Latest / Replay Reviews / Flying Forks & A B*tch Slap - Yakuza Kiwami - Part 1

Transcript

Flying Forks & A B*tch Slap - Yakuza Kiwami - Part 1 · Replay Reviews

• 0:00
  In this episode, Kiryu gets in a fork fight. He's also mistaken for a pervert and gets called a marshmallow.
• 0:07
  And Kiryu and Majima play a game of chicken.
• 0:10
  Why is it difficult to imagine Kiryu as a marshmallow, but also-
• 0:16
  Wait, wait, sorry, why'd you lead with a marshmallow?
• 0:19
  I'm laughing because of the slight pause.
• 0:23
  I'm just picturing how could Kiryu be mistaken for, and I was expecting you to say a pervert,
• 0:28
  and I was getting my response ready to say, I know, because he's just so nice and good,
• 0:34
  but no, you led with a marshmallow.
• 0:37
  I feel like if anyone- it would probably be Majima who gets mistaken as the pervert,
• 0:42
  and possibly a marshmallow, not Kiryu, so you haven't met him yet, but Daigo's definitely the marshmallow.
• 0:52
  Thank you for coming back from our replay reviews. My name is Leah.
• 0:55
  And my name is Kathy.
• 0:57
  We are two friends who are here to replay, review, and analyze your favorite video games.
• 1:01
  And since Kathy has never seen the games before, it helps me view them through her fresh eyes,
• 1:06
  almost like I'm discovering them again for the first time.
• 1:08
  We hope it'll be a similar experience for you.
• 1:18
  So if you follow our Instagram or our YouTube channel, you might have noticed a little something
• 1:23
  hidden in the thumbnail, and we're gonna have a little game in our thumbnails.
• 1:28
  A Majima Everywhere game.
• 1:30
  A Find Majima game.
• 1:32
  Yes, exactly. Can you find them?
• 1:33
  It'll get progressively more difficult in each thumbnail.
• 1:37
  Maybe there'll be a prize.
• 1:38
  Let us know either on our Instagram or contact us through our website.
• 1:43
  If you can find Majima in thumbnails.
• 1:46
  This week is- it's pretty easy, but it will get harder.
• 1:49
  We'll see how good I am at editing, though.
• 1:50
  All right, Kathy. We're back to Yakuza. We're doing Yakuza Kiwami.
• 1:56
  I'm so excited.
• 1:58
  So it's October 1st, 1995, and we see Dojima dead on the floor, and Kiryu standing over him holding a gun.
• 2:05
  So it looks pretty self-explanatory and pretty bad.
• 2:10
  Kiryu then picks up a ring that has Yumi engraved on the inside.
• 2:14
  So my first question for you was, did you remember that name from Yakuza Zero?
• 2:18
  It sounded familiar, but I don't think I remember it, and it's been like a whole year.
• 2:24
  So I didn't remember that part, and I thought that guy looked awfully familiar.
• 2:32
  I'm sorry. I'm just thinking about your fish comment.
• 2:35
  And yes, I want to add that Dojima looks like what you expect a fish that is belly up dead with his eyes kind of exploding out.
• 2:45
  The cops then arrive, and that's all we see. And then we flash to the previous day.
• 2:51
  Kiryu and Shinji, his right-hand man, had to Sky Finance to collect what they owe them.
• 2:57
  So when they're in Sky Finance trying to get this guy to pay up, he has a line.
• 3:02
  He says, isn't the Dojima family known for resorting to murder during collections?
• 3:08
  Do you think this is a reference to the murder in the empty lot from Y Zero?
• 3:12
  I thought so too, and I thought there's just too many parallels of a full circle going back to the opening scene, someone's getting beaten up.
• 3:21
  It's just too much of a coincidence for him to be making this comment and not be referencing that opening scene.
• 3:27
  I think it's a reference too, but Shinji sort of plays it off.
• 3:31
  And then a scuffle breaks out, but afterwards Shinji mentions that the rumor is Kiryu will have his own family soon.
• 3:40
  He's moving up.
• 3:41
  He is no surprise there. He has proven himself to be capable, and the fact that he was even to prove himself innocent also goes to show he's very capable and therefore deserving of his own family.
• 3:55
  Kiryu heads to Serena to meet Nishiki, but on the way he bumps into some- well, some guy bumps into him.
• 4:02
  I feel like if you're leaving the side street, whether you're in a car or on your feet, it's your job to look both ways if you go onto the main path.
• 4:12
  If you bump into someone, don't blame them. You didn't look both ways, friend. That's on you.
• 4:18
  But no, he picks a fight, blames Kiryu, and then we soon learn that this guy is part of the Majima family when Majima himself shows up.
• 4:25
  Now captain of the Shimuno family and patriarch of the Majima family, Majima talks to Kiryu a bit.
• 4:31
  And makes it sound like Kiryu has a thing with someone who works at Serena, so we'll follow up on that later.
• 4:39
  He also wants to punish this guy for attacking Kiryu and smacks him with an umbrella, but Kiryu stops him from getting even more violent.
• 4:47
  So there is one thing is that I don't remember Majima being that violent.
• 4:53
  If anything, I feel like Yakuza Zero Majima was the real marshmallow, not current day Kiryu.
• 5:01
  And maybe it's because he doesn't have a coat by his side anymore to have a positive influence.
