Sunao ni I LOVE YOU! todokeyou
kitto YOU LOVE ME! tsutawaru sa
Kimi ni niau GLASS no kutsu wo sagasou

Futari de STEP & GO! itsu made mo
Shin'ya juuni-ji wo sugitatte
bokura no LOVE MAGIC wa
toke wa shinai

Oide meshimase ohime-sama
Doku no ringo wo tabete nemucchai sou na
Sunao sugiru kimi ga totemo itoshii

Atarimae ＝ (iko) takaramono sa
Chikyuu wa mawari hi wa nobori
Kimi wa hohoemu

Sunao ni I LOVE YOU! todokeyou
Kitto YOU LOVE ME! tsutawaru sa
Kimi ni niau GLASS no kutsu wo sagasou

Futari de STEP & GO! itsu fez mo
Shin'ya juuni-ji wo sugitatte
Kimi wa boku no itoshii nijuuyo-jikan CINDERELLA

Hey! Ei! Ei!

What Tangled Webs we weave... Yakuza 0 is a complete masterclass in storytelling and character writing that jettisons the story of two of gaming's most beloved characters into the forefront of the medium's best.

I went into Yakuza 0 thinking that I was about to embark on a silly quest of comraderie based humour and slapstick comedy after years of viewing the franchise as an outsider with a plethora of close friends intensely into RGG's flagship franchise, but what I came out with was an experience far more incredible than I'd ever imagined. The 0th entry into Yakuza is an invigorating story of love, compassion, and betrayal that will have the player gripped to their screen for more than twenty intense hours.

When I'd first played Yakuza 0 a couple years back during its initial foray into Microsoft's game pass, I couldn't get myself to stick to the brawler based combat and lack of english voice cast (which Yakuza 7 would soon receive,) and I put the game down less than a few hours in. Upon my second try, something changed and I'm not really sure what it was. After spending more time playing character action and brawling games, Yakuza's fairly basic combat became actually quite fun. Memorization of combo's isn't too necessary, nor is dodging and blocking ad nauseum, all you need to do is learn how to make dudes hit the pavement. I realized how much fun you could have picking up bikes off the side of the street and swinging them blindly at a crowd of up to ten, or how comical it was tto run around as a man with an eyepatch armed with a metal bat throughout the city of Osaka. Something about the comic-book level of ridiculousness of Yakuza's combat helped me appreciate it more, it was laughably simple, in a way that allowed me to put more stock into the story than the fighting within. Yakuza, like many of its contemporary Japanese games, is filled with mini bosses and spontaneous encounters, however given the aforementioned ease of combat, this strangely never got annoying. Anytime I was approached by the random groups of foes on the streets of Kamurocho/Sotenbori, I welcomed the fight, which is something I rarely do in games that drop encounters on you out of the blue. With the deutoragonists, I stuck to the same fighting styles which I respect RGG Studio for allowing to occur. With action games that utilize combat styles/actions you are usually coerced to flash through them in combat and take advantage of certain enemy weaknesses. A series like Devil May Cry comes to mind, where Dante utilizes Royal Guard/Trickster/Swordmaster etc for various reasons. In Yakuza? I was able to stubbornly stick on Slugger with Majima and Kiryu's Brawler equivalent throughout the entire game. I appreciate game's that allow the player to find a playstyle they like within the game's presentation and run it through using strategy's in combat that relate specifically to that style. In terms of difficulty I found that Yakuza was perfectly situated, I had to apply thought and logic to boss battles in avoidance of enemy attacks, but never did I feel pressed and had to repeat encounters as I never actually got a game over (well, once intentionally after a game crash.) Yakuza 0 basically says "Oh you've grasped the mechanics of the game well enough, keep applying that mindset and you'll succeed."

