I really liked this game. The graphics are great, I really enjoyed the cut scenes and seeing some familiar faces. The story is great and has some cool plot twists. Side quests are fun, mini games are chill too. I think this game gets a lot of hate and I can see that 100% completing this game is a nightmare. Also finishing last chapter on legend difficulty was very challenging.
The combat is a meh. The brawler is horrible, not sure why it’s in the game.

Overall good game and it’s pretty cheap on sale.

I'm gonna be honest. This is a horrible remake of a good game.
Ishin has some design choices that make people have vast opinions on it, stuff like friendship quests with boring objectives, the way the combat is stiffer like the older games or the story being based off japanese history which some people don't care about.
I'm one of the few people who liked those parts of ishin anyway....
Though when i say "like" i mean the original ishin, not whatever this ""remake"" is.
If you are someone who hasn't played the original ishin or just a newcomer to the series, you might end up liking ishin kiwami.
However as someone who's played the original i can easily point out some heavy flaws that make the remake considerably worse in most aspects:
Nearly every single boss in the game got some sort of change that decreased or outright prevented the chance of them getting knocked down, ruining certain combos from the original.

Unreal engine seems to have nerfed the grabs, certain bosses slide off while the others are outright ungrabable in kiwami for no reason.

Back blows don't stun bosses as much anymore, they can randomly gain super armor and just ignore your attacks. Ask any no damage youtuber and they will say that og ishin has kiwami beat in every aspect combat wise.

Combat wise it seems they rebalanced the styles, and by rebalance i mean they nerfed the worst style (brawler) from original ishin and made it even worse, while gunner and wild dancer remain kings.

Brawler tanimura parry buff (maxed, gives you combo speed and makes attacks bounce off you.) lasted 9 seconds in ishin and only 3.54 in ishin kiwami for some reason??

Even worse is they nerfed brawlers damage to the point where it only exists for certain heat actions, like imagine maxed brawler tiger drop dealing less damage than 2 sword swings?

Certain bosses outright don't do their full combo due to the unreal engine breaking the ai, a certain tutorial boss for example is a joke (beginning boss is meant to have long combos suprisingly ) but him and his grunts just do like 2 swings and cancel it for no reason.

THEY REPLACED A UNIQUE BOSS THEME WITH TOWN BULLY FROM YAKUZA 6 (this happened since they mixed up the ultimate battle and story folder, so it plays in ultimate battles instead of the story part it's meant to play in like wtf.)

on the topic of ultimate battles, og ishin made bosses use their qtes during em, ishin kiwami just makes them go into heat mode and use their ♥♥♥♥♥♥ superpowers. (Which i hate very much since they ruin the mood and are very boring to play against, like imagine having a serious sword fight only for the guy to kamehameha you.)

Small gripe, but ultimate battles don't have a pause at the start so enemies can hit you while the ultimate battle is still fading in.

Og ishin has a boss who can throw projectiles (won't spoil) he doesn't spam it too much and uses his melee after hitting you (which stuns you) or missing (his moves are dependant on that),
Kiwami broke that and he just spams projectiles half the time lol!(his ♥♥♥♥♥♥ magic is also a projectile lol, the follow up attack he does after stunning you with a projectile is broken and only works half the time, since unreal can make it randomly miss.)

(In og ishin the follow up attack had a green flash because his aura was a unique green, kiwami changed it to orange but the flash is still green because the interns making ishin kiwami ported it and didn't realize that).

The giant enemies are spammed everywhere in kiwami, they are unstunnable and can't be heat actioned, truly so "fun" to fight against unless you cheese them.

AMON got nerfed. he went from one of the hardest ones in the series to kinda being slightly wimpy since his sword got nerfed and his moveset isn't as fancy. OH and you can stun lock him with certain swords if you want (cough lightning).

Graphically: The game was made on Unreal Engine (which makes it a stuttering mess) to make it look more beautiful than original ishin, which is ironic since the game looks like a blurry unfocused mess (where characters look like they are wet and covered in oil) compared to the original ishin, the only positive is that the night lightning looks beautiful but that's about it.

Certain fights have their atmosphere kinda bugged or ruined: a certain fight happens in a steamy sauna and the steam is horribly rendered compared to the original. A certain boss arena has this beautiful atmospheric moonrising overlooking it, kiwami ruins it and dependant on your luck, the moon either doesn't appear or is not correctly shown in the phase transition cutscene due to them incorrectly placing the camera.

Another small gripe but a certain boss in og had a badass intro where the music started playing after his name title pops up, kiwami screwed up and the music starts playing before the title even fades in.

Certain facial animations for characters are just horrible due to model swaps (yakuza 6, 0 and 7 characters stick out sometimes due to the obvious port).

a certain VERY IMPORTANT boss (AGAIN NO SPOILERS) has way worse line delivery in kiwami, they also use his incorrect costume for some reason? Good old recasts.

Very minor gripe: They removed a cool post credit scene where ryomas statue is shown (based off the real one.) (Though i understand this since the voice actor in that scene has passed away).

The Ishin completion list is notorious for being very grindy, and thankfully... Ishin Kiwami made the grind even worse :D.

Grind was increased: chicken racing exploit patched, blacksmith is worse ( Requires Rng), the game is designed to be played with the cards and your damage is low if you don't use them, even with a heavily maxed sword (unless you use a certain overpowered seal that requires virtue). They totally didn't increase the grind so they could sell you the paid dlc (exp and crafting packs????). Sega would never do that......

Ishin Kiwami obviously has new voice acting, for the most part it's great, but i do love the instances where you literally hear nothing because the voice actor talked quietly, or you hear the mic peaking into your ear, utterly ruining the serious scene.

I have more complaints but i genuinely have to write them down somewhere so i don't forget.

All in all.
I hope emulating stops being buggy and the ishin translation project discord completes it's job so more people can emulate the superior ishin.

They really should have just localized it and then just ported it without any of this padding.

I feel really bad for the interns or b team that had to port this game on unreal.

if they remake kenzan and ruin it i will cry.

This is probably the second worst yakuza game. It's a mediocre experience that reuses plot points and game mechanics from the mainline games. I only recommend this for someone who wants to play all the yakuza games. (6.5/10)

They recast baba

i Have played chapter 6 , it s really good game . good story best than the last story . Many funny mini games ( not new but fun ) battle good enough for play . i think every of small thing is 6- 7,5/10 and total point i think it 8,2/10 .

Fire game

SO SO SO GOOD. 10000000/10

its yakuza, but with sword and gun play. what more could you want!?

Good game Saityoma

story is great but the gameplay is not amazing (gunman and brawler are ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥), with lots of tedium and bloat in upgrading styles and equipment. Lazy port to unity with many bugs this long after launch.