It wasn’t enough to have a fantastic plot with a great cast of colorful characters. The development team went all out in the gameplay department; taking everything they’ve learned from 10 years’ worth of titles to create one of the tightest, most in-depth combat systems this series has seen to date. Yakuza 0 combines Yakuza 5 and Ryu ga Gotoku Ishin into one, with 5’s influences of multiple protagonists and Ishin with the protagonists having more than one combat style. In this case, Kiryu and Majima both have three combat styles each right off the bat with one secret style each — a total of eight. It’s the largest amount of variety in a combat system thus far. The styles are as such: the Brawler Style which is an unrefined version of Kiryu’s style he would later use in the following games; the Rush Style which acts as a boxing style that has Kiryu pivot and weave around his opponents with light jabs at fast speeds and great dodging capabilities–in a way similar to Akiyama’s style but based around punches; lastly the Beast Style that is similarly based around Saejima’s style but a whole other ball game with Kiryu giving up speed for heavier punches, being able to sustain hits without knockback at higher heat levels by giving up a proper way to block, and picking up weapons off the ground with precision to deliver devastating combos with large hit boxes, making it a bit more weapon-oriented than the other two.
For Majima, his styles are mostly original without taking much inspiration from other characters and are quite peculiar: the Thug Style utilizes his bizarre movements to exploit weaknesses in his enemies and causes confusion among them, even going so far as being able to steal weapons from them; the Slugger Style finally has him using that bat he’s occasionally seen with in past games put to good use among a plethora of other weapons for devastating combos in a variety of ways only he could come up with; and finally the Breaker Style which is not only the most unique style in the game but the whole series, its just crazy with the right amount of nuances it brings forth that reminds me of other character action games that has that one weapon or style that stands out among the crowd that, if mastered, not only makes it powerful but impressive to watch in action. Along with these styles is the new gear system that is also tied to the Heat system. There are three levels of bars that allow certain heat actions to be performed depending on the level, but also perks tied to abilities in all styles. At certain levels, that makes combat more visceral and encourages you to not only perform better, such as learning enemy attacks to dodge as much as you can, but also master each style with the abilities that can truly bring forth their fullest potential.
My only real gripe with this system is that it acts like a roadblock in the beginning when your attacks don’t yield much Heat gain. It’s best to carry around tonics often to have as much Heat as possible, especially when using the Rush and Breaker styles. This quickly changes once you unlock the outer rim abilities that make even short combos give you a ton of Heat, making tonics redundant. It felt like they didn’t balance progression properly, as you can get abnormally strong even before the halfway point. To keep up with the game’s theme, even character progression is influenced by money, as you literally throw money at them to obtain new Heat moves, health upgrades and inherent abilities — all done in a sphere-like grid taken from Ishin. Once you pay out for an ability, the adjacent abilities are then available for spending, and it’s not a straight line but instead branches, letting you customize what you’re more interested in, as trying to pay for everything is a large undertaking as the costs drive up quite substantially.
So besides the money that flies out of the many mooks in the game, you also can partake in two specific sidequests for each character, the Real Estate Royale for Kiryu and the Cabaret Royale for Majima. The former has Kiryu becoming a real estate manager, buying out property around Kamurocho in a bid to own the area sounding them and increasing the shares as much as you can to further increase money intake. You play this by going to each location and purchasing said business and then returning to the office in order to micromanage and decide who manages which locations and who is in charge of security to protect that area and invest with your advisers. All the while you are doing this you compete against other real estate tycoons in a bid to fully own the areas in which you will eventually have to duke it out. In the latter, Majima manages a Cabaret Club named Sunshine and must gain more fans in areas that other Cabaret Clubs control. How you do this is by hiring and improving the available Hostesses and micromanage them when it’s go time, giving the customers the right hostess to accommodate them and pay attention when one needs attending with the orders. You are also required to train the Platinum-ranked girls and dress them up in variety of clothing and accessories accordingly to suit their needs. Like the real estate sidequest, you will eventually duke it out with these other club owners to control their turf. It’s a combination of the Cabaret Club management sidequest from Yakuza 2 and the Hostess Maker sidequest in Yakuza 4 except less strict than the former and less mundane than the latter, and I got very invested in it as I memorized all the hand signs for each order.
Besides raking in a lot of cash for your upgrades, defeating these major opponents unlocks the outer rims of each of fighting style, until you eventually complete the sidequest to get each character’s secret styles which not only provides tons of fanservice for long-time fans, but are also quite powerful and worth the trouble. The only issue I have with the new system is the disparity between the amount of money both characters can amass and the effort involved. While the upgrades for Kiryu are technically more expensive, it can take a while for Majima to make the same amount, even though his activity requires far more finesse and micromanagement while Kiryu can just sit around and wait for the payout to come flooding in even without tasking the right managers. Not everyone will like this system as, while these are optional, they are mandatory to obtain the rather useful abilities on the sphere grids, and it could affect replay value if you ever want to start a fresh file as they can be hefty tasks that require patience.
