Sega's Yakuza 0 opens with Kazama Kiryu walking down neon-lit Tokyo streets, dragging on a cigarette. There's blood on his face. It's not his.Kiryu, the main protagonist of Sega's long-running Yakuza series, exudes an embittered, stoic swagger, like a young Clint Eastwood with tattoos streaming down his shoulder blades.

Sep 28, 2017  IGN's Yakuza 0 complete strategy guide and walkthrough will lead you through every step of Yakuza 0 from the title screen to the final credits, including every collectible, side mission, mini-game. Feb 26, 2020  Today we check out the first 25 minutes of Yakuza 0 on Xbox One, available now and included in Xbox Game Pass https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/yakuza-0/9npp.

One of the main attractions of Yakuza 0, like the games it serves as a prequel to, is the opportunity to linger with Kiryu. Where most open-world games offer blank slates or a-charismatic bad dudes, Kiryu is an increasingly reluctant criminal with interests and motives entirely distinct from the player, who gets to luxuriate in watching him tick. Related Stories.Like Kiryu himself, Yakuza 0, out this week on PlayStation 4, is an atypical crime game.

Set aside its Western counterparts like Grand Theft Auto, which use criminal drama to build out anarchic scofflaw fantasies, Yakuza 0 comes off looking both restrained and absurd, simultaneously ploddingly slow and rife with daring choices. It's these contrasts, though, that make it so noteworthy. And so brilliant.Yakuza 0'.s singular identity largely emerges from how distinctly Japanese it is. Set in the late '80s, following two young criminals—the stoic Kiryu and the eccentric Majima Goro—it builds a setting and a story based in a particular historical time and genre context. Its narrative is deeply informed by the Japanese real estate bubble of the late 1980s, which saw over-investment and bad loans inflate the market to unsustainable levels.

The story is obsessed with this newfound wealth and the market's impending collapse, centering on the struggle of Tokyo's yakuza families to control the flow of land and money in Kamurocho, a fictionalized version of the city's red light district. Compared to Western crime games, it is slow and serious, a prestige drama told in hushed, angry dialogue over cigarettes and the stately politeness of ceremony. It draws on the Japanese mythos of the yakuza, pulled from film and fiction as much or moreso than real life, to tell a story about prestige and power, the achievements of honorable men and the might of organizations that allow the worst among them to rise to the top. SEGA Style and SubstanceEvery inch of the storytelling here pushes against dominant Western trends. The lengthy, dialogue-heavy cutscenes and tight focus on tone and staging would feel out of place in any open-world game from EA, Ubisoft, or Rockstar. Those games tend to prize color and energy over substance, and use the narrative as a vessel to motivate play. Not to say those games don't sometimes tell interesting stories, but they do tend to have different artistic priorities.

Western open-world games want to impart narrative through the control given to the player, using the character and their setting as a means to achieving that response. They aim for a type of spatial and experiential continuity, one where you occupy a character's perspective through location and time. SEGAOn top of that, the game is chock full of silly minigames, diversions, and eccentricities. This is a game where you will have very serious conversations about loyalty and honor in crime before jump-kicking your fellow interlocutor out of a frickin' window, where you will wage economic warfare against predatory yakuza realtors before getting assaulted by an eight-foot-tall man named Mr.

Shakedown who seems to exist solely to follow you around and steal your money.Most Western games wouldn't even try to contort themselves this way, juxtaposing camp and high drama the way Yakuza 0 does. Yet it decisively works. Rather than breaking tone, it somehow reinforces it; Yakuza 0 tells a serious story and is overjoyed at telling it, playfully filling its dull moments with the silliest stuff it can think of. It's self-reinforcing, all of it creating a sense of history, locality, and character.

As an introduction to a long-running series that's often struggled in the American market, Yakuza 0 is a veteran effort. As a game in its own right, designed by Sega in a way wholly within the traditions of Japanese videogame development, it's like its central hero, Kiryu: confident in movement, deliberate in action, and wholly itself.

