After thinking about it for few months, I finally got myself a Yakuza game after various Hollie ramblings about the series and a Tuesday Checklist about PS classics. Damn Hollie really got me!
As someone whose only experience in action and beat-em-ups is 2 hours in God Of War, 1 hour in Devil May Cry 3 and a few hours in a unfinished broken Bayonetta disc (still sad about that), not surprising anyone, I SUCKED at all of those! God of War? Owned me with the first boss. DMC3? Can't get past the first boss. Bayonetta is the first action game I wanted for myself, so I diligently beat all the bosses, but every chapter I cleared has a shit score. Then it broke, so we'll never know if I can beat the final boss. My forte is the leisure genre of JRPGs, so I have no prior experience to extreme button mashing. But boy was that about to change.
If you haven't realized already, the Yakuza series is incredibly Japanese. The original name in Japanese is Ryu ga Gotoku, which means 'like a dragon'. 0 is the prequel to the original Yakuza for the PS2. It tells the origins of two characters - Kazuma Kiryu, the main protagonist of the series and Goro Majima, a recurring ally and fan favourite.
The game starts out with Kiryu beating a man senseless in an empty lot, taking away his money and giving it to a loan shark. After the gig he hangs out with his oath brother Nishiki, who is also in the same clan as him. Things will get more confusing later, with lots of family names coming up so here we go: Kiryu and Nishiki are in the Tojo Clan, who controls Kamurocho, a fictional district in Tokyo (the main setting). In the clan there are many other subsidiaries, the Dojima family being the one our protagonist is in. AND in the Dojima family itself, the patriarch is, you guessed it - a Dojima, and under him is the family captain Kazama, patriarch of the Kazama family, who is serving jail time. Kazama is a literal father figure for Kiryu and Nishiki, as they grew up in the orphanage which operates under Kazama. The two serve under this family specifically. There are three lieutenants under the captain - Kuze, Awano and Shibusawa, all patriarchs of their own respective families. You got all that? No? Good, cause it took me hours to get it.
So Kiryu and Nishiki get their food and drink on when the morning news announces that a guy died in an empty lot. It turns out, the dead guy is the one Kiryu roughed up last night! Killing is a thing yakuza do, but not without a reason. Kiryu is framed for murder and brings shame and problems to the family (to Kazama specifically), so he voluntarily yeets himself outta the clan without so much as a missing pinky. From there on he was recruited into Tachibana Real Estate by Tachibana, the president. Everyone's so tense about the murder because of one thing - the location in which it occurred. The empty lot is worth 10 billion yen (iirc) to kickstart the Kamurocho Revitalization Project. The owner of the lot has gone missing and the three Dojima lieutenants are racing to get it. Dojima wants it, and whoever can give it to him will replace Kazama as the captain. Tachibana is also looking for the lot's owner under Kazama's request, and so Kiryu joins the search, butting heads with the Dojima family once again.
On the other end in Sotenbori, Osaka, lies the famous cabaret Grand and its charming manager Majima. Majima used to be in the Tojo Clan under the Shimano family, but was erased from the roster for defying orders. He's working his way back into the clan by running 'errands' for the oath brother of the Shimano patriarch - Sagawa of the Omi Alliance. Seeing that Majima is desperate to get back into the clan, Sagawa entrusts him with a mission - kill Makoto Makimura, and he may just be back as a Shimano man. Majima digs around and finds his mark, a burly chiropractor with tattoos. However it seems that Makoto, being a gender-neutral name had all of us fooled - The burly man is actually a Chinese immigrant named Lee, while the real Makoto is his blind employee. Apparently Majima is not the only one after Makoto; several yakuzas show up just as Lee and Majima are duking it out and kidnaps the girl. Lee is injured and pleads Majima to find Makoto and keep her safe. Majima does as told, finds the girl and takes her to a warehouse for safekeeping.
