This review contains spoilers
(spoilers for every game thru 5 and then also 0)
what can be said about yakuza 0 that hasnt been said already
well, a lot honestly. this was my entry to the yakuza series and it was the first game i played after that pesky little virus started so in a way it was kinda what i needed right then and there. raw testosterone and hype bottled with a surprisingly earnest story. i wasn't too interested in the rest of the series after finishing this one but oh boy was this one incredible. it made me laugh, cry, excited, tense, the whole spectrum of the human experience encapsulated into one cosmically small piece of fiction. it was perfect, and i didn't need more.
shit dude. i was so wrong.
yakuza 0 was an amazing entrypoint to the series; however, i don't think that's when it's at its best. after going through the journey alongside kiryu from his imprisonment all the way up until his "death" at the end of 5 (more on that later) so seeing where he started, his origin as a naive kid trying to survive in a world he was never cut out for. it's pretty powerful stuff.
the core conflict of yakuza 0 is one of ideals. it's a clash of will between men and what the title of YAKUZA means to them. it's kazuma kiryu, a man who embodies the true spirit and honor of the yakuza, vs keiji shibusawa, a man who embodies the reality. the yakuza is a criminal organization that exists for profit, not protection, not honor. there is nothing noble about being a yakuza.
in a way, yakuza 0 functions as a coming of age story. kiryu is 20 years old, he's an orphan, and the only father figure in his life was a yakuza hitman who not even 3 years prior to the start of the game did he see murder several korean refugees (some of which also happened to be guilty members of a crime ring) and in spite of all this kiryu wanted the glamor and status of kazama. he wanted to pen a name for himself.
kazuma kiryu is not a criminal, but he IS a yakuza. and therein lies the conflict. yakuza 0 is a microcosm of everything the series is. it's a man trying his damnest to do right in a world of wrong. he has to be a symbol, whether he likes it or not. the title of the dragon of dojima isn't something that can just be tossed around. he earned it. and it's a title that means nobility in its most pure form.
kazuma kiryu is not a criminal. he is a good man who understands that the yakuza are a necessary evil, but exists to keep them from overextending their reach. he is, in essence, a symbol of balance. a wall between the civillian world and the yakuza one. in his own words, he's not black or white. he's the gray in between.
throughout the series (thus far), time and time again kiryu steps in and resolves issues that he has no obligation to. yakuza 1 is a purely inner-tojo conflict that he just so happens to have stakes in. by taking the fall for the murder of sohei dojima, he is partly responsible for creating the demon that was akira nishikiyama. and he needed to stop in. yakuza 2 introduces the threat of the omi olliance and the son of the chairman needing to write his legacy. he plans to do so by taking over the tojo clan (WE WILL GET BACK TO THIS ONE TOO) and securing a title that'll carry him past death. kiryu has zero stakes in this one, but he steps in because he (at least thinks he does) owes too much to terada. yakuza 3 has his orphanage, his plot in the world, threatened by the unfortunate but very real overlap between the yakuza world and the political world. he steps in to protect the kids who gave him purpose outside of the underworld.
by yakuza 4... it's a conflict between the cops and the yakuza and uh... why is kiryu here? he almost feels shoehorned in just because it's a yakuza game and to not include kiryu would be wrong? the game touches on his legacy but ultimately it feels irrelevant in the grandiosity of the game. i love yakuza 4, but kiryu's place in it feels rushed at best.
around comes yakuza 5 (my favorite one so far btw). yakuza 5 is a conflict between the tojo and the omi, but this time, kiryu is forced to intervene not by his own will, but because he believes majima to be dead. yakuza 5 is the game that answers the question "why was kiryu in 4?" it's because his reputation precedes him. his life is not his own. he HAS to be a symbol, because if he isn't, the power balance will skew too heavily in favor of the criminal underworld.
the end of the game has kiryu die kind of. in a metaphorical sense, he seems to have severed his ties with the conflict. he put new blood in its place and pushed the ideals of peace forward. the omi alliance kneel to a civilian. the tojo seems to be at peace. kiryu falls unconcious in haruka's arms. all is well.
and then the next game is reflective. it looks back, not only in the literal way of seeing kiryu's backstory but in the metaphorical way of putting out there all the different and complex ways yakuza handles its very simple conflict. nothing is romanticized. nothing feels like it's trying to endorse this life. if anything, it makes being a yakuza out to be complete suffering. but somehow, somewhere, some dumb naive punk finds himself wrapped up in a real estate conflict. and that conflict sets the course for a franchise that has spanned generations, both in game and in real life.
