Yakuza 0 hooked me with its story in ways I didn't expect, dragging me through 25+ hours despite gameplay that constantly threatened to make me quit. The whole experience was this strange balancing act between being genuinely captivated by what happened next in the plot and being genuinely frustrated by how the game actually played. But I pushed through to the end—which says something about how strong that narrative pull really was. What I Liked - The story grabbed me immediately and never let go. From the opening chapter, I was invested in what was happening and where things were headed. The pacing felt deliberate without dragging, and the plot kept surprising me in ways that felt earned rather than cheap. - Switching between Kiryu and Majima worked far better than I anticipated. When Chapter 3 suddenly dropped me into Majima's perspective, I was skeptical about starting fresh with a completely different character. But this dual narrative approach pushed the story forward in ways a single protagonist never could have, with each character's arc making the other more interesting. - The dialogue quality blew me away for a beat-em-up. I sat down expecting arcade brawling, not genuinely compelling conversations with superb voice acting. The main story delivered authentic, well-performed exchanges that felt real. The substories were admittedly less consistent, but the core narrative never missed. - Boss fights felt genuinely earned, especially in later chapters when quick-time events shifted the arena mid-battle. These moments had weight—you could feel you were fighting someone significant, not just a glorified punching bag with extra health bars. However, on normal difficulty, I beat every boss first try, which made the challenge level belong elsewhere (more on that later) - The side content variety impressed me. Between minigames, the real estate management, running the cabaret club, and the substories scattered everywhere, there was always something different to try. The substories were hit-or-miss compared to the main plot, but the sheer volume of things to do stood out. - The money-based skill progression felt natural. Spending cash to unlock abilities in skill trees made thematic sense, and I appreciated how certain moves stayed locked until you found specific trainers for each fighting style—it gave progression this sense of discovery beyond just grinding currency. - Heat was the best part of combat. Watching Kiryu or Majima literally ignite in glowing colors as their Heat bars filled looked incredible, and the Heat Actions themselves delivered constant satisfaction. The variety was staggering—different environments, fighting styles, whatever you happened to be holding, whether you had a companion—and even after 20 hours, executing one felt just as good as the first time. - The visual style nailed the atmosphere. Neon signs reflecting off wet streets, shadowy alleyways at night contrasting with daytime crowds—the aesthetic captured that 1980s Japanese urban energy perfectly and kept me immersed throughout. What Didn't Deliver - The graphics quality didn't match the visual ambition. The locations aren't massive open worlds, and you're not rendering hundreds of NPCs simultaneously. Main characters in cutscenes looked decent, but everything else felt mediocre. The worst offender was "crowds" in places like Sotenbori's underground circle—literally flat 2D sprites of people. The game lives mostly in its cutscenes where things looked sharper, but that inconsistency was always noticeable. - Substories were wildly inconsistent. A few landed well—the kid desperate for an adult magazine from a vending machine made me laugh, as did the guy woth the jacket on the bridge. But most were just... fine? Halfway through I stopped bothering entirely, finishing with maybe 35-40 out of a hundred total. Barely a third. - The equipment system might as well not exist. Ten hours in, I accidentally discovered the equipment menu and realized I could wear items—including things I somehow already owned, like a scarf with "+3 defense." There were weapons I could use in combat! The game either never explained this or did such a poor job I completely missed it. Maybe it matters on harder difficulties, but on normal I never touched it. - CP made zero sense. The game never explains what CP means (I assumed "combat points" until randomly finding a shrine), what it does, or why I should care. Totally skippable content that I barely engaged with. - Basic combat felt frustratingly inconsistent. Not difficult—inconsistent. Sometimes you could button-mash light attacks and dominate. Other times, those exact same enemies held perfect guards you couldn't break, and attempting a guard break got you countered and interrupted instantly. The reverse applied too—you could hold block indefinitely as long as enemies didn't try guard breaks. A stamina system might have fixed this, giving actions actual cost and consequence. - Voice acting coverage made no sense. Some dialogues are fully voiced, others are text-only, and the transitions are jarring. You'll go from a voiced cutscene directly into a conversation that starts voiced then switches to text halfway through. Sometimes cutscenes shift into static images with changing text—sometimes voiced, sometimes silent. Given how excellent the voice acting actually is, this inconsistency drove me crazy. What Actively Ruined My Experience - The save system is archaic and player-hostile. You can only manually save at phones in specific locations, which is already limiting. But worse—there's no autosave whatsoever. Whilst dying in combat lets you retry just that fight, but you absolutely cannot quit. Chapter 5 or 6, playing as Kiryu fleeing through streets with Yakuza ambushes on every corner—losing the timed encounters brings reinforcements. This sequence went on forever, I died repeatedly, and I sat trapped at my computer for nearly three hours because quitting meant restarting everything. That nearly made me abandon the game entirely. This isn't 1999—let me close the game and resume from an autosave. - Animation cancels and interrupts made me genuinely angry. Any fight with more than three enemies—which is most fights—devolved into complete frustration. Getting surrounded means enemies relentlessly pelt you with weak hits that prevent any action whatsoever. You try to attack, you get hit from behind and interrupted. You get knocked down. You stand up. You try to attack again. Knocked down again. Endless loop. Majima's Slugger style had better range and crowd control, but Kiryu suffered badly. Only Beast mode handled groups effectively, but its attacks were so slow I'd sometimes burn through three healing items before landing a single punch. And naturally, you can't take a break and finish tomorrow because the save system won't allow it. Final Thoughts When I wasn't drowning in enemies, I had a good time. My library holds more Yakuza games, and I'll absolutely play them—just not right now. I'm exhausted from this one, and that exhaustion says everything about how strong narrative and interesting characters can carry you through deeply flawed core mechanics, but only so far.