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| MOOD |
Kiryu starts his civilian days learning how to talk business alongside Oda, Tachibana's closest aide. They help a man get rid of a yakuza-backed squatter, which unfortunately was hired by Awano. Kiryu realizes that it's impossible to avoid contact with any Dojima men. Oda tells him to meet up later in a bar named Serena. He goes there, sees the owner Reina (who is total bijin) and gets flustered. And Nishiki's there! It's his fave place to go for drinks out of prying yakuza eyes. They wait. And wait. Finally Oda shows up, bloody and beaten, behind him - Awano. The lieutenant has caught wind of Tachibana's plans and is annoyed even further by the squatter issue earlier. He demands Kiryu to give them Tachibana. On both sides, Oda defends his president, while Nishiki fears for his brother. In the end, Kiryu is back to square one, doing things alone again. He mopes around in the empty lot, and Tachibana shows up. He says he knows where the owner is, just needs some time to plan and Kiryu to stay alive until then. The whole Dojima family is out for Kiryu's blood when he doesn't hand Tachibana over. Kamurocho is full of Dojima family men, waiting to crack his skull. Nishiki finds Kiryu and drives him out of Kamurocho to the wilderness. He then pulls a gun on his oath brother.
"I couldn't let you die like that Kiryu! The least I could do as your brother is give you a quick death."
"Promise me that you'll take my head to them and rise to the top."
"I can't do anything without you brother! Without you I'm nothing! Climbing the ranks of the clan is meaningless if you're not there with me!"
"Then we're done. From now on, we're not oath brothers. We have nothing to do with each other."
"Where are you going?"
"I'm going back to Kamurocho."
Me: AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH (I cried)
Ahem. Majima is super confused why Makoto, a blind young girl has yakuza up her ass (including himself) so he tries asking about the man with a bat tattoo that she was going around looking for. Makoto refuses to answer and tells him to ask Lee. So off Majima goes, strolling into China town looking for a burly injured man. Lee says Makoto was sold to the Korean mafia by a man with a bat tattoo on his left arm. Her blindness is psychological. Lee has a plan to keep Makoto safe, and Majima wants in. Majima and Makoto have a casual chat back in the warehouse, with Majima commenting on Makoto's watch. "It's cute, it even has a music box inside! Sadly it doesn't work anymore... Maybe you're right. I couldn't become stronger because these things hold me back." And with that she takes off the watch. Majima keeps it for her. Lee devises a body double for Makoto to confuse the yakuza and get Sagawa off Majima's back. Majima doesn't agree and leaves. The next day, 'Makoto Makimura' is found dead in the Sotenbori river. Majima and Lee are confused as heck. A call comes from a man named Nishitani of the Omi Alliance. "How do you like my present?" Nishitani then gets arrested. As Lee and Majima are planning their escape plan, Sagawa's men reach the warehouse. They escape back to the chiropractic clinic and wait for Lee to start the car and then BOOM! EXPLOSION HE DED SON! Sagawa has come to end Majima, but he is unexpectedly saved by a guy in a white suit, who sweeps Makoto away and knocks him out.
Kiryu returns to Kamurocho to find everything has gone to shit. His house is burned down, Dojima family men are everywhere looking for him, and Kazama family is on the shit list. Reina brings Kiryu back to her bar, but yakuza have been keeping an eye on the establishment and so after beating up some goons, Kiryu leaves but is surrounded by even more goons, with Kuze. Tachibana comes speeding last minute, saving Kiryu's ass. Tachibana faints from his condition of bad kidneys. They rest up in Little Asia, but the Chinese couldn't keep Kiryu so he had to crash with some homeless in the park. The next day Oda picks Kiryu up and brings him to a place he's terribly familiar with - Tojo Clan HQ. Tachibana is striking a deal with the second chairman with one billion yen and some percentage of his real estate profits, in order to have Dojima lay their hands off Kiryu. The chairman says yes to the deal, and comments on how similar Kiryu is to Kazama. With Kiryu momentarily free and safe, they discuss of the lot owner's whereabouts. She is in the care of an ally in Osaka and goes by the name Makoto Makimura.
