Yakuza 0 is amazing and you should play it

On the other hand, I read that sentence and think “How could you not want to do that!? That sounds amazing!”

One thing about Yakuza that I think is difficult for, say, American audiences is that it slots into a market that has expectations that a open-world game looks like GTA or Ubi-Game. Yakuza has free-roaming in a modern urban environment, but it isn’t an “open world” game the way that those games are. I think that Sleeping Dogs is probably a decent analog to the upper end of the American market for Asian-city-open-world-game, but then you have to drop out 50+% of those because Yakuza doesn’t let you hijack cars or shoot guns.

Shenmue is the obvious antecedent, but more generally, personally, I’ve always characterized Yakuza’s open-world as more related to the “post-airship” sections of a JRPG than to GTA.

That was the major shock that I felt the first time I played Yakuza 2. After reading about all the amazing things in the game (going to karaoke bars, all the little details about experiencing certain districts in Tokyo) I was shocked to actually experience the game and not find a GTA-like open world environment. At first I loved it. It summarized this beautiful story from Yakuza 1, and then set up lots of cutscenes for a really grand story, but then I actually got to control my character, and all I really got to do was move forward and “interact” with people, followed by fighting in an old fashioned button masher fighting game, followed by moving forward and “interacting” with people. It was so bizarre.

I tried again with Yakuza 3. LOVELY setup. Seriously, the island of Okinawa in a house full of kids, I could just go from cutscene to cutscene and be happy playing that game. But then I went to the city and had fight after fight after fight and got sick of it again like in Yakuza 2.

[quote=“Paul_cze, post:20, topic:128311, full:true”]
I don’t doubt there are some people dumb enough to be rejective of Japanese game because of its Japaneseness, but I doubt they are in the majority.[/quote]
Have you looked outside your window lately? Much of the world is turning inward and games like this are going to become even less accepted now. It’s always been true, especially in America since the advent of the Xbox, that Japanese games went from being special to being on the outside looking in.

I almost bought this game yesterday. I do love a good brawler. Cathcart had me excited. I just know that the setting and the violence/sex/setting isn’t for me anymore.

That said, the video clips make it look like they’re still using the fighting system from Spikeout: Battle Street on Xbox, which was pretty good. :)

Both 4 and 5 were given out as part of PS Plus in the past. Anyone who remembered to redeem them and still has their PS3 should at least sample those to see if they want to take the plunge on Zero.

I’m taking the plunge and will play it this weekend. I was looking for something different to play and I loved Sleeping Dogs. This game is just like Sleeping Dogs, right?

It is nothing like Sleeping Dogs. Sleeping Dogs to me was a more narrative focus GTA. I honestly don’t really know how to describe it. I have a love/hate relationship with these games. I played most of 1, skipped 2, beat and love 3, played half of 4 and skipped/didn’t even realize there was a 5. Now I’m playing this one. And I play it a lot in short spurts of 10 minute sessions, go do one thing and then quit out and come back to it later and do another and so forth. I like it but and it’s mostly more of the same so I knew what to expect but I just can’t really play it in longer sessions.

Somebody mention Way of the Samurai and that is another Japanese game series I enjoy too. Yea the style of both games is closely similar. Both have their hardcore fanbase but honestly there really probably isn’t a much larger appeal in the West then those that already buy these games. I remember Sega made a big push with the first one, big marketing campaign, Hollywood voice actors, etc and it was a considered aflop in the West because of how much of a push they gave it.

OP and the chicken miniquest video convinced me to buy it.

Some of the minigames are rather hard for me, although it seems they are optional/for completionists. There’s a rather diverse amount of them and it helps provide charm even thought the implementation of some is difficult.

The 1989 Japan setting is very atmospheric. As you wander you will find special locations with themed activities. In the arcade, you’ll have prize-grab games. Original SEGA racing game from the 80s. There’s a pretty decent Mahjoong game but the Japanese scoring is weird. Many times I thought I had a winning hand but received no prompt to win off the discard (I perused the scoring rule differences between Japanese and HK rules). You can visit a gambling room where you can play various types of poker or blackjack. You can visit a bar, play pool or darts. There’s Japanese chess which I couldn’t get my head around (can’t recognize what piece does what).

Yep, you can get lost in that stuff for a long time. The karaoke minigame is not mechanically a great rhythm game but it is pretty funny seeing the characters transformed into 80s video stars, and the ability to play as the lead singer or to support another singer with interjections is cool. Majima’s interjections on Rogue of Love are especially hilarious.

