Yakuza 0 (2015)

Yakuza 0 Director's Cut makes a great game worse while erasing gaming history

The latest blow to gaming history came from SEGA, and while it seems relatively minor out of context, it has many understandably upset. Last week, the company gave an update regarding Yakuza 0 Director’s Cut, which is headed for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Steam on December 8, following its June debut on the Switch 2. The Director’s Cut is a re-release of the 2015 game Yakuza 0 (which is a prequel to the long-running Yakuza series) that features English and Chinese dubs, localization in several additional languages, a new co-op multiplayer mode, and runs at a locked 60 FPS at 4K resolution.

However, there are two problems. One, it adds roughly 30 minutes of mostly terrible non-optional cutscenes that actively undermine the original’s storytelling. And two, on December 8, the original 2015 version of the game will be removed from almost all digital storefronts and replaced with the inferior Director’s Cut. SEGA is even pulling the original version of the game from systems that aren’t compatible with the new one, meaning PS4 and Xbox One users will only be able to play the game by tracking down a physical copy (which is quite difficult to do for the Xbox version in particular).

As for where the Director’s Cut goes wrong, it fails to understand the basic dramatic principle that less is often more. Across five cutscenes that span an additional 30 minutes, characters prattle on about plot points that were better left inferred. Boring explanations are given, and every little detail needs to be sanded over, fixing a “problem” that didn’t exist in the first place. In. In short, these sequences feel very much like deleted scenes that would have been better left on the cutting room floor. Unfortunately, these moments aren’t just dry sequences that hurt the pacing, but have bigger narrative consequences. The first and worst cutscene of the bunch makes the most of these blunders. For one, it needlessly spoils a crushing late-stage reveal involving a fixed memento that ties the story together.

Additionally, it makes the dunderheaded decision to outright un-kill a character who meets a shocking, tragic death in the original story. It was an important turning point, both for one of the game’s protagonists and for the audience in understanding that the story wasn’t afraid to have its major players exit stage left. After literally exploding in a ball of flame, we see the un-killed characters wrapped in bandages, looking on from an alley before inexplicably never appearing in the narrative again. Later, another character who was pumped full of lead reveals he somehow made it through, and there’s a mercilessly long scene with a nameless guy who seemed to bite it off-screen in the first telling.

Just played this for 2 hours. Truly an exceptionally amateurish product:

• Boots into the loudest and whitest screen i have ever seen (sega logo).
• No autosaves. LMAO.
• You can only save at phones. Between this and Persona 4 i'm starting to think Japanese devs are allergic to letting people save normally.
• The karaoke rhythm game uses IJKL. LMFAO. You can't remap this in-game. I thought WASD was bad but this is just straight-up impossible. The arrow keys are right there on my keyboard.
• Following and target locking require you to hold a key instead of being toggleable.
• No text speed option... in a game that so far is at least 50% text.
• When you can enter a building it displays a tiny, light-blue icon in the top right of your screen. And you have to stand in the right place, which you have to guess because it's not indicated.
• Continue isn't 'continue'. It's 'load savegame'. And your saves are sorted by save slot instead of newest to oldest.

And finally:

• Exiting the game. I mean, wow. I have logged 1723 played games. I gave 523 of them a 1 star rating. I have seen designers fail in all kinds of creative ways. And yet, in my 36+ years of gaming i have never, ever seen a developer fail this hard at this most basic feature. First you have to find a phone, because of course there is no save and exit. Then you go to settings > return to title > yes > yes. Then you get fucking Tien Segahan Solar Flaring you again. Then you have to click through 3 more screens. And then. You exit the game. With right mouse button. Yes, right mouse button. Followed by another confirmation screen.

Just imagine that you don't know about Alt+F4. Absolutely insane.

Anyway, the actual game seems alright so far. Brutal combat, good cutscenes.

Well, I got some news. first of all, I have managed to finish 50% of the game's content, clocking only 138 hours in total. and second of all, I've just beaten my first ever JRPG. an amazing achievement for myself if you asked my. the story is tediously long, but worth ever second of it. because I don't remember once that I cried because of a story from a video game. not only that, but coming from the people behind Sonic the Hedgehog of all things considered!