• 5:07
  Look, he's still a marshmallow. He's just a marshmallow that's been left out on the counter a little too long.
• 5:15
  A stale marshmallow?
• 5:17
  He's got a rind on him now. He's got a crusty outer rind on him now.
• 5:21
  He's a softie on the inside.
• 5:25
  But I agree with you. It's a bit jarring from the Majima we left. It kind of leaves you wondering what are his motives.
• 5:33
  Whose side is he on? Because he's still a Shimuno.
• 5:35
  The other thing is that isn't it funny how Kiryu isn't fighting back against Majima?
• 5:41
  So another parallel is the opening scene of Majima.
• 5:45
  And I understand that at that time he just needed the money to get back out there.
• 5:51
  He didn't fight against the guy. If anything, he was just apologizing.
• 5:55
  He did dodge all the blows so it wasn't like he was standing there taking it.
• 5:59
  But in any case, it's another parallel between Kiryu and Majima.
• 6:05
  So let's remember in Majima's introduction, if we're going on building off this parallel thing, he was in his gilded cage.
• 6:15
  So he had to hold back. He still found a way to sort of... it's not necessarily a workaround, but he still owned that guy.
• 6:23
  You know what I mean? Whereas Kiryu's literally just sitting here taking it.
• 6:29
  Majima gets mad when Kiryu says, I'm going to do things my own way, the right way.
• 6:33
  He's a little bit offended by that and starts whacking him with the umbrella.
• 6:37
  He's made a point. This is a new style, new outfit and everything where we picked off from Yakuza Zero.
• 6:43
  And that's why he's not going to pick a fight. He's going to let Majima, I guess, try to...
• 6:53
  Is he just going to let him kill him if it comes to that though?
• 6:57
  Here's the thing though. He didn't move away from the knife.
• 7:01
  If Majima wanted to, he could have stuck that blade between his eyes.
• 7:05
  I think maybe he knows Majima well. I mean, we don't know how many times I've met.
• 7:10
  But I think probably he knows Majima well enough to know that he wouldn't do that.
• 7:15
  It seems like he has respect for Majima. But let's look at the flip side of this and take a look at Majima.
• 7:21
  Because I think he's not doing this just to attack Kiryu. I think he's kind of teaching Kiryu.
• 7:30
  Number one, because he's supposed to be a patriarch of his own family soon.
• 7:35
  Because he tells him, you think the world gives two shits if there's a reason or not.
• 7:42
  When Kiryu says there's no reason to fight Majima. And that's a good point.
• 7:46
  Anyone could just come up, attack him, try to kill him for no reason.
• 7:51
  And so I think Majima is just trying to teach him a lesson. Like, that's great.
• 7:56
  That's a great way to want to do things. But is it going to work in every situation?
• 8:02
  Because not everyone's going to play those roles.
• 8:05
  I was actually thinking in addition to having a lesson, it was also Majima's way of measuring him up to see where he is in terms of being prepared in his leadership style.
• 8:18
  But I also find some irony in it that he's trying to pick a fight with Kiryu, similar to how Nishitani was trying to find a reason to fight him.
• 8:27
  Even going as far as calling the cops on himself just so he can fight Majima. And this is now Majima trying to fight Kiryu.
• 8:35
  Oh, absolutely. It's definitely got Nishitani vibes.
• 8:39
  He tells him that he's going to find reasons to fight Kiryu. And he says, I'm going to have my eye on you. 24-7.
• 8:50
  This man.
• 8:52
  He's going to be everywhere.
• 8:54
  He said eye, though. Singular.
• 8:58
  Oh, I didn't catch that. I'm curious though in Japanese if there's singular and plural. It's just like an English translation thing.
• 9:06
  It could be.
• 9:08
  I think it's hilarious. Well, for us, it's a joke.
• 9:14
  Alright, so Majima leaves and Kiryu makes it to Serena, where he hangs out with Nishiki, Reina, and Yumi, the Bar Gang, as I call them.
• 9:22
  Nishiki makes it sound like the Dojima family is on the decline.
• 9:27
  When we get introduced to Nishiki, it just says of the Dojima family.
• 9:32
  So I don't know what level he's at, but it seems lower than Kiryu's, who's a lieutenant advisor.
• 9:39
  I at first thought it just was because Nishiki isn't as ambitious as Kiryu.
• 9:48
  Even in Yakuza Zero, he just wanted to be with Kiryu.
• 9:53
  He didn't really care about rising to the top and being that ambitious into one day taking over Kasama. Or am I incorrect in that?
• 10:02
  I think this is actually a topic that we maybe talked about in Nishiki's character arc.
• 10:08
  At the start of the game, he is focused on rising the ranks, whatever it takes.
• 10:13
  But as the events surrounding Kiryu unfold, he sort of abandons that and decides Kiryu is more important because essentially he had to make that choice.
• 10:23
  So I don't think you're wrong. I think it's both.
• 10:26
  And so we just don't know where he landed after all those events wrapped up, I think.
• 10:33
  I was just kind of curious. What kind of surgery is Yumi having? Do we know?
• 10:38
  We don't. It's not Yumi, though. It's Nishiki's biological sister.
• 10:43
  Oh my god. I thought that Yumi was a biological sister because they were all from the orphanage.
• 10:51
  But yeah, we learned that she has some sort of medical issues and that an upcoming surgery is likely her last chance.