Contents.Gameplay Yakuza 0 is an game set in an environment and played from a. The game takes place from December 1988 to January 1989, in Kamurocho and Sōtenbori, fictionalized recreations of 's and 's areas respectively. The player controls series protagonist and recurring character, alternating between the two at predetermined points during the story.Players can freely walk around Kamurocho and Sotenbori, interacting with people they meet to trigger, battling enemies who attack them on the street, or playing one of several minigames, including fully playable versions of Sega arcade games such as,. Completing certain objectives, such as eating every dish at a restaurant or reaching a target score in a minigame, will also grant the player special Completion Point currency; these Completion Points can be spent at a shrine to receive additional bonuses, such as special items or character upgrades.Character customization and growth is similar to the system from, with abilities earned by buying them off of a skill tree that is gradually unlocked during the game. Instead of using experience to buy skills, the player uses money acquired from fights or via Kiryu and Majima's side businesses. Money is more liberally awarded in Yakuza 0 than in previous entries, with every heavy attack causing enemies to drop cash. The player can lose their money if they encounter a special enemy called Mr.

Shakedown, huge men who are far stronger than normal. If the player is beaten, they will lose all their cash, but can beat the enemy again to earn back their money and extra.Kiryu and Majima also have side businesses that they run during the game to earn money: Kiryu invests real estate in Kamurocho, while Majima runs a. Completing side-quests will often result in characters they meet offering to help with side businesses, allowing them to more easily and quickly progress. Progressing in side business sequences or training with specific masters will unlock additional abilities for purchase on the characters' skill trees.A major innovation of Yakuza 0 is the addition of fighting styles for both Kiryu and Majima that can be switched in the middle of battle. Kiryu utilizes the balanced Brawler style, similar to that of previous entries; the powerful but slow Beast style, which allows him to use heavy weapons; and the fast boxing-based Rush style, which emphasizes mobility. Conversely, Majima uses the balanced Thug style; the weapons-oriented Slugger style, primarily focused around a baseball bat; and the tricky dance-based Breaker style.

Completing Kiryu and Majima's side businesses will unlock an additional 'Legendary' fighting style for the characters, the 'Dragon of Dojima' and 'Mad Dog of Shimano' styles, respectively.Plot. This article's plot summary may be. Please by removing unnecessary details and making it more concise. ( February 2020) In December, 1988, two unlikely figures from the Yakuza world, of the and of the, have suddenly found themselves getting involved in the terrible events of the so-called 'Empty Lot' dispute, which is the centerpiece of power struggle for all the dark organizations across Japan. In order to find out the truth behind such a power struggle, as well as maintain their own innocence and safety, they set out to investigate all the events surrounding the Empty Lot incident.In Kamurocho, Tokyo, Kiryu is suspected of murder after the man that he has collected money from winds up dead in the Empty Lot. Kiryu's boss, Sohei Dojima, offers a promotion to second-in-command of the Dojima Family to whomever can find the deed to the land, and thus the most ruthless members go after Kiryu. Forced out of the family, Kiryu meets a man named Tetsu Tachibana, who owns a real estate company and promises to help Kiryu clear his name.

Kiryu learns that Tachibana was hired by his then-incarcerated foster father, Shintaro Kazama, in order to assist him in preventing the Empty Lot from falling into Dojima's hands. While waiting for Tachibana to gather information about the lot's owner, Kiryu is hired by Tachibana as a real estate agent. Kiryu's involvement with Tachibana Real Estate causes him to be targeted by members of the Dojima Family, particularly his three lieutenants: Daisaku Kuze, Hiroki Awano and Keiji Shibusawa.

Kiryu decides to sever ties with his associates, including his oath brother, Akira Nishikiyama, and Kazama Family's captain, Osamu Kashiwagi, in order to protect them from Dojima's wrath. After a brief showdown against Kuze on the streets of Kamurocho, Kiryu is rescued by Tachibana, who later reveals his true identity as a former Chinese mafia member. Tachibana later takes Kiryu to the Tojo Clan's headquarters, where they negotiate with the Acting Second Chairman, Takashi Nihara, and reach an agreement to protect Kiryu from the Dojima Family.

