Yakuza 0

Ignoring the game for a moment, Yakuza 0 has an aesthetic that is unrivalled. the actual game, is completely servicable. What matters here, is the look and feel of the game, it looks funny to get messages on my pager as I'm moving the camera around gawking at an 80's Japanese entertainment district and the random nonsense you can do therein. It's a Mafia movie set in japan in the late 80's also it's a comedy. it's Awesome.

Historically, I've had a lot of trouble fixing my attention on a game for long enough to finish it. So some months ago I decided to break out of that mold. I'd go back and finish games I started sometime in the past, get the full experience of the game. Boy, am I glad I made Yakuza 0 one of my choices. Never have I experienced such wackiness and genuine feelings in the same piece of media. This game is an all-time great. I will definitely be revisiting my good friend Kiryu in more Yakuza series entries. :)

Really recommend Yakuza 0. This was the game that got me into the series and I now own all of them on Steam. I only like Lost Judgment more than 0, the combat is only second to LJ in my opinion, the battle styles all being unique, the story is great, the substories are both touching and hilarious in equal measure, and the main side activities of Real Estate and Cabaret Management are both fantastic and well fleshed out. The only gripe I have with Yakuza 0 are the Mr. Shakedown encounters, which might be a bit difficult especially to new players, which might be an unpopular opinion but they are easy to run from at least. Overall a brilliant game that I am happy to see on GOG. (Get the entire collection, all of them are worth playing in their own right) An easy Five stars from me.

...and never played one until this one. I'm in my 40s and this is probably the first game I've bought on sale and actually feel bad for it. It's worth full price and then some. There's a lot of content here, some of it serious, some of it goofier than hell, but all fun. Think Shenmue with a lot more movement is all I can say. Great story and I'm glad this wasn't redone with spoken English (subtitles are included, of course.) as well.

This one is hard to put down in play order. It's technically the first in the series canonically and it's the first I played but I got so much more from the story and characters after playing later entries and Kiwami is a straight up downgrade follow up. The gameplay is extremely addictive and playing Majima is super refreshing.