• 10:58
  And she won't survive if the surgery doesn't accomplish whatever it needs to do.
• 11:04
  But at this point, we don't know what exactly the problem is.
• 11:08
  Okay, that makes sense. I'm glad I asked that question.
• 11:12
  Yes, I'm glad you did too because you would have been confused for a little while.
• 11:18
  Yeah, but it would also make it really weird when he's buying a gift.
• 11:23
  Okay, anything else? Are we ready for scene three?
• 11:28
  Yeah, okay. Yeah, let's go.
• 11:32
  We now flashback to a few months in the past where Kiryu is hanging with Nishiki at Serena.
• 11:39
  Reyna mentions that today is Yumi's birthday.
• 11:42
  Nishiki ordered a present for her months ago, but Kiryu has been busy and did not remember to get her a present.
• 11:49
  They decide to throw a party for Yumi and Reyna suggests that Kiryu get her a ring, which leads to way too much trouble.
• 11:59
  Way too much time. I cut it down as much as I could.
• 12:04
  So he has to buy the ring and then the ring gets stolen and the guy who stole it pawned it off and then the guy at the pawn shop raises the prices on him.
• 12:13
  So he has to borrow money from Shinji who assumes that Kiryu needs it for a Soap Land.
• 12:19
  And the second time he returns to Shinji to ask for more money, Shinji's like,
• 12:26
  What back already? Did you go for the short and sweet?
• 12:30
  So what's the short and sweet? Guys, is that a code? What is it for?
• 12:39
  So many things I want to say, but they're all so inappropriate. I'm not even trying to bother Kiryu.
• 12:46
  I'm sure we're all thinking that.
• 12:48
  Yes.
• 12:49
  Anyway, Kiryu just ignores this, goes back and then at this point the guy just gives him the ring. It doesn't make him pay for it.
• 12:56
  So I don't understand. It's a giant waste of time.
• 12:59
  But anyway, he makes it back for the party where they all exchanged gifts and Reyna seems a little bit sad,
• 13:06
  which is when we flashback to her and Yumi with a client just a few hours ago.
• 13:11
  So in this flashback, we see Yumi telling the customer that she would only want a ring from someone she's in love with.
• 13:20
  Is Reyna meddling a little bit here by suggesting that Kiryu get her a ring?
• 13:27
  I think so, but the look on Reyna's face afterwards, it looks like she has feelings for Kiryu, but she knows her chances with him are slim.
• 13:37
  And therefore, she's just going to push those two together.
• 13:42
  I'm not quite sure right now because it's either a love triangle between Yumi, Kiryu and Reyna,
• 13:51
  or it's Yumi, Kiryu and Nishiki that are fighting for Yumi's feelings.
• 13:57
  And I'm not quite sure where it is.
• 14:01
  Let me just add one thing into this because it might affect your theory.
• 14:06
  Reyna asks Nishiki to get her a ring for her birthday.
• 14:12
  I do get that, but the thing is that is she asking for it because she's jealous that Yumi gets one from Kiryu
• 14:20
  and she knows that Kiryu is probably not going to get a ring for her and therefore she's asking Nishiki to do it.
• 14:27
  It also kind of devalues the ring in a way that's saying that everyone's getting a ring, not just you.
• 14:36
  You know what I mean? It's not a unique ring.
• 14:39
  But okay, who gets a fancy ring like that for someone that's not for an engagement or they're not in a relationship?
• 14:47
  I don't really think it's common to give people fancy rings like that.
• 14:52
  I got my brother an adult LEGO set for his birthday.
• 14:57
  I don't know, maybe gift giving in Japan in the 90s was more intense.
• 15:03
  Maybe the economy was booming.
• 15:05
  But anyway, something's going on. It's either a love triangle or a love square.
• 15:11
  I have a question. It's been several hours after the party.
• 15:15
  It's now 4pm and we saw Kiryu kind of slouched, probably passed out on the bar.
• 15:23
  It's 4pm but Reina says good morning to Kiryu.
• 15:26
  Are you sure it's not 4am?
• 15:28
  I'm positive it's 4pm.
• 15:31
  Maybe they're just so used to days and nights being flipped around.
• 15:36
  Right, it's weird. I don't quite understand what happened.
• 15:41
  I think he passed out for a few hours.
• 15:44
  I don't know. I don't know if the whole day went by. I don't know if they meant 4am.
• 15:49
  But he fell asleep in a bar with a briefcase full of 100 million yen.
• 15:54
  I was about to say that too. I feel so uncomfortable because one of my theories was something about needing money
• 16:01
  and Kiryu just holding 100 million yen and just walking the streets as if it was nothing.
• 16:08
  Turns out Kiryu has a meeting at the Kazuma family office.
• 16:12
  He arrives at the office. We see Kazuma and Kashiwagi who at one point starts to mention Kazuma's past as an assassin.
• 16:19
  But Kazuma cuts him off.
• 16:22
  So he must not like his past.
• 16:25
  Well, I mean for starters, he was in jail. No one really wants to talk about that time.
• 16:30
  And so there's that. But also, it even goes beyond what's recently happened.
• 16:37
  It's that everything Kazuma's past life was prior to meeting Nishiki and Kiryu.
• 16:45
  There's a lot that Kiryu doesn't know and Kashiwagi knows.
• 16:49
  And so I think Kazuma has some skeletons in his closet that still are there.