Sagawa isn't happy about what happened. He tells Majima to investigate about the white suit guy and the first step is to ask Nishitani, who is in a cell. Nishitani shrugs and says the white suit guy is not from Omi Alliance, but with Nikkyo, under Tojo Clan. Majima agrees to work with Nishitani to get this Nikkyo guy, but before they could leave, Nishitani is shot and dies. Majima informs Sagawa of the reveal and they head to Nikkyo HQ. Up there waiting for Majima is Sera, the patriarch, who informs him of Makoto's departure from Osaka. "I know you wanna keep Makoto safe. We mean no harm to her. But if you don't trust me, shoot me and take the name card from my breast pocket." And Majima puts his trust in Sera... but Sagawa having none of that shit. Sunovabitch shoots the guy and takes the card. Kazuma Kiryu, Tachibana Real Estate, in Kamurocho. Home sweet home.
Kiryu arrives in Osaka with Oda to extract Makoto from the ally - Nikkyo. They sort out the extraction details with Sera through the phone, and in no time they're heading back to Tokyo... except that Shibusawa's on their tail with cars and bikes with guns and rpgs! Even helicopters!!!! With rpgs!!! They manage to escape them by hiding in a parking lot, with Oda getting oddly agitated. Makoto senses something hairy about Oda and tries to tell Kiryu. Before she could say anything, Oda comes back with his gun and intends to kill Makoto and Kiryu. Makoto, already so done with people taking her hostage just cause she's blind, stabs Oda on the thigh with a concealed knife in her walking cane. Sera gave it to her, just in case. Lo and behold - there's a bat tattoo on Oda's left arm. Oda couldn't bear to tell Tachibana that he sold off his sister - which is Makoto - for some coin, even though that was before they even met. Things get shittier and Shibusawa's goons just had to arrive. Oda knows he couldn't make it out alive so he volunteers to hold them off for the two to escape. In the end Oda was the one feeding information to the Dojima family - to Shibusawa. Traitors don't get to live.
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| WOW a carp and a dragon HHMMMM I WONDER WHAT THAT MEANS. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) |
Sagawa is holed up in his secret office because he can't be seen in Kamurocho, lest the Shimano family thinks less of him. So Majima goes around and ends up in the Kazama family office, where he demands to know where Nishikiyama is. The young'uns have no idea how to deal with him, so Kashiwagi, the family captain steps in and fights Majima. Him being the playable character, of course Kashiwagi loses, so a young'un has no choice but reveal that Nishiki frequents Serena. Majima finds Nishiki in the bar and trolls him in their fight, coming out as the victor. Majima asks for Kiryu's location, and Nishiki says that Makoto is missing and they're looking for her too. He finds her on a rooftop overlooking the empty lot. Makoto has regained some of her vision, only able to make out light and shadows. She begs for Majima to help her get revenge on the Dojima lieutenants, but he tells her to let it go. The very next day Makoto gives herself up to Dojima. In exchange for the empty lot, she wants the head of the three lieutenants. Dojima isn't stupid, so he orders Lao Gui to shoot her. Majima bursts in just in time to witness this and goes into a frenzy. Cue epic cutscene with shirtless Majima and his awesome tattoo!
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| APPLY PRESSURE TO THE WOUND DAMMIT IT SLOWS THE BLEEDING! STOP HOLDING HER HAND! |
First state of business in the Dojima family is to elect Shibusawa as the new captain. Shibusawa's first action as captain is to exterminate the Kazama family - and anyone who so much as blinked at them. Just after Kiryu is informed of Makoto's whereabouts and condition by Sera, Nishiki tells him that Dojima men are out for blood. Kiryu holds off some of them while Nishiki goes to check up on the Kazama family office. Later when he gets there, waiting for Kiryu outside the office is none other than... Kuze. I've beaten this sunovabitch four times at this point wtf. Beat Kuze and he reveals that Shibusawa is off to kill Makoto in Sera's Nikkyo ship-base at Tokyo bay. Nishiki and Kiryu rush to the bay, where Shibusawa has the ship surrounded. Sera isn't on the ship, so Shibusawa proceeds with his raid. Kiryu and Nishiki, aided by Kashiwagi and the rest of the Kazama family, rushes in. At the top of the cruiser ship, Kiryu faces off against Shibusawa. Cue epic fight opening! As for Majima, with determination, he prepares to solo raid Dojima HQ. Sagawa and his men cannot stop him. They were petrified by his mad gaze. "You have eyes of a madman!" Indeed. Majima storms Dojima HQ and fights Awano. Upon Awano's defeat, they have a serious conversation about what it means to be yakuza, like normal sane men. Then Awano sees Lao Gui trying to off Majima behind his back. Awano takes the bullet for Majima, hell, he takes around three bullets! Dojima orders Lao Gui the best mainland assassin to off Majima while he relaxes in his office. He regretted that decision around 10 minutes later, cause I crushed the assassin to the ground BITCH. Dojima fumbles for his gun while Majima knees Lao Gui's face, then Sera comes and saves the day by shooting the gun out of Dojima's hands.
