Yakuza 0 Reviews

Yakuza 0 is the prequel game to the mainline Yakuza games, and marks a superb starting point for anyone looking to get into the franchise which has become SEGA's big success since the 2000s.
There are a few things I should point out before going into the review. First, this game doesn't include an English dub, it's Japanese only with English subtitles. I know this might put quite a lot of people off, but trust me, you are missing out on something amazing by doing that.
Secondly, this game is long... like 150-200 hours to 100% the achievements long, if you're bothered about a game taking too long to complete, you might not want to play this, but again, I found it so investing, I didn't even notice when I had hit 100 hours in my playtime.

Gameplay
Yakuza 0 is an Action Beat-em-up, with RPG mechanics, but it's probably my favourite beat-em-up I’ve ever played. I don't usually have much care for beat-em-ups, they're okay, but here the gameplay loop is extremely satisfying. Each punch and kick have the proper amount of umph to it, but best of all, it offers you 3 fighting styles for each protagonist to choose from, you can focus on a brawler type fighting style where you can punch enemies around, or even pick up objects and beat them up with it (I mean some of the objects you can use are bizarre, such as full sofas). Or you can use a Rush style, where you punch and move faster, but can't pick up objects. It's completely customisable, and the RPG progression with each style does feel like you're getting more powerful, where punches will start to do more damage, and you learn new combos.
It controls perfectly fine, essentially no different from what you'd expect from a Beat-em-up, and the way the game introduces you to each style doesn't overwhelm the player either.

Story
The game presents to us 2 stories that follows 2 separate protagonists, one being Kiryu, the other Majima. And believe it or not, both stories here are extremely high quality, with extremely likeable protagonists that you root for throughout the game.
It's pretty difficult to go to into depth without spoiling, but as a brief overview, Kiryu's story follows him trying to clear his own, and his mentors name after being framed for murder. Whilst in Majima's story, we follow how he attempts to be reinstated as a Yakuza over an event that led to his original exile. A pretty simple premise that has been done before, but here we're given many twists that shake up what could be a pretty bog-standard plot. These 2 stories both introduce some of the most well-written characters I’ve seen in gaming, with some events that I honestly can say got me to the verge of tears at times, which is elevated by the excellent performances from essentially each actor.
If I were to point out a warning with the story, and well the game overall, it's that it does start a bit slow on Kiryu's side, which as it's also the start of the game, does lead to a maybe 5 hour window where you do at times feel like you have to push yourself through it, trust me though, after that you are in for an investing 25-35 hour story that never disappoints. It's just that small hurdle which is primarily due to the game introducing you to its gameplay mechanics and world.

Side Content
If you're wanting a game that will give you a ton of side content, Yakuza 0 might honestly be up there for the most side content in a game, and best of all, nearly all of it is superb. The substories are amazing and introduce you to many wacky characters, or even characters that you'll come across again in the original games. It's actually bizarre how weird the substories can get in contrast to the pretty dark and emotional main story. For instance, one of the substories in the game requires you to get an adult magazine for a kid, but there are multiple women around the vending machine who you got to evade to avoid the embarrassment of being called a pervert for getting the magazine... yeah this game doesn't mind being vulgar at times.
It's insane at times, and the game has tons of them, with there being about 100 substories in total to complete which you'll come across over the course of the story. And honestly, the majority of them are brilliant, and the ones that aren't, are because they're literally just ones that introduce you to a character who you can build up a friendship meter with... which then unlocks another substory which is amazing.
And that's just the substories because the game also has tons of minigames...

Minigames
The game is absolutely chock-full of minigames. I actually cannot believe how much there is to do in this game, and most of which is pretty high quality. There's the obligatory card minigames such as Poker, Blackjack, but there's also Shogi, Mahjong, Koi-koi, Roulette, Bowling, Pool, Darts, Karaoke, Dancing, and even a selection of complete 80s SEGA arcade games such as Fantasy Zone, OutRun, Space Harrier, and Super Hang-on. That's not even half of the minigames, there just is too many to list out.
It's insane value for your money just from the minigame selection alone, which if you're going for 100% will offer you another 10 hours at least of content.
I personally got really into the games Pocket Circuit Racing, where you get parts to create your own mini kart you can race against other drivers, I found it really fun to try and get my fastest lap, hell you could even make your own track after finishing a substory.

