So I’ve burned a couple of hours into Kiwami and have some thoughts about it.
I think going from 0 to kiwami actually works well. The relationships with reina and Nishiki are already established, so his heel turn hits harder. Of course, he tried to shoot you in the Head in 0, so I guess you shouldn’t be surprised.
It’s weird to me that Yumi wasn’t really in 0. She is sort of like Kiryu’s sister, but just sort of “appears” when he’s clearly been close to Nishiki for a minute.
I still don’t like Kiwami Majima as much as lord of the night Majima.
No one seems to age in this game. 0 takes place in the 80s, Kiwami starts in 95, then kiryu goes to jail for 10 years, so there is like 15-20 years between games and all the characters look the same. Like shouldn’t the head Shimano dude be mad old? And Dojima too. And Kiryu should easily be in like his 40s. It’s just weird choices. Kiryu looks somewhat older, as does Kazama, but Dojima and Shimano look the same even though they should probably be in their 60s.
Overall the game is also way less janky than I expected. Since it had origins on ps2, I expected it to feel more “dated”, but honestly it just feels like more 0.