At this point, both guys are at their absolute worst. Kiryu wants to punch Shibusawa to death for all the things he did and said; Majima wants Dojima dead to free Makoto of her shackles. Both of them are in the verge of crossing the line - taking a life. Nishiki tackles Kiryu before he could pummel Shibusawa to death, saying that if he wants to cross the line, they have to do it together. A "Don't go where I can't follow!" kind of way. Majima is persuaded by Sera to hand Lao Gui to the police and to leave Dojima to rot in his own failure. A "She knows her hands are clean only because you stained yours." kind of way. Sera obtains the rights to the empty lot, and becomes the third chairman of the Tojo Clan.
Kiryu goes to see Kazama in prison and dons his signature white and red suit, declaring his return to the Dojima family. Nishiki, although kind of grumpy that Kiryu isn't returning to the Kazama family, wishes him the best, and they go for a nice meal. Majima is welcomed back into the Shimano family, while poor Sagawa is offed by his own clansmen.
In Sotenbori, Makoto has regained most of her vision and is standing up for herself as a hardcore underground survivor who takes no shit. She angers some small yakuza fry and Majima shows himself, but Makoto can't recognize him. Majima leaves without saying a word and Makoto ponders on his sad eyes.
In the epilogue, Makoto visits the empty lot in which Tachibana died. She brought flowers and tells him that everything is finally over, with so many people helping her through the journey. Suddenly she hears a familiar chime from a small patch of land. Makoto digs the spot to find her cute watch, repaired. Thus the start of a peculiar rivalry between the Dragon of Dojima and the Mad Dog of Shimano.
If you ever think Yakuza is a dark and serious game, you're DEAD WRONG. See the image above? Yeah. You can do that in the game, and LOTS MORE. HAM EVERYWHERE!!!!
Gameplay: Are you kidding me??? It's nothing like I've played before, so to start, I'm giving an 8. The fights? FUN. The other minigames? SUPERB. Playing a beat-em-up needs strategy dammit, and Yakuza 0's got it! There are three fighting styles for Kiryu and Majima: standard, speedy and power-based. It's all about how you switch between them when facing certain enemies. Kiryu is what I'd like to call a 'heavyset'. He isn't particularly speedy and covers less ground. Majima is quicker and more flexible so he has many evasive movesets. There is a fourth style which I just found out existed (did not unlock it yet), but it corresponds with their respective titles of the dragon and mad dog. I was playing in normal mode, and for the very first boss I toned it down to easy because I couldn't beat Kuze, but after I got used to the button commands and play style, the other bosses I could clear without dying too many times. Each defeat doesn't make me frustrated because I was closer to beating the boss each time. Apart from the combat there are also a bunch of minigames, the two bigger ones being Real Estate Royale (Kiryu) and Cabaret Club Czar (Majima). RER is what it says on the tin. Buying property and upgrading them to increase share value in an area before moving on to the next one. It requires some waiting time but the profits are astounding. CCC is a micromanagement game which requires some quick reflexes and memory, and in it includes a small dating simulation in the form of a dating sim! SUPER META! I was really overwhelmed when the story forced it upon me but after two rounds I cannot stop. I was off recruiting hostesses for the club instead of actually playing the story lol. Then there's all the other minigames OMG. Karaoke, disco DDR, bowling, arcade games, illegal gambling, underground fights, FISHING??? And there's different dating-sim-esque activities like Telephone Clubs??? Equipment forging and material searches??? What is this game even.
