Yakuza Kiwami 2 Is Coming To The West

Sega has plans on bringing the beat-'em-up game Yakuza Kiwami 2 to the West for PlayStation 4 games later this year. The game originally came out in Japan not too long ago and now it's going through the painstaking localization process so it'll be ready for release later this year for Western gamers.

Polygon is reporting that Yakuza Kiwami 2, which is a complete remake of the original Yakuza 2 that came out back in 2006 for the PS2 and PS3, will see the light of day on the PlayStation 4 for the first time starting August 28th, 2018.

Yakuza Kiwami 2 originally came out in Japan in December of 2017. The game also launched along with Yakuza 6, which came out in last December as well. The sixth numerically canonical game in the series will also make its debut in the West starting this April, and will feature the further exploits of Kazuma Kiryu as he navigates the complicated and sometimes goofy life of a Yakuza in Japan.

In the original game the story was set back in the 1980s, featuring the lead character of the Yakuza series, Kazuma Kiryu. Things start to get hairy for the former Yakuza member when a Korean mob boss is killed by Kiryu' foster father and things continue to break down from there. Inter-gang politics results in Kiryu getting caught up in the middle. Kiryu eventually has to take on the Korean mafia while dealing with the remnants of rival gangs in the Yakuza.

The Yakuza games are known for their beat-'em-up style gameplay, which centers around players talking with NPCs and then getting involved with gang fights. The fighting system is not unlike standard 3D beat-'em-up games like The Warriors, including having the added bonus of using weapons and environmental objects to beat people up.

The Yakuza Kiwami series is a complete remake of the Yakuza games. The first Yakuza Kiwami came out back in 2016 for the PlayStation 4, centering around a complete remake of the original Yakuza game from more than a decade ago when it released in 2005 for the PlayStation 2.

The game has been picking up a fan base ever since its release, and the hype for the series reached fever pitch in the West, so Sega decided to finally release the games with proper localization in the West for the eighth generation of gamers. Last year the West received Yakuza Kiwami for the PS4 during the spring.

This year gamers will finally be able to play the remake of Yakuza 2 with the release of Yakuza Kiwami 2 later this year for the PS4. If you missed out on the game when the original series was available on the PS2 and PS3, you'll be able to play the remake starting this August.

If the series continues to skyrocket in popularity then we'll likely continue to see more of the Yakuza games making their way to the West. Fans of the series will get two games this year, with the release of Yakuza 6 coming out this April and Yakuza Kiwami 2 coming out this August.