Review BadBoyBule 5/5 · Sep 24, 2025
Mediocre as a revision, absolute banger as a game
Yakuza 0 is one of my favourite games of all time. Playing it on PS4, it started my years-long obsession with the unique series that is as quirky as it is serious, as hamfisted as it is poignant.
For the release of Switch 2, SEGA whipped out Yakuza 0: Director's Cut to mark the occasion. It's the Nintendo debut for …
Yakuza 0 is one of my favourite games of all time. Playing it on PS4, it started my years-long obsession with the unique series that is as quirky as it is serious, as hamfisted as it is poignant.
For the release of Switch 2, SEGA whipped out Yakuza 0: Director's Cut to mark the occasion. It's the Nintendo debut for the game, so a lot of Nintendo fans will finally get to experience this classic. And classic it is. Even after playing the majority of all Yakuza games released in the west (I'm only missing Infinite Wealth and the First of the North Star spinoff), Yakuza 0 still stands out. The story, the setting and larger-than life characters still hit the spot, and the combat and side activties are fun aplenty. While the game is very familiar and its occasional clunkiness is more apparent to me now, on my third playthrough, than ever, it still hooked me bad. I was expecting to get throught the game in like "swift" 30-40 hours but ended up with 70 hours again.
How does it fare as a Director's Cut, though? A definitive version of a classic? Meh, it's alright. The Director's Cut adds additional dubs (which I don't care for) and something like 5 new cutscenes. These range from banal and stupid to great if superfluous. The cutscenes retcon a few deaths in the original story which is a risky move but, for better or worse, they don't really change much at all.
Gameplay-wise, the biggest and pretty much only improvement is the addition of autosaves and the possibility to save anywhere. It's nice but not a total revelation (doesn't make you say "That's rad!"). They've also thrown in an online co-op extra mode called Red Light Raid, which seems pretty low budget and slapdash but could prove to be fun, maybe. I'll need to play it more and see if I ever get to try it with a friend for the whole experience. And hey, at least you can play as a ton of different characters, including the one and only Kuze.
As for the performance on Switch 2, it's fine. It runs smoothly and looks as you'd expect Yakuza 0 to look bar some slight pop-up when running through the streets. It might have been there originally too but I just noticed it this time. So no visual overhaul here but solid, enjoyable performance.
As a whole package, you can't go really wrong with Yakuza 0: Director's Cut if you haven't played the original. That's an easy 5 out of 5 from me. Yakuza 0 may not be a totally perfect game but damn if it isn't a memorable and fun one. That's the basis of my score here. Playing through it again, I was reminded why I like the game so.
As a newly-priced definitive edition worthy of a fresh new playthrough? Maybe 2 out of 5? There's not much here to see that isn't in the original, unless Red Light Raid proves to be a sleeper hit.