Yakuza 0 (2015)

I am in love. It took too long for me to get into the Yakuza series and I finally did. I'm glad I heard the fans and started with 0. This game is absolutely incredible!

This is probably one of the best stories ever written in a video game. It immediately transported me to a Yakuza-style movie. Characters are very well done, with some very convincing motives for doing the things they do. They're just too damn well developed and charsmatic. Like I said before, the writing helps. The story is filled with twists and turns, with believable and impressive moments. The pacing is great and it never gets old. Soundtrack is discreet, but it's a banger. It's a contained personal story, focused on its characters, but just as epic as any other game. The only two chapters I did not like were 5 and 7, because they felt like padding.

Gameplay is unorthodox and I love it, but not perfect. It fits the tone and does the job, but if the story wasn't THAT good, I'm not sure I would get to the end. The combat system can get repetitive. Guns are overpowered, the 'sphere-grid-like' upgrade system is shallow, it lacks a good lock-on system and equipments feels useless. In the end, it's just fun. Simple, but it does the trick, especially when it comes to the amazing boss fights (even if you have to fight Kuze FIVE GODDAMN TIMES). The semi-open-world areas take a long time to actually get going. It's a slow burner, but a rewarding one. Albeit repetitive, the side quests and subseries are hilariously well done, helping to build a well realized atmosphere and setting for both cities. The cabaret and real estate mini-games are boring, though.

I recommend this game purely for its story. The gameplay is fun, but it's the thirst to know how everything will unfold that will keep you coming back for more. Amazing! I'm not sure if the rest of the series is worth it, but this one definitely is.

Yakuza 0 has been in the BackSlog for a few days now...

I love this game.

I'm biased because it's like getting to visit home again after such a long time away I lived in Japan for about 7 years and this game does a very good job at portraying Tokyo life (feels a bit like some places in Roppongi,) minus the constant street fights 😉

The main story is a hard edged crime drama broken up by amusing (and sometimes surreal) side stories and real solid mini game distractions.

I'm still veeeery early in the story, so this only a first impression for now. Trust and believe though, I will be putting in the time to finish this properly. Probably not 100%, but enough to feel satisfied.

I'll see you then.

im having a really good time with this game so far, i think! the main plot is interesting but the substories and other side content are where the game really shines for me. it takes itself incredibly seriously, which makes all the goofy elements that much funnier

i think my only big gripe so far is that the boss battles are super incredibly not fun. they basically almost dont stagger from your hits, but stagger you with a single hit so you spend your entire time getting comboed if you ever fail a single dodge, which you will because some of them attack too fast to react to in time :/

Notes so far (a few hours in, just started chapter two):

Glad that the first twist ("aw this dude totally set me up") is played through in the first hour or so of the game, and while it's still playing out in the story I'm glad we're not hanging on an obvious reveal. Kiryu seems aware and a little more in control of his destiny, as compared to a GTAV Michael or a Final Fantasyman.

Hey this game's real pretty

I love that there's one currency so far and it's Yen. Yen for food. Yen for plot progression. Yen for.. stat.. boosts. Not even, like, paying for training or armor, just, being a more effective fighter by buying the More Effective Fighter trait. Ties in with the overarching theme of 80's materialism, and doesn't waste the time or code lampshading it. Fun move.

Good lord this is a pretty game. Those cutscenes. Not even just the detail or the many large pores on the faces of the Yakuza lieutenants, but the artistry. The conscious decision to have characters semi-freeze in these memories, playing out in the game's present time, just, I think these folks know what they're doing.

Lots of hand holding so far, but there's a lot to learn. Excited to see this game open up, see the inside of more of these shops, buy some of these shops (always a favorite Open World pastime), and get into some of these gambling halls.

I thought I was really going to feel those loading times, especially since I held off on getting an SSD, but compared to Everybody Golf and Fifa 18, Y0's been blazing through those mean streets. Maybe 5 seconds to get outside or into the next scene? Very palatable.

Also I tried listening on headphones via the controller for the first time. Certainly one of those technologies that makes you go "Why haven't we been doing this for the past ten years this is brilliant"

Audacious, crass, eclectic, surprising, unwieldy, nostalgic, shameless: All these words describe Yakuza 0.

This was my first experience with the franchise after years of hearing it described as "Shenmue meets GTA." I love Shenmue, I don't really care about GTA, so I stayed away. That was clearly a mistake.

I didn't fall in love right away. The beginning of the game is (understandably) preoccupied with showing the ropes of combat, which I found to be fun but mindless... better than Shenmue, worse than the Batman: Arkham series.

But as more mechanics are introduced, as the story unfolds and is complimented by a variety of quirky sidequests, I found myself enamored by how it all manages to come together. And while I prefer the pace and setting of Shenmue, I'd be lying if I said Yakuza 0 wasn't, mechanically, a better game.

It is gutsy and weird and stylish and awkward in the same way my favorite Dreamcast titles were. I was genuinely moved by its epilogue. And now I'm eager to give Yakuza Kiwami a try.