I sort of like the gameplay. it becomes more fun in the second half of the game for many reasons, and you can work on the side quests at your own pace during chapters. many sub-stories are very weird yet can be very freaking funny sometimes if not for the absurdity of them, but you're not forced to do them. though getting forced into a cutscene during the early game because of them was more than frustrating.

I enjoyed Majima's gameplay more than Kiryu's. Majima's styles' are much more fun. I enjoyed beating the mr. shakedown guys a lot using Majima.

I'm not going to yap much about the game. although loving it, I'm not too excited about the Kiwami games living up to the standards of 0.

I don't know about you, but I might've been quick to judge the side missions and gameplay of Yakuza 0 a little bit. the fun of side missions comes in the later part of the game, and with a little bit of searching online, there are more to the game's mechanics than what appears on the surface.

It doesn't mean the flaws are not there, but I do find it is a clear case similar to the movie "It's a Wonderful Life", where the later part of this movie is why it is considered one of the best movies ever.

Here's another one I started briefly and got caught up with in other things. I am definitely going to get game pass again for this and no man's sky, which I haven't tried yet.

Yakuza 0 is a must play for me. For the hour that I got to play it I was fascinated with the voice acting.

And I watched more reason reviews of No Man's Sky and apparently it is leagues better than what it was on launch day.

16 hours in, Update:

Still in Chapter 2 if you are curious to know. the sub-plot missions are getting very annoying in the way, and it is becoming a hassle, almost like doing a secondary job, and not enjoying the game. So far, I'm still pushing in hopes the game gets better again.

3 of the sub plots are weird. the girl in the store, the policeman, and the lady that doesn't understand how to be a dominatrix or whatever. Can we Please finish this weird ass chapter!

10 hours in, Summary of the game so far:

Good news, I'm in chapter 2. yes. after 10 hours. too many dialog, and too many cutscenes later, I realized the game is overstuffed with things to do, and how annoying that you don't have the option to traversal with a bike. unlocked the 3rd fighting style, did a few sub missions, and I'm only in CHAPTER 2? I understood where most of the memes from this game came from, and the honestly, the story's really good.

Game #27/200 may be some slight spoilers It seems like the Internet's consensus is that the Yakuza series is the greatest thing of all time that you need to play NOW. Most gamers who mention Yakuza talk about it as if it is the holy grail of overlooked video game series. I am here mostly to add my voice to that chorus. It seems pretty incredible that a game as bold as Yakuza 0, as creative, inventive, and adventurous as it is, is not commonly considered among the greatest games of all time. Its devoted cult following, which is seemingly growing non-stop, does do enough to celebrate its greatness and carve out its reputation in the gaming world regardless, and its sales are not meager (~20 million at the time of writing, putting it in league with Mass Effect for example).

When you play Yakuza 0, you almost feel like you've been converted. The crime drama that unfolds is about as good as any of the best drama television series that I've seen (Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, etc.), which sounds hyperbolic, but it is really that good. I am amazed by the quality of the voice acting, character and scenario writing, plot development, etc. Yakuza 0 redefines the story-telling medium within gaming to some extent; its cut scenes can be as long as 15-30 minutes on average (the lengthiest, the epilogue, felt close to two hours?), but the flow of the game never feels "slow" or interrupted. In fact, as someone who mashes through dialogue unabashedly, I found myself so engrossed by the story that I was on the edge of my seat waiting to see what unfolded next. The game succeeds primarily in its characterization of Goro Majima and Kiryu Kazuma, the dual protagonists, who share a similar sense of convictions and are both outcasted from their crime families in a somewhat similar fashion. They do not really interact throughout the story, but their fates mirror each other's and actions affect and are intertwined with one another. Every two chapters a swap is made. I may have SLIGHTLY preferred Majima's perspective (I did enjoy combat with him a bit more), but neither is clearly superior. Switching kept the story even more fresh and exciting. You will enjoy the story if you like meaningful twists (no bullshit deus ex machina), shonen-like martial arts sequences, crime-filled drama with a large cast of extremely well developed characters, hardboiled protagonists with a vigilante sense of justice, and mature themes that include death and sexual violence. Between story bits, you will navigate a set of maps that initially feels sort of small and stiff (especially coming right off of playing in the beautiful, expansive world of Ghost of Tsushima), but you'll soon realize that the maps are PACKED with activities, secrets, and fun side missions. The sub quests are rarely very rewarding, but they are tons of fun. They put the protagonists in wacky scenarios that are hilariously written and shed some light on the comical side of Japan (or at least the caricature of it that Kamurocho is). It's a lot of fun running around the streets and being randomly approached by an NPC with a bizarre request. Activating quests unexpectedly, as opposed to having it just marked on your map or in a journal by default (although the game does this too), is part of the game's encouragement for the player to juggle a lot of different tasks. You may be running toward the main quest marker, get approached by a quest NPC about something silly, decide to go along with that instead, and on the way to completing the subquest you get distracted by a dancing mini game or crane game, which then opens up another mini quest line. There is a huge log of all of the game's activities and you are rewarded "completion points" for doing everything, so you can easily be sidetracked for ~10 hours on various mini games and activities before you get back to the main story. And believe me when I say there is a LOT to do -- managing two businesses, fishing, playing Space Harrier, darts, watching softcore porn, etc. I found that it was best to balance the game by doing several hours of side content in each of the 17 story chapters so I wouldn't rush through the story. I was about 75% through completion points by the time I finished the story, so I have plenty of post-game material remaining.

