocho and Sotenbori's citizens. There are even some that have actual cutscenes and feel like integral parts to understanding the characters of some of Kiryu's many friends. 

There is also a club management simulation that offers a lot of extra content and the Majima Construction tower defense-esque mini game that also provides hours of more lighthearted fun. 

And then once you finish the game there is a little Majima bonus story that gives some idea of how the character got to where he is between Kiwami and Kiwami 2 while also offering some closure from a major thread in Yakuza 0. It's a nice bit of fan service even if the actual gameplay and story are pretty weak. 

Kiwami 2 was a fun experience for the most part but I can't help feeling that it was a downgrade from the first. Because of how expansive the story was it often felt bloated rather than necessary. The combat is weaker. The side content is probably the only upgrade. I'm hoping Yakuza 3 manages to be a bit tighter and focused.

Rating: B-

Gardens of the Moon (Malazan Book 1) Review: The Start of the Best Fantasy Series You've Never Read

 

It's interesting to me that in a climate where fantasy is suddenly cool (thanks Game of Thrones, anime, and romantacy) Steven Erikson has remained under-the-radar. There's a lot of reasons why most fantasy fans haven't read The Malazan Book of the Fallen series or even heard of it and I'll get to that in a bit. But I want to preface this by saying up-front that I think Erikson deserves so much more love and credit than he's given. The Malazan series is probably one of the most detailed and thought out fantasy worlds ever put to the page. If you're a hardcore fantasy fan and you haven't at least tried Gardens of the Moon, you should do yourself a favor and give it a read. I'm not going to be mad if you don't like it. But if you do, you'll thank me. 

Gardens of the Moon is a tough book; not in a stylistic sense or even the plot necessarily. It's the fact that Erikson drops you into his world in the middle of the story. The Siege of Pale is our first real taste of what is happening in Seven Cities as the Malazan Empire is eating up continents in brutal campaigns. All of the soldiers we meet have backstories and interactions that are rarely explained and a lot of the world building simply comes from taking in the dialogue and piecing together exactly how the Bridgeburners, our main heroes, wound up where they are. 

If that isn't confusing enough the magic system is very unique and barely explained even in the dialogue. Magic comes from Warrens, which are essentially pocket dimensions that may touch each other and certainly touch the world of the story, but beyond that it is left to the reader to piece together the rules and limitations. 

So if you're a reader who has no prior knowledge of the series you may be lost within the first hundred pages. For some this is a fun challenge and makes the world even more interesting as pieces are discovered (that's how I feel). For others, it's a lot of gobbledygook that honestly carries into future books. I think it's commendable that Erikson is trying something different and I've always enjoyed the first part of this book as the open to the whole series because it's a breath of fresh air. You can argue the young Captain Paran is our avatar into the world of the Malazan military, but even then he's not the usual, plucky fantasy hero who goes out on a quest. 

On the flipside of Oponn's coin, the ambiguity can still be frustrating for someone like me who has read the book a handful of times (four or five now). There are events in this book that are still complete nonsense to me; things that are explained later but feel lacking in this first book. To be fair, this is Erikson's first book so it's to be expected it won't be as strongly constructed as later books. 

The beginning and end of the book are nonstop with action and major events. There is a bit of a slump in the middle, not helped by how many characters we are following and how some of them you won't care for as much as others. The Bridgeburners are cool as hell and all of them have great personalities and feel integral to the overall world. Some of the characters from Darujhistan are interesting but many only serve to help explore the various aspects of the city. They all get payoff in some way but characters like Coll aren't easy to invest in. It's tough to write 25 different characters and make them all appealing but Erikson still does a good job. Even if Adjunct Lorn's portions could drag, I still liked to see where it all ended up. 

Erikson's writing may be my favorite part of this novel. Because he doesn't overexplain or info-dump, the book moves at a surprisingly good pace. A lot of the novel is dialogue, so the pages can fly by when Erikson's really in his element and delivering engaging political and military back-and-forths. 

There is so much that happens in this book and so many plot threads to process -- and Erikson is only warming up to get even more difficult in how he delivers the story (trust me, I get it, this series is not for everyone). Overall, Gardens of the Moon is wholly enjoyable even at its most dull moments. Fans always say if you finish this book and enjoy it you're gonna read through the whole series and be obsessed. If you can't get past the "show don't tell" of it all, you'll probably want to bow out and find something else. 

Four or five read-throughs later, I still think Gardens of the Moon is one of my favorite and maybe the best opening chapter to a fantasy series. 