Later on, Tachibana reveals to Kiryu the identity of the Empty Lot's owner: a psychologically-induced blind woman named Makoto Makimura, who resides in Sōtenbori, Osaka.In Sōtenbori, Majima runs a cabaret club after being exiled from the Tojo Clan due to the botched Ueno-Seiwa hit years earlier, involving his oath brother, Taiga Saejima. Despite the success of his club, he realizes it's nothing more than a cage as he's under constant surveillance. One day, Majima's supervisor, Tsukasa Sagawa of the Omi Alliance, offers him a chance to rejoin the Shimano Family by assassinating a target named Makoto Makimura. Majima's search takes him to a chiropractic clinic, where he learns that Makoto is a receptionist and under the protection of the clinic's owner, Wen Hai Lee. Majima kidnaps Makoto, taking her to an abandoned warehouse, where he keeps her as he sets out to find answers as to why Makoto is being hunted. Lee suggests murdering a look-alike of Makoto and using the body to trick Majima's bosses, but he refuses to do it; however, a yakuza patriarch named Homare Nishitani carries out the deed in his place, forcing Majima to lie to Sagawa about Makoto's murder. Later on, Sagawa's men discover Majima's secret warehouse where he keeps Makoto, forcing both of them and Lee to flee.

They make it back to Lee's clinic to take his car, but it is rigged to explode, killing Lee in the process. Sagawa attempts to kill Majima and Makoto, but is stopped by a mysterious assailant, who carries Makoto away. Sagawa and Majima work together to find the identity of Makoto's new captor. Majima visits Homare Nishitani of the Omi Alliance in prison, and learns from him that the man is Masaru Sera, president of the Nikkyo Consortium, a secret organization within the Tojo Clan. After Nishitani is betrayed and killed by one of the police officers in the station, Majima makes his escape and returns to Sagawa, and both of them head to the Consortium's headquarters.

Majima storms through the base and confronts Sera, who reveals to him that Makoto had already been taken away by Tachibana Real Estate's men prior to Majima's arrival. Sera is then shot in the back by Sagawa, who pulls Kiryu's business card from Sera's pocket.Eight hours before Majima's arrival at the Consortium HQ, Kiryu and Tachibana's right-hand man, Jun Oda, met with Sera and escorted Makoto back to Kamurocho. On the way back, they are pursued by Shibusawa and his men.

They narrowly escape Shibusawa and hide at a construction site, but Oda attempts to betray them. Upon being subdued by Kiryu, Oda reveals that Makoto is Tachibana's biological sister, and that he was the person who sold Makoto to Korean mafia many years ago, when she moved from China to Sōtenbori in search of Tachibana.

Kiryu and Makoto are forced to leave Oda behind as they return to Kamurocho, and Oda is killed by Shibusawa for failing to deliver Makoto to him as promised. Upon returning to Kamurocho, Kiryu meets up with Tachibana and prepares to take him to see Makoto, but is stopped by Dojima Family members, as well as Lao Gui, a Chinese assassin who was hired by Dojima to set up the Empty Lot murder and frame Kiryu. Tachibana willfully surrenders and goes with Lao Gui, in order to spare Kiryu. After recovering, Kiryu encounters Nishikiyama and reconciles with him.

The two of them track down Tachibana, who is tortured by Kuze and his men in a basement. They successfully defeat Kuze, but Tachibana succumbs to his injuries and dies.Majima and Sagawa travel to Kamurocho, in search of Makoto. The two learn from the head of the Shimano Family, Futoshi Shimano, that he never intended to kill Makoto, and that he knew Majima wouldn't be able to follow the order; he hoped for Majima to be able to gain Makoto's trust, and convince her to give the Empty Lot's deed to Shimano himself without trouble.