Lastly, I want to comment on the combat. It's not very fluid and it can be a bit frustrating. It's exceedingly easy in the sense that you can stock up on heals essentially for free and make your way through any fight without trouble if you wanted, or you can buy a few guns and shoot your way through any boss. It's clear the developers were not that interested in creating a balanced gameplay experience (feeding into the theme that money = power in a weird way), but it is a slight damper. I'm never not having fun in Yakuza 0, even when beating down chumps and seeing the same "heat actions" for the hundredth time in a row, but after starting Yakuza Kiwami (yes, immediately afterward, I am addicted), it's clear that they greatly improved the formula. Kiwami has considerably smoother combat that is more strategic and just feels better. They also changed the money system so yen is harder to come by and abilities are improved through experience as opposed to buying them. All in all, improvements. This doesn't really color my experience in a negative way though. Y0 is a phenomenal game and entry point to this series and I whole heartedly recommend it.

This was my second Yakuza game after Y7: Like a Dragon. And like that game, Yakuza 0 is pretty great. My only gripe, and the thing that keeps it from being a 5-star game, is the lack of English voice acting.

Somehow, these Yakuza games can be simultaneously the most hilariously stupid thing in the world (Mr. Libido says "Hi"); and also a gut-punching tear-jerker of a story. The main storyline is good, and not in a nonsensical JRPG-story sort of way. These guys are all badasses. Badasses that like to play tons of Outrun in the arcade, or sit around racing toy cars against elementary schoolers.

There are some weird thematic choices that maybe seem normal in Japan, but really stand out to us Westerners. For example, you've got the side-missions centering around sex trafficking where Kiryu essentially says, "Oh, you scamps!" And rather than help the victim like he does in every other side mission, he just lets them go about their sex trafficking thing.

Also, the main characters' respect for authority no matter what leads them to make some truly odd decisions that steer the story forward. You've got Kiryu being all respectful toward the dudes trying to kill/frame him. And Majima is dutifully working along with this dude who openly wants to murder him.

The minigames range from fun & addictive crack (bowling & darts) to a tedious slog (the real estate side-game & slot racing)... to Shogi. I have no idea WTF Shogi is. It's like chess, but completely impenetrable to someone who can't read Japanese characters.

Somehow, at a time when I was truly feeling burnt out from long games, this one just kept pulling me in. Yakuza 0 is a great game! Though now I need to cleanse my palate with about a dozen 2hr games before I dive into another 60hr Yakuza-fest.

Played this about 3 or 4 months ago, thought I'd drop this review from somewhere else here now :)

I gave Yakuza Kiwami a 10/10 when I beat it in late 2018 or early 2019. Probably would change that to a 9/10 now, but the gist of it is, I loved the game. I love games that have a good story and are more on the grounded side (though I don't at all mind the occasional supernatural JRPG story, I mean Persona games are among my favorite ever). I also like it when games are funny. But I like it the most when these two parts are strung together by fun gameplay mechanics.

