First game I played to the Yakuza series - What was I missing for all these years?
Yakuza 0 focuses on two protagonists, Kiryu Kazuma a young Yakuza who when framed for murder has to go on the run from the Yakuza to clear his name and Majima Goro, an ex-Yakuza who is desperate to get back in and will do almost anything to do it. The story is fantastic, I honestly never expected to be enjoying the storyline as much as I am, the characters are really well fleshed out and it's full of tense, exciting and sometimes emotional moments with some nice twists and turns along the way. While the main storyline is pretty serious there are lots of substories to find that are the complete opposite and are completely daft and hilarious. There are about 100 in all to find that vary from helping to train a shy dominatrix to help produce a tv show. While completely optional the substories are some of Yakuza 0's best content and you can get some good in game rewards for completing them.
The gameplay is essentially like a beat-em up/brawler with some role playing game elements. Each character has their own location to explore which shows up as part of a city map, it's not exactly huge and isn't an open world as most western games know it but it is densely packed with things to see and do. As you travel from mission to mission you will often be ambushed by Yakuza, street gangs and various other ruffians sparking a fight, sometimes this can get annoying when you're just trying to travel from place to place though it is possible to run past them. During a fight you can do basic combat moves such as block, dodge, punch, kick, hold, throw etc. but as you hit enemies without taking damage you build up a bar that lets you unlock heat moves which are one off attacks that use that bar. These heat moves can be brutal, you can stomp on peoples faces, slam their heads in car doors, smash pushbikes over them etc. and it is incredibly satisfying at times. There is also a plethora of weapons to find, buy or craft that can be used in a fight like knives, baseball bats, katanas or even some guns. While each weapon has a certain durability they can really make a difference against some of the tougher opponents and bosses.
Kiryu and Majima both have various fighting styles to switch between they unlock as the story goes on. Each style has it's strength and weaknesses, some are fast, some use items, crowd control and special moves etc. so depending on the situation it's worth swapping between them. The styles can also be upgraded using money to unlock more moves, attack power and health with the more advanced moves being far more expensive.
Though money is gained through combat simply from beating up enemies there are a ton of other ways to gain cash in Yakuza 0 and it's where I have spent the bulk of my time so far because this game has a ton of mini games. They range from darts, pool, Karaoke, fishing, casino gambling, baseball batting, Mahjong to weirder activities such as model car racing, disco dancing, and even cabaret club management. Each mini game is surprisingly good, I spent hours learning how to play Mahjong through the game having never played it before, in some arcades there are even full games of some old Sega megadrive games to play such as Outrun, Super Hang On, Space Harrier and Fantasy Zone. The amount of games to play, things to customize and do is really impressive. Yakuza 0 has a wealth of content and all of it is fantastic.....except catfighting, which is all round terrible both as an idea and for the actual gameplay which is both luck based and rigged against you. Seriously it's awful and only stands out more because the others are pretty well done.
Yakuza 0 originally came out in Japan in 2015 as a cross gen Playstation 3 and 4 game so it is never going to blow anyone away visually. Having said that though it does in fact look great. The protagonist character models are especially impressive at times, both the cities look really good with all their neon signs and bustling streets. Where it is slightly let down is that npc (non player character) models are pretty sub par in most cases, they especially stands out in story scenes. There is also some occasional screen tear when sprinting through busy areas of the cities here and there but neither of these really hurt the game from really looking pretty good. The music and voice acting are both of top notch quality to boot. The game is dubbed in Japanese with English subtitles but the voices of all the characters really match their characters perfectly. Not every character is voiced with characters in substories only getting the odd laughter noise or something as interaction but everyone in the main story is fully voiced.
Essentially if you haven't played a Yakuza game before and have been daunted due to the size of the series 0 being a prequel to them all is a perfect place to jump in and is also just a fantastic game in it's own right. It's serious, quirky, funny and brutal and I highly recommend it.
+ Main story is interesting, emotional and full of twists.
+ Substories are many, varied and hilarious.
+ Combat can be pretty brutal.
+ Great value for money with large amount of great minigames.
+ Visuals, music and voice acting are surprisingly good.
- The catfighting mini game is awful.
- Being ambushed a lot when going from place to place can get annoying.