Graphics and Sound
Graphically, the game is fine. It's a game that released originally in 2015, and even by 2015 standard it wasn't anything special. The cutscenes do look amazing, but in general gameplay, you're looking at very late 7th/early 8th gen console graphics.
The graphic style for the game is vibrant though, the streets of both Kamurocho and Sotenbori are littered in dazzling lights that do really do transport you to its 80s Japan setting.
The sound for the game is also pretty good, nothing really ever stuck out as off, the ambience of the city was again immersive, each combat scenario had the right amount of umph to it with the punches.
In terms of the voice acting, we're not given a dub, and I know that might put people off in terms of having to read subtitles, but personally I found the vocal performances to be full of emotion. It's constantly investing and obvious that each actor put their top performance into every line, not just the main characters but even the minor characters. The one performance that stuck out to me the most was actually from Nishiki, who is Kiryu's lifelong friend.

Achievements
Now, I must warn that if you're going for a 100% completion for this game... do be prepared for a very very long grind, at times even a grind you might find annoying depending on your knowledge of some of the minigames. For instance, I for the life of me cannot get my head around Shogi or Mahjong, and to 100% the game, you will need to play a fair amount of those 2 as they go towards the "Perfectionist" achievement.
There's a few missable achievements, so do be careful to pick those up along the way. However, you will also need to play through the game twice, as one of the achievements requires playing on a difficulty setting that is only unlocked after completing the game once. This extra run through alone will set you back about 20-30 hours depending on if you try and rush it. If you do miss some of the missable achievements, you can clear them up here as well.
All in all, i'm still working my way to 100%ing it at some point, but if I were to take an estimated time to complete the achievements, you'd be looking at about 150-200 hours at most. Possibly 100-150 hours if you are really good at the game though.

Overall
At the end of the day, it's a game that does kind of rely on your investment in long RPG type games. If you're not a fan of story heavy games, maybe avoid this one, it does feature some extremely long cutscenes, and again it has a very slow start partially due to this, and it introducing you to the game’s mechanics. But if you can look past these bumps, you are given what I personally would call one of the greatest Action Beat-em-up RPGs ever. And best of all, it's full of quality content that'll keep you coming back for more.

We're back in the 80's baby; disco is king, cell phones could be mistaken for bricks, and the Yakuza are flourishing thanks to the money flowing nonstop. Dojima of the Tojo Clan has his eyes set on a vacant lot that will rocket him to the top of the clan. Unbeknownst to Dojima, a pair of young yakuza are about to upset all of his plans and send reverberations through the entire clan that will have consequences for several decades to come.

This tale opens up with one of our protagonists mercilessly beating a man who owes a debt to a loan shark in the heart of Kamurocho. After getting the money and getting it to the shark, we finally get control of Kiryu and learn the basics of movement, combat, and even how to literally invest in yourself to gain new skills and upgrades. Not long after, a news report comes out about a man found dead in the vacant lot, and this happens to be the exact man whom Kiryu was shaking down for money earlier.

Kiryu is called in by the lieutenants of the Dojima family so that he can take responsibility for the murder and turn himself in. He refuses as he wasn't the one who killed the man and this snowballs into Kiryu leaving the yakuza by force which leaves him with no-where to turn for help. That is until a well-dressed real estate broker appears and can offer Kiryu help and the chance to find answers.

Meanwhile, in Sotenbori, another man named Majima who is easily noticed by his eye-patch is trying to keep his club, the Grand, in order from a rowdy customer. Effortlessly and with style, Majima calms things down and even turns what might be a bad outcome for the customer into a good experience for everyone quite masterfully. While he might seem to just be a savvy cabaret owner, that is merely a well crafted facade Majima must maintain as he works his way back into the Tojo Clan.

A snake of a man, Sagawa, invites Majima out to talk with the job that will make Majima whole in the Tojo's eyes. All he'll need to do is kill a man by the name of, Makoto Makimura, a low-life that needs to be found somewhere in the city. We do some searching and sure enough Majima gets a solid lead that brings him to a massage clinic and brings him face-to-face to a hulking man. Despite defeating the man believed to be Makoto, more questions pile on as a group of unknown yakuza enter the clinic and take the blind girl assisting in the clinic, claiming she's Makoto. Majima pursues the abductors and gets the girl back, but now he has found himself in quite the bind; kill the girl and reclaim his livelihood as a yakuza, or keep her alive and potentially dig himself deeper while seeking some answers.

