Yakuza 0 is an action-adventure game developed by Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio and published by Sega in 2015. on PC and consoles. The game serves as a prequel set in 1988., taking place before the first Yakuza game.
In this game we play as two characters before they become legends, we play as Kiryu Kazuma, known as the Dragon of Dojima and Goro Majima, known as the Mad Dog of Shimano. Each characters is located in two small areas: Kamurochō and Sotenbori, fictionalized recreations of Tokyo's Kabukichō and Osaka's Dōtonbori areas.
Even though the maps are small, they're also packed with a great amount of various locations, from restaurants and shops to the disco and many entertainment related locations.
The story is linear and from time to time we shift characters and before playing as the other character we get a quick reminder of what happened before in case we forgot.
As mentioned this game serves as a prequel to the Yakuza series and it's the best way for new players to be introduced. You not only get the story of two characters and their rise to become legends but also a background story of each character and their role in the whole game.
The story overall is fantastic, brilliant, one of the best stories I've experienced in gaming so far. The story is complex (in a good way) and thrilling and it gets you attached pretty easily to both the story and characters.
Apart from having a fantastic story, the Yakuza games are always filled with a great amount of side content and stories and it's the same with this game. There are 100 substories and each one is unique in its own way. Not only that but you also get so much side content and minigames; this is probably several games in one package, from karaoke, disco to pool, darts, four arcade games and gambling games like mahjong, poker, blackjack,...
It's not over yet, you also get a business sidestory where for Kiryu you are a Real Estate Agent and for Majima you take control of a Cabaret Club.
So what about the gameplay? Well, I can describe Yakuza games as a Brawler game with many classical JRPG elements like a progression system, items and equipment, invisible walls and save locations. There are four fighting styles for both Kiryu and Goro that can be switched in the middle of a battle. The fourth fighting style for each character is unlocked after finishing the business side story.
Apart from the brilliant story and sheer amount of content that's available in this game, there are few things I didn't liked and those were the insanely hard "Climax Battles", the in-map invisible walls even though there isn't few meters before there is a door and the npc details that were popping in as I was approaching that npc.
Also in this game, they made great use of three different types of cutscenes and the voice acting, but I am dissapointed that they didn't use any voice acting in substories at all.
All in all, this game is a perfect introduction for newcomers into the Yakuza series. The story is really great and you'll never get bored while playing it, as you have so much additional content to be explored and completed while reliving the history of two legends. But not everything is perfect in this game as there are few things that shows how old this game is, but still, this is probably one of the best story-based brawler game with many classical rpg elements so far.
In this game we play as two characters before they become legends, we play as Kiryu Kazuma, known as the Dragon of Dojima and Goro Majima, known as the Mad Dog of Shimano. Each characters is located in two small areas: Kamurochō and Sotenbori, fictionalized recreations of Tokyo's Kabukichō and Osaka's Dōtonbori areas.
Even though the maps are small, they're also packed with a great amount of various locations, from restaurants and shops to the disco and many entertainment related locations.
The story is linear and from time to time we shift characters and before playing as the other character we get a quick reminder of what happened before in case we forgot.
As mentioned this game serves as a prequel to the Yakuza series and it's the best way for new players to be introduced. You not only get the story of two characters and their rise to become legends but also a background story of each character and their role in the whole game.
The story overall is fantastic, brilliant, one of the best stories I've experienced in gaming so far. The story is complex (in a good way) and thrilling and it gets you attached pretty easily to both the story and characters.
Apart from having a fantastic story, the Yakuza games are always filled with a great amount of side content and stories and it's the same with this game. There are 100 substories and each one is unique in its own way. Not only that but you also get so much side content and minigames; this is probably several games in one package, from karaoke, disco to pool, darts, four arcade games and gambling games like mahjong, poker, blackjack,...
It's not over yet, you also get a business sidestory where for Kiryu you are a Real Estate Agent and for Majima you take control of a Cabaret Club.
So what about the gameplay? Well, I can describe Yakuza games as a Brawler game with many classical JRPG elements like a progression system, items and equipment, invisible walls and save locations. There are four fighting styles for both Kiryu and Goro that can be switched in the middle of a battle. The fourth fighting style for each character is unlocked after finishing the business side story.
Apart from the brilliant story and sheer amount of content that's available in this game, there are few things I didn't liked and those were the insanely hard "Climax Battles", the in-map invisible walls even though there isn't few meters before there is a door and the npc details that were popping in as I was approaching that npc.
Also in this game, they made great use of three different types of cutscenes and the voice acting, but I am dissapointed that they didn't use any voice acting in substories at all.
All in all, this game is a perfect introduction for newcomers into the Yakuza series. The story is really great and you'll never get bored while playing it, as you have so much additional content to be explored and completed while reliving the history of two legends. But not everything is perfect in this game as there are few things that shows how old this game is, but still, this is probably one of the best story-based brawler game with many classical rpg elements so far.