Yakuza Kiwami 2: Hostess Club Tips and Winning the Cabaret

Just beat Kiwami 2 about a week ago. Listening to SiM (the guys who wrote the credits song and perfect song to get stabbed to), and absolutely freaking love the band. The game itself was very different. I personally played Kiwami 1, then 0, then got Kiwami 2. Played it for a week, then had to take a break because I felt a bit overwhelmed from the sheer amount of things to do. And my boyfriend who bought it for me on our anniversary and I were having some troubles, so it was emotionally taxing to play it. Came back about a month afterwards, and boom, here's my review.
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I loved the gameplay, I loved the experience system, I loved the story. And yes, I did cry because of Kiwami 2, I don't regret it. It has difficult moments, it has amazing heartfelt moments, and it overall is a fun ride.
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Did I personally enjoy it as much as Kiwami 1 or 0? Nope. But that's mainly because the gameplay got really repetitive, and didn't feel as satisfying as those two games. I much prefer the switching styles system, and nothing is ever going to be as fun as playing Majima in 0. Even though there is a short side story with Majima in Kiwami 2, it doesn't feel nearly as fun or satisfying. Everything feels a lot heavier and crunchier, which is really fun for a while. Until you get tired of decimating people's faces with heat moves, and then watching their ragdolls freak out. And maybe it was just me, but it does not consistently run at 30 FPS. On my standard PS4, it was chugging harder than a steam engine almost every time I loaded into a new area or booted up the game.
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But that's another thing, there's a LOT less loading. The new "Dragon Engine" loads in the buildings when you load into the game. So Kiryu swings open a door, and you can freely step in and out. No annoying load times to buy more Staminan Royales.
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On the subject of Staminan Royales, the inventory system is very different. You can carry as many items as you want, with a limit of ten on each item. And then weapons and equipment have their own tabs. And you can freely pick up weapons you find during fights! Which was one of my big mistakes. I played it like I did 1 or 0. I thought weapons were a rarity to be cherished, because they would cost sweet sweet money to repair. I was very wrong. Almost every weapon you can find in multiple places, so you have every reason to go ahead and crack some heads with them. There are some special weapons that cost a lot of money though, and I still barely use those. Because every single hit feels like a few hundred thousand yen down the drain.
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Oh yeah, money. Money is always a big part of the Yakuza games I've played. Y0 is all about money. For your items, your upgrades, money is huge. In Kiwami 1 money is a decent bit harder to come by, and you're gonna need it for those healing items. If you're playing on hard, which I always do. Kiwami 2 does it a bit differently. In Kiwami 1, the most I had was maybe 350,000 yen at one time. And then in Kiwami 2 I was casually walking around with millions. And I only realized why that was, AFTER I beat the main story.
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Oh yeah baby, cabaret clubs and Majima Construction!!! Actually, no, I can't talk about it. I blew all my money on special items and put the rest into Majima Construction. I'm only on the fourth mission. And I only opened the cabaret club once, when you're forced to because story. Boy howdy, I was not ready for a pretty okay RTS game, and replaying the same minigame from Yakuza 0 where I would put on a video in the background, press a couple buttons every now and then, and set my controller in my lap because I just wanted Majima's legend style. I don't personally understand why people praise these so much. Maybe because "OH my GOD, I can break away from the repetition of the same two combos and button mushing of Ultra Super Mega Heat Gauge!"
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So now, let's talk about the big one! The one that really pushed me to beat the game! The story talk is here ladies, gentlemen, and other folks like me who don't conform. Boy, wow, okay. It made me very emotional, I cried and had to hug my mother afterwards, and I ranted to my boyfriend for a couple hours. The story is something else. I personally don't think it's as interesting, entertaining, or as good as the story of Y0. But it got in the area. I'm not going to explain the story, because I feel like saying literally anything from even the prologue is too much for any new players. Just know, it does character development well. It has plot twists that are well built upon, and make total sense, but are still surprising! And it all wraps up very, VERY nicely. You will not be disappointed with the story. Like I've said, it made me an emotional train wreck for a few hours afterwards. I was not the same emotional train wreck that I was when I finished Y0 however, that game made me cry like five different times, and I can't even begin to describe all the things I felt. I don't feel the same things as cheering Majima and Kiryu on in the final segments, and feeling all the crushing grief and pain of their losses. And that is really sad, when Y0 is a prequel that has me feeling more scared for my characters than any of the sequels. Because yeah, there are seven main series games. You know certain characters are going to be okay no matter what, so you never feel any danger. But Kiwami 2 managed to make me feel that throughout. Just not as much as Y0 did. In Y0, I was constantly asking myself "How are they gonna get outta this one?" Or "How does this all wrap up?" Even smaller things like "How does Majima end up as the Mad Dog," or "How does Kiryu end up as the Dragon of Dojima?" I had so many questions, I was constantly at the edge of my seat, I was so tense the entire time. Kiwami 2 didn't quite have that effect on me, but it was almost there.
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Overall, my opinion of Kiwami 2 is... It's a great game, but it has issues that I personally can't ignore. It's much more challenging than the two entries before it, but I feel like that's mostly because of small artificial things. Being stuck in a ragdoll animation for too long, an enemy being stuck on pulling out a weapon so Kiryu can't combo them, and the painful repetition that made me give up on any side content so I could just finish the dang story. I personally have to say that the story saves this game from being one of my "Most disappointing sequels ever" games. I remember very vividly talking to Dylan, my partner, about how much I loved it when I first started it. I remember saying things like "This gameplay feels great!" and "Wow, the game looks and feels so smooth!" And by the end, Kiryu's face had me thoroughly disturbed because he kinda looks like an alien, the gameplay had me frustrated because I felt no reason to vary what I was doing, and there was hardly a way to vary anything! That's mostly my fault for not realizing how important weapons are though. Kiwami 2 still means a lot to me though. There are romantic plot points that made me feel all warm and fuzzy, and other parts had me heartbroken. Sometimes the gameplay made me feel like a world class martial artist, other times I felt like I was playing a bad clearance bin game. The substories were sometimes really wonderful and charming, other times you have the baby one. Oh God, please not the babies!
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Do I recommend this one? Definitely. I plan on playing through the rest of the series too, because I want to see where they take the story, and all of the characters. And I'm hoping I get to have a great time cracking skulls, and jamming out to some fine tunes like "Reign," or any fight song from all of the games I've played so far. I just can't say that I loved Kiwami 2 nearly as much as Y0. Probably above Kiwami 1 though, even if I prefer Kiwami 1's gameplay.
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Sorry, quick edit, I know I said I loved the gameplay and then proceeded to dog on it the entire post. I really did enjoy the gameplay, for the first sixteen hours or so. The next eight weren't miserable, but I leveled myself up so much that the only way I was getting hurt was through cheesy bullshit that made me really upset. And that was completely my fault, but even when I leveled up a ton in Y0 and Kiwami 1, I still felt challenged and had a good time. Nothing felt downright insulting in 0 and 1. But 2 had some spicy, SPICY moments where I almost put down the controller. I was just frustrated. I never died in the main game, the only time I died was in the Majima Saga. But there was some serious bullshittery happening at points, and from the already repetitive gameplay, I was just so done with it by the end. The only thing that kept me going by the end was seeing the absolutely crazy and fun story unfold and wrap up, and the increasingly insane fights. I'd say that maybe two chapters before the game ended, I was completely done with the gameplay. But those last two chapters are pretty much perfect, high quality action game material.
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Alright, I'm gonna go pass out now, it's three AM.