There is, of course, the plethora of side content both old and new like the good ol’ favorites like Bowling, Batting Cages and Battle Coliseum, and new like the Phone Clubs, Pocket Racing, Disco Dancing (my personal favorite) which acts as a puzzle and rhythm game, collecting porn cards and JAV clips, and then there’s the Cat Fights which boil down to a rock-paper-scissors RNG fest, and I loathe it. There are about 100 sub stories this time around, but, like many things, they also took a new aspect from Ishin, that being the friendship gauge which allows you to meet important NPCs and do a task or two to increase their affinity and usually reward you with a few perks. Some NPCs might join your real estate business to be a manager, adviser or security or join Club Sunshine to be a hostess or befriend someone. Essentially their business can help with your real estate or give you more fans for your club; having benefits that affect other aspects of the game. It’s a pretty ingenious game design that ties all these systems together to make one hell of package that rewards your dedication. I say this as — I know I’m going to sound like a broken record now — another aspect taken from Ishin that will put your dedication to the test with the new CP point list. The system has you fulfilling tasks in a variety of categories in a checklist that gives you points to spend for upgrades like being able to increase your stamina in the exploration side or improve your payout time or benefit you with skilled hostesses at shrines in both cities.
With its story and gameplay being at such high quality, it only makes sense that it’s all enveloped around a beautiful and detailed world that oozes personality — a hefty task only the Ryu ga Gotoku team could muster. Since it takes place in the late 80s, they went to the fullest extent to realize this, even going as far as to fill the streets with such props as the pile up of trash — which was an issue at the time I might add — fashion on pedestrians, technology like pagers being in use, the type of establishments that were prevalent, the whole nine yards. The setting feels as intimate as always, but Kamurocho specifically has gotten its teeth back in the form of its previous raw and heavy atmosphere not seen since the first two games. On the technical side, outside of one boss fight, the game enjoys a silky smooth 60 fps during combat and feels like water with you being able to do Heat move after Heat move. It’s so satisfying. It does, however, suffer from framerate issues in the exploration side, especially at night when the cities light up like a Christmas tree and the activity becomes busier, taxing the system and causing some screen tearing because of it. It does have its fair share of muddy textures due to the fact it needed to accommodate both the PS3 and PS4 in its original Japanese release, but the city still looks great, and the character models and art style are on point; even when coming back from Yakuza 6 it still shines even among other titles released this year.
The animations are to be commended, as the team went one step further in being able to instantly convey characteristics in the battle styles. Kiryu isn’t just young and acting it in his lines; his styles are the personification of this as not just the Brawler Style but all three show a man who is still trying to craft something that eventually he would make his own and shows how vicious he can be. Like, for example, not even caring about sticking landings when he wants to punch someone so badly in a certain Heat action — completely different from the Kiryu we know and love. While for Majima, his Thug Style depicts a man who is on a mission and his experience is fully shown as he doesn’t waste movement and he’s a very effective for a hit man. His expressions show his sadistic side and that he just seems like he’s toying with his enemies, in complete contrast with Kiryu who is an inexperienced street punk and the other styles further exacerbates this as he eventually becomes the crazy Majima we adore. I will admit that the soundtrack wasn’t one that I fell in love with instantly as the heavy use of dubstep originally turned me off. Though that subsided and it became one of my favorites, each battle style has their own unique track and they’re all addictive and fit the characters well. From boss tracks like Kuze’s, to long fight tracks like Reign, to the disco tracks like Friday Night, to Karaoke songs like Heart Break Mermaid, to all the training songs, to remixed tracks like Unrest, what we have here is a stellar soundtrack; besides Nishiki’s boss theme, though. Not a fan of that remix.
Yakuza 0 is without question the best entry of the series, with its engaging plotline and all-star cast of actors who play out one of the most memorable groups of characters in the series, its deeper combat system that gets as close to a character action game than any other entry with both style and substance, and its fantastic production values with an overall Mp3-worthy soundtrack. Like Yakuza 2 being everything a sequel should, Yakuza 0 is everything a prequel should be and then some. Its localization, while at times being a bit Westernized, should be praised as they obviously put in a lot of effort, even going as far as composing an entirely new track for the opening as like with all games after Yakuza 2 they removed the licensed tracks, which is a damn shame as I loved Bubble and Kurenai by Shonan no Kaze. Besides that, the only bit of content not in the localized version is the Vita app, though, while it would have been nice inclusion, I won’t complain. I got around 90% completion out of the game and it took well over 100+ hours so content is certainly not an issue even if I wasn’t a big fan of everything. While I still recommend new fans to play these games in release order, I wouldn’t necessarily blame you if wanted to start here as its a great starting point. Plus, we will be getting Yakuza Kiwami, a remake of the first title, later this year. It’s not perfect by any means, but to old fans, if you haven’t already had plans to pick this game up, you best remedy that pronto!
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