To start, I want to say this review may be subject to change. I played a ten year anniversary prequel as the first game in a long running franchise. It's a good jumping on point, obviously if it wasn't I wouldn't have played it first, but this review is from the perspective of someone who played Yakuza 0 as their first Yakuza game. Now that that's out of the way, I can say I thoroughly enjoyed Yakuza 0. This is a game bursting and teeming with life, from the areas you walk through, the engaging and beautiful story, and especially the incredibly written characters. I played the game casually, doing the plentiful substories (sidequests, if you're unfamiliar with Yakuza) and engaging with the businesses as they came up. While I didn't go out of my way to do them, I can see how people would spend hours of their time running around the overworld talking with as many NPCS as they could. I fully intend to start a New Game+ eventually to see how many things I can see and unlock, as this is a game that just beckons me to do more. However, I was mainly engaged with the game's main plot, which had me engrossed for the entirety of the game. You switch between this games duel protagonists, Kazuma Kiryu and Goro Majima, every two chapters. They each have their own story, in their own city, that eventually links up at the end. In the interest of letting this review be spoiler free, I won't go into this story in detail. From the moment the story began to the moment the story ended, I was completely enamored by the beautiful character writing and emotional beats told in the story. If you don't come out of this game attached to Kiryu and Majima immensely, I'd be genuinely shocked. Now, Yakuza is a heavily narrative focused game, but it is also a game. Let's talk about gameplay. Each protagonist has three signature styles, with a fourth one unlockable, though not required. These styles can be upgraded via doing training with special NPCs, or through upgrading your skill trees using the money attained by beating up various enemies or interacting with your business. I like the style system. Having six different ways to beat up enemies, across two different characters, makes the gameplay feel extremely varied and fun. Feel bored of walloping on street thugs in one way? Try this other way for a while! Of course, the styles can also be used strategically. Using Kiryu's Rush Style on a boss or just a single enemy as opposed to using Majima's Breaker Style on large groups of enemies. These are things that the game doesn't have to teach you, as you exeriment with each style and find out by yourself. Though I will say, some styles make certain battles incredibly easy. I never particularly struggled playing Yakuza 0, which isn't a bad thing. There was only one boss I found unfun gameplay wise, and it still had great music, set pieces, cinematography, and story beats to go along with it like the other bosses. I loved Yakuza 0, it was an amazing game. I feel like I might've appreciated it more if I had played the Yakuza games that came out before it, but that doesn't say anything about the games quality, in fact I'd say that's the mark of a good prequel. Overall, I'm rating Yakuza 0 4.5/5 stars. There are some slow segments, and the game might be a bit daunting for newcomers, but the slow moments pass by fast and the game introduces you to the daunting world in a comfortable way. With a mix of fun gameplay, great story telling, worldbuilding, and incredible character writing, Yakuza 0 hooked me in immediately and I adore it immensely. I plan on playing the rest of the Yakuza series this year and may write more reviews about those games as I finish them.

Writing this in tears after that ending cutscene, I can't believe they did this to me

This was really good, in a series known to drag out I really appreciate it being on the shorter side, I hope they get to tell more stories like that later on
There's a few weird balance decisions and the pacing's weird at times but again, it's because of how short it is, I don't mind

It manages to be a really strong entry, probably one of my favorites overall
Kiryu stories always mess me up and this is no exception
Great game