I wholeheartedly recommend Yakuza 0. I only have one issue with this masterpiece — I’m not sure who I’m recommending it to. It’s easy enough to say “if you like beat ‘em ups, this is for you.” But we’re talking about a massive, massive game with so many different facets to it, I don’t think that’s gonna cut it. I’ll try my best to explain. But for those out there who enjoy similar games to me here’s the short version: I consider this a must play game.
This is not usually how I recommend a game, but to give you an idea of how Yakuza 0 was for me, I’ll chronicle the short version of my experience in the hopes it will better explain how good it is.
I’m the type of person who likes to play through some (if not all) of my available side quests before playing through a main story mission in quest based games. Playing in that way usually allows me to experience the majority of the game and by the end my character is quite strong. I did the same thing here in Yakuza 0 and found myself rolling credits on the main storyline after 20 hours.
Those 20 hours were awesome. Kiryu and Makima have extensive move sets to upgrade and master, the story slowly pulls you along with an exciting twists, and playing a vast collection of mini-games across 1980’s Kamurocho and Sotenbori is great fun. It has its slow points (i.e. trailing missions), but for the majority of my time I was impressed with how compelled I was to keep playing through to the end.
Now I don’t consider myself a completionist but I do like to look at a games achievements from time to time just to see what the developers of any given game decided were a part of its core experience. After rolling credits, I checked Yakuza 0’s and noticed one that changed everything, “Reach 50% Completion.”
I knew I wasn’t exactly hyper-fixating on every pixel for every achievement up to rolling credits, but I did complete as many side quests as I could and felt I really took my time to finish the story. But I haven’t cracked 50%? I checked my game file. A little over 22%. I don’t normally jump in to games after credits, but it was clear I hadn’t seen nearly enough.
It would take 45 hours over the next two months in order to unlock that achievement. The games longest side quests (Real Estate Royal and Cabaret Club Czar), would take me a month each, a good handful of hours each week, grinding away to complete them.
And I LOVED IT. While I am a bit too burnt out to continue in Yakuza 0, there is still much to do in my game file. Even now at 85 hours, I only have 65% of the achievements. I haven’t unlocked all of the fighting style upgrades. Haven’t seen all of the side quests. If you’re willing to buckle down and play everything this game has to offer, you’re going to be here for… a GOOD long while. You will enjoy it for as long as you need to, and there will potentially be more game even after that.
At the end of it all, I am especially impressed as a series newcomer how effortlessly the writing is able to powerfully convey many different and at times, opposing themes. Often I found myself starting a quest on very humorous pretenses, only to discover at their conclusion a really heartwarming and serious life lesson to be learned. This masterful writing is what will probably drive me back to continue my journey into the next game (in a year or so — to give me some breathing room).
Maybe as a final note, let's revisit the topic of the HUGE catalogue of “mini-games”. Many of them are really fun and break up the game quite nicely. I mean, you can go from fighting a mammoth of a dude, to bowling, to dancing at the club, to assigning a chicken as your property manager, to racing a toy car, to playing pool, to going on a date, to beating up street thugs, to playing majong, to betting on fights, to buying from a gacha machine, to fishing, to karaoke… all in a single play session. That’s not even close to everything, that’s just off the top of my head. The variety is ridiculously good, and many are great fun, so much so that they alone may justify purchase of the game.
Overall, I love Yakuza 0. It’s cool enough that they have a great action RPG with a robust fighting system and multiple stances to use against tough as nails Yakuza dudes in a killer action drama. But like some heavenly 7-layer dip, that’s just one aspect of the greater whole. With the beat ‘em up core, you also have really well written stories, an excellently designed city to explore, and a heaping ton of mini games. I think they all work well together and it gave me a ton of valuable play time. This may be my first experience in the franchise, but Yakuza 0 made me a fan. If any of this has sounded interesting to you, I hope that you’ll journey into Yakuza 0 for yourself to see what I mean. Thanks for reading.
This is not usually how I recommend a game, but to give you an idea of how Yakuza 0 was for me, I’ll chronicle the short version of my experience in the hopes it will better explain how good it is.
I’m the type of person who likes to play through some (if not all) of my available side quests before playing through a main story mission in quest based games. Playing in that way usually allows me to experience the majority of the game and by the end my character is quite strong. I did the same thing here in Yakuza 0 and found myself rolling credits on the main storyline after 20 hours.
Those 20 hours were awesome. Kiryu and Makima have extensive move sets to upgrade and master, the story slowly pulls you along with an exciting twists, and playing a vast collection of mini-games across 1980’s Kamurocho and Sotenbori is great fun. It has its slow points (i.e. trailing missions), but for the majority of my time I was impressed with how compelled I was to keep playing through to the end.
Now I don’t consider myself a completionist but I do like to look at a games achievements from time to time just to see what the developers of any given game decided were a part of its core experience. After rolling credits, I checked Yakuza 0’s and noticed one that changed everything, “Reach 50% Completion.”
I knew I wasn’t exactly hyper-fixating on every pixel for every achievement up to rolling credits, but I did complete as many side quests as I could and felt I really took my time to finish the story. But I haven’t cracked 50%? I checked my game file. A little over 22%. I don’t normally jump in to games after credits, but it was clear I hadn’t seen nearly enough.
It would take 45 hours over the next two months in order to unlock that achievement. The games longest side quests (Real Estate Royal and Cabaret Club Czar), would take me a month each, a good handful of hours each week, grinding away to complete them.
And I LOVED IT. While I am a bit too burnt out to continue in Yakuza 0, there is still much to do in my game file. Even now at 85 hours, I only have 65% of the achievements. I haven’t unlocked all of the fighting style upgrades. Haven’t seen all of the side quests. If you’re willing to buckle down and play everything this game has to offer, you’re going to be here for… a GOOD long while. You will enjoy it for as long as you need to, and there will potentially be more game even after that.
At the end of it all, I am especially impressed as a series newcomer how effortlessly the writing is able to powerfully convey many different and at times, opposing themes. Often I found myself starting a quest on very humorous pretenses, only to discover at their conclusion a really heartwarming and serious life lesson to be learned. This masterful writing is what will probably drive me back to continue my journey into the next game (in a year or so — to give me some breathing room).
Maybe as a final note, let's revisit the topic of the HUGE catalogue of “mini-games”. Many of them are really fun and break up the game quite nicely. I mean, you can go from fighting a mammoth of a dude, to bowling, to dancing at the club, to assigning a chicken as your property manager, to racing a toy car, to playing pool, to going on a date, to beating up street thugs, to playing majong, to betting on fights, to buying from a gacha machine, to fishing, to karaoke… all in a single play session. That’s not even close to everything, that’s just off the top of my head. The variety is ridiculously good, and many are great fun, so much so that they alone may justify purchase of the game.
Overall, I love Yakuza 0. It’s cool enough that they have a great action RPG with a robust fighting system and multiple stances to use against tough as nails Yakuza dudes in a killer action drama. But like some heavenly 7-layer dip, that’s just one aspect of the greater whole. With the beat ‘em up core, you also have really well written stories, an excellently designed city to explore, and a heaping ton of mini games. I think they all work well together and it gave me a ton of valuable play time. This may be my first experience in the franchise, but Yakuza 0 made me a fan. If any of this has sounded interesting to you, I hope that you’ll journey into Yakuza 0 for yourself to see what I mean. Thanks for reading.