• 16:55
  Kiryu then gets a call from Shinji.
• 16:58
  And I guess Reina told him that she saw Dojima grab Yumi and take off and that Nishiki went after them.
• 17:04
  Kazuma tells him not to go, but Kiryu goes anyway.
• 17:07
  And this is when we see what exactly happened.
• 17:11
  And turns out Nishiki shot and killed Dojima because he forced himself on Yumi.
• 17:18
  Yumi looks really shaken up, which I think you would be.
• 17:23
  But Kiryu tells Nishiki to take Yumi and get out of there.
• 17:27
  Nishiki wants Kiryu to go instead, but is eventually convinced to leave when Kiryu says that his sister is going to need him.
• 17:35
  That's a reminder of Makoto.
• 17:39
  She seems shaken and versus Makoto just completely blacking out the entire situation and everything.
• 17:46
  But that's another parallel going back to Yakuza Zero.
• 17:49
  But I do think that Nishiki, if I remember correctly, he hasn't killed anyone before.
• 17:56
  Number one, it's interesting that you bring up Makoto because I have in my notes that I don't want to reopen Old Moons here.
• 18:05
  But Yumi is a prime example of what could have happened to Makoto if Majima hadn't walked away.
• 18:14
  I'm gonna leave it because it could go hours into tangent there.
• 18:20
  Don't even touch it.
• 18:22
  Second, at the end of Yakuza Zero with Nishiki and Kiryu in Serena,
• 18:28
  Kiryu tells Nishiki, and we made a joke about this because he says, I owe you my life, but then he makes Nishiki pay for dinner.
• 18:35
  But he says, I owe you my life.
• 18:37
  So do you think this is what he's sort of doing to make up for that, for him owing his life to Nishiki?
• 18:45
  I think Kiryu would have done that, whether or not he owed him or anything.
• 18:51
  And also, if you think about it, Nishiki has more to lose than Kiryu, but he knows that he's strong enough to be able to go to jail.
• 19:00
  And maybe he kind of wants to have some kind of resemblance to Kazama.
• 19:06
  Also from Yakuza Zero, Kiryu is about to kill Shibasawa, but Nishiki tackles him and he says, if we cross that line, we're going to cross it together.
• 19:19
  So is this moment where Nishiki killed Dojima, but Kiryu is taking the blame?
• 19:25
  Is this crossing the line together or is it Kiryu stepping over the line and pushing Nishiki away from it?
• 19:34
  I actually thought it was just Nishiki crossing the line by himself and then the panic of not knowing what the next step is once you cross that line.
• 19:45
  So he kind of looks to Kiryu to help him figure that out.
• 19:50
  I don't know if Kiryu would be, if we would consider him crossing that line because he hasn't taken a life yet.
• 19:57
  I think no matter what happens to Kiryu, if he gets prosecuted or not, they're in it together.
• 20:05
  Do we need to do a so long Dojima?
• 20:07
  Uh, mother****.
• 20:10
  Yeah.
• 20:11
  No doubt about it.
• 20:12
  I mean, he's the one that's put Y zero into motion, right?
• 20:17
  All those, all those poopy events.
• 20:20
  So those things were not good.
• 20:22
  He definitely has cheated on his wife or is trying to presently.
• 20:25
  I mean, he tried to force himself on someone.
• 20:28
  No means no.
• 20:29
  Right.
• 20:30
  I'm just trying to find out if there is any redeeming qualities at all to this character because at least Nishichan had redeeming qualities.
• 20:40
  At least Sago had redeeming qualities.
• 20:42
  This guy just sucks.
• 20:44
  Yeah, he sucks.
• 20:46
  He's terrible.
• 20:47
  I think the only good thing he did, which might not even be considered a good thing, is making Kuze cut his finger off.
• 20:54
  I guess that's it.
• 20:56
  It's the way of the Yakuza life.
• 20:59
  So he can't really take credit for forcing him.
• 21:02
  He's just implementing whatever rules that were established.
• 21:06
  So there's just nothing about this guy.
• 21:08
  That's a mother's vector.
• 21:10
  I think it's time to say so long.
• 21:13
  So Kiryu definitely got arrested.
• 21:16
  He's now being interrogated by a detective named Date, who does not believe that Kiryu did it, but he's pressured to close the case.
• 21:25
  I think we're going to see more of him.
• 21:27
  I think he's going to close the case in terms of the process for getting him in jail and everything.
• 21:33
  But I think he's going to be investigating behind the scenes.
• 21:37
  It would be kind of hard not to close this case when you have a suspect saying, I did it.
• 21:41
  And it appears to be what happened as we see him in jail.
• 21:45
  He gets visited by Shinji, who presents him with his expulsion from the family.
• 21:51
  But Kiryu says it should have been a banishment, and Shinji responds that Third Chairman Sarah decided on expulsion.
• 21:58
  So I don't exactly know what it means, except that I think he could come back.
• 22:04
  I think maybe a banishment is like, you're dead to us.
• 22:07
  That's my question is what they are.
• 22:09
  But I was also thinking that banishment might be like pushing him out beyond their area, their territory.
• 22:16
  And so it'd be very similar to Majima being trapped in the Gilded Cage.
• 22:21
  Shinji also tells him that the Kazuma family is taking command of the Dojima family.
• 22:26
  And also that Yumi has been missing since the day after the incident.