Story: 6. Yakuza plays out like a J-drama and the plot is intricate so if you are not familiar with Japanese names, you might as well get all the characters mixed up. Some key characters are only mentioned and didn't really make an appearance, very much like a television series. I just can't wait to see what happens next (and who I'll be fighting) so I played the story missions one after another, similar to binge watching Netflix. Being a game about Japanese crime organizations you can bet there are blood spills everywhere, and many people die in these games. All the deaths in the game are heart wrenching, especially with the more dignified characters as they take their last stand. Kiryu and Nishiki's brotherhood? My favourite part of the game. ABSOLUTELY FUCKING YES. I'M DOWN WITH IT TO HELL AND BACK. (Sadly it doesn't last to Yakuza 1 so) It's not the main focus of the story but it sure got me good in the feels! Just... such a pure thing in story about a wretched back-stabbing world. TOO PURE.
Soundtrack: 7. What's an action beat-em-up without good music to amp it up? Yakuza 0 certainly has good music to go with the various battle styles for each of the protagonists, and then some for the major bosses. Oh and the final boss themes are ~amazing~ You guys don't know how pumped I was during the finale. Kuze's fight - WOAH NICE MUSIC!!! Awano's fight - THIS IS GOOD!!! OHOHOHOH and Shibusawa!!!! He has the most epic boss theme I've heard since Tales of the Abyss, that might just be my high talking, but it is truly a wonderful piece. The title menu theme sounds very similar to the distorted bgm of Sweet Pool and I was not ready to deal with nostalgia-induced heartache while playing a game about dudes taking off their shirts. All and all, I can get used to this. Gimme all the epic techno goodness to fight a boss with 5 health bars, my body is ready!
The fight opens with Shibusawa and Kiryu butting heads (literally).
Overall rating: For my very first Yakuza game, I give it a 9. One, because it's like nothing I've ever played; two, it got me super invested, so kudos to SEGA; three, this game got me hooked into the series, so I will buy Kiwami and play all of Kiryu's story arc. I'll even go as far to buy the original PS2 versions of Yakuza 1 and 2 if Kiwami isn't available, I'm that invested (it's dirt cheap anyway).
Character analysis:
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| Pretty good-looking for a perpetual frowner. |
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| Gorogorogoro-chan~~~ |
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| The fucks he gives are minimal. |
Nishiki is the best bro in this game. During the opening chapters I was tweeting about how I hope they stay best buds forever and literally the next second I'm treated to the breakup. Why. Fortunately they patch up with the most awesome cutscene in Yakuza 0 and proceed to kick some ass together. Their brotherhood is something so precious it's heartbreaking (spoilers) to see shit go down the drain in Yakuza 1. What's sadder is that this is what inevitably happens to all strong bonds. In a storytelling standpoint, these bonds have to break. Nishiki says that he cannot go on as a yakuza without Kiryu, but I think it goes both ways. Kiryu relies on Nishiki as much as latter does. And the mystery of their tattoos - ever heard of the story of a carp swimming past a gate and becoming a dragon? Yeah. That's them. Some people noted that the tattoos signify Nishiki's failure to become a dragon like Kiryu, but I'd like to think their tattoos as a pair, thank you. Too much pain for me.
Kuze the Dojima family lieutenant. This man is as tenacious as a cockroach and doesn't know when to give up. I've beaten this man four times and he still gets up and takes it. The first time I beat him with my fists. The second time I beat him with my fists whereas he had a metal pipe that nearly broke my arms. The third time I beat him with my best bro Nishiki. The last time I beat him in front of the Kazama family office with bikes and neon signs. This old man can take it and I respect that! He's by far the most dignified boss in the game. Kuze's not all muscle either; he sheds some harsh wisdom on Kiryu before the second fight, and actually acknowledges his abilities in the third. In the last fight, he's accepted that nothing can stop Kiryu, but he'd be damned if he doesn't fight the kid.
