I remember playing the original Yakuza on the Playstation back in 2005, while I liked it there were a few things that annoyed me about it. In fairness though I never completed the game because there was section I kept dying in, I kept trying to run & buy health but always got attacked by a random group of thugs before I could. That being said I have always meant to go back & try it again. Yakuza 0 was a great chance for me to start from scratch.
I like appetisers, they are a great way to get you ready for your main course. Sometimes though the appetisers are almost better than the main course a great example of this for me is Buffalo Wings. I really love them, my favorite in recent times has been from a restaurant called Soozis, they were just so damn tasty. Playing Yakuza 0 I found myself asking were the appetisers better than the main course?
The story takes place in 1988, in both Kamurocho & Sotenbori. Kazuma Kiryu is a small time debt collector for the Yakuza. Shortly after a simple debt collection the guy you collected from turns up dead & everyone is looking to you as the guilty party. The police are after you & the Dojima family want to throw you under the bus. It's clear you are being framed, but by who & for what reason? Lucky enough you have some allies, most notably your main oath brother Akira Nishkiyama, who seems a little innocent for a Yakuza but is as loyal as you can get.
Not so far away you have an ex-yakuza who is not having a great time of things either. Enter Goro Majima, manager of the high end cabaret club called The Grand. He is doing all he can to get back to his former status , no matter how close he gets another new road block is put in his way. This time he is being asked to kill & it is something he may not be able to do but if he doesn't he will be killed.
I enjoyed getting to play as both characters & watching them develop but as a whole I found Majima's story to be far more satisfying. I even found a lot of his sub stories to be more engaging. This is not to say Kiryu was boring but I think I already knew what to expect from him after playing the original game.
There are some many great side characters in the game including; Bacchus who is bad at paying his debts & his friend Kamoji who is apparently a fisting artist (his words not mine), Nugget who is a brilliant financial manager, Miracle Jackson (aka Jack Michaelson, aka Michael Jackson) a singer, a dancer, a lover but not a fighter, Mr Libido, who is well....ummm, interesting.
The ending is bitter sweet & while it kept me wanting more I did not finish the story feeling unsatisfied (that's what she said).
Visually there are both highs & lows. The highs would have to be the bright lights, down & dirty feel of the city. There are fluorescent lights everywhere at night & the streets look dirty, there are people selling all manner of things & some of the outfits have that classic 80's feel. There was an interesting feature used sporadically throughout the game, when some characters are interacting with each other the look changes to a kind of film Noir style. The camera pans from one character to another, no lip or body movements just the occasional change in facial expression, I felt it really worked well but would have like to see it used more.
The lows were that some of the character designs almost look unrendered at times during gameplay. It made the characters looks flat & lifeless, considering the look of the rest of the game I wonder was this used to convey how young the two protagonists were or did the studio simply go over budget on of the other parts of the game?
The soundtrack is a varied one & includes many genres; pop, rock, dance & romantic. Take for example Kiryu's battle music, it is has a very rock sound which worked well with his character & fighting styles. Often when going into a fight I thought the music was saying a lot about the character; he is a tough guy that can take whatever you throw at him. Then there is Majima, his battle music often had a more dance/trance sound which again worked well with his character & fighting styles. The music spoke to his character, I felt it said; the more violent the better & if things get chaotic or bloody I won't be disappointed.
The composer of this very eclectic mix of music is Hidenori Shoji, who's has worked on; Super Monkey Ball (which is an awesome game on the Playstation 2 that I cannot recommend enough),
Fighting Vipers 2 & The Yakuza Series. He is also part of a music group called [H.] who are made up of the Sega Sound Team which includes:
Akiko Nasu
Chihiro Aoki
Chiho Kobayashi
Eisei Kudo
Hiroshi Kawaguchi
Junpei Mishima
Keitaro Hanada
Mitsuharu Fukuyama
Susumu Tsukagoshi
Takahiro Kai
Takenobu Mitsuyoshi
Yasuhiro Takagi
Yuki Takatsuto
They have worked on; OutRun 20th Anniversary, After Burner, Fantasy Zone: Ultra Super Big Maxim Great Strong Complete Album, Galaxy Force 2, Thunderblade & others.
Listening to the score again really got me pumped & made me want to start playing the game again. The soundtrack is just over 3 & half hours long & is packed with great pieces, some of my favorites included;
'Substory Theme A'
'Substory Theme B'
'Pandora's Palace'
'Force Addiction'
'Crash Addiction'
'Fatal Conflict'
'Customer Creed'
'One Eyed Slugger'
'Try To Have Some Fun For Me'
'Fever Time'
'Misery Comes on Beat'
'Archnemsis'
'Two Dragons'
'Breeze Time'
'Ignite Your Spirit'
'Friday Night'
'Judgement'
'時間シンデレラ'
'怨魔の契り'
The gameplay, where to begin? There is simply so much to see & do. I suppose lets look at the fighting side of things. Each character has three main fighting styles & one legendary one. They play very differently from one another & work with whatever playing style suits you best. Two of my styles were; Kiryu's Rush Style, which offers speed & evasion at the cost of power & Majima's Mad Dog Style, which to me felt like the best of all his styles with a little extra thrown in. My two favorite moves were; Kiryu's recovery flying headbutt & Majima's triple take down finisher using Demon Fire Dagger to stab the third enemy.
Making money is a big part of the game, you use it not only to buy items but also to unlock abilities. Kiryu's money making game is real estate; buy properties, upgrade them, protect them & take out the King of each area. The money is slow to come in at first but after a while it flows nicely, there are also there a few sub stories attached to it that are quite fun. Majima's money making game is a helping a failing hostess bar take over the town; find hostesses, upgrade the club, train the girls, get support from the local businesses & keep the customers happy. I found the hostess bar to be more rewarding from a story point of view but financially Kiryu's I think was more rewarding.
There are so many mini games available, here are just some that are available:
Karaoke - which works alright & can be quite funny
Baseball - I found this to be fun enough but got bored of it quickly
Space Harrier/Outrun - getting to play the original classics was great & also reminded me how tough they were
UFO Catcher - a game I really like playing in real life as well as in the game
Pool/Darts - a lot of fun & many options for both
Bowling - great fun & good mechanics
Fishing - fairly straight forward, quite fun & it's crazy what some people through in the water
Telephone Club - the 1980's version of Tinder which had some hilarious endings
One of the past parts of the gameplay were the sub stories, they actually provided you with stories rather than just being a set of side missions. There were so many characters I got to like & learn about. Some of the stories were really funny & many offered real emotions & depth. I finished more than 80% of both characters sub stories, half the reason I did not go for 100% was because I wanted to leave some for the next time I played it.
The game offered so much & each time I thought I had discovered everything it had to offer something new popped up. The gameplay was really good & while on occasion I found Kiryu's fighting styles to be a little stiff overall I had very little to complain about. There is a healthy amount of Japanese comedy which I really enjoyed. All in all some great gameplay & I look forward to playing it again in the future.
I knew finishing the game that I had been playing it for a while but I never realised I have been playing for 70 hours. To me this is a testament to how good the game was - time flies when you are having fun. While there were a couple of things that I was not as pushed on gameplay/visually/story wise as a whole the game was really really good. I am looking for to playing Yakuza Kiwami (remastered version of the original Yakuza with a bit more thrown on top). I would like to give this game a big monkey thumbs up or 4 out 5 (the conversion rate is about the same).
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