A glorious trip back to where it all began!
It is a wonderful thing to have more platforms to run and play one of the all-time greatest gaming series, Yakuza (there, I said it, one of the all-time greatest gaming series; Yes, really!).
Finally, Nintendo fans can start the journey of a very young and green wannabe Yakuza, Kiryu Kazuma, in this high stakes, high drama, high batshit craziness of a game. Yakuza 0 takes us back to before the events of the first Yakuza, not only for the series’ mainstay protagonist, Kiryu Kazuma, but also his friend/ally/enemy/nemesis/comedy partner, Goro Majima! Here in Yakuza 0, a beat ’em up brawler, you play as both, and each of them has three styles of gameplay to enjoy.
Having already played Yakuza 0 and the entire Kiryu Kazuma saga, I was interested in playing this new version of an old game to see how the new additions of an extra 30 minutes of cutscenes, quality of life improvements, and online game mode fared. This standpoint of whether you have played the game before or not is a key one in determining how you may view this game. I’ll get back to this shortly.
What you do get, if you are new to the series, is the beginning of a journey that will have you hooked within 30 minutes. The reason for this, first and foremost, is that the writing and narrative are superb. Quite often, as I have found over the years, what appear to be benign conversations and situations always turn into something more sinister and larger than you can ever expect. Just when you think nothing really is going on, bang, suddenly things get very serious, and you are utterly gripped! Once that snowball has started rolling, it’s hard to stop!
Add to this the character growth, not only of Kiryu but also those around him, it is, again, superb. Couple all this with some fantastic voice acting (even in Japanese with subtitles) and you have one heck of an addictive game. However, what sets the Yakuza series apart is that they balance all the tense drama with spoonfuls of outright crazy, mind-blowing comedy/and let-your-hair-down fun content. There is a multitude of side activities, games, mini-games, side missions, and much, much more, if you so wish, just to have a breather from the main story.
For Yakuza 0, you visit the towns of Sotenbori, as well as Kiryu’s more established home, Kamurocho. Each town is alive with the sights and sounds of a bustling city center; no more so than at night with the outrageous neon shop signs flashing and even reflecting in the rain puddles. The maps are highlighted with many things to distract you, and you could write a separate review for all the “other” things you can do in the game.
If you stick to the main storyline, you will be missing out. Either way, whether you are taking part in main story missions or side missions, you are never far from the fun combat. Yakuza games are not quite Batman Arkham good, but they are not far from it. Landing combos and heavy punches/kicks is pretty straightforward.
What isn’t straightforward, however, are all the glorious finishing moves you can unlock by building up a heat gauge to then interact with the environment. When the flashing symbol appears, you will unleash all kinds of hilarious misery upon your foes. One of my all-time favourite Yakuza finishers is the brutal “pick an enemy up over your head and throw them groin-first into a lamppost” finisher!
I didn’t rate Yakuza 0 when I originally played it for being my favourite Yakuza game, however, because one of my gripes about Yakuza 0 is with the combat. I became frustrated that if you get hit to the floor amongst a group of enemies, the game’s algorithm means that just as you were getting back up, someone else would hit you back down, and this would repeat 4 to 6 times. Being hit that many times in a row, even on normal difficulty without any way to get out of the loop, would lower too much health in one go to be acceptable, and as mentioned, it became a source of frustration. This is still prevalent in this new version of the game, but it didn’t appear to happen as often or as many times.
Adding to all this excitement is a kickass soundtrack full of vigor for the right moment, full of solemnity for the quiet times. Each punch is accompanied by a hefty thwack, as well as many other sounds matching the equipment or environment around you.
There is one negative regarding the audio, and that is the English voice actor who plays Kiryu. As welcome as it is to appeal to a wider audience, RGG Studios has now included a full English voice dialogue (as well as Japanese and Chinese) for the game. However, the voice actor playing Kiryu in English is so far removed from how most would envisage him sounding in English as to be off-putting. In Japanese, Kiryu is voiced by the awesome Takaya Kuroda in his deep baritone rumble. In English, here in this game, he’s, well, indistinguishable from everyone and very bland and emotionless. A very poor fit indeed (it would have been so fun to have Brian Blessed’s voice for Kiryu in English; I would pay good money to hear that!).
Additionally, when you have acquired enough cash, skill points, and experience, you can level up your characters in the way you so choose. So, when you add all this up, i.e., the superb story, fantastic acting and action, excellent audio design, exciting artwork, with grounded RPG functionality, you get one heck of a great game.
BUT…..(sorry there is a “but” coming)
The new content added in for the Director’s Cut (exclusive for the Nintendo Switch 2) is, unfortunately, awful! I’m not going to downgrade my overall grade for the game because of it as this is new content, but if you have played the game before, don’t expect the new content to add to the experience in any meaningful or enjoyable way.
In all, there are 30 minutes of new cutscenes, which for obvious spoiler reasons, I don’t want to go over here. These new scenes have split the fan base and even infuriated some.
There are some in-game quality of life improvements that include nothing more than being able to save on the fly rather than at an in-game phone kiosk. As I still own Yakuza 0 on my PS4, I could fire that game up and compare it directly like-for-like with my Switch 2 version. The frame rate on the Switch 2 appeared more consistent and buttery smooth, but the game looked better, a little more detailed, and sharper, on the PS4, especially with regards to the lighting.
Finally, the new online mode called “Red Light Raid” is the most disappointing aspect of all. This mode allows you to go online with up to 3 friends, solo, or to join a group of random people and fight waves of enemies for cash, which you can use to buy new characters or upgrade your existing ones. It’s a very barebones horde mode.
After just two attempts, I was already bored, as this mode is nothing more than a button-mashing fury. There is no nuance, skill, flashy moves, or teamwork needed other than just mash away and survive. Players only survive by grinding to make their character stronger rather than relying on any tactics. It honestly is a very limited, boring mode, but at least it is something new, and if you have some friends to hook up with, it can be a fun way to chill out…for about ten minutes.
Summary
So, this brings me back to my statement I mentioned at the start of this review: Have you played this game before?
If you haven’t and are new to the Yakuza series, this is a fantastic place to start your journey with an absolute banger of a game (slight combat niggle aside). Jump in and get ready for one of the most fun gaming experiences of your life.
If you have played this game before, there is nothing at all in any way, shape, or form in this Director’s Cut to make you start to play the game all over again. The new content, in fact, makes some things a little worse than you remember.
All in all, it’s a shame RGG couldn’t find a way to entice both new and old players to play this game again, just the new ones, but as I said from the beginning, having a wider audience to experience this fantastic series is never a bad thing.
Developer: Ryo Ga Gotoku Studios
Publisher: SEGA
Platform: Nintendo Switch 2
Release Date: 5th June 2025