There's not much to be said about Tachibana, but he is implied to have an ass-kicking past. Oda... the backstabbing mofo. Says he will never betray Tachibana, instead goes on to sell information to Shibusawa and then attempted to kill Makoto. Did he get redeemed? I wouldn't say yes. It was only in his final moments that he decided to defend Tachibana.
Nishitani OH BOI. This guy is one loose cannon. His three tenets of life are sex, money and violence. He likes to announce his less appropriate activities to the world, like getting a hard on while fondling ladies and before fighting Majima, calls the cops to report himself as a robber and get arrested, chilling in the cell he's held (which he calls his second home), then finally snapping when a cop shoots his liaison officer in the force - who is also his father figure. He takes multiple bullets to the chest and STILL stands. He finally bites the dust, but not before taking the cop who killed his father figure with him. The mad man that inspired the mad dog.
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| Look at this refined man. |
Makoto may be a damsel in distress, but she is in no way weak or whiny. Waaaaay better than Ashley from Resident Evil 4, that's for sure. Most of her distress comes from the fact that she's blind, so she can't defend herself well enough, but she puts up a fight. Unlike Ashley she won't get carried off every 10 seconds. That's a bonus. And get this - they're the same age! Makoto has gone through so much trauma to the point of blindness, but she still retains some of her positive demeanor throughout the game, is relatively calm during most of the chase sequences, and finally, after getting taken hostage one too many times, stabs her captor with a hidden knife in her cane. This is all when her sight is still impaired! Later, her brother dies, she regains some of her sight, then proceeds to seek revenge on the men who wronged Tachibana. Makoto essentially walked right into a lion's den armed with nothing but resolve and knowledge of her worth. She nearly dies, ends up in a coma but recovers hours later and hands the empty lot to Sera, ridding herself of the nuisance. She's not done being a badass just yet! After her sight has fully recovered, Makoto bitch slaps two thugs who are harassing her and her doctor. The thugs try threatening her, but she doesn't even flinch. COME AT ME BRO. It was only after Majima shows up that she averts her eyes from his intensely sad gaze. Truly, an example of the determinator. But let's face it...
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| ...if he liked it then he should've put a ring on it. |
This game... THIS GAME!!! Hollie in this Tuesday Checklist really summed up Yakuza 0, or any Yakuza game, in a sentence:
"Everybody's ripping their shirts off and it's great fun!"Great fun is an understatement. I can't deny that the battle strip is what made me love the game even more, I mean who doesn't like muscular backs and beautiful waists showcasing the fine art which is tattoos? Anyone??? Nobody appreciates male waists like I do...
My first impression of Yakuza 0 after an hour is that I play it similarly to any Persona game. The only difference is the battle system. Of course the two are vastly different genres, but the way I view it is that both games have a slice-of-life element to it. It makes me feel like I'm going on my daily business - doing chores, working to earn money, eating, sleeping... It's great that the series has gained a new following since the release of Yakuza 0, and SEGA has decided to continue localizing their upcoming releases. Like Hollie, I would like to ask myself - how did I sleep on such a great series?
I'm happy to say that I'm gradually expanding my gaming experience by trying out new genres. I used to exclusively play JRPGs, and it wasn't until Assassin's Creed showed up that I started to take interest in open world games like Watch_Dogs and Infamous. I planned to buy these games, but didn't because I was afraid it wouldn't suit my tastes. Luckily for this game, I had some experience with beat-em-ups in the form of Bayonetta, something I bought for myself out of sheer curiosity. In the end, Yakuza 0 is an enjoyable experience, I was invested in the story, I love the gameplay, and I'm definitely playing the other games and going to look forward for the next entry.
The WW version of the intro has bgm instead of the original song "Bubble" due to licensing issues (no surprise), but both are
Yakuza 0 Download Free Adobe Dreamweaver CC Key Intuit TurboTax All Editions KeyEdraw Max KeyAntares AutoTune Pro Key
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