Yakuza 0 is the sixth entry in Sega’s (now) famous Yakuza series, released in Japan in March 2015 on both PS3 and PS4, the year of the original Yakuza’s tenth anniversary. The American and European PS4 releases followed in early 2017. The PS3 version was only released in Japan, but I do own it and have played through it as well as the PS4 game so this review will make reference to both – there is essentially no difference other than visual quality, and language, between the two releases.
(Some housekeeping first. In the course of this review I will use the Japanese way of naming people – family name first then given name. In English we would tend to reverse this but as the dialogue in the game is Japanese I feel it is more appropriate, and accurate, to use the native name system. Likewise, I will stick with the original Western title of the series as opposed to the direct translation of the Japanese title 龍が如, Like A Dragon, which will be adopted outside of Japan moving forward from the post Kiryu arc. Lastly, there may be some minor spoilers, nothing major but be aware if you have never played the game.)
0 once again reunites us with long term protagonist Kiryu Kazuma and this time also lets us play as his adversary “Mad Dog” Majima Goro. It’s an origin story for both characters, as it is a prequel to the main series of games. Set in late 80s Tokyo, it takes place in a period of time in Japan known as the Bubble Era: a period of highly inflated stock and real estate prices where money was in plentiful supply and the fashion was suitably flamboyant.
Since I started writing these classic game reviews I’ve always felt I would write one on a Yakuza game – but the question was of course which one? I mentioned in my Shenmue review my love of these games and I could easily write thousands of words on any one of them. 0 is arguably the most accessible of the mainline series and although I don’t completely agree with the conventional narrative that it is the best place to start (I’ll get into that in due course), it is undeniable that it has been the starting point for many gamers getting into the series. As such, it was definitely a strong candidate to review.
I’ll just say it now in case there is any doubt – I LOVE Yakuza 0! It is not my favourite in the series (that would be 5) but it is comfortably no. 2. I have played it through in its entirety on both PS3 and PS4 clocking in around 150 hours both times, with another partial PS4 run also in my save games. It is an absolute joy to behold, Sega really did bottle lightning with this game – it is an utterly fitting 10th celebration of the founding of the franchise.
The Yakuza series of games are openish world brawlers set in the world of Japanese organised crime and featured Kiryu as the main protagonist since Yakuza debuted on PS2 in 2005. In Yakuza 4 and 5 he was joined by a cast of supporting playable characters but 0 marks the first time we are able to play as Majima – Kiryu’s at times adversary then later ally and a major clan captain. However, the Majima we have seen in the games up to 5 is radically different to the one we meet in 0 – which indeed can be said also for Kiryu although perhaps not to the same extent.
The story in 0 has two main strands revolving around the two protagonists. Kiryu gets involved in a plot to take control of the “empty lot” – a piece of land in the Tokyo district of Kamurocho which many yakuza captains are fighting over. Majima’s story starts off with him working as a cabaret manager and seeking a way back into his previous life as a yakuza gang member. The two respective plotlines inevitably weave closer and closer together until the two characters come together at the end of the game.
In addition to the corresponding protagonists, the two matching parts of the 0 story have different locations. Kiryu’s chapters predominantly take place in Kamurocho, Tokyo. This is a largely accurate representation of Kabukicho, an actual entertainment area of the Shinjuku ward of the city. Several of the landmarks seen in the game – like Theatre Square, the red entrance gates arches and Don Quixote – are straight out of real life.
On the other hand, Majima’s sections are based in the Sotenbori district of Osaka – the “capital” of Japan’s Kansai area, some four hundred odd kilometres west of Tokyo. Sotenbori also represents a real area – in this case Dotonbori, another nightlife zone. Having visited Kabukicho on several occasions I can vouch for Kamurocho’s authenticity but I’ve never had the opportunity to get off the train in Osaka so I can’t comment on Sotenbori.