Majima later wanders Kamurocho in search of Kiryu, and battles against both Kashiwagi and Nishikiyama; he learns from the latter about Makoto's disappearance, and goes to the Empty Lot, where he finds Makoto. Majima learns that Makoto has partially regained her vision following Tachibana's death, and that she wishes to avenge her brother by demanding Dojima's three lieutenants' heads in exchange for the Empty Lot deed. In a moment, she escapes Majima's sight and goes to meet Dojima in an attempt to negotiate a deal. Dojima, however, refuses to accept the deal, and has Lao Gui shoot her instead, just as Majima arrives at the scene. After clearing out Dojima's men, Majima and Sera, who survived Sagawa's gunshot, rush Makoto to the hospital.Shibusawa later learns of Makoto's survival and sets out to track her down at all costs, forcing Kiryu to attempt to stop him. He and Nishikiyama travel to the docks, where the Nikkyo have put Makoto on one of their ships. A fight breaks out between Shibusawa's men and the Nikkyo, as well as members of the Kazama Family, led by Kashiwagi.

Kiryu confronts Shibusawa and duels against him, and emerges victorious. Nishikiyama, however, stops Kiryu from killing Shibusawa, not wanting him to cross the line. Meanwhile, Majima arrives at Dojima Family's headquarters, taking down every one of its members along the way, including Awano. Awano is killed while trying to defend Majima from Lao Gui. Dojima then commands the assassin to kill Majima, but the latter prevails and prepares to murder both of them. Sera arrives and stops Majima, announcing his new ownership of the Empty Lot, and convincing him to stand down.

He instructs Majima to kill Shimano for betraying the Tojo Clan to the Omi Alliance, but Majima spares him instead, as he wants to learn the truth behind Saejima's fate. Shimano kills an Omi Alliance envoy in return to deny his involvement with them, and reinstates Majima into his family.A month following the incident, Sera is promoted to Third Chairman of the Tojo Clan for his acquisition of the Empty Lot.

Kiryu sets out to find his own path as a yakuza by rejoining the Dojima Family. As punishment for his failure to secure a deal with the Shimano Family, Sagawa is killed by members of the Omi Alliance. Majima, inspired by Lee and Nishitani, decides to adopt a more crazy, carefree personality. He encounters Makoto, who does not recognize him, as well as her doctor, who has feelings for her. Majima encourages the doctor to take care of Makoto, then leaves the scene. In a post-credit scene, Makoto visits the Empty Lot to pay respects to her brother, and finds her wrist watch, repaired by Majima, buried in the ground.

Majima finally meets Kiryu for the first time in Kamurocho, and greets him gleefully.Development The game was first announced in a special Yakuza event on 24 August 2014, together with a trailer. A Chinese-language localization of the game was announced in 2014 and eventually released in Asia in May 2015. Struggling companies. Performed the game's main theme and ending theme, 'Bubble' and 'Kurenai' respectively; these songs were not licensed for the English release and were instead replaced by original instrumental tracks.The Chinese localization of the game replaces late-game character Lao Gui, Chinese hired assassin of the Dojima Family, with a face model of Hong Kong actor.On 5 December 2015, at in San Francisco, Sony Computer Entertainment's Gio Corsi announced that Yakuza 0 would be coming to the Americas for the PlayStation 4. Initially, no official confirmation was made of a European release.

In July 2016, it was announced that the game would release in North America and Europe for the PlayStation 4 in January 2017.Western localization of the game was led by Scott Strichart, associate producer of, who has localized,. The team took a year and a half to localize Yakuza 0, which has 1.8 million, nearly twice as many as the average, which has 1 to 1.2 million Japanese characters. In addition to challenges translating tone and humor, Strichart's team at Atlus had difficulties localizing traditional Asian games, including. In order to make these minigames accessible to Western audiences, Atlus had to provide detailed rules alongside gameplay. During the localization process, Strichart said the team wrote a total of '34 pages of Mahjong explanation.'

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