There aren't many games that work really well in all three aspects (GTA games would probably be the closest, but the story in those isn't as noteworthy as the very memorable characters are). So for someone always interested in games that combine those three aspects, it probably doesn't get much better than Yakuza games, so I always facepalm when I think about how long it takes for me to play through this series.

For those of you who still do not know what Yakuza games are about, it's about Kazuma Kiryu and his life in the Japanese mafia (the Yakuza). The game usually has serious and badass story bits including politics, betrayal, drama and scenes that will simply make a grown man cry. Meanwhile, there are also tons of side characters and especially side stories that can be found in the world that usually include some ridiculous requests and hilariously weird things happening in them. Somehow, these games manage to mix the serious in with the ridiculous very well, especially since the player himself can mostly decide how much of the ridiculous he wants to experience. These side stories and silly mini games can almost entirely be ignored if one wants to, to me they are what make these games that much more special.

Yakuza 0 itself is a prequel to Yakuza Kiwami, so we experience Kazuma Kiryu's first footsteps as a Yakuza. In addition, Kiryu's rival Goro Majima, who plays a role in the other games as well, is featured as a playable protagonist in Yakuza 0 too, so you play through both Kiryu's and Majima's story.

I really don't want to say much else about the story. Just know this. Shit gets real. I don't think you can create a prequel much better than this one, excluding you, Vince Gilligan. Despite many events being pre-determined through the story of Yakuza 1, the story had me on the edge of my seat, especially for the entire second half of it. I was hyped, sad, excited, happy, shocked throughout this game in a way that only my favorite games have ever made me feel. I'm talking The Witcher 3, RDR2, The Last of Us, Persona 3/4 and God of War. As far as I'm concerned, that's the GOAT list right there and Yakuza 0 fits right in.

If you've never played any games in this series, I have a hard time choosing which starting point to recommend. Yakuza 1 (Yakuza Kiwami) introduces you to the characters and will create intrigue as to what happened to them before. However, starting with Yakuza 0 and finding out about the battles all of them faced before will surely make the events of Yakuza 1 feel more impactful. But just like with Better Call Saul, maybe the impact of the prequel itself will just be slightly lower if you didn't know about the characters through the original game/series before.

While I can't figure this one out, I do know that I CAN recommend the entire series either way. I have yet to play Yakuza 2 myself, but I can't imagine being disappointed by that game either. The series follows a winning formula and everything I've witnessed in Yakuza 0 makes me trust in the writers ability to create thrilling scripts and stories.

PS: Yakuza 1 is relatively "short" at 20-30 hours depending on how much side content you choose to do, while Yakuza 0's main story itself is already going to take you 30+ hours, never mind the side content that you shouldn't miss. So if I were you, I'd probably start with Yakuza 1.

To conclude this, Yakuza 0 is a masterpiece worthy of 10/10, 5 stars and 90+/100.

Completed in 2022

I find it difficult to put into words how much i've enjoyed playing this game. There are few games I can play endlessly from start to finish, without becoming bored of the gameplay or story. But Yakuza 0 had me in a tight grip and I just wouldn't let me go.

The main storyline is absolutely heartbreaking and gutwrenching at times, while the side-stories provide some great comic relief. The gameplay itself is easy to get into, though completing the game 100% is pretty much impossible for a casual gamer. Some of the minigames, like JCC, are an absolute nightmare, but that would be my only critique.

Absolutely worth playing. 84 hours well spend on my part.

This will likely be my most unpopular gaming opinion so far, but here goes anyway. TLDR at the end.

