Untitled presentation

Why you should play

Yakuza 0 begins in 1988’s Kamurocho where you begin as Kazuma Kiryu, a young yet uprising member of the Tojo clan. When on a debt collection, he gives someone a beating, as they did not pay their debt on time. The very next day, he gets alerted to come to the Kazama family office, the family of the man who raised him, despite the fact he works under the Dojima family. He is told that his debt collection ended in death, he didn’t kill them, so who did? He must find out who framed him and clear his name

The story:

Goro Majima

Tsukasa Sagawa

Futoshi Shimano

Occasionally throughout the game, you will switch to another protagonist, Goro Majima from Sotenbori. Majima is an ex-yakuza member who’d been tortured and banished after trying to stop his oath brother from running into a setup from their own clan. Despite losing his eye from the torture, he is desperate to get back into the Yakuza. Majima works under the Shimano family, currently working under Tsukasa Sagawa. He works relentlessly, making hundreds of millions of yen with the promise of Sagawa putting in good word to get him back in the Yakuza. His final task, however, is to assassinate a blind girl, and he faces internal struggle over doing so.

The two protagonists do not meet, but their stories intertwine and their actions have an effect on each other. Yakuza 0 is the longest game in the series, the story has 17 chapters, each with intricate side characters with deep stories and personalities. The game has a great range of emotion from its contents, there are a multitude of serious, sad, funny, silly, and dark moments within the game. Though I could rant on about why the story is incredibly well written and paced, I think one of the joys of playing video games is to experience that for yourself. The story tends to stay serious for a majority of the time, whereas the substories range from all over the place. There are one hundred substories in the game, they are side quests with their own individual stories, though some are connected to previous substories. Substories are a big factor of making the game more fun and fresh, with different mechanics and stories that prevent the game from getting repetitive. Despite the silliness of some of the substories, it doesn’t ever take away from the serious mood of the story, maintaining itself. I just feel that is pleasant.

One of this game’s many wonderful features is the immersive cities of Kamurocho and Sotenbori. Kamurocho is a very accurate replica of Kabukicho in Japan, and Sotenbori is also a great replica of Dotonbori in Japan. The atmosphere is very well done and the mood is well set. You can hear those around you chatting, and you can knock them over if you run into them. The flashy lights and yellow hue of the cities do a great service to replicating 80’s Japan’s bubble era. The immersiveness is enhanced as there are many stores you may enter that are real stores in Japan. Along with this, there are real products from Japan. I find this to be a strong point because especially with real world aspects, the game does a great job at making you feel like the characters as you progress through the game. Entertainment can be found everywhere, there are several outlets for entertainment such as karaoke, disco, bars, batting centers, casinos, bowling alleys, arcades, and telephone clubs if that interests you.

The Streets of Kamurocho and Sotenbori

As stated earlier, there are a large variety of entertainment facilities within the game. Each of them have their own minigames with unique functions that you can play. I find the Karaoke and Disco rhythm games to be the most enjoyable, but there are also games like pool, darts, and baseball. Additionally, there are gambling games like blackjack, pool, and if you like to torture yourself, there are an abundance of asian gambling games like Mahjong and many more. This system of minigames can be a nice change of pace and keeps the game from feeling like a chore, the minigames themselves are also just very fun.

Minigames

DISCO

KARAOKE

The goat pocket circuit fighter

POCKET CIRCUIT

As you wander through the cities, there are a variety of dangers, such as aggravated drunks, mysterious men in suits, and punks who fight you because you looked at them the wrong way.

The main feature of the game, combat, is well designed and has a progressive system. The two characters both have three fighting styles and a fourth secret style. Each style has its own unique song that plays during battle as you use it. This keeps the game’s combat fresh and allows for variety, it also allows you to play in the style that fits you best. The variety also extends as you can switch styles mid combo and continue it, leading to fast paced, fun action. Every style gains more techniques and passives as you unlock upgrades by purchasing them with money. You can obtain money by beating people up, selling things in pawn stores, finishing chapters, and two special minigames. One of the many beloved things about this game is the heat system, doing well in a fight makes you gain heat, which can then be used to use rad special attacks called heat actions. Heat actions are one of the coolest things about this game in my opinion.

Combat

All arounder

Kiryu: Brawler Style

Speed

Kiryu: Rush Style

Slow, mass destruction

Kiryu: Beast Style

Fast

Majima: Thug Style

Hard hitter

Majima: Slugger Style

Sweeper

Majima: Breaker Style

If you struggle, the game allows you to eat or drink products you purchased from stores, healing you and sometimes filling your heat gauge. This makes the game much more beginner friendly. Along with this there are some heat actions exclusive to certain areas, like being near a wall or a river.

Miscellaneous Combat Info

Bosses are difficult enemies that have their own unique abilities and battle theme. They also have quick time events that can be seen in mini-cutscenes while fighting them. I think quick time events are a great feature that adds more user interactivity in a cool way. Along with this, arguably the most beloved feature from the entire series is dynamic intros for bosses, they are beloved for understandable reason, they are rather wicked.

Bosses