"Yakuza 0" feels exactly like when I was a kid, coming from school ready for grabbing that PS2 controller and play for hours and hours. This title has the exact same things that I've always loved from the games of that time. It carries that special DNA of the mid 2000' gaming era. You sure think that I'm crazy, but I'm sure that feeling it's gonna hit u too.
From the get-go you'll feel that as I did, but later in the story u will find a mature and dark plot that will break with that feeling of being kids again. The dark and mature themes remind u that u are now a man, luckily that allow us to enjoy such thing as this plot in a whole new level.

Set in the Japan from the 88', "Yakuza 0" follows three protagonists: Kazuma Kiryu, Goro Majima and Makoto Makimura (Those firsts two are playable characters, by the way). The three of them are trapped in a web of political intrigue, betrayal, and surreal ambition related to a tiny but vital piece of land, known as the "Empty Lot".
The narrative is paced like a Netflix or Tv show; full of cliffhangers, plot-twists, emotional moments and well-written dialogues. Every chapter finishes in the right time, leaving u anxious about what's going to happen next. Allow me to keep talking about this aspect, is worth it. As I was saying the game changes between chapters, from tense political conspiracies to a war power or deeply personal character arcs. There's heartbreaks, betrayal, moments of laughter and joy, and some of the best written characters that I've seen in a long time (since my "Atri -My Dear Moments-" playthrough, a few months ago). Despite the heavy themes, this game never becomes boring or overwhelming because "Yakuza 0" knows when to pull back at the right time.

If you played videogames like "The Warriors" back in the golden age of the Playstation 2, then "Yakuza 0's" combat will hit you right in the nostalgia. This title features an interesting combat system with multiple fighting styles per character. In this aspect is where the Ps2 vibes shines at it's fullest, you'll understand what I mean when you fight someone in this title.

This game has two main areas, "Kamurocho" (Tokyo) and "Sotenbori" (Osaka). These two places are not massive, but they're increbidly dense, filled with details and personality in every alleyway. Neon signs, people walking around, enemies trying to beat us, etc. Not to mention the places where we can go: Karaoke bars or simple bars, hostess clubs, arcades, discos, casinos, convenience stores, +18 videoclubs, Restaurants, etc.
Talking about the side content, I have to talk about this aspect in detail. The substories are totally worth to play them, all of them. The Business management stuff it's also pretty entertaining. All thew side content feels like it was made with love. You'll have hours and hours worth of extra gameplay thanks to the side content.

In summary, "Yakuza 0" it's a symphony of broken hearts and burning spirits, with a happy but bitter ending at the same time. This is a world where you fight for what's right and for the people you love. With every karaoke song and encounters with weird side characters, this title reminds us that life is messy and strange, but also tender, hilarious and worth fighting for. We can see this exact same thing in the backstory and example of Makimura Makoto as well.
If, like me, you’ve never played a "Yakuza" game before, this is the perfect place to start. Before u start, remember that this is more than a game.
Solid 10/10. Thank you, SEGA, for this unforgettable gift.

Yakuza 0 is my second game in the series (I started with Like a Dragon) — and I’m completely hooked. I plan to play every mainline title and even the spin-offs, because this series just does something special.

The main story is a serious, emotional, and incredibly well-written crime drama — but step outside that for even a second, and you’re in a world of over-the-top goofiness. It sounds like it shouldn’t work, but somehow it absolutely does. The contrast between the two tones is part of what makes it so memorable.

The open world isn’t huge — and that’s a good thing. It’s small, dense, and incredibly well-designed. Almost all of the side content is worth doing, and the mini-games are surprisingly original and fun. I never really got bored of any of them. Combat is fairly simple, but that’s not the main draw — the world and characters are what make this game shine.

If you don’t mind reading subtitles (there’s no English voice acting in the Yakuza series), this is easily one of the best games out there.

My first introduction to Yakuza series was via Dunkey’s videos and back then I was like, who the ♥♥♥♥ actually plays these game. Yet here I am finally playing it and having a blast. I am so happy that I decided to be more opened to a little bit different games than I would normally play because so far, it is so worth it and the year 2025 might be one of the best gaming years for me. Just like Persona 5, this game hooked me in the first 2 hours and I was not able to play anything else. But it charmed me with completely different things, Persona was chill masterpiece, this is loud, rough, heavy hitting and action packed gem.

I will introduce you to the story with a little bit of spoilers from the first chapter of each playable character. It will not be anything major but if you want to go into this game completely blind, I would recommend you to skip to the next paragraph.