Seeing as all Yakuza games are on Game Pass and this franchise is often touted as the ‘best series you’re not playing’, I was actually quite excited to dive into all titles during the summer holidays. And based on what I read, the fact that it’s a prequel and that it’s widely considered one of the best (if not the best) games of the entire series, I figured Yakuza 0 would be the best entry point into that world. And 40 hours later, I have to ask: what is going on here? Prior to playing it, I was unable to find one single negative review of the game. Maybe I didn’t look hard enough, but it wasn’t that everyone seemed to think the game was good, it was that they seemed to think it was amazing. You can have lots of people loving a specific game that lots of others hate, but you almost never find one this unanimous, and that really makes me wonder if I missed something on my playthrough. Does it have anything to do with nurturing an interest for Japanese culture or entertainment like Anime? I’m genuinely curious if that might be the case. Yakuza 0 is okay. I’d say it’s a good game when all is said and done. But it’s far from exceptional IMO, and even its strongest selling points come paired with real issues that, to me personally, weigh on my final perception of it. Here is how I see the main aspects of the game.

Story - This is far and away Yakuza’s biggest shining object. Like many say, it really is gripping, emotional, and it is intricate and laid out to the finest detail. It was the one thing that made me want to continue until the end. Yet at the same time, why does the game need so much of it? As beautiful and stylised as they are, it takes almost 15 hours just to get through all cutscenes. Especially towards the middle, it felt like the story was being told in a way which was intentionally dragging its pace. I personally didn’t think what it was saying needed such a long tale. Additionally (and this was actually one of my biggest gripes), the ending felt, partly at least, quite forced. Some character arcs seemed out of place and downright illogical to me, and I was only able to understand why they were there because I then started playing Kiwami (which I stopped at the end of the 3rd episode). I get the need to drive certain people in a certain direction for the sake of continuity, but doing it in such a condensed way towards the end, especially in a story that took so long to develop the characters in the completely opposite direction, simply felt counterintuitive and inconsistent. I’d love to hear opposing views on this, but I can’t shake away the feeling that they went so hard on these characters in Yakuza 0 that they turned them into something they couldn’t possibly live up to in subsequent (timeline wise) entries. It’s always the problem when making a sequel, but if that was going to be the case, then I’d rather they focused on completely different characters in 0 just like they apparently did in LAD.

Combat - Yakuza’s other main talking point. And I loved it up until a certain point. It feels really good and ‘punchy’ for the most part, and I do appreciate them offering different fighting styles (though you can easily go through the entire game just focusing on one of them). If someone’s just looking for a simple, mindless brawler, it’s very hard to recommend anything above the Yakuza franchise. But the problem here is that, in such a long game that makes you bump into fights sometimes every 30 seconds, even if you add a lot to it, it’s bound to feel repetitive. That was at least what happened to me after a while, which made me starting to look at brawls as a nuisance keeping me from reaching my goal quicker rather than an enjoyable part of the game. Again, I don’t think it would’ve been as much of an issue in a shorter game, but I find this to be another example of how Yakuza 0 overstays its welcome for a good number of hours.

Substories and side activities - I’ll be honest, even though I can’t fault their presence in the game at all (I’ll explain soon), I didn’t particularly enjoy them as a whole for a couple reasons. First, almost all substories are so incredibly goofy, and out of character and place in a story that is loaded with heavy, serious and well accomplished dark tones, that they would take me ‘out’ of the main plot to the point where I simply wouldn’t enjoy them. Second, and this is mainly personal preference, I found the constant shift from voice dialogue in the main story to text based dialogue in the side quests a bit too jarring. In the end, after completing over 30 substories, I felt unable to come to terms with the dissonance in tone between these two very different realities in the game, and decided to focus exclusively on the main tale. Similarly, although there’s a bunch of side stuff to do (mini-games, business ventures, and so on), I wasn’t captivated by most of the side activities (though I admittedly didn’t dive too deep into them). However, and this is why I can’t fault either mechanic, that doesn’t really matter. Aside from a couple of upgrades directly tied to them, these are essentially inconsequential when it comes to the main story, meaning you can safely ignore them if they don’t appeal to you. And I know a lot of people not only loved losing themselves in the side content, they were actually grateful for the break from the way more serious story tone. So I’m glad they are there. I’ll always appreciate a game’s effort to offer something different for differently inclined players to enjoy, while also giving them actual freedom to ignore the parts they don’t like.

