I think the first 10 hours or so of this game are really boring. Largely textually focused on expositing on plot details and the setting in a way I found very hollow. However, once this setup pays off it becomes one of the most excruciatingly tense thrill rides I've been on. A stellar cast with boasting one of my favorite characters of all time used to great effect to showcase all the different textures of the primary ideas. Hype ass legendary moments, great soundtrack, gorgeous to look at. Just a modern classic.

I started this game simply because there were so many memes with the side quests.

I didn't expect to like it because it's not my style of game, action rpg+ criminal gangs and the truth is I loved the story and it kept me in suspense, while I went dancing on the dance floor and beating up yakuzas.

I've learned things I should have never known like what a busurera is, but it's been worth the sacrifice.

Este juego lo empecé simplemente por tanto memes que había con las misiones secundarias.

No esperaba que me gustará porque no es mi estilo de juego, action rpg+ bandas criminales y la verdad me ha encantado la historia y me ha mantenido en suspense, mientras me iba a bailar a la pista de baile y me pegaba contra yakuzas.

He aprendido cosas que mejor nunca haber sabido como que es una busurera, pero ha merecido la pena ese sacrificio.

素直に I LOVE YOU 届けよう
きっと YOU LOVE ME！ 伝わるさ
キミに似合うガラスの靴を探そう

２人で Step & Go！ いつまでも
深夜１２時をすぎたって
ボクらの恋魔法は
解けはしない

おいでめしませ お姫様
毒のリンゴを食べて眠っちゃいそうな
素直すぎるキミが とても愛しい

当たり前＝宝物さ
地球はまわり 陽はのぼり
キミは微笑む

素直に I LOVE YOU！ 届けよう
きっと YOU LOVE ME！ 伝わるさ
キミに似合うガラスの靴を探そう

A fun, compelling, stupid game that's worth playing. The side content is fun (although the real estate stuff was kinda dull) and the main story is great. Combat is the usual you get from RGG, kinda clunky but fun. The balance seems even more insane than normal, though. Enemies often guard or just attack straight out of knockback so I ended up relying on the same few safe combos. Majima's Breaker style is especially broken, dishing out insane damage while making himself nearly impossible to hit. It's not balanced in the slightest, but destroying a boss by breakdancing on him is admittedly very fun. Much like the other Yakuza games I've played, it's a mess, and a fun one at that.

oh man. not the greatest game of all time but shit, it may as well be. feels emblematic. not just the Most video game but above and beyond the video game. there's just an astonishing amount of things to do in this and none of it is bad. there's so much REASON to engage with the world, and so much reward in turn.
eat at a restaurant to restore health? good news, you can become friends with the cook as she learns to become more confident thanks to your compliments. want to blow off some steam with an arcade claw game? good news, there's a sad little girl outside in need of toys and a father figure. bowling? WIN A CHICKEN WHO CAN MANAGE YOUR BUSINESSES.
impressive doesn't begin to cut it. both kamurocho and sotenbori are vibrant, bustling, real and living cities with dozens of things around each corner. the substories that present themselves are uniformly excellent for both protagonists, whom I've not even begun to talk about, and these stories gave me hard laughing fits till tears fell... as well as moments of pure, moving, tenderness.
this is close to a 25 hour game and yet my first playthrough ended with 107 simply because I seriously wanted to engage with everything. sure, I found myself grinding certain aspects, and if you're going for a literally full completion you're gonna have to grind some more, but I never wanted to turn down any of these experiences.

and that's not to mention the main story itself. certainly what elevates it, I think, it's unbelievable how many twists, turns, and spins are thrown at you and yet they're all natural, believable, and more importantly SHOCKING. this thing gets thrilling on so many levels. all over a small plot of land. what unfolds is exciting, infuriating, tragic, all at once. even when there's an air of predictability as to where things may end up, the execution is undeniably masterful.
if there's literally anything to fault this game on it's just that it's a minorly taxing experience. long cutscenes and the need to pay attention to subtitles means you have to stay engaged. even then, fuck it, that's all on me. I was happy to keep playing, happy to come back, even if it took me time. completing this felt like the end of an era and yet it's the start of something entirely new.

both kiryu and majima have superb balancing, hardly a bad thing to say about either. if there's an award for what who does best then I'd have to say kiryu wins on: character writing and dialogue, substories, kamurocho is also better to navigate; but majima wins for plot, character, and fighting styles. there's that much to compliment these guys on that I'm entirely forgetting how much more I can list.

really just a blessing to finally beat this and already looking forward to replaying because I WANT to get every achievement here. already looking forward to playing the next game. and the next. and the one after that. it's rare that a game can infiltrate my top 10 so fast (tied for 7th?), but wow, I don't think I've ever had this much to say about one like this. good time!!

