A hell of a ride with an incredible deep bench of characters who work in moral shades of grey. Filled with surprises, brutal fight scenes, and a strong sense of history, using the prequel format to tell the story of a place and not just its people. When people say they enjoy lived-in worlds, this is what they're talking about.
It's just so much though. There are at least four different games happening at the same time in Yakuza 0, and while they're all well-done and the extra content adds a lot of texture to the world, the sheer volume of this game makes the entire 50-hour+ adventure feel like filler. The clash in tone between the tensely paced hard-boiled crime story and the wacky sidequests is a quality that I've heard praised about Yakuza for a long time, but it feels like they're happening in completely different worlds. I never found the balance.
That said, each piece of Yakuza 0 still stands really well on its own. I did not expect to enjoy the cabaret management as much as I did (even if it felt icky).
It's just so much though. There are at least four different games happening at the same time in Yakuza 0, and while they're all well-done and the extra content adds a lot of texture to the world, the sheer volume of this game makes the entire 50-hour+ adventure feel like filler. The clash in tone between the tensely paced hard-boiled crime story and the wacky sidequests is a quality that I've heard praised about Yakuza for a long time, but it feels like they're happening in completely different worlds. I never found the balance.
That said, each piece of Yakuza 0 still stands really well on its own. I did not expect to enjoy the cabaret management as much as I did (even if it felt icky).