For me a real highpoint of the whole Yazkua series is the combat system in 0 – it reaches, in my opinion, the peak of the pre Dragon Engine Yakuza games. There are initially three quite distinct combat systems per character that can be flicked between totally on the fly. Players will have their favourite styles but some styles lend themselves better to different situations. Kiryu and Majima will meet various trainers for all the techniques available to them to “skill up” and hone their moves.
Complementing the core techniques, the range of Heat moves is comprehensive and highly entertaining: some of them are quite gut wrenching in their brutality. Watching Kiryu wrap a bicycle around a punk’s head never gets old!
In addition to the core story of the game – which if we believe howlongtobeat.com will take just over thirty hours – there is an absolute wealth of side content. Of course there are the traditional Yakuza side quests which range from recovering a young boy’s lost video game to training up a dominatrix who is lacking in confidence and self belief in her ability to inflict pain and misery. On top of these there are multiple other activities to get lost in when you don’t want to progress the main storyline.
Yakuza 0 side content includes, but is not limited to, toy car racing, disco dancing, classic arcade video games, fishing, gambling, bowling, the telephone dating club, karaoke, eating and drinking, befriending some of the weird characters around both cities and coliseum fighting. In addition to all the mini games, both characters have fully fleshed out careers. Majima’s career sees him take control of a cabaret club in Sotenbori, managing the hostesses and running the nightly sessions whereas Kiryu’s career is similar but has him manage a portfolio of properties around Kamurocho.
A lot of these are Yakuza staples but there are a few real standouts – to me the cabaret and real estate management careers and the pocket circuit racing are great ways to lose many, many hours in game. The cabaret club game resurfaced in Kiwami 2, pocket circuit racer was likewise revisited in Kiwami and the property management sub game was clearly a strong influence on the management simulator in Yakuza: Like A Dragon.
One thing about 0 which is really well implemented and makes the side content more engaging is the way you earn Completion Points (CPs). You earn CPs for things like eating at different restaurants, taking a taxi so many times, entertaining yourself (karaoke, arcade games etc.) – you can then exchange these for in-game improvements at the temples in Kamurocho or Sotenbori. For example, I always upgrade my sprinting ability as soon as I can to enable faster navigation around the map and the ability to escape potential fights. In other Yakuza games doing these side activities contributed to your completion metrics but didn’t have any real, tangible benefits. 0 offers far more incentive to get sidetracked in mini games, city exploration and side quests. Possibly the most significant example of this is completion of the two career games which unlock fourth, legendary, combat styles for Kiryu and Majima.
Not everything about 0 is so strong and well executed and a lot of the game’s appeal (or, dare I say it, lack thereof) will vary with different people. The Yakuza series as a whole is very much unashamedly Japanese. This may sound obvious but it permeates every part of the games. To me this is a massive plus point but if you don’t gel with the quirks and the whacky sense of humour you may struggle with 0 (or indeed any of the series).
In a similar vein there are a lot of cultural references which may be difficult for someone unfamiliar with Japan. A good example in 0 would be the cabaret manager career – what on earth is this establishment?! It’s kind of explained in the game but could still be baffling for some players as this is an entire industry that is utterly unique to Japan with no equivalent in the West.
Having said that, in my opinion the depiction of Bubble Era Tokyo is absolutely glorious and the game captures the ostentatiousness of the time perfectly. In combat money quite literally flies when your blows make contact! Later on in the game a technique to avoid random battles is unlocked which involves throwing fistfuls of cash in the air to distract would be assailants!
The pacing of the story is absolutely spot on. The game switches between the two protagonists and their initially independent adventures for two chapters each, alternating between the two cities, slowly drawing them together as it reaches its later stages when finally Kiryu and Majima collaborate.
There is a school of thought that this is the best Yakuza game in the series to start with. I don’t fully agree with that. I think if you are not going to play the others, or are unsure that you can commit to the full series through to 6 then I would agree that this is the title to go for. As a prequel it is far more stand alone and accessible than other titles in the series from 1 – 6.