Phew, alright so how about we take a break from the story for a bit and get into some of that lovely side content? Kiryu and Majima both have their own separate money making side hustles. Kiryu's has him diving deep into the spectacular world of real estate where he'll be able to go around town, buy up businesses, and get that sweet sweet rent income. Majima meanwhile manages a small and failing cabaret club where you; gather and dress up new hostesses, manage the club while it's operating, and battle other clubs for superiority in Sotenbori. Each of these money making jobs can be quite fun and funny and they have a big bonus upon reaching the end of these side activities in the form of unlocking each respective character's 4th style, their legendary style.

Aside from their money making activities, both our boys also have a plethora of sub-stories to complete which the majority are incredibly entertaining. Just to give you a couple examples; Kiryu gives a dominatrix advice on how to better treat her clients, Majima infiltrates a cult to save a brainwashed daughter, Kiryu protects a certain pop singer from the undead, and Majima must help a living statue get to the bathroom. The real topping on the cake for these sub-stories is how a lot of the characters you interact with can later help out with the money-making activity or how some of these characters appear later in future titles.

Kamurocho and Sotenbori also host a wide variety of mini-games you can play and... mostly enjoy. There are some pretty standard ones like; mahjong, darts, billiards, shogi, and the batting center. Gambling mini-games are here too like; blackjack, poker, roulette, koi-koi (a card game), cho-han (dice game betting for even or odds). Most of these can be fun, especially if you take a little bit of time to figure out the basics of the game. Mahjong for instance can seem like the most confusing one out of the bunch but it can be pretty entertaining once you understand how to make winning sets/hands.

There's some more mini-games too that are pretty different from anything else. Kiryu can call up ladies on a telephone where he has to carefully seduce them and not make things awkward, and even then success may not be fully guaranteed as Kiryu may become the victim of a catfish. There's also disco where both characters can tear it up on the dance floor in a rhythm game and karaoke where we get to see another side of the boys while they sing their hearts out. A couple mini-games you'll likely find frustrating are pocket circuit racing where it can be a pain without a guide to try and find the right combination of parts to win a race... and then there's the cat fight club. There's an achievement to win ten 3-round matches which proves to be a pain as winning at this rock-paper-scissors thing feels rigged sometimes and then some girls have abilities that activate that can totally wash away your victory just due to chance.

The real meat of this game comes down to the combat which you'll find both characters engage with quite frequently. While you might be afraid that may get stale, the 3 styles each character gets along with the upgrades you can get circumvent that immediately. Kiryu has access to; Brawler, a balanced fighting style with equal amounts speed and power, Rush, gives you fast punches and swift dodges with lesser power, and Beast has Kiryu move sluggishly slow but in turn his damage is turned way up and he'll naturally grab bigger items like signs and motorcycles to crash down on his foes. Majima meanwhile has; Thug, another balanced fighting style, Breaker, which has Majima spinning and flipping around utilizing break-dancing for combat, and Slugger where Majima goes all out with a baseball bat as he cracks heads and ribs. These styles are interchangeable at anytime during combat so you're able to change your strategy at your leisure either when an opportunity shows itself or you're just getting a little bored of another.

Let's finish up with some final thoughts about the story before we close this one out. The story in 0 for both characters is well written on both sides and the way they interweave unto each other is done well. Although you may feel the pull more towards another character's story as it does a better job of hooking you in but I'll let you be the judge of that. By the end of the story, things wrap up very neatly and connects well to the events and characters that will be directly involved in Yakuza 1/Kiwami. Just be careful as the ending can make even those claiming to have a heart of stone may be rubbing away tears from their eyes as acts of love and kindness pierce through.

What about those achievement though? I'm not gonna sugar-coat it, 0 can be a real slog. Getting that 100% completion achievo is a monster and I absolutely recommend you utilize a guide to lessen the stress. A great guide maker is the legend, CyricZ, but don't be afraid to look up video tutorials too for some mini-games as it can be a bit difficult to understand without actually seeing the plays. Aside from the completion achievement and the cat fight club one mentioned earlier, another tough one can be the climax battles but there are videos on youtube to aide with making those easier to attain. Overall, going for all of the achievements is a challenge and should be taken with the knowledge that it will take plenty of time and patience and it is highly recommended by myself that you take some breaks to avoid burnout and stressing yourself out too.

Yakuza 0 is a wonderful prequel game and the perfect place to start playing the series. The game displays some of the highest highs this series can achieve in both the gameplay and the story. I absolutely implore that people at least try out this game as there's almost a guarantee something you're going to see or experience that will hook you in, and the best thing is these hooks come early, not something ridiculous like 10 hours later in other games. Yakuza 0 is more than worth your time and I hope you play it and enjoy it as it's just the beginning of the tale for this emerging dragon and unleashed mad dog.