Ryû ga gotoku Zero: Chikai no basho

This game is honestly insanely good. When I first played Zero, I was really new to the Yakuza franchise and was still getting to grips with the lore. Thankfully, due to this game being a prequel of some sorts, if you're interested in playing the Yakuza series but don't know where to start, this game is your answer.

The storytelling and the pace of this game is beyond fantastic. It has everything, intense highs and devastating lows, great comedic timing and the silly charm that the Yakuza series is well known for. It really is a game that you can just boot up and goof around in. I'll do my best to avoid spoilers for the game in this short review since I truly believe that everyone interested in the game should play it for themselves.

Beautifully crafted and insanely fun. Yakuza 0 is one of, if not my favourite game of all time. This is the first game to ever render me a sobbing, wailing mess.

10/10, fantastic and beautiful.

S tier, 10/10. Such a brilliantly over the top game. The story goes in so many different directions and is just a joy to watch. The combat is satisfying, I loved Majima's set the best and the baseball bat the most. Kiru's beast mode was great too. The open world was perfectly condensed with interesting side missions and plenty of things to do.

The infamous kareoke songs are brilliant, the race car game was exceptional, my favorite was however the dancing, just perfect. It did definitely drag at the end and felt a bit repetitive with the combat but there are so many great story moments and things to keep you playing. The last mission is so great and is such a brilliant set piece ending.

The customisation of your character however is very limited and pretty much non existent. The side missions are great but it is very easy to miss them as you have to explore in so many different areas. This is both good and bad as it forces you to explore but is just very time consuming and fustrating for me personally. I did go back to complete the side missions I missed in free roam mode but it just felt really repetitive and tedious to wander around the streets, exploring every inch of this place just to find a questline. Majima's story goes a bit all over the place after the incredible introduction. Over time it definitely got better but was weaker compared to Kiru's.

I haven't played the later games but several characters such as Kiru's best friend who felt like a major character didn't have much of a role. I'm sure that he is more important in the later games but i am very hesitant to play them, as I feel this style of combat and exploration could really get old after a while. I was interested in the story but I just looked up a video online, which definitely made me want to check out some of the games, I probably will but at a later date.

I did get this game because of Dunkey's review and am glad to say I enjoyed it allot more than him. I do agree with most of his points but the story is definitely better than he made it out to be. I'm not angry or anything I just wish he enjoyed it as much as I did.

In all a game I really enjoyed and just wanted to keep on playing and playing till the end. Definitely one of the most fun games I have played.

One of the BEST games ever made.

Yakuza 0 (Ryu ga gotoku Zero: Chikai no Basho) is a 2015 videogame, genre adventure, beatem up, directed by Toshihiro Nagoshi and starring as voice actor Takaya Kuroda and Hidenari Ugaki. Yakuza 0 is a prequel to the first game in the Yakuza series, released in 2005, and which currently has 7 main games.

The plot focuses on two main protagonist - Kazuma Kiryu (who is still quite new to the criminal world) and Goro Majima ( a cabaret manager, expelled from the clan and trying with all his might to return to it). Two characters have been involved in an "empty lot" case fought by clans from all over Japan. The plot is broken into a story of two characters, and this story gradually converges into one line of two characters.

The action takes place in December 1988, the Kamurocho district (which is written off from the real area in Tokyo - Kabukicho), and the atmosphere of that time is very well shown and registered. The main characters, as well as the rest of the secondary characters, are very well written and by the end of the story they fall into your soul. The plot is one of the best in the gaming series. And, of course, the soundtrack is amazing.

The word that best describes this game is fantastic. The gameplay is fun, a lot of content, and for those, who love Japanese games, I highly recommend trying out this series, and it's better to start with this game.

Yakuza 0 is nothing short of a miracle. This game was born from SEGA giving one final push for the Yakuza series to succeed in the United States and boy oh boy, did they do it. It's a cinematic roller coaster of action and emotion.

This was the second game I played in the series. Yakuza Kiwami, the remaster of the first game that was published after this one, was my first. I really recommend playing them this way, mostly because meeting the two protagonists and going on that adventure with them gave me ten times more investment in this story (But don't blame yourself if you can't get through Kiwami. It's short but the story is still full of holes from the original).

Speaking strictly of the story, once you hit the end of Chapter 2 you're hooked. Every two chapters you switch between the two protagonists, Kiryu and Majima, and their respective cities, Kamurocho and Sotenbori. The writing on both sides is immaculate. Once those two chapters with that character come to a head, they're left caught in a situation that leaves you wondering what happens next. But the best part is that switching to the other character doesn't feel like a dip in tension because you were already excited to find out what happened to them since last time. It's a very well-balanced approach to the dual narrative structure.

The cinematography isn't half-bad either. The tone for this title is much more serious (at least in the main story) than its brothers and sisters. There's moody lighting, excellent expression capture, period-accurate environments (did I mention this game is set in 1980's Japan?), and other details that create a believable atmosphere. I'm a huge proponent of using motion-captured cutscenes to tell a story versus using in-engine mouth flapping and dialogue boxes, and this is the Yakuza game that probably delivers the most on that front. Every other cutscene is mocap, and nearly all of them are played real-time with the detailed models (which means they can run at 60fps). There are so many scenes that crank up the intensity to 11 and catch you off-guard and it's wonderful.

Surprisingly, the combat is not my favorite out of the series. You have your staples like separate fighting styles, impactful heat actions, etc. But it has some mechanics like the depleting heat bars and abilities costing money that might throw off a gameplay-focused gamer. I still adore it, but if a remaster happened in five years I'd hope they change some things.

If you're looking for a great game that keeps you on the edge of your seat and has amazing presentation, you found it. It's probably my favorite piece of media in the entire world.

The story is freaking awesome. It catches you early on and you are hooked until the very end. The mini-games in this game would count as full length games in other games.

For example, bowling is great, pool is awesome, karaoke is fun, darts are fun too, you can dance, and do all sorts of stuff. You can also manage clubs, buy property, hire people to manage your business, and a few more things.

Also you can find soft-porn cards that unlock softcore movies, and so much more man.

The only issue I have is that you engage in too many fights, it becomes repetitive after a while. There are times where people on the streets will just start fight with you every few seconds, and it gets too much sometimes.

Anyways,9/10.