However, if possible I believe it is better to play 0 in the order that the games were published, i.e. between 5 and 6 (Kiwami is an outlier as it is a remake of 1). We meet characters in 0 that we are familiar with from 1 -5 and it makes more sense to me than them being unknowns.
Saejima’s infamous attempt at assassinating a rival Yakuza boss at a ramen restaurant with six revolvers is referenced at the start of 0 as being a key part of the incident that triggers Majima’s downfall from the Yakuza. This is detailed in Yakuza 4 so if played in release order the player is already familiar with this incident and the character Saejima and so it has greater (in my opinion) relevance.
There is one scene in particular that stands out to me for this reason – Majima’s intro. From playing the earlier (chronologically later) games we know Majima as a Yakuza captain: a thug with a penchant for speaking condescendingly to Kiryu. (The suffix “chan” that Majima adds to Kiryu’s name is generally only used for children and women – using it in such a way to a man like Kiryu, instead of the obligatory “san” is really quite insulting.)
In 0 the Majima we meet is this charismatic young cabaret manager with supreme customer service skills. In the initial encounter in his intro scene, he at all times maintains the honorific language keigo while dealing with a violent drunk customer. The fact that he uses it quite sarcastically doesn’t detract from the fact that although he is humiliating this drunken oaf who is making a fool of himself in Majima’s club, he is doing it in such a way that the customer maintains his face. Even his pronunciation (nasal desu ga) is ultra polite. And in the end he frames his ultimatum (pay up or I turn you in to the cops) as the customer doing Majima a huge favour.
This Majima is utterly different to the Majima we know from the mainline series games and it is quite a shocking contrast to witness this. Of course there is a backstory which the game explores and we gradually learn about how exactly Majima came to be in this predicament (and his potential route out of it). However, seeing him introduced as a cabaret club manager (and him explicitly pointing out that he is not yakuza) really has a huge impact. Similarly the final transformation of Majima as he adopts the Mad Dog persona and becomes the yakuza captain we know when he is readmitted at the end of 0 has a “completing the circle” feel about it.
A couple of minor niggles do occur to me. A lot of dialogue is delivered using only text on screen with a few generic words / expressions as audio alongside. This is kind of clunky and involves a lot of pressing X to get through extended scenes. Although this is perhaps linked to my other grumble.
It’s a PS3 game. The PS4 version came out at the same time so it’s just a slight graphical upgrade over the older machine’s game. It runs at 60 FPS so is nice and smooth and 1080p rather than 720p but otherwise it looks like a PS3 game. Again, not a major issue but probably something to be aware of in 2023. It’s absolutely not a reason to not play the game but may be a reminder to manage your expectations. I played the PS4 game first – later on importing the PS3 game when I was stuck for something to play – and was curious to see how the older generation compared. Pretty well it has to be said but then that does mean as a PS4 game it is most certainly not pushing that hardware platform.
Something that really struck me as a strength of 0 was its use of the primary location: Kamurocho can almost be seen as a character. This game is the first time we encounter the map without Millennium Tower, instead there is the run down Kamurocho shopping area. The first time I noticed this was a major shock but then I thought – “of course, it hasn’t been built yet”! There are other subtle differences, notably the fact that West Park still exists and is inhabited by a bunch of homeless guys, whereas in earlier / later games we know it is the site of another high rise development, Kamurocho Hills. I really liked this demonstrable difference in time period, it really emphasised the feeling of going back to an earlier point in time.
Yakuza 0 firmly deserves its place in the top echelon of Yakuza games and serves both as a wonderful prequel to events and characters we have encountered extensively prior and a truly accessible entry to the series. There have been fan demands for a similar title, a Yakuza 0 Two if you will, and that is something I would dearly love to see. With the evolution of the mainline series into a turn based combat driven adventure featuring our new protagonist Kasuga perhaps new supplementary content such as the upcoming Like A Dragon: Gaiden sets a precedent and this might happen one day? I’ve never pre ordered a game in my life. I might break that habit should we ever see a return to the early days of Kiryu and his associates.
-Calum