Game of the Month #51 (April 2019) - Yakuza 0

The glitz, glamour, and unbridled decadence of the 80s are back in Yakuza 0. A prequel to the long-running series set in Japan's criminal underworld, this entry introduces mainstay protagonist Kazuma Kiryu and series regular Goro Majima as they fight like hell through Tokyo and Osaka in their climb through the yakuza ranks. Along the way, players can interact with all the vices 1988's Japan had to offer: from discos and hostess clubs to classic SEGA arcades, there are tons of distractions to pursue in the richly detailed, neon-lit world.At its heart, Yakuza 0 is a classic 3D brawler, where players roaming the streets of Tokyo or Osaka will encounter all manners of goons, thugs, hoodlums, and lowlifes to beat up. Featuring an engaging combat system allowing players to switch between three different fighting styles instantaneously, Yakuza 0 gives players fluid, free-flowing fights that are easily learned and a joy to master. Take combat up a notch by using environmental objects such as bicycles, sign posts, and car doors for bone-crunching combos and savage take-downs.

Been meaning to try the Yakuza series. Unfortunately it won't be this one as i don't own it. oh well

If played it for around 2h and boy is it a slow start. For now I've done 2 tutorial fights and 2 regular fights, around 10 mins max, The rest of the 2h have been just story with no gameplay. I suppose now is when the game world will open up.
For refecence I'm just when our main protagonist decides he's going to give himself up and go to jail. Maybe the game will open up after he serves his time in prison? Time will tell.

I beat this game last year and all I have to say is

1) It has one of the best character introduction scenes
2) Beast Style
3) I enjoyed the voice actress for the girl

Been meaning to try the Yakuza series. Unfortunately it won't be this one as i don't own it. oh well

i'm surprised you are't buying it just for the sake of GOTM discussions

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Will be starting this today!

If played it for around 2h and boy is it a slow start. For now I've done 2 tutorial fights and 2 regular fights, around 10 mins max, The rest of the 2h have been just story with no gameplay. I suppose now is when the game world will open up.
For refecence I'm just when our main protagonist decides he's going to give himself up and go to jail. Maybe the game will open up after he serves his time in prison? Time will tell.

Are you still playing it? Yea i remember i never felt like i wanted to keep playing. In these situations i've learned it's probably smart to speed through the story and then taking your time with it as and if you become invested. It's better than dropping the game completely especially when the ratings are so high i feel like there's something it can offer me that i'm not appreciating

Finally got this in from Gamefly yesterday so I played through the first chapter last night. I agree with uvehj that it's slow to start with many, many protracted cutscenes, but I've been impressed with the writing and direction so far (plus, I've played enough Yakuza games to know that once it lets me off the rails I'll have a lot of freedom and side content to explore).

One thing that surprised me was the difficulty. Yakuza games on the whole aren't picnics, but usually the early game is liking boxing with butterflies. This time around, though, I died once against the miniboss of the first big action sequence and then needed to use almost my full stock of healing items on the first boss.

Most of all, I'm just enjoying playing this younger version of Kiryu. In later games (chronologically) he has a cooler head and happy-go-lucky kind of personality until he's provoked--at which point, he'll shove bike handlebars up your ass. From what I've played so far of 0, he seems more hot-headed and more willing to start a fight on his own. I guess prison can really change a guy.

Are you still playing it? Yea i remember i never felt like i wanted to keep playing. In these situations i've learned it's probably smart to speed through the story and then taking your time with it as and if you become invested. It's better than dropping the game completely especially when the ratings are so high i feel like there's something it can offer me that i'm not appreciating

I'm slowly going through the game, but there are certain things that irk me. For starters saving is done only on the open world, so It might be a while until you can save. The other day I had 40 minutes to spare and decided to play a story mission. It was the one with the first boss and I almost had to close the game without saving, since it was 40 minutes long. And it's not like I died a lot, just once to the boss. Most of it was the cutscenes.
So now when I have a bit of time it's always difficult to pick the game, what if I have to leave before I get to save? I'll have to go through all that again and I hate that.
I'm also paranoid of crashes. It's only crashed once, and I lost 5 minutes max to it. But just thinking of losing so much progress to a stupid crash because of bad saving mechanics is infuriating.
I know you can modify the files to save anywhere, but there is a chance of corrupting you savefile.

