While Yakuza series have been around for a while now, I never had a chance to check them out because of not owning the platforms the games were exclusive to. So they just remained the series people love to talk about and praise, but something that I’ve not experienced for myself, nor knew how exactly it plays. With the recent release of Yakuza 0 on PC I finally had a chance to experience the series for myself. And… wow. I mean. Wow.
WOW, BREAKIN’ THE LAAAAAW BREAKING THE WOOOORLD kowasee~
Back when Yakuza was just this magic thing I didn’t know much about I’ve seen the game described (inaccurately) as “Japanese GTA”. Curiously, even with a much closer comparison – Shenmue – the series remain quite unique in how they work. You do get an “open world”, but on a small area compared to how “open world” games tend to operate. It’s just one district of a city, yet filled to the brim with details and interesting things to find and do. You do have action elements, but unlike what you expect, it’s not about lethal type of violence either – most of the time it’s simply brawling, occasionally with some melee weapons, and rarely guns. Yet even when guns are involved, they work closer to how you’d expect them to work in a classic beat’em’up, like a special weapon to knock out enemies with, not murder.
And that’s where Yakuza 0 (and, from what I understand, the series in general) is somewhat unique – despite being an open world game about crime, the loss of human life, if it happens, is a big deal, not a random casualty in yet another shoot out or a fight. Likewise, story of the game is less about violence and the darkness of the life of crime and more about hope and searching for the light in life. In fact, if you go for side-stories, and you most likely will because most of them are amazing, it becomes even more apparent. You will encounter very different people at their low and in need of help – a failed dominatrix who took the job to become less humble, a little kid who’s videogame has been stolen or a girl who got inducted into a cult. And each of those stories will lead to often surprising solutions with a genuinely hopeful message to the players and a sort of a morality tale. It’s about hope, about perseverance, about kindness and about innocence, despite also being a gritty crime drama with a surprisingly engrossing plot.
Interestingly, a lot of seemingly unimportant activities might have stories as well. Eating at a sushi place might open up a personal story with the chef you can become friends with. Doing racing with electric toy cars can open a long storyline which goes into rather unexpected places. Even the “business” possibilities, unlocked at a certain chapter for the two main characters of the game, could be just menus where you make money, but are instead their own little storylines completely separate from the main one. And it’s there where the game is genuinely at its strongest. It might have a rather fun fighting system with different styles to choose from and two distinct characters to play as. It might have a highly detailed and full of cool content entertainment district to explore. But what will, most likely, keep you coming back are all of those stories you encounter and the main plot.
Which is, if I’m being honest, also the weakest thing about the game. Stories, being that great, and quite consistently so, take way too much time. And because of rather simplistic and somewhat boring main gameplay interactions, it can become repetitive. Which, and I must stress that, you don’t have to do. You can always just do the main story things and it’s very easy to understand how and where to do that. And you can even do all of the side content after you’ve finished the main story. For me, it was a bit hard to ignore interesting encounters, but, of course, mileage may vary and maybe it would be easier for you.
I also want to give special praise to the team behind the series for the magic of smart recycling and budgeting. Apart from the fact that a lot of the locations, models, animations and etc. are reused (but modified) between the titles, which is obvious even from the screenshots of Yakuza Kiwami (remake of the original), there are lots of cost cutting ideas in the game I could find distracting or ugly in some other title, but which feel completely at home here. Cutscenes, for example, can be of several varieties, some of which use very high quality assets, animations and lightning, some only in-game assets and some are done in an almost slide-show like manner, which is done really well. Plus the most common type, the in-game one, usually allows you to skip the dialogue at your pace, something that I’ve always preferred in games lots of dialogue. It also puts Binary Domain, another project from the same team, in a curious light, as that project might’ve been the least cost cutting thing they’ve ever done (also an amazing game, by the way, if you haven’t checked it). But I digress…
Yakuza 0 is a game that simply cannot leave you indifferent. For me, it was a constant roller coaster of emotions and despite feeling somewhat drained by the end, I loved the game. I might return to it to finish all the side content I just didn’t have in me to finish later, all of the more annoying and somewhat grindy optional things later, but as it stands now, I’m incredibly glad that I finally had a chance to play a Yakuza game and if the rest are as good as 0 (or better, from what I’ve heard), I can’t wait to play more of them.
P.S. Oh and the soundtrack in the game is amazing, totally worth checking out.