kazuma kiryu is not a criminal. he's just a kid.
what can be said about yakuza 0 that hasnt been said already
well, a lot honestly. this was my entry to the yakuza series and it was the first game i played after that pesky little virus started so in a way it was kinda what i needed right then and there. raw testosterone and hype bottled with a surprisingly earnest story. i wasn't too interested in the rest of the series after finishing this one but oh boy was this one incredible. it made me laugh, cry, excited, tense, the whole spectrum of the human experience encapsulated into one cosmically small piece of fiction. it was perfect, and i didn't need more.
shit dude. i was so wrong.
yakuza 0 was an amazing entrypoint to the series; however, i don't think that's when it's at its best. after going through the journey alongside kiryu from his imprisonment all the way up until his "death" at the end of 5 (more on that later) so seeing where he started, his origin as a naive kid trying to survive in a world he was never cut out for. it's pretty powerful stuff.
the core conflict of yakuza 0 is one of ideals. it's a clash of will between men and what the title of YAKUZA means to them. it's kazuma kiryu, a man who embodies the true spirit and honor of the yakuza, vs keiji shibusawa, a man who embodies the reality. the yakuza is a criminal organization that exists for profit, not protection, not honor. there is nothing noble about being a yakuza.
in a way, yakuza 0 functions as a coming of age story. kiryu is 20 years old, he's an orphan, and the only father figure in his life was a yakuza hitman who not even 3 years prior to the start of the game did he see murder several korean refugees (some of which also happened to be guilty members of a crime ring) and in spite of all this kiryu wanted the glamor and status of kazama. he wanted to pen a name for himself.
kazuma kiryu is not a criminal, but he IS a yakuza. and therein lies the conflict. yakuza 0 is a microcosm of everything the series is. it's a man trying his damnest to do right in a world of wrong. he has to be a symbol, whether he likes it or not. the title of the dragon of dojima isn't something that can just be tossed around. he earned it. and it's a title that means nobility in its most pure form.
kazuma kiryu is not a criminal. he is a good man who understands that the yakuza are a necessary evil, but exists to keep them from overextending their reach. he is, in essence, a symbol of balance. a wall between the civillian world and the yakuza one. in his own words, he's not black or white. he's the gray in between.
throughout the series (thus far), time and time again kiryu steps in and resolves issues that he has no obligation to. yakuza 1 is a purely inner-tojo conflict that he just so happens to have stakes in. by taking the fall for the murder of sohei dojima, he is partly responsible for creating the demon that was akira nishikiyama. and he needed to stop in. yakuza 2 introduces the threat of the omi olliance and the son of the chairman needing to write his legacy. he plans to do so by taking over the tojo clan (WE WILL GET BACK TO THIS ONE TOO) and securing a title that'll carry him past death. kiryu has zero stakes in this one, but he steps in because he (at least thinks he does) owes too much to terada. yakuza 3 has his orphanage, his plot in the world, threatened by the unfortunate but very real overlap between the yakuza world and the political world. he steps in to protect the kids who gave him purpose outside of the underworld.
by yakuza 4... it's a conflict between the cops and the yakuza and uh... why is kiryu here? he almost feels shoehorned in just because it's a yakuza game and to not include kiryu would be wrong? the game touches on his legacy but ultimately it feels irrelevant in the grandiosity of the game. i love yakuza 4, but kiryu's place in it feels rushed at best.
around comes yakuza 5 (my favorite one so far btw). yakuza 5 is a conflict between the tojo and the omi, but this time, kiryu is forced to intervene not by his own will, but because he believes majima to be dead. yakuza 5 is the game that answers the question "why was kiryu in 4?" it's because his reputation precedes him. his life is not his own. he HAS to be a symbol, because if he isn't, the power balance will skew too heavily in favor of the criminal underworld.
the end of the game has kiryu die kind of. in a metaphorical sense, he seems to have severed his ties with the conflict. he put new blood in its place and pushed the ideals of peace forward. the omi alliance kneel to a civilian. the tojo seems to be at peace. kiryu falls unconcious in haruka's arms. all is well.
and then the next game is reflective. it looks back, not only in the literal way of seeing kiryu's backstory but in the metaphorical way of putting out there all the different and complex ways yakuza handles its very simple conflict. nothing is romanticized. nothing feels like it's trying to endorse this life. if anything, it makes being a yakuza out to be complete suffering. but somehow, somewhere, some dumb naive punk finds himself wrapped up in a real estate conflict. and that conflict sets the course for a franchise that has spanned generations, both in game and in real life.
kazuma kiryu is not a criminal. he's just a kid.