Out of the many games I played this year, one of my top 10 favorites was hands down Yakuza 0. Overall it was a complete surprise for me, mostly because I have never heard of the Yakuza series before and it ended up being a game I didnt know I even wanted. Perhaps the best part was the game is a prequel so no prior knowledge is needed of the series to pick it up and play, things just start happening.
The game takes place in 1988 Japan spread between two characters, each from a different red light district of Japanese cities. The first one is in Kamurocho, basically a fictional Kabukicho (red light district in Tokyo) and the second one in Osaka. You play as both Kiryu, who is the staple character of the series and in addition Majima who is a bit of a rival to Kiryu in a friendly way. Each character follows their own story lines and ultimately end up crossing paths at the end.
The gameplay of Yakuza 0 is basically a beat em up brawler style game, with environments you can interact with, special attacks you use and borderline ridiculous ways to beat the crap out of your enemies. The combat just never gets boring mostly because of the sheer amount of moves you can do and the repetitive satisfaction of knocking out your enemies with every item from a bottle of salt to a motorcycle. There are 3 styles to choose from for each character and you can purchase more moves in their respective move trees that will power them up.
The graphics and setting of the game are gorgeous. 1980 s Tokyo is beautiful in all its flashing signs and glitzy storefronts. You want to live in the world of the game and go back to experience this period of time. It feels like you are playing a virtual time capsule as you run around completing side missions and helping the citizens of the game world. Its truly a beautiful game, especially while playing it on a large screen and feeling like you are up close in the action.
I dont want to ruin the story for you, but basically in the first few minutes of the game you find out Kiryu has been framed for a murder he didnt commit and slowly has to figure out who did it and why. This takes both playable characters and many side characters to help you complete, ultimately finding out many secrets along the way. What I can say is the ending and the reveal is wonderfully done and kept me interested and hooked along the way.
Overall I loved this game and I think if you are new to the series, check it out. They just remade the first game and second game as well in the ps4 engine, so if you get hooked like I did, you will most likely be playing those as well. If I had to give this game a score it would be a 9/10. The only reason I took a point off is that there can be somewhat repetitive things in the way of earning money, but still not a huge problem. If you have a ps4 go out and grab this game.
-Calaber24p