• 22:30
  And her memory is gone.
• 22:32
  She doesn't remember Kiryu. She doesn't remember Nishiki.
• 22:35
  She freaking pulled the Makoto.
• 22:37
  She did.
• 22:39
  Why are they making all the female characters like this?
• 22:43
  Because they're in a dangerous world, I guess. I don't know.
• 22:49
  Maybe if you taught females how to fight, she could fight her own battles and not need Nishiki to kill for her.
• 22:55
  Makoto tried, and it didn't go well.
• 22:58
  Yeah.
• 23:00
  I don't look at Lee.
• 23:02
  You can't look at him anymore.
• 23:08
  I'm sorry.
• 23:11
  Okay.
• 23:13
  I really like Lee. I'm sorry.
• 23:16
  Okay.
• 23:17
  But we do find out that Nishiki and Kazuma are looking for her.
• 23:20
  So that's at least some little bit of good news.
• 23:23
  So later on an inmate picks a fight with Kiryu in the cafeteria.
• 23:28
  With some forks.
• 23:30
  Dual wielding the forks here.
• 23:32
  And after the fight, Kiryu is trying to figure out who ordered the hit on him.
• 23:37
  And the inmate says that Sarah ordered the hit.
• 23:41
  So I'm confused because Sarah didn't full out banish him, but he issued a hit on him?
• 23:49
  I don't think it's Sarah issuing the hit.
• 23:52
  I think someone else like Shimano or someone is issuing the hit and saying that, tell them that Sarah is the one who does it.
• 24:01
  Trying to cause some kind of rift between Sarah and Kiryu because Kiryu and Sarah have a lot of history.
• 24:08
  But also I do want to circle back to the fork battle.
• 24:12
  Right before someone tries to pick a fight with Kiryu, some poor guy gets hand stabbed by the fork.
• 24:20
  Just so they can get rid of the security guy.
• 24:22
  I know.
• 24:23
  So I'm sure he wasn't part of the plan or didn't expect that to be happening in order to get rid of the security guard.
• 24:29
  Oh, what a day that guy had.
• 24:32
  Although I will say that the guard very politely helped him up to go get help.
• 24:36
  Probably to minimize the amount of blood spilling everywhere.
• 24:39
  True. It's very opposite to the treatment Kiryu got, which was a club over the head.
• 24:44
  But I guess he did knock out like eight guys.
• 24:47
  I do want to point out to our female listeners, when you watch the scene, do you pay attention to Kiryu's forearms?
• 24:54
  Because they're massive in the scene.
• 24:58
  I don't know what it is about Jail Kiryu, but his biceps and his forearms have grown like they've doubled in size.
• 25:05
  Jail Kiryu.
• 25:08
  Instead of prison mic, it's prison Kiryu.
• 25:12
  Oh my gosh, I was more distracted by that haircut.
• 25:16
  We are now at Dojo-
• 25:18
  Sorry.
• 25:20
  What happened?
• 25:28
  I just wrote my notes of where we're going with this.
• 25:32
  Stop being preemptively mad.
• 25:37
  Just go.
• 25:39
  Okay.
• 25:41
  Alright, we're now at Dojo-HQ, right after Kiryu's arrest, and there are mixed feelings about the situation.
• 25:47
  Some say Kiryu should be killed, while others say that he must have had his reasons.
• 25:52
  Further into the conversation, they start talking down about Nishiki, and kind of are saying, well, we should have just had him take the blame.
• 26:01
  Then they straight up say he's useless.
• 26:03
  And unfortunately, Nishiki was outside the door and overhears all of this, which cannot feel good.
• 26:10
  But does it justify what we see in the next scene, Kathy?
• 26:17
  You cannot give a straight face.
• 26:21
  Get ready for 40 minutes on this topic, listeners.
• 26:26
  We'll edit it down, I promise you.
• 26:30
  Uh, no.
• 26:33
  So, okay.
• 26:40
  Basically, Nishiki is back at Serena, and Reina is very distraught.
• 26:46
  Probably says some things that she shouldn't.
• 26:50
  Basically says, why couldn't you save them? Why couldn't you save Yumi and Kiryu? How could you let this happen? You said that you would protect them.
• 26:58
  This strikes a chord with Nishiki, and he says, are you calling me useless?
• 27:03
  Which he just heard someone else call him.
• 27:06
  He slaps her to the floor.
• 27:09
  Unacceptable. Unacceptable. That was the only word I can think of.
• 27:14
  My jaw hit the ground, eyes wide, nostrils flaring, in shock. Speechless.
• 27:21
  Your face was priceless. You were livid.
• 27:25
  I was livid. I was in shock at the dastardly he had to hit a woman that has saved him and Kiryu's butt.
• 27:36
  What makes you think it's okay to raise your hand and hit a woman?
• 27:40
  And I get why he was frustrated, but it's not okay to hit a woman. Unacceptable.
• 27:46
  For that alone, I feel like from being one of my biggest crushes of all video game characters that we've seen, till this point, I ranked him higher than Bigby Wolf, y'all.
• 27:58
  Everyone knows Bigby's hot.
• 28:03
  Kathy likes him hairy.
• 28:06
  Look at that!
• 28:09
  No!
• 28:11
  No!
• 28:14
  I mean, he was a runner up to KFC last season, wasn't he?