Yakuza 0 focuses on two protagonists, Kiryu Kazuma a young Yakuza who when framed for murder has to go on the run from the Yakuza to clear his name and Majima Goro, an ex-Yakuza who is desperate to get back in and will do almost anything to do it. The story is fantastic, I honestly never expected to be enjoying the storyline as much as I am, the characters are really well fleshed out and it's full of tense, exciting and sometimes emotional moments with some nice twists and turns along the way. While the main storyline is pretty serious there are lots of substories to find that are the complete opposite and are completely daft and hilarious. There are about 100 in all to find that vary from helping to train a shy dominatrix to help produce a tv show. While completely optional the substories are some of Yakuza 0's best content and you can get some good in game rewards for completing them.
The gameplay is essentially like a beat-em up/brawler with some role playing game elements. Each character has their own location to explore which shows up as part of a city map, it's not exactly huge and isn't an open world as most western games know it but it is densely packed with things to see and do. As you travel from mission to mission you will often be ambushed by Yakuza, street gangs and various other ruffians sparking a fight, sometimes this can get annoying when you're just trying to travel from place to place though it is possible to run past them. During a fight you can do basic combat moves such as block, dodge, punch, kick, hold, throw etc. but as you hit enemies without taking damage you build up a bar that lets you unlock heat moves which are one off attacks that use that bar. These heat moves can be brutal, you can stomp on peoples faces, slam their heads in car doors, smash pushbikes over them etc. and it is incredibly satisfying at times. There is also a plethora of weapons to find, buy or craft that can be used in a fight like knives, baseball bats, katanas or even some guns. While each weapon has a certain durability they can really make a difference against some of the tougher opponents and bosses.
Kiryu and Majima both have various fighting styles to switch between they unlock as the story goes on. Each style has it's strength and weaknesses, some are fast, some use items, crowd control and special moves etc. so depending on the situation it's worth swapping between them. The styles can also be upgraded using money to unlock more moves, attack power and health with the more advanced moves being far more expensive.
Though money is gained through combat simply from beating up enemies there are a ton of other ways to gain cash in Yakuza 0 and it's where I have spent the bulk of my time so far because this game has a ton of mini games. They range from darts, pool, Karaoke, fishing, casino gambling, baseball batting, Mahjong to weirder activities such as model car racing, disco dancing, and even cabaret club management. Each mini game is surprisingly good, I spent hours learning how to play Mahjong through the game having never played it before, in some arcades there are even full games of some old Sega megadrive games to play such as Outrun, Super Hang On, Space Harrier and Fantasy Zone. The amount of games to play, things to customize and do is really impressive. Yakuza 0 has a wealth of content and all of it is fantastic.....except catfighting, which is all round terrible both as an idea and for the actual gameplay which is both luck based and rigged against you. Seriously it's awful and only stands out more because the others are pretty well done.
Yakuza 0 originally came out in Japan in 2015 as a cross gen Playstation 3 and 4 game so it is never going to blow anyone away visually. Having said that though it does in fact look great. The protagonist character models are especially impressive at times, both the cities look really good with all their neon signs and bustling streets. Where it is slightly let down is that npc (non player character) models are pretty sub par in most cases, they especially stands out in story scenes. There is also some occasional screen tear when sprinting through busy areas of the cities here and there but neither of these really hurt the game from really looking pretty good. The music and voice acting are both of top notch quality to boot. The game is dubbed in Japanese with English subtitles but the voices of all the characters really match their characters perfectly. Not every character is voiced with characters in substories only getting the odd laughter noise or something as interaction but everyone in the main story is fully voiced.
Essentially if you haven't played a Yakuza game before and have been daunted due to the size of the series 0 being a prequel to them all is a perfect place to jump in and is also just a fantastic game in it's own right. It's serious, quirky, funny and brutal and I highly recommend it.
+ Main story is interesting, emotional and full of twists.
+ Substories are many, varied and hilarious.
+ Combat can be pretty brutal.
+ Great value for money with large amount of great minigames.
+ Visuals, music and voice acting are surprisingly good.
- The catfighting mini game is awful.
- Being ambushed a lot when going from place to place can get annoying.
4 Comments
I've cooled on it now but god it made me angry at the time ha ha.
I think Yakuza 0 was the entry point for most people, because it was the first that was an actual commercial success in the West. It was my first too and since, I have played and finished every game in the series except for Yakuza: Like a dragon which still sits in my Backlog.
Just throw money in the air to avoid being ambushed.
Kujin
2 years ago