Rating: B+

Magic Knight Rayearth Review: The Forgotten 90's Isekai

 Magic Knight Rayearth (1994)

This anime review comes courtesy of RetroCrush, a free TV station that plays geriatric anime appealing to folks like myself who grew up on hand-drawn, seizure-inducing, poorly dubbed Japanese cartoons. I randomly stumbled across the channel on my new TV and wound up watching a lot of Magic Knight Rayearth, a 1994 series about a trio of Tokyo middle school girls being transported to a fantasy world.  As I was catching random episodes here and there, I decided to head to Ebay to grab the DVDs for the series and watch it start to finish. 

The first season of Magic Knight Rayearth comprises 20 episodes and is pretty straightforward, wasting no time getting right into the action. Three girls — a childish tomboy, a nerd, and a bratty rich girl — are transported to Cephiro, a fantasy world where an evil priest has enslaved the Princess who keeps the peace. Teaming up with a wizard and a handful of others, the girls must fulfill their destinies by becoming the mythical Magic Knight’s. 

To do so they go on a bunch of quests in RPG style. First they need decent weapons, then they must awaken three Rune Gods, then they are finally ready to take on the arch-villain. Each episode has the girls taking on one of a handful of sub-villains. 

It’s pretty standard fare; the fantasy world isn’t particularly interesting, the friends and foes aren’t fleshed out enough to be worth rooting or booing, and the quest itself is led by a convenient little mascot character who can do pretty much anything the plot deems necessary to move to the next bit. 

That necessity for convenience actually does mean the story moves along pretty quick and that may be one of the reasons why I enjoyed this anime so much despite how middling the story can be. 

The other reason I was engaged so heavily was the characters. Umi, Fuu and Hikaru are based on typical anime tropes but as a trio they are comfy to be around. Their insistence on friendship as magic is light-hearted and appealing to a certain age demographic but it remains endearing throughout, even if occasionally cringy. 

What I dislike most about the plot is that the action isn’t based in logic or build-up. Magic in this fantasy world comes from emotion and feeling which means if someone dies in front of you, you might have the ability decimate an entire army. As such battles usually come down to a power-up or magic attack that comes from absolutely nowhere and usually proceeds to attempt to induce a seizure in the viewer. 

Yeah, the animation is certainly dated. This is a cheap looking anime, even for the time, and the action is choppy, the characters often look goofy, and the insistence on effects to make the magic or emotions come across more strongly means you’ll have to look away from the screen on occasion. 

The sound design is perfectly serviceable. The soundtrack isn’t anything to write home about, sound effects are standard fare, and the dub (yes, I watch dubs of old anime because I grew up on this stuff and love it) is not all bad. Fuu’s voice actress is bogged down by her lines being as obvious and nerdily wordy as possible while Umi is performed by Wendee Lee early in her career. Hikaru’s VA does fine as well though it’s hard to gauge when half the dialogue is yelling, screaming, or crying. 

Magic Knight Rayearth is not a classic for a reason — it doesn’t really do anything new or well. It’s fun to watch and the twist at the end is pretty good, but you can certainly find more memorable anime elsewhere. 

Hopefully season 2 offers up something more impactful; though I want to emphasize I still enjoyed this first set of episodes despite all my problems. 

Grade: C+

Yakuza Kiwami: The Saga Begins (Review)

 Yakuza Kiwami Review

The year is 2005 and Sega America decides to go all-in on a bizarre little RPG where you play as a gangster in a fictionalized Kabukicho. They get Mark Hamill to play one of the villainous characters, do everything possible to localize the script to fit with American sensibilities of what a gangster drama should be. It will be the spiritual successor to Shenmue, a Dreamcast game that had a decent cult following. 

Yakuza released to little fanfare. Even localized, perhaps the game was just too Japanese. Or perhaps the localization made it too American. Nuance replaced by rapid fire cursing. There’s a reason the dubbed version has disappeared off the face of the Earth. 

Fast forward to 2007 and I’m a middle schooler who can only afford to buy games when they are less than ten dollars, something kids nowadays will never get to experience. Gamestop and EB Games, fine purveyors of used physical gaming, allowing cheap ass kids to use their allowance to actually own something they would play for hours on end. God I miss those days. 

Anyway I see a pretty unassuming but very badass cover — a man, back to camera, displaying his sick dragon tattoo — and decide to go for it. 