Yakuza 0 is overstuffed with fun content, ranging from wacky sidequests to fully-fledged kart racing and host club simulation minigames---the world itself is also a blast to explore, serving up an absurdly detailed recreation of Japan that's about as close to the real thing as it gets. In a sense, this game felt like a fully-realized version of what Shenmue set out to accomplish back in 1999.

However, it's just 𝐭𝐨𝐨 𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐠. While brawling your way through the map and its many peculiarities is a great time when first sinking your teeth into the game, I found the main story to be stretched out to an absurd length---ultimately I grew to feel the same dreaded burnout I tend to experience with much of the JRPG genre (this isn't a JPRG, to be clear). Nonetheless, I still appreciate this game for its overall uniqueness and sheer bang for one's buck received---perhaps one day I'll get around to fully completing it.

Forgot how fun Yakuza 0 was. There is a lot of stuff to do in the game from bowling, baseball, and real estate. The combat is not as in depth as a Devil May Cry or Bayonetta, but it does get the job done. I think everyone agrees that Majima's Breaker and Slugger styles are the most fun styles in the game, since one style is a good way to deal with crowds, while the other style is good at boss fights. Kiryu isn't bad in terms of Combat, just that one has the more fun techs then the other. My only problems with this game is that the heat system is not good, I prefer to have my finishers be dectated by my moves then what situation I am in/how much heat I have. It doesn't help that you can lose your heat in one hit. The other major problem is that you can get stun locked by the enemies and it gets really annoying, but this is a great start to Yakuza, there is a reason this game saved the series in the west.

Copiando minha review da Steam:

Eu comprei esse jogo em 2021, joguei por 1 hora, não gostei. Resolvi baixar mês passado e esse jogo simplesmente destruiu minha vida. Da maneira que eu NUNCA MAIS VOU SER O MESMO.
Eu já sabia que era bom, mas nunca imaginaria que iria ser TÃO BOM. PELO AMOR DE DEUS, onde que eu ia imaginar ficar viciado em ADMINISTRAR UM CABARÉ?! Um dos maiores pontos positivos desse jogo é que você nunca vai ficar sem o que fazer. Passar mais de 10 horas administrando um cabaré? Melhor coisa do mundo. Cantar num karaokê com direito a videoclipes exclusivos? Perfeito. Jogar dardos? Beber? Ajudar uma dominatrix e fazer uma garota aleatória escapar de um culto? Você tem direito a fazer o que quiser.
E a história. MEU DEUS, a história. Nesse momento eu to escrevendo essa review e nem consigo pensar no quanto eu chorei nesse final LINDO E DESGRAÇADO. Como pode eu ter me apegado a TODOS OS PERSONAGENS? E PASSAR 15 MINUTOS CHORANDO OLHANDO OS CRÉDITOS? Esperei 2 anos para jogar e não poderia agradecer menos por viver nessa época e ter o prazer de jogar uma obra de arte dessas.

The story feels slow the first half of the game, but then it picks up and it's fucking amazing.

I loved Kuze (and especially his theme) and the relationship between Majima and Makoto. Beautiful.

Gameplay may need a bit more polish, but it's really good.

The extremely slow opening with endless cutscenes and slow walking segments did almost lose me but I strapped in for a game ripe with a really fun beat em up fighting sections and a really engaging crime drama with memorable characters. There's so much to do outside of the story and while every minigame didn't really grab me, it's insane how well polished they made them with the amount of variety on display. This game's presentation is crazy good with timeless visuals and riffing with such a stylistic.

I did feel the combat could get a bit clunky at times especially with some of the later segments plus the awkward delay when switching between styles ruining the flow of combat and the downtime in certain sections like with excessive cutscenes and barely interactive dialogue quests did bore me. However I really overall dug this game and am excited to get into the rest of this seriesm