• 28:19
  I don't remember. Someone tell us.
• 28:22
  I get that he tried his best and if the roles were reversed, they probably would have set the same to Kiryu.
• 28:30
  But still, I don't think Kiryu would have slapped her to the ground.
• 28:36
  You're gonna eat those words later.
• 28:39
  Oh my god, we did it!
• 28:42
  Save that clip!
• 28:45
  No, wait, get out of here!
• 28:48
  I'm just gonna let you simmer with that. I don't want to say any more than that.
• 28:53
  You're killing me!
• 28:56
  Let's discuss Nishiki and his state of mind right now.
• 29:00
  Obviously, this is horrible. Definitely not gonna justify him slapping a woman to the floor.
• 29:05
  But let's take a look at what he might be feeling right now. Number one, he just killed a man, his patriarch.
• 29:12
  Yumi was just attacked.
• 29:14
  Kiryu took the fall and is likely gonna go to prison for something that Nishiki did.
• 29:19
  He just heard people talking about how great Kiryu is and how useless Nishiki is.
• 29:24
  We then have Reina telling him essentially that he's useless and not really blaming him for what happened to Yumi and Kiryu,
• 29:33
  but saying that he couldn't stop it.
• 29:36
  We also have his sister on the verge of death. He's dealing with a lot.
• 29:40
  I get that. I get he's dealing with a lot.
• 29:44
  And I also know his personality has always been more on the emotional side.
• 29:50
  Because if you remember chapter six of Yakuza Zero, where Nishiki pretty much held a gun to Kiryu, thinking that he was about to end him.
• 30:02
  I know he didn't have it in him to do so.
• 30:05
  It's a good thing Kiryu didn't call him useless right then.
• 30:08
  Yeah, but here's the thing that I get the emotions and everything, but it doesn't mean I agree and it doesn't mean it's acceptable.
• 30:16
  Right. It's unacceptable.
• 30:18
  But I think it's important that we keep track of Nishiki and where his head is at and where his feelings and emotions are at.
• 30:25
  We need to keep track of that. And right now, it's pretty shitty.
• 30:28
  We also do see that he is surprised at what he's done. I think we can see that the way he looks at his hand.
• 30:34
  I think he is shocked and surprised and I think he regrets what he did, which is good.
• 30:39
  But it's too late. You can't take that back. She's frightened.
• 30:43
  This is someone that she sees on a very regular basis.
• 30:47
  Let's just hope he can redeem himself. Ish.
• 30:51
  The word footing was on here and I don't know why I read it as tooting.
• 30:58
  But it does not say tooting. It says Kiryu finds his footing after being released on parole 10 years later.
• 31:09
  So it is now December 5th, 2005, and Kiryu will be released on parole the next day.
• 31:15
  But we then change scenery to Tojo HQ where people are confused as to why Nishiki, of all people, who is now a patriarch of his own family, has called an officers meeting, which it sounds like he does not have the authority to do.
• 31:28
  And we need to pause here to get your reaction, Kathy, to Nishiki's new hair.
• 31:34
  I don't like it. I don't like it.
• 31:37
  First, the slapping of an innocent woman and now his new hairstyle and attitude and everything.
• 31:46
  Is Kiyomi going to make me not like him?
• 31:49
  Before I address that question, I have a question for you.
• 31:53
  And you've got to be honest.
• 31:55
  Okay.
• 31:57
  Would you have liked this hair better if we didn't just see him slap Reina?
• 32:03
  I think so.
• 32:05
  I think his actions have already impacted my opinion that I think that his internal self and personality isn't as beautiful as it once was.
• 32:17
  So Nishiki asks Sarah if the rumors are true that the Tojo's 10 billion yen have been stolen.
• 32:25
  This potential bad news angers Shimano, who we got a crotch shot of earlier.
• 32:32
  We did not ask for it. And Shimano vaguely threatens to cut off.
• 32:37
  I think he's referencing Nishiki's peepee here.
• 32:41
  Nishiki seems unfazed, but Sarah confirms that it is true.
• 32:45
  However, he ends the meeting without giving any real answers.
• 32:48
  He just says you got to go to the clan headquarters for this.
• 32:52
  So as Sarah leaves, Nishiki and Kazuma exchange a look from across the room.
• 32:57
  What's that about, Kathy?
• 32:59
  I had that exact same question on my list.
• 33:02
  I'm curious what that look exchange means.
• 33:05
  I feel like there's two possible reasons for that look.
• 33:10
  One would be they both know, but Kazuma's mad that Nishiki's rushing to call this meeting.
• 33:17
  Maybe they have something planned.
• 33:19
  And maybe that's why Nishiki had to split away from Kazuma.
• 33:23
  Maybe there's a bigger plan because we know that Kazuma has things planned ten steps ahead
• 33:29
  if we think about what he worked with with Tachibana and all those backups.
• 33:33
  I don't think Kazuma would have been blindsided by Nishiki leaving the family.
• 33:38
  So I feel like they're working on it, but Kazuma's just mad that Nishiki is jumping the gun here.
• 33:44
  Or it could be that they're not working together.
• 33:47
  Kazuma's already pissed at Nishiki for starting his own family and everything.
• 33:51
  And he's probably either suspicious about his intentions or sees Nishiki as a person who is no longer who Kazuma thought he was.
• 34:03
  I don't know where this falls into what you just said, but I had a question.