The most impressive aspect of Yakuza 0 to me, and this is probably the takeaway many others will have, was the excellence that its cast was written. Mob movies and media all boil down to their creation and navigation through conflict and uncomfortable situations. How do you write a cast of characters in a way that is compelling and tells a story that utilizes said cast to their fullest extent? Many forms of media struggle with this, however Yakuza 0 nailed it. You have two greenhorns as the protagonists, men who have never taken a life, who are braun and strong yet are not incredibly experienced in the realm of violence. Kiryu and Majima's respective pasts are dark and muddied, with the latter losing an eye as a result of vigorous torture, so they are no strangers to the dark world of organized crime, yet they quickly find out the degree of cuthroat ruthlessness and wit that is required to climb the ranks. Throughout the game's seventeen chapters we witness these two grow in intelligence, strength, scope, and notoriety. Kiryu, distant from friends and family finds out what it is liked to be kicked to the curb and begin anew. Majima, ever the servant to a power that sees him as means to an end must find a way to carve out free will. These two show degree of emotional intelligence and variety that I completely surprised me. Throughout the last five to six years or so I thought Kiryu was just a silly himbo, a big man with muscles who had funny mannerisms and incredible comedic timing. I believed Goro Majima was a whacky and zany madman who knew only how to commit violence and hurt others. Throughout my twenty-four hours of playtime I discovered that my preconceived notions of the series' most beloved characters could not be more wrong. Kiryu was desperate to improve the conditions of those around him, an intelligent man that was grateful for any allies he could have and knew how to unite friends for a common cause. He was someone that people were willing to lay down their lives for through his actions, not his promises and dellusions of grandeur. Majima was a bitterly flawed man that encountered suffering and loss almost everywhere he went. As the game's story progresses, his patience and compassions is continuously tested to points that nearly break him. I was blindsided to find out the variety of emotion that Majima could show. I've written this review only mentioning those two thus far, but the entire cast of recurring characters is just as impressive. Tochibana is a benevolent and mysterious figure I came to love as the game progressed, Nishkiyama felt like a true brother to Kiryu in the way they argued and showed love for one another, Nishitani was completely insane in a way that made him an endearing counterpart to Majima's parallel crazyness. Makoto, Lee, Oda, and Reina were more characters that were the perfect ingredients to an incredible cast. As per usual I don't like to delve into spoilers in my reviews, but I found that the MANY foes and villains of Yakuza 0 were equally as impressive and uniquely sinister. Their motives were believable and struggles for power made sense within the universe. The mistake many games and films make is having a villain who wants to be a bad guy for bad guy's sake, whereas Yakuza 0 carefully draws out motivations for each foe and their reactions to adversary involvement. The conflict of the "Empty Lot" isn't necessarily realistic, but in the world of RGG makes the following actions sensible and easy to follow.

Despite taking place in only two locations, Kamurocho (fictional Kabukicho in Tokyo,) and Sotenbori (fictional Dotenbori in Osaka,) the game is filled to the brim with life and things to do. The neon colours that lined the real life 1980's are used to full effect, the hustle and bustle of Japan's postwar booming economy is laid out right in front of the player's eyes. Each street and neighborhood is teeming with life and business, there's a believable atmosphere to the world with folks out and about with their significant others and families. It's difficult to recycle environments for a game that has the length of Yakuza 0, but it's done to a great effect here. It helps that you split protagonist's after doing two chapters with one, so you're never stuck in one place for very long, but the cities and story path are crafted well enough that it wouldn't even be an issue if this weren't the case. I found myself taking full advantage of each city's nightlife, making sure to bowl, sing kareoke, throw darts, and dance to my fullest extent. I became familiar with the streets and business and it began to feel homely, the result of an excellent job in world design.

As far as the presentation otherwise, the graphical fidelity of Yakuza 0 was defintiely good enough, especially for a game that has been out for a good amount of years. It's nothing that wow'd me away, but the faces in cutscenes were rather impressive and the world was beautiful. It got a little rough around the edges when it came to conversing with sidequest NPC's or enemies you'd scant come across but I found this to be easily forgiveable. The game ran well minus an annoying crash in chapter nine and had little stuttering throughout the whole playthrough. One more thing I'd like to applaud Yakuza 0 for was the ability to alt tab and completely stop any gameplay. This made it easy to respond to messages and things outside of the game, something I desperately wish more titles would take advantage of. I know it's not the most important element in a game, but the ability to pause whenever, wherever is a legitimate boon to how I will receive it.

I had some frustrations with Yakuza 0 but they were largely minute. The "biggest" of these was the anime-esque "people die when they are killed" mantra that I see impacting most shonen titles I've watched. Now, one thing you should already know is that Yakuza 0 is decidedly not an anime, but it surely shared this feature with the medium. You could count that if you witnessed what was an on-screen death or boss-defeat, that they were most certainly not actually defeated. I'm sure there's a drinking game for this out there somewhere.

In summary, Yakuza 0 is an incredible "beginning" for the Yakuza franchise and its introduction of the sinister Goro Majima and heroic Kazuma Kiryu. You'll be ready for a fight in one instance and jumping to grab some tissues the next. If you like stories about organized crime that are heavy on emotion and narrative ambition, Yakuza 0 is most definitely for you.

Was looking for an excuse to play this again and came up with a new type of run I like to call the Chaos Run.

The rules of the run are simple: Pillage as many moons as you want/need from each kingdom except don't collect any kingdom's final multimoon where it can be skipped to progress the story, leaving the kingdoms in a constant state of chaos as you finish the game.

Not all that different from a normal playthrough all things considered, but just the ability to pursue such an arbitrary condition like this really speaks to the degree of freedom offered in this game. Truly a spiritual successor to Super Mario 64's flexible sandbox.