Later on in the story each of the protagonists gets his own unique mini game that branches off from the main story. They’re both optional but have their own story lines, unlock new ability tiers for all of your fighting styles and also give you a way to make a ton of money. And they’re both pretty cool! I spent a lot of the weekend getting lost in them and had a great time with both (but definitely prefer Majima’s).

Pro tip: Since I am new to the series I wasn’t sure if I would miss out by advancing the story past the point of no return for some things, but so far I can say that through at least chapter 10 everything is still available.

Ah I’m in Chapter 6 and I’ve been hunting for special encounters and stuff in fear I wouldn’t be able to unlock them later. I’m with Kyriu, haven’t played much Majima.

I have a big problem with a combo, “essence of finishing blow”. It’s Square x3, Triangle, Then apparently triangle again when the enemy falls on the ground. I tried for an hour couldn’t get it to go off once. It says to make sure the square square square triangle combo is a “backhand” combo which I don’t understand. Tried looking for videos but no go. Hrmm. I may have to let go on the OCD and play the story.

edit: oh I figured out some weirdness with Mahjong. So if you “self-draw” you have to hit Square to declare a win. If you are just about to win, and have no exposed tiles, you also have to declare it somehow.

edit: btw i figured out the essence of finishing blow. You need a minimum energy level to fire it off. Like 2 bars or something.

Yeah Japanese Mahjong is difficult if you are expecting one of the easier variants. You basically can’t take a chi or a pon unless you definitely have a point-scoring hand or you are screwed. The majority of the point scoring hands require all concealed tiles. The safest one for chis and pons is to have no honors and no 1s or 9s at all in your hand, or else to have the right directions or dragons. Safest thing is just to go for ron/tsumo with or without richi with no tiles from anyone else except possibly the ron itself.

If there’s one bad thing I can say about Yakuza 0 it’s that now I can understand this post.

But I am not learning koi koi. That is where I draw the line.

For what it’s worth, koi koi is much easier to learn than riichi mahjong. I played the hell out of the former via Clubhouse Games on the DS and could never pick up the latter.

Yeah, the more recent games have done very well in not letting you miss out on stuff. When you complete the game you get Premium Adventure mode which lets you finish up all the sub stories and such you missed out on. I really hope they implement Playstation VR in the future for the minigames, that would be so cool. Many of the minigames could work very well with it. I found the telephone club last night which was pretty amusing.

I missed out on the first game in the series and I really blame Sega for misrepresenting the game as a GTA clone. Been playing it since the second game and it has become one my favorite RPG series. I can’t think of another series that has a city comparable to Kamurocho. I love how the city is a staple of each game, seeing how it changes over the years. I run around and just have all these memories of each game come back to me. The city and the characters have such a developed history. I love how, with the obvious exception of 0, the stories take place during the year and month they were released in. A few have been released in December and have Christmas stuff to reflect that. The characters all age too. Kiryu is 20 in Yakuza 0 and 48 in Yakuza 6. I watched Haruka grow up from a little kid into an adult. I can’t think of another series that has pulled off this type of thing.

I still love the combat, though it does rely on the player making their own fun with it in a way. If you are looking at weapons and seeing how fast they break and thinking they are worthless let me give you a tip: Build up your heat, pull out the weapon, then use a heat finisher with it before putting the weapon away. You get to do a cool finisher and you won’t break your weapon in a few seconds. Now go and buy a salt shaker and use the finisher on someone! It’s strange how in Yakuza 0 there doesn’t seem to be a list of contextual finishing moves, it was always fun trying to pull some of the rarer ones off. Maybe there is a guide somewhere?

I’m pretty happy with how Sega has been treating the series lately and I’m glad some of you are getting to experience it. I hope it’s selling well here.

Personally I like fighting on a bridge so I can clean up the streets literally by kicking the bad guys over the railings. Of random item finishers I like the bicycle wheel one you get having broken your bicycle on someone when the wheel is the only thing you have left…

Also it’s pretty cool that you can do some custom heat actions based on items you have in your inventory. If you see oranges for sale, pick one up and keep it with you.

I just finished Yakuza 0.

The ending is not the ending. It has credits. And like after 10 minutes of music there’s still one last scene. Don’t miss it!

Yeah, it’s pretty good. I’ll definitely pick up the remake of the original this summer when it comes out, though I may save it to be my Christmas vacation game.

Ok it’s official, you guys have until August 29th to finish Yakuza 0:

Hey, Yakuza 0 is $60 and this is $30! Maybe I’ll just wait for the new one.

I can’t believe it’s only been 11 years since the original. We’ve had what, 7 Yakuza games? 1 through 5, then the zombie one, and then 0? That’s seven right? I had no idea they were so prolific. 7 games in 11 years is a really fast rate of release.