Long time readers of this website might know that I love tackling ambitious Switch ports (the so-called “impossible ports”), and that I’m a ginormous fan of the Yakuza series. Ever since playing Yakuza 0 back in 2017, I’ve experienced them all, even some Japan-exclusive imports, so the announcement of the Switch version of Yakuza Kiwami should have been a slam dunk of excitement to me. Instead, the first thing I felt upon watching that reveal trailer at a Nintendo Direct was put skepticism. I never actually thought that Yakuza (or, as we call it nowadays, Like a Dragon) was a perfect fit for the system, due to a series of reasons.

No, it has nothing to do with “mature themes”, or whatever the hell was mentioned by one of RGG Studio’s producers once. I just never thought that an ultra-immersive open world game with cinematic storytelling like Yakuza was a perfect fit for a portable with weak hardware and poor battery life. This is the kind of game whose cutscenes go on for so long, that the Switch would immediately assume that it should start considering putting itself to sleep due to player idleness. There’s also the fact that the Switch is already beyond dated in terms of hardware. But Yakuza Kiwami is, technically speaking, a PS3 game. A console like the Switch should have been able to run it flawlessly, right? Right?

Well, this port is a mixed bag, and I guess I was right to have low expectations about it. But let me start off by stating that, at the end of the day, this is still Yakuza Kiwami, and as a result, it’s an amazing experience. It might be somewhat short for Yakuza standards, but after playing the incredibly long Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, a faster paced story like the one in Kiwami nearly felt like a breath of fresh air. Straight to the point, with intense setpieces and plot twists happening every twenty minutes or so. The vast array of minigames, the incredible voice acting, the killer soundtrack, the karaoke tunes… everything is here, and it’s still amazing.

In fact, revisiting this game after seven years, with complete knowledge of what would happen in its many sequels, made me appreciate the plot even more. Not to mention the fact that, in this specific case, I love how Kiryu is the sole star of the adventure. Sure, there’s his adoptive daughter Haruka, his sworn brother Nishiki, and everybody’s favorite lunatic Majima, but this is all about Kiryu, and it’s just delightful to revisit it all. Sadly, the Switch is not the best place to revisit it.

One thing that always makes me feel a mixture of skepticism and curiosity, whenever I tackle one of these “impossible Switch ports”, is how well the game will run on ultra-dated mobile hardware. I don’t think I was supposed to worry that much, considering that Kiwami had also been released for the PS3, running at a stable 30fps there. That framerate, by and large, isn’t an issue for Yakuza games (Yakuza 6 and Kiwami 2 run at 30fps on PS4 and they are completely enjoyable). Sure, the original Yakuza Kiwami ran at a buttery smooth 60ps on PS4, and that would have been ideal, but I’m a realist. At the very least, I wanted a stable, capped 30 frames per second.

Apparently, that was too much to ask for. This Switch version of Yakuza Kiwami cannot hold a steady 30fps during some of its most important moments. There are constant framerate hiccups during combat sections, especially during those intense gauntlets where you have to fight half a dozen schmucks at once. As a result, the combat, whilst still very fun, just doesn’t feel as responsive and fluid as it should. It’s hard not to constantly compare the Switch port with the PS4 one, especially when the latter is cheaper.

Furthermore, the framerate suffers a lot whenever you explore Kamurocho at nighttime. The Theater Square, in particular, is a place I’ve noticed some severe performance drops. In short, whenever there’s too much stuff onscreen, the framerate might suffer a bit. If you know anything about Yakuza, or even Japan in general, is that the entire city of Tokyo is a big fat visual pollution, with all those neon signs and ten quadrillion people walking on the street.

Then there’s the issue regarding the Switch’s portable nature. Simply put, an overly cinematic game like Yakuza Kiwami, whose cutscenes can go on for dozens of minutes a time, isn’t the best fit for a portable meant for constant gameplay, with poor battery life. I constantly noticed the screen’s brightness diminishing during these cutscenes, as it just assumed the console was idle; the Switch can’t recognize the fact a cinematic cutscene is being played, so it just assumes you aren’t even looking at the screen. Meanwhile, the battery gets drained pretty quickly, as I can only assume that rendering the entirety of Kamurocho at once takes too much of a toll on the system’s CPU.

The solution, in this case, would be by playing the game on docked mode, but that would only mean you’re playing a worse version of the original Yakuza Kiwami. Is that really worth it? The appeal of this port (not that I agree with it) is being able to play a Yakuza game on-the-go, for the first time since the PSP days. As a result, this is just recommended for series veterans, as this shouldn’t be your first rodeo with the franchise. Especially since you should absolutely start off with Yakuza 0, not Kiwami. At first, I thought it was quite weird for Sega to have Kiwami be the series’ debut on Switch, but given how the shortest mainline game in the franchise (aside from last year’s Gaiden) struggles on the system, a game twice as big and complex would have had even bigger troubles during the porting process.

Don’t get me wrong; at the end of the day, this is still Yakuza Kiwami, and that means you can have a lot of fun with. I loved revisiting it, for instance. The great writing, characters, music, everything is here. But the Switch just isn’t the best place to enjoy this kind of game. From the unstable framerate to the short battery life, this immersive narrative brawler needs to be enjoyed on a big screen, with great visuals and framerate. Which you can do, if you play it on a PS4, PS5, or Xbox. As it stands, this Switch port is only recommended to die-hard fans of the franchise wanting to experience the game in a novel way. If this is your first rodeo with Yakuza, then play Kiwami elsewhere.

Graphics: 6.5 Yakuza Kiwami had to suffer some downgrades in order to run on the Switch, resulting in a nasty resolution reduction. The framerate is even less consistent than the original PS3 version, which is a shame.	Gameplay: 7.0 The poor framerate negatively impacts the game’s excellent combat system. Exploring Kamurocho also feels a bit more annoying due to these framerate issues.
Sound: 9.0 Just a tad bit more compressed than the PS4 version of Yakuza Kiwami, but still great. Excellent voice acting, music, and of course, the karaoke tunes.	Fun Factor: 7.0 This is still the same excellent remake of the game that started this juggernaut of a franchise, but the Switch just isn’t a suitable platform for such a game.
Final Verdict: 7.0

Yakuza Kiwami is available now on PS3, PS4, Xbox One, PC and Switch.

Reviewed on Switch.

A copy of Yakuza Kiwami was provided by the publisher.