I don’t even know where to begin. Prequels are often hard to write because you must account for a lot of details to get the story to fit in with pre-established material just right. This game has done everything right. I still think about how they introduce Majima at least once a week. Both Kiryu’s and Majima’s stories and the characters involved in them are nothing short of incredible, and the game does an excellent job of showing how these characters become who they are in the rest of the series. Yakuza 0 also really nails substories, with numerous ones for each character standing out as hilariously memorable, whereas in previous games they were often just goofy or fun diversions. New features and diversions like Mr. Shakedown, the Disco, and the Cabaret Club really add to the list of things you want to run off and go do, and the game really does a good job of pointing you in the direction of these things. The gameplay in this one is as great as ever, and they really do Majima justice by giving him the fight styles that character deserves. One thing I would recommend to newcomers is to play the game on hard, because you are going to breeze through the boss fights otherwise. For anyone with an interest in this series but doesn’t know where to start, I have no doubt that this is the game you should jump in with.