Good afternoon ladies, gentlemen and those of a non-binary nature, my name is Daibhi and this is the Gamerhub community. We all love gangster movies, whether you’re a Godfather Trilogy person, whether Goodfellas is your thing, or if you’re like me, The Departed is the best gangster movie of all time. It thus shouldn’t be a surprise that videogames have explored this genre too, in a variety of different formats. You have top-down games designed for PC such as the Peaky Blinders games and then you have the open world gangster games such as the Mafia trilogy, the Grand Theft Auto franchise or my personal favourite, Sleeping Dogs (which should really get a remaster or a sequel). Then, as I’m stepping back into the gaming world, Lew asked me if I’d played the Yakuza franchise. The answer was no, and so I started at the suggested starting point, and picked up Yakuza 0. Is it any good? Does the porting to the PS5 work well? Did it make me laugh? Would I end up getting a dragon tattoo across my back? Three out of those four questions will be answered as I headed into the murky world of 1988’s Kamurocho District in Tokyo, Japan….
Before I start talking about the plot, it behoves me to tell you who made this game and where you can get it, so without further ado: This game was developed by Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio and published by Sega for the PlayStation 4 in 2017 (outside of Japan), then came to the PC in 2018, and finally to the Xbox consoles in 2020. So, I hear you ask, what is this game about? Well…
Plot
The plot of this game is basically a story of revenge, interclan drama and a turf war surrounding a seemingly worthless plot of land that turns out to be worth much more than anyone had considered. This plot takes place during a time in Japan when their economy was, for want of a better term, booming. Mobile phones were on the cusp, video games were all the rage and technology was starting to become the king of the Japanese economy. At the same time in Japan, in the real world, the Yakuza (Japanese Mafia) faced a series of bloody skirmishes across Japan, and whilst they’re not gone in today’s world, they are far less powerful than they were at this time. Back to the plot, the story centers around Kazuma Kiryu and Goro Majima.
Kazuma Kiryu is forced out of his clan in the Tojo family due to a serious murder accusation and is left out in the cold. Goro Majima, on the other hand, has been out in the cold for a while now, and is trapped in a district of Osaka called Sotenbori. Throughout their experiences, they get drawn into a turf war over this bit of land in Kaumrocho. Basically, both men want to protect the owner of this land, a seemingly blind woman by the name of Makoto Makimura.
Standing in their way and wanting Makoto-chan dead is the Dojima Family, who both men once belonged to. Three different clans want this bit of land in the way to make themselves filthy stinking rich and take control of the entire family. I won’t spoil the ending, but this story has plenty of twists, turns and shenanigans along the way.
Gameplay
The gameplay in this game is the number one reason you should play this game. As either Kiryu or Majima, you get to walk around Kamurocho or Sotenbori, alternating between each character and district between chapters. This does get frustrating at times, but as the story edges towards the climax slowly, this all starts to make a lot of sense.
You can walk around the districts mostly freely interacting with people and completing substories. Doing so gives you completion points which makes the game easier to complete. As well as substories, you can fight enemies who will attack you on the street. If you beat them, you gain money, which you can then use on a range of activities. Be that getting a perfect game at a bowling arcade, playing classic Sega games like OutRun at a Sega Arcade (which I spent far too much time doing), or becoming the Pocket Circuit Racing Champion. Ever heard of Scalextric slot car racing? Prepare to lose 3 hours trying to get the achievement!
To get your way through the game, you also have to spend money on your abilities, as you have four combat styles and multiple skill trees. Oh, and these trees don’t apply to both characters, so expect to have to the same with Majima as you do with Kiryu. Beware of one antagonist in particular as he harasses you for money at evey encounter: an impossibly large man named “mister shakedown”. His name itself should give you an idea of this game’s sense of humour.
Graphics and Audio
It’s a port from a game made for the PlayStation 4 (and 3 if you’re Japanese), so I didn’t go into this game expecting miracles, and that was a good thing, because I was very pleasantly surprised by this game. This game doesn’t feel like it is nearly a decade old, it feels like it was a game made for the tail end of the PlayStation 4 era. The graphics are surprisingly well detailed. Be that in the cutscene where one character makes half of the Kamurocho district momentarily lose power, or the beautiful graphics showing you the pores of the skin on character as you kick them through doors or take a Louisville Slugger to their faces. The art style veers between Grand Theft Auto style open worlds and highly realistic close ups that make you realise why this game is so popular in the first place.
There is no audio dubbing in the English language, with this game opting to keep the dialogue in Japanese, which gives the game a certain charm. For those who’ve watched any Shonen anime, you’ll already understand what I’m getting at. The voices overact with emotion, giving the game a humorous disposition. The best of this game is the voice acting, and it really shows. Particularly a moment in the post credit scene which will stay with you log after you’ve put this game down.
Options
This game comes with a few accessibility options, such as the inverting of controls (which helps those who prefer inverted controls), the removal of most of the blood (which some prefer) and difficulty controls. Changing them mid-game will restart the game, so make sure you have visited a phone and saved the game first! The key point to this game is discovery though, so the guides to help you complete the game is very thin on the ground and requires gamers to use their initiatives for full game completion. I’m actually quite disappointed here as most J Games have much better options on this front as a rule.
Final thoughts
If you want a game with comedy abundant, a decent difficulty curve, great graphics and endless amounts of side quests and minigames, look no further than Yakuza 0. You can turn the gore off, if that would put you off this style of game. The plot has plenty of twists and turns, with plenty of things for both Majima and Kiryu to do both in the main plotline and in the substories. There isn’t much to dislike about the game and it really does hold up brilliantly. I spent 24 hours completing this game and I got a 95% completion status at the end of it. And I’d do it again, gladly.
I thus give Yakuza 0 a Joystick rating of 4.4 out of 5.
Thank you, Sega, and the Gamerhub community, this is a really fun game.
For the Gamerhub Community, I’ve been Daibhi and you are all legends.
See you at the Mahjong Parlor.
