Yakuza 0 is a flawed game. On one hand, you have this beautifully crafted bustling mid-80s Japanese town full of awesome side quests and characters. On the other hand you have a convoluted storyline about grizzled mob bosses who turn into emotional softies the moment you beat them in a fight.
I liked Yakuza 0 but it certainly didn't live up to it's full potential. The neon drenched Kamurocho is a window to 80s Japan and feels more alive than any other videogame world. The protagonists, Majima and Kiryu are tough, intimidating yet kind and likeable. The cinematics are super entertaining and have an over the top anime flavor to them.
The story is all over the place. The main villians are portrayed as the absolute scum of the earth who are hell bent on destroying others to gain power, they threaten to kill the people you love, they make your life miserable but once you finally beat them, they pour their heart out to you like you're their long lost lover. I assume the writers' goal here was to invoke sympathy but it feels lazy and rushed. The story has quite a bit of "anime-ness" to it, that is, it takes quite a long time to get to the climax of each story thread but in the end, you're back to square one and you've accomplished nothing.
The combat kinda sucks. I'm not good at fighting games so I may have missed a bunch of combos and other nuanced aspects of the combat system but I button mashed my way through it just fine. It also felt like the only viable combat modes were the ones in yellow (Majima's baseball bat technique and Kiryu's beast style). All the other techniques are susceptible to getting stun-locked when fighting a crowd and have low damage when fighting 1v1. Also, whoever thought it was a good idea to have the character stand still to execute a finishing move needs to go to jail.
With a stronger, focused narrative this game could've easily been an 4-4.5 but as it stands, I give it a 3/5
I liked Yakuza 0 but it certainly didn't live up to it's full potential. The neon drenched Kamurocho is a window to 80s Japan and feels more alive than any other videogame world. The protagonists, Majima and Kiryu are tough, intimidating yet kind and likeable. The cinematics are super entertaining and have an over the top anime flavor to them.
The story is all over the place. The main villians are portrayed as the absolute scum of the earth who are hell bent on destroying others to gain power, they threaten to kill the people you love, they make your life miserable but once you finally beat them, they pour their heart out to you like you're their long lost lover. I assume the writers' goal here was to invoke sympathy but it feels lazy and rushed. The story has quite a bit of "anime-ness" to it, that is, it takes quite a long time to get to the climax of each story thread but in the end, you're back to square one and you've accomplished nothing.
The combat kinda sucks. I'm not good at fighting games so I may have missed a bunch of combos and other nuanced aspects of the combat system but I button mashed my way through it just fine. It also felt like the only viable combat modes were the ones in yellow (Majima's baseball bat technique and Kiryu's beast style). All the other techniques are susceptible to getting stun-locked when fighting a crowd and have low damage when fighting 1v1. Also, whoever thought it was a good idea to have the character stand still to execute a finishing move needs to go to jail.
With a stronger, focused narrative this game could've easily been an 4-4.5 but as it stands, I give it a 3/5
chick_counterfly
2 years ago