World - Here I have some more mixed feelings. Visually, I really like both cities in Yakuza’s world, and I think they resulted in a very stylish, likely accurate depiction of their real life counterparts at the time. And while I do agree that they packed the small maps (they really are small) with tons of stuff, as time went by and I continued to explore it, they started started feeling more superficial and less substantial to me. There is a lot you can’t interact with, you can’t access most buildings, and in such a small space, the inability to continue walking forward when you quickly reach its edges feels abrupt. But even though this feels worth mentioning, I really didn’t have much of an issue with the world as a whole, because the visuals alone and the attempts and making it feel organic and lived in can easily make you fall in love with the Yakuza surroundings. They did a solid job here.

This was a very long winded pile of text (apologies) to try to explain why Yakuza 0 is a mixed bag for me. Though I may have come across as overly negative, I actually believe that this is definitely a good enough game, that anyone with an even small inclination to explore this franchise should try. And looking around, chances are you will enjoy it a lot more than I did anyway. The most puzzling fact about it, to me, is that I only find this to be a decent game when I add all of its parts, whereas everyone else seems to find it excellent. I would give it 3 out of 5. I enjoyed my time with it and I’m glad I got to try it for myself, but at the end of the day, I decided to invest the 300+ hours that it would likely take me to play through the rest of the franchise into something else. And if this game can be used to assess the rest, I think this boils down to what I consider to be the biggest shortcoming of the saga: ultimately, I look at Yakuza as an overall decent experience plagued by the fact that, in total, it ends up giving me less than what it asks me to put in.

TLDR: I still found Yakuza 0 to be overall an enjoyable, 7/10 game. My confusion comes from the fact that this seems to be a 10 for everyone else. In my opinion, the game drags out a lot more than it needs to, which overly dilutes its upsides.

You ever have a game (or series of games) that you just know you're going to love, should you ever get around to actually playing it? That was the Yakuza series for me. Back in my Dreamcast days, I played through Shenmue -- which was a game that was truly groundbreaking... but also kind of boring (yes, even in 2000, I didn't want to actually be waiting for the virtual bus to arrive... so I could work a job forklifting virtual boxes around). So eventually Sega decided to rework the formula a bit, and what they decided was to make games about surly yakuza beating the crap out of each other. A lot. And yeah, that's great.

Yakuza 0 is a prequel game made later on in the franchise's life, but is now considered a good entry point for newcomers thanks to it being one of the newer games -- but also it takes place before everything else in the series. So it works out both story-wise and gameplay-wise.

There is a lot I could talk about in this game, because there's just so much you can do in it. You roam about the cities of Tokyo and Osaka in the 1980s, beating up punks and goons, helping strangers out in odd (but entertaining) side quests, and engaging in one of many, many mini-games (pool, darts, karaoke, fishing [obviously], bowling, disco dancing, classic Sega arcade games... and so on). For those of us living outside of Japan, the game works as a kind of virtual tourism! But keep your expectations in check; you probably won't get to see a hundred random street brawls when you do actually get to visit Japan. (You will be handed pocket tissues though, I can attest to that at least.)

Over the years I've seen many amusing screenshots and gifs from the Yakuza games, which always gave me the impression that they're very goofy and over-the-top experiences. Which they are... but mostly just for all the side content. The actual main storyline was really solid stuff, to my pleasant surprise. The story of Yakuza 0 is a thrilling crime drama full of twists, turns, and memorable characters. Kiryu and Majima might just be the most endearing fellows in the world of organized crime. The story isn't going to wow the masses, but for a video game it definitely gets the job done. Nice and tidy, no loose ends, and packs a freaking emotional punch to the gut.

I would know. I lived there for about 7 years (Which I've mentioned before, but for folks who only see the review I'll say it again.) I love this game and I can wait to start Kiwami... And now they're remastering the rest of the games!? Man it's going to be a great run.

Majima steals the show with the most fun combat styles and best mini game. God the Cabaret Club stuff was more fun than it had any right to be.

Kyriu was a great character but the real estate game was such a slog... god that grind.

Both of these doofuses have great karaoke sequences and... Christ all the little mini games are great too. They've even got fully playable arcade games.

Listen, if you like anything Japanese and want to experience things from the 80's , this is the game for you. I can't gush enough.

