I like how the swearing in yakuza 1 was supposed to make the characters intimidating but ended up being funny and the 10 years in the joint meme was born 😂

"why remake a game if you're going to remove entire areas?"
OH NO

I'm pretty sure the homeless man from 1 isn't Akiyama, as many people went to gather money after the explosion. Sure it'd have been a nice detail but you also see this man in the first cutscene of the game, meaning he's a specific background character from 1

Another note about the misplaced music; in Yakuza 1 the original game synced it's music outside of just title cards. For example when Nishiki and Kiryu open their eyes to each other the piano is timed. (Which is replaced by a sound effect in the remake) That but some boss fights like Shimano (Second bossfight) the music would change depending how much health he had left.

I now understand why they never include Akiyama in the ending cutscene, rrg did not plan to make K4 so akiyama doesnt exist in the kiwami verse

In regards to the lacking quality of the Kiwami games, it seems they follow a similar pattern: They were all developed by the new blood in RGG.

When I find it, I'll link below the interview where one of the devs (probably Yokoyama) explained that they leave some of their projects in the hands of new employees so they can acquire experience (this was specifically the case for Ishin Kiwami because they wanted the new guys to learn to use the Unreal Engine).

I think it's safe to assume that all 3 of the Kiwamis were budget projects not just because of lacking budgets, but moreso because of their purpose as "training grounds" for RGG.

one thing: kiwami 2 does NOT reflect the state of club sega in 2006, with the sega toylet and posters from games after 2006

Like the Resident Evil 5 green filter I never noticed it in re5 and Kiwami 2 until someone pointed it out.

Yeah... About that Kiwami 3, i have bad news

If only RGG and SEGA would release the remasters of the first 2 games outside of Japan...

And then we have Kiwami 3 and some of the changes.... oh boi 🤣

Honestly, the thing that really annoyed me in Yakuza Kiwami was the amount of reused movesets littered EVERYWHERE, it gets really annoying when you're fighting a boss with an unoriginal moveset.
I don't feel like paying for a game if all I'm getting is bosses with reused movesets from other games.

MASSIVE SPOILER WARNING AHEAD:

E.x. Yuya has Ricky Mask's moveset, Hayashi has Baba's moveset with Shibusawa's chair attacks (he has an unused moveset in the files apparently but it's just Shibusawa's Beast style), B-King has Shinada's unarmed moveset but bugged, Asai from the Atobe Family has Kiryu's knife moveset, Shotaro has Kanai's knife moveset, some random dude in Chapter 7 has Joji's moveset, Aota has some weird mix of Shinada, Majima, Nishitani and Baba moves, Shiraki has Rikiya's moveset, the older Akai brother has Majima's Breaker style, Shindo has Izo's moveset from Ishin, Jingu is some weird mix of Tamashiro and Baba's moves, etc.

Forgot to mention majima was playable in deadsouls

Kiwami 3:"Hi, everyone."

Yakuza 1 restored is my favourite way to revisit 1. Kiwami isnt bad, but I personally just love PS2 era games. I just wish the PS2 games were ported to modern systems and PC. Going from 0-Kiwami-Kiwami 2-3 is also just strange for new players, especially since I think release order is the best way to play the series.

The part with Akiyama at the end of Kiwami, I think theres just multiple homeless people that got lucky that day.

The best thing about KIWAMI 2 is that it allowed the creation of The Silly Mod

fun fact: there's not a single unique moveset in kiwami 1. i've been trying moveset modding and i've been identifying many movesets taken from other games (i.e. ishin's izo moveset is used for koji shindo's moveset, part of daigo's moveset is used for some minibosses, akiyama's moveset is used for a coliseum fighter)

green is my favorite color :(