“Real men ought to be a little stupid.”

Positive masculine role models within video games can be surprisingly hard to find. Male figures who can be emotionally vulnerable as well as tough and rugged are still relatively rare within mainstream video games. Most video games tend to opt for “tough and rugged”, particularly when contemplating the games from earlier console generations. Yakuza 2 (and by extension, Yakuza Kiwami 2, the game’s remake), illustrates to some degree the futility of pride and the indomitable nature historically demanded of men. In doing so, it constructs a much more thoughtful picture of masculinity, that many other games never achieve.

In Yakuza 2, the protagonist Kazuma Kiryu is a man broken by the various tragedies of the previous game. He suffers from an intense survivor’s guilt that consumes him from time to time, and comes to regret many of his decisions. His stint as the “Dragon of Dojima”, while infamous, feels to him at times more like a burden than something to be totally proud of. In other words – this is a man trying to leave his past behind.

But, of course, one’s past is never that easy to escape from, and Kiryu finds himself once again embroiled in a violent journey through the Japanese underworld, filled with what seems like on the surface silly diversions and chest-thumping machismo. But, beneath that, there is a bravery evident in the game’s storytelling. The main female character in the game has a strong character arc (even if she does become a bit weaker and more vulnerable as the game goes on), and she watches in horror essentially as men all around her perform self-destructive acts.

The game’s combat in Kiwami 2 is built on the Dragon Engine, which I understand is what they used for Yakuza 6. Coming into it from Yakuza Kiwami and 0 can be a bit strange, given the drastic difference in combat styles (reducing from four styles just down to one), and the new physics take some getting used to, to say the least. But by the end of the game, everything was flowing just as well as it was before – it was just something that needed adjusting to. I can’t say I enjoyed it as much as 0 and Kiwami, given how much I relished the strategic side of switching styles and changing tactics based on who I was facing and where – but Kiwami 2’s blows still landed just as hard, to say the least.

That initial association I drew between Yakuza and some of the action movies I watched when I was younger (see: Commando) still holds water, I think. Beneath the things we see on the surface – rippling biceps, legions of bad guys to dispatch, fantastic, staunch monologues – there are things that allow us to see beneath these character’s need for constant masculinity – at the very least, they are allowed to vulnerable in unexpected ways. When Kiryu lights a cigarette and dwells by the river in the rain, there is an unspoken bond formed between him and us; we are privy to a moment of intimacy for the character, and in doing so, we are joined together, made to feel sympathy for his plight.

The game is still stuffed to the gills with things to do. I’m doing my very damnedest to 100% complete it (I’m planning on going back to Kiwami to do that later, given it’s a bit harder than Kiwami 2), but I’ve already managed to get another fifty or so hours out of Kiwami 2. If you’re looking for games that are good value for money, it seems pretty hard to beat the Yakuza series. There’s golf, karaoke, batting, (sadly no disco dancing), cabaret club management, a real-time strategy defense minigame for some reason, a fleet of combat challenges (the list seems unending at times), darts, Virtua Fighter…

Actually, it was when I was playing Virtua Fighter within Yakuza Kiwami 2 that I thought to myself, I love video games. Just really, purely, simply; Kiwami 2 fostered that thought in me. There’s a lot of silliness, and it’s easy to see the game only for the memes that it spawned. Speaking as someone who didn’t know anything about the series, even slightly, when I started, I think I can still say that you’ll discover the hidden depths of the game to be beautiful and inspiring in their simplicity. Yakuza Kiwami 2 can inspire the simple joy of walking the streets of one’s town that they are intimately familiar with – or, conversely, the feeling of the unknown that one gets when experiencing a place for the first time, or for the first time in a while. Placing fresh eyes on the Sotenbori area, for instance, was just nice. It’s just a nice experience, from top to bottom – if you want brawling, you’ve got that. If you want a simulation of two areas of Japan, it functions quite well as one. If you want a touching story about two men who lean towards self-destruction, this game provides it in spades.

I am still in awe of how the series’ trademark storytelling can veer from entirely humorous in one moment to gutwrenchingly epic in the next, then to induce tears just minutes later. You fight some truly insane enemies in some crazy setpieces – without spoilers, wild animals are involved in one, and instead of a shootout on the highway, you have to board enemy trucks and fight hordes of gang members as they pile out of shipping containers. You toss people onto the highway and watch them sail off into the distance – I’m sure they’re fine.

But it all speaks to me about the joy of several of my favourite things – classic action / crime drama movies and fighting games – that combine with some of my other favourite things, that might initially seem to oppose the first – the sense of exploring a place worth spending time in, of slowing down, and telling a very human story – these games seem so far to consistently provide that exact experience.

It is weird to think that I already consider myself to be missing the earlier games in the series, but I will turn back and think fondly of my time with Kiwami 2 as well, in turn. Each game passes by, each game a solid chapter in the world that these games present – and each one feels different in small, important ways. Kiwami 2 is the easiest game so far, providing you’re playing them in chronological order like I am, but that’s not a bad thing either. Kiryu is older, more experienced – but in a way, he’s going through the motions, wondering what it takes to survive in a world that he has tried to escape from several times already.

Kiwami 2 is a fantastic game that, like the rest of the series so far, simply begs to be played in full, to be understood as a holistic thing, rather than “just” a linear game narrative or “just” a silly karaoke simulator. There is more beneath the surface, human feeling that can only be understood and appreciated in full. The game does that remarkable thing in becoming more than the sum of its parts – it is a game of such simple, luxurious fun (as enemies sail dramatically through the air and rival gang bosses step up to fight with incredible soundtracks backing their advance) that it will inevitably surprise you when yet another new fun thing is revealed just around the corner. It is a well of endless depth, to me – and I don’t think, at this stage anyway, that I will ever tire of these games. At the very least, I can see myself returning in time to the ones I’ve already played. Kiwami 2 will be no exception. While the story isn’t quite as good as the first game’s, and definitely not as good as 0‘s, there are still moments of such power that I can’t help but reflect on them, time and again, even tens of hours after the story finished. There is just such strength within these bones.

The quote at the top of the article there has some truth to it. Putting aside the idea of a “real man”, and the toxic form that masculinity can take when we strive to attain a single perfect version of it, human beings are better at times when we act with our hearts and not just our heads. When we do good things for the sake of them being good, rather than some invisible moral calculus. The characters within Yakuza may do horrible things, and a few may meet unjust fates – but in the end, it seems to be that the best characters live by this ethos. Be a little stupid. Live for human sensation, not power. Live for the feeling of wandering the streets, not merely to become more powerful. Live life to the fullest – that is, as hokey as it may sound, the true power offered by the Yakuza games and the creed they espouse. Don’t stand idly by in the face of evil – punch its sorry face instead, then go and play some Virtua Fighter. You’ve earned it.