Yakuza 0 takes place in 1988 Japan during the country’s economic bubble era, at that time money was everything and anything was possible if you payed enough. Yakuza is buying a ton of properties in order to have complete control over the areas of Kamurocho district in Tokyo. However there is one last property that Yakuza needs to start their plans. It is 3 square meters of land worth of billions of yen named ‘Empty lot’. It so happens that Kazuma Kiryu(main protagonist) was doing a regular collection run there, beating up a man and taking his funds. And later, while dining at a restaurant he overheard that the man was murdered. Kiryu is summoned to the Dojima Family office where he is accused of the murder and that the victim died from a gun shot wound. But Kiryu didn’t use any weapons, so he decides to find the true killer to prove his innocence, rather than taking the blame and turning himself to the police, as was demanded by his superiors, because they want the police away from the Empty lot as soon as possible. Then there is the second protagonist Goro Majima who is held captive in Osaka’s Sotenbori district working as a manager of high end cabaret. He receives an offer to rejoin Yakuza if he kills a person named Makoto Makimura.

I have never imagined that a story about some small empty lot could get this interesting and complicated. I don’t want to spoil you this gem of a game so I will just say this. This story has everything you could have ever hoped for. I laughed my ass off, I cried, my mind was blown several times, it has plot twist after plot twists and a well done satisfying end. It has only few downsides. The first one being that it is stretched to its limit and that could get boring for someone, luckily it manages to leave you after every session on some cliffhanger that motivates you to continue till the end. And the second downside would be the fact that the game switches to the other protagonist after every second completed chapter. For me it partly breaks the immersion especially in the first half of the game, mainly because I was not used to the different playstyles of those two characters. But later on in the game I got used to it and didn’t mind the game switching between them, later on I was even looking forward to it.

Voice acting played a huge part in keeping the story alive and engaging. This was the first game that I played with Japanese voiceover and it was perfect. I can’t find anything bad or lacking about it. A lot of the characters look kinda basic, they are just dudes in suits, but the voice acting made them so cool and badass. My favorites apart the main protagonists were probably Kuze, Nishirani and Makoto, but everyone was great.

This game also offers a great deal of side content. But I found it kinda hard to play the main story and mix some side content into it. The first few chapters I wasn’t doing side stories or mini games at all. It wasn’t because the side content is bad or anything like that, the story was just to much captivating. So in order to experience everything, I dedicated some days only for exploring the game and once I was tired of it or annoyed, I just continued with the main story. That approach really helped to enjoy the game to the fullest without getting overwhelmed whatsoever. If you just want to do the main story and leave the game be, I highly recommend you to give all of the content that you come across a try. Especially the side stories, a huge amount of them are very funny and goofy, sometimes cringe. But they are so well written with some kind of twist to them. Usually they get emotional or end with some life advice and trust me, you will for sure remember a lot of them. Then there are the minigames, there are so many of them, that you basically have game with maybe 20 Indie games included. I don’t know the exact number because I am sure that I missed a lot of them. The most enjoyable were probably the pocket circuit racing, club management and bowling. I am sure that everyone will find some mini game to like and spend at least one whole day playing it without realizing it.

Ok so the story with the voice acting and side content is great, but what about the actual gameplay mechanics, does it play smooth? Well, yeah but you have to learn. When the combos are going and you get to the flow, it is smooth. But sometimes it’s janky. In the first 5 hours or so, I didn’t like the combat. There were to many enemies and the locking mechanic is crap because it doesn’t tell you which enemy you locked. Plus there are a lot of combos for each style and every character has 3 different styles. Some styles are very fast and slippery and some are really hard hitting but slower. This way you have to think mid fight what style to use and know how to use it in order to keep the battles smooth. It was hard at first, but once I learned all of them, suddenly the fights became very fun. I expected beat em up like it is for example in Batman games, or at least the ones I played, and I got more strategic and meaningful beat em up with extremely cool cinematic moves, kind of like in Mortal Combat games. So after I got used to it I learned to really like it. It honestly might be my favorite beat em up game. Be patient and you will be rewarded by the game.

This game only needs a cherry on top and that would be nothing else than the soundtrack. It has a lot of bangers and fitting tracks to help you get to the right mood that the game wants you to be in. I really haven’t found any song to be annoying through the whole play through.

So yeah I really liked the game and I love that the game has balls and is not afraid to be different. I am really curious about how the story evolves, so far Yakuza 0 set the bar really high. I am also looking forward to trying out Like a dragon series because I want to see if the turn based combat is also good. Once again I want to say that I am so happy that I tried it and now it sits among my most favorite games of all time. If you are hesitated, don’t worry, you will like this game. Who knows, maybe it will turn out to be one of your most favorite games you have ever played like in my case.