Otherwise I'm loving it, the characters are nice and the story is now picking up (still on chapter 4). The game is kinda easy though. I tried playing properlly against the first boss and died, I tried button mashing and won easy. Managed to beat the rest of the encounters just by mashing.

I tried it a few months ago, so here were some of my thoughts on it at the time:

I really enjoy the aesthetic and even as something as simple as a small drug store looks a lot more interesting than the bland environments of many of the games I've played. But I was disappointed with how little you can move around. I know this is Japan where floor space is sparse, but if you can move at all in most of these places, it is very little, like down a small hallway between displays and you can't actually interact with any of it. I recalled seeing footage of a different Yakuza game where the character was running around a large mart and knocking all the stuff on the ground from the shelves, but I guess they got rid of that. The map itself, even if the thugs disappeared, isn't all that fun to traverse, even if it does look nice, and there isn't really anything to do in it. There are mini games but they feel like...mini games and a vast majority of locations seemed to be restaurants and shops. I guess I just expected more out of the game than what it was meant to present. I wanted to be able to explore Japan and that isn't really what the game is trying to do, it is trying to tell a linear story (with occasional diversions) set in Japan.

I feel like it is just constantly fighting thugs with combat that isn't all that compelling in order to get to long cutscenes that take 10 minutes to explain the situation that you understand in the first 30 seconds. It would be forgivable if the game itself was really fun, but it just isn't. A passable (at best) fighting game in linear corridors in between cutscenes.

i'm surprised you are't buying it just for the sake of GOTM discussions

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Will be starting this today!

I'm not going to buy a game purely for a GOTM discussion.

I'm not going to buy a game purely for a GOTM discussion.

seems like the thing to do as the host

seems like the thing to do as the host

I've been an active member for quite a while. But as much as I like it here, I won't buy every single every month. First of all, that would be a good way to slow me down with the rest of my backlog. But also, I'd probably be broke! ;) And it's not because I don't get that game that I don't get involved in the discussions. Like I wrote when I did the GotM FAQ, sometimes, this is a good place to learn about games we don't know about or might be interested in at some point in the future.

Oh and by the way, welcome to the forum. It's always fun to see new faces around here and be part of all the different topics. This is one of the nicest video game forum out there and we're always happy to have new members being positively active here. Hope to see you participating in some of the challenges/discussions.

Edit: Also always good to welcome a fellow Canadian here! :D

seems like the thing to do as the host

I'm not the host i just write the post the thread

Managed to get to chapter 14 this month, so I won't be finishing it on time.

The story is seriously ramping up and so far I can say I really enjoyed the game. Not a big fan of the side activities, but I loved the cheesy story (thus far).

The story of this game is a fucking masterpiece. Every twist and turned kept me locked in and the three lieutenants may be the best villains ever shown in this series. Every encounter with them felt intense. Also, shout out to the ending scene with Goro and Makoto for being up there with my favorite scene in any video game ever. Looking forward to trying out Kiwami though I've heard Haruka is a bit annoying in it.

I tried it a few months ago, so here were some of my thoughts on it at the time:

I really enjoy the aesthetic and even as something as simple as a small drug store looks a lot more interesting than the bland environments of many of the games I've played. But I was disappointed with how little you can move around. I know this is Japan where floor space is sparse, but if you can move at all in most of these places, it is very little, like down a small hallway between displays and you can't actually interact with any of it. I recalled seeing footage of a different Yakuza game where the character was running around a large mart and knocking all the stuff on the ground from the shelves, but I guess they got rid of that. The map itself, even if the thugs disappeared, isn't all that fun to traverse, even if it does look nice, and there isn't really anything to do in it. There are mini games but they feel like...mini games and a vast majority of locations seemed to be restaurants and shops. I guess I just expected more out of the game than what it was meant to present. I wanted to be able to explore Japan and that isn't really what the game is trying to do, it is trying to tell a linear story (with occasional diversions) set in Japan.

I feel like it is just constantly fighting thugs with combat that isn't all that compelling in order to get to long cutscenes that take 10 minutes to explain the situation that you understand in the first 30 seconds. It would be forgivable if the game itself was really fun, but it just isn't. A passable (at best) fighting game in linear corridors in between cutscenes.

The main features of this game are the mini games and the story (+side stories).You really can't go into this game expecting to get a GTA style open world. I think the combat takes some getting use to. It's easy to wipe the floor with normal thugs but once they start mixing up thug types, you unlock the additional stances and you start facing some bosses the depth become more apparent.