• 34:07
  Which was, do you think Kazuma has a Tachibana this time?
• 34:13
  Does he have that extra help? Because Tachibana had some serious power.
• 34:18
  So is this a weak Kazuma, I guess is my question.
• 34:22
  I think two parts. So the first part, no, he doesn't have anyone helping him or anything, not quite yet.
• 34:31
  But later in the scene if you ask that same question to me again, I'm gonna say yes, it's gonna be Shinji.
• 34:37
  I just hope he doesn't end up like Tachibana.
• 34:40
  And now Free Kiryu is walking the streets of Kamurocho when he is jumped by Majima.
• 34:45
  For good reason. He says he's trying to help Kiryu get back into a Yakuza shape.
• 34:49
  When you made a joke and I was like, you don't even know you're referencing something, but you are.
• 34:54
  It is called Majima everywhere. And he will pop up out of random places.
• 34:59
  I'm talking manhole covers. I'm talking under cones. To try to get Kiryu into fighting shape.
• 35:05
  I cut a lot of them out of the game because most of them are just... they're not important.
• 35:11
  And these videos are long enough. But you made a reference and you didn't even know it, so that's pretty funny.
• 35:16
  So continuing on, Kiryu is on the hunt for an information broker.
• 35:22
  And we also start to learn that a murder has taken place today.
• 35:27
  Which we learn from a guy who attacks him. So he's been on the street for like five minutes and he's already been in two fights.
• 35:33
  And then we will soon learn from the information broker Aoki that the victim was an executive level Tojo Clan member.
• 35:41
  And that it was rumored to be an internal dispute.
• 35:45
  I just thought, wouldn't it be funny if Nishiki's behind both deaths? Ten years apart.
• 35:52
  I have another question for you though. So the guy, the original information broker we saw at the start of the game, his name was Tamura.
• 36:00
  Aoki tells Kiryu that he was likely killed for digging too deep into Kiryu's story after Doachin was killed.
• 36:06
  So another question could be who killed Tamura? Are they all the same person? Are there multiple people killing people?
• 36:13
  Not quite sure. It does run a parallel where, once again, when the deaths are happening and trying to solve the problem,
• 36:24
  Kiryu's on the outside and he's solving everything from a neutral standpoint.
• 36:30
  And now with this death and some of the investigation, he's also neutral because he's been in jail.
• 36:38
  He's not really quite molded back into the family. And so he's solving it again independently.
• 36:47
  Yeah, that's an interesting point. And another interesting comparison is in Yakuza 0, he's convincing people he didn't kill someone.
• 36:56
  And in this game, he's convincing people he did kill someone.
• 37:00
  Kiryu makes it to start us and does not get a warm welcome initially. Yuya beats the poo poo out of him.
• 37:08
  Well, not really. Kiryu wins, but there might have been poop involved.
• 37:13
  Okay, so how long has it been? And he's been in three fights already.
• 37:17
  I mean, he looks like a Yakuza, though. Isn't that why he's dressed the way he is?
• 37:22
  Yeah.
• 37:23
  So, I mean, he kind of had it coming.
• 37:26
  It's true. But eventually Kazuki, the guy that Kazuma told him to connect with, comes out and smooths the situation over.
• 37:34
  They go inside and he tells Kiryu that the plan was for Kazuma to meet him at Stardust so they could have a private place to talk.
• 37:41
  But now he can't make it due to Sarah having been murdered. So now we know who was killed.
• 37:48
  Well, I thought it was just really funny. Originally in my notes, when Sarah's first walking out of the Tojo HQ,
• 37:56
  he just walks unafraid with his back to everyone. I mean, he could have kind of jumped and everything, but he was just so cool about it.
• 38:04
  It was like, man, this guy must think he's untouchable. And the next thing you know, he's dead.
• 38:10
  It's funny because I even had the same thought. Like, you don't know, someone might just come up behind you and punch you in the neck.
• 38:15
  Yeah.
• 38:16
  Kazuki also says that there had been internal disputes in the Kazuma family.
• 38:21
  And we will soon learn after a fight with Shimonos Thugs, during which Shinji shows up. And he's so cool now.
• 38:29
  What the heck happened to Shinji?
• 38:31
  Kiana Riz in the Matrix vibes.
• 38:34
  He's so cool now. He shows up like I don't even know. It's amazing, though.
• 38:42
  He's got a new trench coat, although he's got the same shirt. It's been 10 years.
• 38:49
  I think you should wash the shirt, bud.
• 38:51
  So after Shinji saves the day, we learn that Nishiki is the one who betrayed the Kazuma family and the Omi leader,
• 39:00
  Karrada, is backing him up. And his goal is to go independent and start his own family. I'm assuming the Nishiki family.
• 39:10
  So, Kathy, how are you feeling? There's a lot of Nishiki drama happening.
• 39:16
  We don't really know him anymore. Is Nishiki the one who killed Sarah? What is going on? What's his relationship with Kazuma?
• 39:25
  How come he didn't go and visit Kiryu in jail? There's just so much things we don't know about Nishiki that I'm almost even curious if it's all a front.
• 39:36
  He has some bigger plan. And once again, I do want to default back to thinking that maybe Kazuma is the one who's setting all this stuff up.
• 39:46
  He's just way too smart that nothing is going to blindside Kazuma. I feel like he knows Nishiki well enough to know what's going on.
