Yakuza 0 Review
Greetings!
In my first ever Medium article, I decided to review a game that I recently played and instantly became one of the best games I’ve ever experienced. Choose your fighting style, don your best suit, prepare your eye patch and let’s begin.
Yakuza 0 is a prequel to the famous Yakuza series and -according to a friend of mine who’s well-versed in the series- a good entry point for those who want to delve into the Yakuza world but hesitate because of the ongoing story and/or due to the series having many games. I also followed my friend’s advice and Yakuza 0 is my first Yakuza game. So bear with me if you’re a veteran fan of the series.
Yakuza 0 is a 3rd person open world game that takes place in late 80's Japan. You can follow the main story by going to the story related points, where you’ll usually be asked if you want to proceed with the story or just wander around the town more. When not following the main story, the towns of Kamurocho and Sotenbori (based on the real Japanese towns of Kabuki-chō and Dōtonbori) are yours to explore. There are a lot of activities you can participate in just to entertain yourself and take a break from the very intense main story.
The plot of Yakuza series follows Kazuma Kiryu, who’s addressed almost exclusively as Kiryu (it’s Japanese tradition to call people by their last names in formal situations) and in Yakuza 0, we also get to play as the fan-favorite Goro Majima. Kiryu and Majima have their respective storylines that are beautifully intertwined. But more on that later.
Simply put, Yakuza 0 knows exactly what it wants to do. The writers (and the localization team) clearly had no confusion on how to approach the myriad of scenarios in this game. The main story is serious, has a heavy tone and definitely doesn’t pull punches when it wants to be sad or dramatic.
Meanwhile, side stories and side activities ham it up to 11, bringing out the more humane and funny side of the characters. At the end of the day, despite how hard-boiled they’d like to act, these characters are still human and there are things they enjoy. Like karaoke, which Kiryu takes VERY seriously, or bowling… which Kiryu also takes very seriously. Or helping a group of TV crew shoot their show in time, which Kiryu takes… you see where this is going. Kiryu is a serious guy. But he’s also very much human, a shy one at that, and finds himself in very awkward situations all the time.
The main formula Yakuza uses is definitely not unique or groundbreaking. What’s groundbreaking is the finishers you can use during combat sequences, where you can literally slam people to the ground, breaking both their necks and the ground. Jokes aside, combat in Yakuza 0 is encounter-based. When you’re roaming the streets, you can run into muggers, rival yakuza members, delinquents etc. and combat starts. Apparently people in the 80’s Japan was very much into street fighting, because they immediately form a circle and start cheering, which also functions as the “combat zone” until the fight is over.
Kiryu and Majima have 3 base fighting styles each. Both sets of styles include a fast style, a slow but heavy hitting style and a hybrid style. Kiryu uses brawling as hybrid, quick-style boxing as fast and literally smashing people’s heads in by throwing a motorcycle at them as heavy hitting style. While Majima uses his thug style as hybrid, a myriad of breakdance moves (yes) as fast and his trusted baseball bat as heavy hitting style.
Each fighting style has its own heat moves: big finishing moves you can perform after generating heat by fighting. These finishers have incredible variety, changing on where you trigger them, how you trigger them, when you trigger them, what weapon you have in your hand when you trigger them etc. The variety of finishing moves and the way they are choreographed is insanely good and detailed. As a former fight choreographer, I found Yakuza 0’s heat move sequences to be breathtaking.
A fourth and ultimate fighting style can be unlocked by finishing Kiryu and Majima’s respective business storylines. Yes, you also get to manage your own business in Yakuza 0. Kiryu has a real estate company and Majima is an amazing cabaret manager, referred by people of Sotenbori as the Lord of the Night. While actively participating in Yakuza life, you can also go full legit and work hard to earn your living like a model citizen.
The gameplay loop -out of the main story- consists of exploring each protagonist’s respective town, meeting new people and getting to know both the protagonists and the lively people and places in that town. Both Kamurocho and Sotenbori feel very much alive. Both towns being known for their rich night life (or downright being the red light district), there’s always people in the streets going somewhere, or mugging someone, or trying their luck at a pachinko parlor, or getting mugged by someone.
Yakuza families have these towns under their control, so you also run into members of different families on the streets. A fight can break out just because you bumped into a tough guy NPC, who wants to teach you a lesson on not bumping into people in the streets. A lot of these encounters either end up in you getting a lot of money (which is used to acquire new abilities, instead of an XP system), or a side story where you get to meet new characters.
Speaking of which, there are 100 side stories in Yakuza 0, with 60 on Kiryu’s side and 40 on Majima’s side. These side stories introduce various interesting characters, some of them appearing only once, and some of them joining your business in the future. Yes, you can actually build friendships with NPCs in this game and have them join your business later. Taking time to help them, spending time with them, or playing a game of bowling with them helps solidify your relationship with these NPCs, which then join your business in a way that fits their story arc so far. NPCs are not just there to point you into directions. The time you spent on them actually pays off further down the line.
As I previously mentioned, the writing is top notch, having 2 separate stories that each have their own charm and actually making them intertwined at the end. Both Kiryu’s and Majima’s stories are already very intense and sucked me in as standalone stories. Honestly, I was OK with the idea of this game having 2 main stories that have nothing to do with each other. They are both chock full of interesting characters and stories and the writers manage to unite these storylines down the line perfectly.
As for the music, SEGA sound team created a masterpiece. From BGMs to the Karaoke songs, Yakuza 0 oozes with 80’s energy. Japanese voice acting is great, especially Majima’s jumps from serious to goofy and back is very fun to listen to.
Overall, Yakuza 0 is a game that tries to be many things, but also actually manages to be them. Seriousness of an organized crime story meets Japanese sense of humor with humane elements. I came for the combat system, and stayed for Bakamitai. Seriously, that song is amazing.
