i'll be perfectly fair with remakes and discuss both ends of the equations.
I Believe that despite all the additions in terms of content and adapting the combat of Zero (which is one of the best of the series) Yakuza Kiwami is a very bad remake over-all in terms of quality and how much it bends over backwards to re-write the game's story just to make the player enjoy the Majima Everywhere system (which gets old very fast once you get the upgrades), it feels more like an expansion pack for Zero (and by its original price point of 29.99, it might as well be) that an actual remake, it doesn't help every single moveset for the bosses is re-used from previous boss fights from the whole series, i won't deny RGG Studio is very well known for reusing content to keep their development pace reasonable, but it honestly felt way lazier that their usual output, which i guess it makes sense since they adapted the original game so to get newcomers up to speed.
you could argue is good to keep newcomers welcomed, but the original PS2 games has its unique vibes and charm while also making its combat had a great escalation from going from a weak Kiryu, to basically able to block bullets if you take your time with your game and do most of its content, which is why i usually recommend emulate the original game above playing Kiwami, Kiwami feels like just another part of Zero, albeit with more annoying progression and with some overtuned boss fights that are way harder that the original game (Jingu).
On the flip side, there are Remakes that not only pay tribute to the original, they right down look it with reverence, which leads me to discuss the System Shock remake, i play the original before even digging the remake, which i already loved despite being extremely old (hacking being hard to see or the music giving me a headache as minor issues), it felt like a timeless game even with its unique control scheme, you could easily see how it is the foundation to most immersive sims, so, the remake had extremely gigantic shoes to fill, but Nightdive knew the job and they deliver it, Citadel Station is so vibrant and full of life, while also keeping the cool hidden secrets from the original, gameplay wise, it felt like a culminations of every innovation previous immersive sims have done, coming together for this remake, recycle materials for your benefit, upgrading weapons, unique puzzles to deal with and revamping the hacking into something else entirely, they even gave SHODAN a more unique boss fight to give more finality to the game.
if i could nitpick it, I'll admit i preferred Edward Diego being this smarmy car salesman being way over his head with SHODAN over this generic evil CEO who becomes a true believer of SHODAN's plight, but in exchange, he actually became an actual boss fight instead of an easy to miss enemy.
You win some, you lose some with remakes, its all a matter whenever the dev team is full immersed on doing an impactful game or just a quick buck to get the newcomers up to speed.
(Also REmake 3 is really bad, how did you fuck up Nemesis when all you had to do was model swap Mr. X, jesus christ capcom, you really just wanted to get to REmake 4 and fast)
I Believe that despite all the additions in terms of content and adapting the combat of Zero (which is one of the best of the series) Yakuza Kiwami is a very bad remake over-all in terms of quality and how much it bends over backwards to re-write the game's story just to make the player enjoy the Majima Everywhere system (which gets old very fast once you get the upgrades), it feels more like an expansion pack for Zero (and by its original price point of 29.99, it might as well be) that an actual remake, it doesn't help every single moveset for the bosses is re-used from previous boss fights from the whole series, i won't deny RGG Studio is very well known for reusing content to keep their development pace reasonable, but it honestly felt way lazier that their usual output, which i guess it makes sense since they adapted the original game so to get newcomers up to speed.
you could argue is good to keep newcomers welcomed, but the original PS2 games has its unique vibes and charm while also making its combat had a great escalation from going from a weak Kiryu, to basically able to block bullets if you take your time with your game and do most of its content, which is why i usually recommend emulate the original game above playing Kiwami, Kiwami feels like just another part of Zero, albeit with more annoying progression and with some overtuned boss fights that are way harder that the original game (Jingu).
On the flip side, there are Remakes that not only pay tribute to the original, they right down look it with reverence, which leads me to discuss the System Shock remake, i play the original before even digging the remake, which i already loved despite being extremely old (hacking being hard to see or the music giving me a headache as minor issues), it felt like a timeless game even with its unique control scheme, you could easily see how it is the foundation to most immersive sims, so, the remake had extremely gigantic shoes to fill, but Nightdive knew the job and they deliver it, Citadel Station is so vibrant and full of life, while also keeping the cool hidden secrets from the original, gameplay wise, it felt like a culminations of every innovation previous immersive sims have done, coming together for this remake, recycle materials for your benefit, upgrading weapons, unique puzzles to deal with and revamping the hacking into something else entirely, they even gave SHODAN a more unique boss fight to give more finality to the game.
if i could nitpick it, I'll admit i preferred Edward Diego being this smarmy car salesman being way over his head with SHODAN over this generic evil CEO who becomes a true believer of SHODAN's plight, but in exchange, he actually became an actual boss fight instead of an easy to miss enemy.
You win some, you lose some with remakes, its all a matter whenever the dev team is full immersed on doing an impactful game or just a quick buck to get the newcomers up to speed.
(Also REmake 3 is really bad, how did you fuck up Nemesis when all you had to do was model swap Mr. X, jesus christ capcom, you really just wanted to get to REmake 4 and fast)