• 39:55
  So I do want to give him the benefit of the doubt.
• 39:59
  Building off of that, in Yakuza 0, we kind of landed on Kazuma's a little bit of an a**.
• 40:08
  Because he threw Kiryu into that situation.
• 40:11
  And he did it knowing that Tachibana might die.
• 40:14
  Yeah, he did it knowing a lot of people might die.
• 40:18
  So I don't know how much, I don't know if trust is the right word, but I don't know how much weight we can give to Kazuma.
• 40:26
  And we don't know what he's behind or what he's trying to do. But my flag is a little, it's a little red when it comes to Kazuma right now.
• 40:35
  So circling back to Sarah being now dead, I'm even curious, earlier Akashiwagi was talking about Kazuma about being a good assassin.
• 40:46
  And Kazuma hushes him. Do you think there's a chance that Kazuma was an assassin, was the assassin that killed Sarah, assuming that he died by an assassination?
• 40:58
  Hmm. So we know, I think we know from Yakuza 0 that Sarah is who Kazuma wanted in charge.
• 41:08
  And that would make me say no. But again, I don't know what his motives are.
• 41:15
  And I don't know if we can all trust him as much as Kiryu trusts him blindly.
• 41:21
  So I don't know. I think it's possible. I think Kazuma would do pretty much whatever he needs to do to accomplish what he wants to do.
• 41:29
  If I can keep saying do.
• 41:31
  Yes. I'm even thinking that, yes, you're correct that Kiryu blindly trusts him.
• 41:38
  But maybe what if Nishiki no longer is going to also blindly trust him?
• 41:43
  I don't know if he maybe he found out that before everything happened Kazuma told Kiryu not to even show up to save Yumi and Nishiki, which goes to show how little care he has for those two.
• 41:57
  And maybe that's the reason that pushes Nishiki to leave his family.
• 42:02
  I definitely agree with that. It seems obvious that Kazuma's focus is Kiryu.
• 42:08
  But this is also when we learn that Shinji was sent to the Nishikiyama family to keep tabs on them.
• 42:13
  And he's now the lieutenant advisor. Shinji warns Kiryu that Nishiki is not the man you once knew.
• 42:19
  I'm also curious. Do you think that Nishiki is playing Kazuma and therefore use Shinji and Kiryu's relationship to try to drag Kiryu back into his family instead of Kazuma's family?
• 42:33
  Kiryu also learns about the missing 10 billion and that Sarah was murdered just after the meeting that we saw earlier.
• 42:40
  So it was pretty quick. Someone kind of did run up behind him and punch him in the neck.
• 42:44
  But it was a little more intense than that.
• 42:46
  And then Kiryu plans to attend Sarah's funeral the following day to have a chance to talk to Kazuma.
• 42:52
  And that is end of the gameplay video.
• 42:55
  Anything else you need to say?
• 42:57
  No, it covered it. It was really, it's fast paced compared to Yakuza Zero. At the start of it, I was like, oh my gosh, I missed this and I was not ready for it to be this quick.
• 43:08
  Yeah, it starts fast, especially by comparison. There's already like two people dead. It's crazy.
• 43:15
  Do we need a so long mother or mother respecter for Sarah?
• 43:20
  I guess so.
• 43:21
  Sarah, he was one of our favorite characters from Yakuza Zero. He comes in so cool and he's just so put together, confident.
• 43:33
  I mean, the fact that he walked away from that meeting without even worried about having someone stab his back, even though he should have worried someone pulled a Julius Caesar on him.
• 43:43
  And he is also the reason why Makoto is alive. And without him, Yakuza Zero's ending wouldn't have been the way it is.
• 43:52
  And so I feel like for all those reasons, all the good deeds, I have to say he's a so long mother respecter.
• 43:59
  I agree. I don't think we've really seen him do anything bad. I mean, I'm sure he's killed people, but I think a lot of people in these games have killed people.
• 44:09
  But yeah, this guy is just so opposite of a lot of characters we see. A lot of the other characters are more like rough around the edges.
• 44:21
  But Sarah is more professional. He's just he has class. Yeah, he's a classy criminal.
• 44:28
  He doesn't just wear a nice suit. It's more than that. He's got class. He's got capability.
• 44:35
  He saw what Nishiki was trying to pull and he was like, I'm not standing here for this. Goodbye. I've always loved this character.
• 44:43
  He has a way of staying outside of the main fighting, but this is when it catches up to him.
• 44:50
  And perhaps he was a little bit unprepared because he wasn't used to being right in the middle of it.
• 44:56
  I think he's a so long mother respecter. I think he's done far more good than bad.
• 45:00
  Agreed. On one for Dacity. Three, two, one.
• 45:06
  Thank you for listening. And don't forget to send in any questions, comments or game suggestions.
• 45:11
  You can find all our contact info on our website, replayreviewspod.com, or contact us directly through our site.
• 45:17
  Did we completely miss something? Are we way off the mark? Or you just want us to take a deeper look at anything from the game?
• 45:23
  We'll tackle any topics you all want to hear in our season wrap up episode.
• 45:26
  We also have a Reddit where we discuss anything we're curious about. Go take a look and let us know what you're thinking.
• 45:32
  Our theme music is Condemned by Eggy Toast. They'll play you out and we'll be back next week.
• 46:02
  Thank you for listening.