I beat it and quite enjoyed it. It made a great impression even if I didn’t understand the Japanese qualities. This was a time when anime was for weirdos and being a weeb meant being a total loser. Now the internet has made Japan a kind of Mecca of nerddom and that explains why it took a decade before the Yakuza franchise took off in the west. 

We will get to why the series saw a renaissance in the late 2010’s, but let us begin where it all began…kind of. 

Yakuza Kiwami is a remake, a reintroduction to the franchise for those who got into Yakuza 0 and wanted to go back to follow Kazuma Kiryu’s journey. 

Here we find Kazuma at his highest. Ready to start his own family within the overarching Tojo Clan, he is riding high with his childhood friends Akira Nishikiyama, and Yumi…the girl he is in love with. 

But things quickly take a turn for the worse when Yumi is taken by a family patriarch. Nishiki shoots him before Yumi can be raped and Kiryu takes the fall, spending a decade in prison and known as the guy who killed a leader in his own organization, basically patricide. 

When Kiryu gets out the year is 2005 and everything has changed. Nishiki is trying to shoulder his way into Tojo leadership despite everyone finding him weak, Yumi has died, and a little girl who is somehow connected to Yumi winds up becoming a kind of daughter figure for Kiryu. 

This story of brother versus brother, a man returning home after so long…it’s all been done before and here there are varying degrees of success. Nishiki is a pretty lame villain made even more lame by new Kiwami content that shows what a pathetic loser he really is. The true villain behind everything, who I won’t spoil, isn’t introduced until so late in the game he hardly has time to be more than a plot device. 

Despite that the story is very involving and uncovering the seedy underbelly of Kamurocho is fun. The finale is long-winded but fantastic and has a sense of Metal Gear Solid cutscenery and anime emotional overload. If nothing else, it is well worth playing Kiwami just to see through the story; even if it isn’t as well put together as later games. 

Some of the negatives of this game are very small nuisances. One of those is that Majima is shoehorned into everything possible. Having become the fan favorite character, the developers had to find more ways to involve him even though he had little to do with the story of the original game. Here he has a few more moments in the story and also can appear anywhere with the “Majima Everywhere” system. He will appear on the street as a miniboss, occasionally sneak up on you in often funny ways, and sometimes his crew will call you to meet Majima somewhere for a showdown. As you fight him you’ll gain new abilities for your Dragon style; but while there is payoff it does become a tad repetitive and annoying. 

Another nuisance is the side content. Many people will tell you that while Yakuza’s main story is great, it’s the side missions that really make the series what it is. Often goofy, these help to create a sense of Kamurocho as a character itself. 

My problem with Kiwami is that the side missions are often very dull. You bump someone and they want money for a fake broken arm. You step on their contact lens and they want money. It’s usually just some scam followed by you beating the tar out of someone and then moving on. My early ambition to do it all quickly fell away as I found every side quest to become a blur of dull dialogue. 

And the main story itself does often have some lulls in the excitement and repetition in the tasks. There’s a lot of running back and forth between each side of the map to accomplish goals. It allows time to go pocket racing (where you race miniature cars) or play mahjong or arcade games, but if you are just trying to get through the story it will become a chore. 

The combat has been revamped from the original, emulating 0 in its multiple styles and leveling system. It’s a lot of fun to play and a tad more tactical than you’d expect. You can go ham beating people over the head with everything in sight or you can throw quick punches with the Wing-Chun-esque style. Depending on the enemy you’ll want to switch styles, but it’s ultimately a more satisfying combat system than the more streamlined original game. 

Graphically Kiwami looks very good on the surface though suffers from the usual Yakuza scuff. NPCs are a fairly generic crew you’ll grow to become accustomed to, the characters often have the same animations (many carried over from 0), and the biggest miss for me is how you have to see a load screen before entering restaurants and other buildings. 

My biggest complaint as far as differences between this version and the original goes is that “Receive You” isn’t the theme. I don’t know why the song is indelibly etched in my mind (it’s on my Spotify playlist) but it slaps. Why wasn’t it brought back Sega?

Overall, Yakuza Kiwami stands as a solid remake but suffers from a handful of additions that makes the experience less organic. From the start, when you go to get the ring for Yumi, fans will immediately feel the bloat. New fans won’t notice that but I certainly did. The side content also wasn’t as strong as other games; especially the side stories. 

But ultimately if you’re looking to get invested in the story of Kiryu and Kamurocho, Yakuza Kiwami won’t disappoint. 

Rating: B