How should one describe Yakuza 0: fun, enthralling, humourous, emotional, diverse, intriguing? To me the best way to describe Yakuza 0 is stylish, this sense of style permeates through the entire game. It has such a clear and creative vision for itself, and sticks to that vision uncompromisingly like a real yakuza. For $20 this game is an absolute steal.

Story

This is my first Yakuza game, and to me it seems like a good place to start. Yakuza 0 is a prequel to the rest of the mainline Yakuza games, and tracks the beginning of Kiryu’s story who remains the central character in the rest of the games. There is no previous knowledge required to enjoy the characters, setting and plot of Yakuza 0, though I’m sure the game is a different experience if you have played the previous games, and I see myself revisiting Yakuza 0 in the future to see it from a different perspective.

The main story is a perfect mix of intricate and accessible, at no point did I feel overwhelmed by the complex relationships between the different characters and factions (of which there are many), this is partly due to the dual protagonists who see the story from different angles. The main story is pretty long, which surprised me somewhat, and the story never felt stale, in fact it kept getting better and better and I wish it never ended. What contributed to the engaging main quest is Yakuza’s willingness to use different emotional tones throughout the story from funny, to bizarre, to sad to inspiring. The characters are compelling and the plot has excellent pacing but what surprised me most was the constant twists and turns in the story that never once felt cliched or forced. I would love to talk in more detail but I’ll avoid spoilers, but the story is amazing, trust me.

The game features a ludicrous amount of side stories as well, these are mostly contained to individual “quests” though some span over multiple different “quests”, with their own characters and plot. These are the source of Yakuza’s more wacky humour side, and there is so much creativity put into these quests and some really good writing that surprised me considering how many there are. I probably completed about half of these, so there’s still a lot there for me to enjoy when I play Yakuza 0 again.

Gameplay

Gameplay in Yakuza 0 is split into three different parts: combat, exploration and mini-games. I’ll start with combat, combat is damn stylish. At its core it’s a hybrid of beat ‘em ups and more traditional fighting games. You will fight packs of enemies in a variety of stylish styles, each with their unique mechanics and abilities. The stand out here are the boss battles however, which are theatrical, over the top and incredibly enjoyable. Beating blood and money out of people is incredibly satisfying. My only real complaint here is that the upgrades are really specific use case scenarios, which results in most of them being almost useless.

The two locales of Yakuza 0 are Kamurocho and Sotenbori, and both are well detailed. Walking around these two locales is the best way to uncover new side quests, mini-games and shops and these locales both have a unique and endearing style. Kamurocho is glitzy and fake whilst Sotenbori is a little bit more seedy and wild. You spend a lot of time running around these areas and it’s fun to learn the back alleys and shortcuts you can take to get around quicker.

The final pillar of Yakuza 0’s gameplay are the mini-games. There is a huge variety of mini-games that are all well designed and play brilliantly. To list them all would be time consuming, but the highlights for me were darts, slot cars, Outrun, disco and karaoke. In addition to these mini-games, which have their own stories and characters, there are the wealth generating mini-games too. Both characters have their own wealth generating mini-games and I spent a lot of time (too much time) on these mini-games. Some of the mini-games have online components so you can verse real people, but I just stuck to the AI. There’s plenty of fun ways to spend your time in Yakuza 0 outside of the main story.

Presentation

I’m a little bit torn on the presentation of Yakuza 0, but I need to keep in mind that this was a PS3 title originally. Technically, the game is not graphically impressive, lighting falls a little bit flat, character models can appear low resolution at times (but high resolution at other times?), streets are busy but pop-in occurs. However what does save the graphical presentation is the...style. The look and feel of the locales is outstanding with interesting signs, sounds and architectures, there has been a lot of care and attention paid to perfect these areas, I also love the unique and detailed tattoos of the characters. The special effects look good and the blood effects make combat incredibly satisfying, and it’s awesome to run the game at 4k and high frame rates (thanks SEGA Japan for becoming PC heroes).

In terms of sound design Yakuza 0 gets a near perfect score. Combat effects are visceral and bone crunchingly satisfying. The sounds of the city is incredibly realistic with sound pouring out of certain buildings such as the pachinko parlours. The music is great with a excellent range from the blood pumping guitar in combat sequences to the emotional and discrete ensembles used in cutscenes.