best game in the series, potentially barring yakuza 7: like a dragon, but i'm broke and i haven't gotten the chance to play it yet. certainly the best game out of the classic brawler-RPG hybrids the series has been known for. the culmination of everything great about the series up to that point.
if possible, i wouldn't recommend it as the FIRST yakuza game to start out with like a lot of people do because i'm a purist - if possible, start with the original PS2 games (not the kiwami remakes) and work your way up from there. the yakuza team really takes care to add slow and steady improvements between iterations and it would just be extremely odd to play the games outside of release order because of that. also, kiwami 1 kind of assumes you've played yakuza 0 while 0 itself has a lot of callbacks to earlier games in the series. it's really weird, and in my opinion playing in release order is just more satisfying - the kiwami games are fun as GAMES, but they arent necessarily good as REMAKES for a couple of reasons.
that being said, the first two games ARE on outdated hardware and yakuza 2 copies in particular are pretty rare while every other mainline yakuza game, including the kiwami remakes of 1 and 2, are available on the ps4. if emulation isn't an option (which is completely understandable), yakuza 0 is a more than serviceable start to the series. it's a fantastic game that's more than worth your time either way.
some newcomers and fans of the series love to frame it as some lame ass shit like "The Adventures of the Wacky Crime Boys" and while not entirely untrue, i think part of the appeal that's lost in that descriptor is that it seamlessly combines and interweaves the deadly seriousness and emotion of a japanese crime drama with the outlandishness of its core gameplay, substories, and minigames in a way that only the medium of video games can do. i'm pretty sure this has been said before by people who are way smarter than me, but it's a great example of a whole that's more than the sum of its parts. not only does this insane clash in tone actually result in a more multifaceted main cast, but it makes that core gameplay that much more satisfying - when you see kiryu kicking a goon's face in, or having daydreams while singing karaoke, or picking up girls at a phone club, the outlandish, exaggerated nature just sells EVERYTHING. the now iconic sewer fight with kuze is probably a great example, where a dramatic cutscene where we see kiryu backed into a corner immediately segues into a hot-blooded, over-the-top, anime-ass battle, but there are great little moments like these in the entire series.
meanwhile, this overstated gameplay is set in painstakingly accurate recreations of tokyo's kabukicho district and osaka's dotonbori, with its main characters going through almost hellish personal trials involving the japanese criminal underworld. the turns the story takes end up being some of the best in the series, and is extremely engaging throughout. this is especially refreshing after yakuza 3, 4, and 5 in particular were written with bloated, needlessly convoluted storylines with a million different plot threads that just bog everything down. here, the writing takes a step back and simplifies things while being arguably the most engaging plot in the entire series. even though the gameplay does the absolute most to keep you engaged via style, the plot and setting resemble, well.... a gritty, cinematic yakuza crime drama that engages via substance. it all goes back to "being more than the sum of its parts."
half star docked because some of the requirements for substory completion, or maxing out character stats can get REALLY grindy in the most boring way possible. repeating what's written as basically the same social link six times as majima while he builds relationships with his cabaret club hostesses isn't exactly fun, and waiting outside kiryu's real estate office while waiting for your profits to come in so you can continue to level him up is just a waiting game with no entertainment value whatsoever. however, these are by no means required to finish the game whatsoever and can be completely ignored - the main parts of the game are about as perfect as they can get, in my humble opinion.
i wholeheartedly recommend yakuza 0 to anyone that even vaguely enjoys either narrative-driven titles or action-oriented gameplay (with a completely insane amount of side content and minigames of different flavors).
dame da ne...
if possible, i wouldn't recommend it as the FIRST yakuza game to start out with like a lot of people do because i'm a purist - if possible, start with the original PS2 games (not the kiwami remakes) and work your way up from there. the yakuza team really takes care to add slow and steady improvements between iterations and it would just be extremely odd to play the games outside of release order because of that. also, kiwami 1 kind of assumes you've played yakuza 0 while 0 itself has a lot of callbacks to earlier games in the series. it's really weird, and in my opinion playing in release order is just more satisfying - the kiwami games are fun as GAMES, but they arent necessarily good as REMAKES for a couple of reasons.
that being said, the first two games ARE on outdated hardware and yakuza 2 copies in particular are pretty rare while every other mainline yakuza game, including the kiwami remakes of 1 and 2, are available on the ps4. if emulation isn't an option (which is completely understandable), yakuza 0 is a more than serviceable start to the series. it's a fantastic game that's more than worth your time either way.
some newcomers and fans of the series love to frame it as some lame ass shit like "The Adventures of the Wacky Crime Boys" and while not entirely untrue, i think part of the appeal that's lost in that descriptor is that it seamlessly combines and interweaves the deadly seriousness and emotion of a japanese crime drama with the outlandishness of its core gameplay, substories, and minigames in a way that only the medium of video games can do. i'm pretty sure this has been said before by people who are way smarter than me, but it's a great example of a whole that's more than the sum of its parts. not only does this insane clash in tone actually result in a more multifaceted main cast, but it makes that core gameplay that much more satisfying - when you see kiryu kicking a goon's face in, or having daydreams while singing karaoke, or picking up girls at a phone club, the outlandish, exaggerated nature just sells EVERYTHING. the now iconic sewer fight with kuze is probably a great example, where a dramatic cutscene where we see kiryu backed into a corner immediately segues into a hot-blooded, over-the-top, anime-ass battle, but there are great little moments like these in the entire series.
meanwhile, this overstated gameplay is set in painstakingly accurate recreations of tokyo's kabukicho district and osaka's dotonbori, with its main characters going through almost hellish personal trials involving the japanese criminal underworld. the turns the story takes end up being some of the best in the series, and is extremely engaging throughout. this is especially refreshing after yakuza 3, 4, and 5 in particular were written with bloated, needlessly convoluted storylines with a million different plot threads that just bog everything down. here, the writing takes a step back and simplifies things while being arguably the most engaging plot in the entire series. even though the gameplay does the absolute most to keep you engaged via style, the plot and setting resemble, well.... a gritty, cinematic yakuza crime drama that engages via substance. it all goes back to "being more than the sum of its parts."
half star docked because some of the requirements for substory completion, or maxing out character stats can get REALLY grindy in the most boring way possible. repeating what's written as basically the same social link six times as majima while he builds relationships with his cabaret club hostesses isn't exactly fun, and waiting outside kiryu's real estate office while waiting for your profits to come in so you can continue to level him up is just a waiting game with no entertainment value whatsoever. however, these are by no means required to finish the game whatsoever and can be completely ignored - the main parts of the game are about as perfect as they can get, in my humble opinion.
i wholeheartedly recommend yakuza 0 to anyone that even vaguely enjoys either narrative-driven titles or action-oriented gameplay (with a completely insane amount of side content and minigames of different flavors).
dame da ne...