Yakuza 0

I bought this game a couple of years ago and never played it beyond the first hour, but as the release of the new "Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth" approached I wanted to try playing this one, go to Like a Dragon and then play the new one.

It was a serious mistake, what seemed like a simple plan turned into a research project about the saga, about what games to play, in what order to play them, what spin offs to play and also learning a lot about Japanese culture.

And speaking on that topic, I have never been much of a "fan" of Japan, not that I have anything against the country and its culture, but I have never been interested in them, but there is one thing that makes me fall in love with the country, and It is SUSHI, and I think that Sushi is, for me, the best way to describe what this game is.

I heard a lot about sushi, about how tasty it is, about how great it is and many other things, but I never dared to try it, mainly due to ignorance, there are a lot of different types of sushi, a lot of names unknown to me, and a lot of ingredients that I had never heard of, just like there are a large number of games in the Yakuza series, with different names and it is even difficult to know in what order they go.

Both the game and the sushi are designed by people who live in a completely different culture than mine and who see and feel the world in a completely different way. But in the end, it just fits, all those flavors that you've never tried, that don't taste like anything you've ever eaten before, they just fit.

This game is simply incredible for a lot of different reasons, but I want to mainly highlight a few points:

The world is one of the main protagonists of the story, it is incredible how it feels so alive and so real despite the years, something that I can believe exists, with a lot of things to do, it just makes me want to take a walk for hours. After finishing the game I spent hours watching videos about Japan and Tokyo, learning about the experiences of people who have visited the country and making me understand more about the country, creating in me an interest that I had never had about the country.

And no, I'm not in love with the country, and to be completely honest, it doesn't seem like a country I would ever want to live in (although I would really like to visit it sometime), but it really makes you see that the world as you see it is not the same for everyone, and that's pretty cool.

The Story is also one of the strong points of the game, with super interesting characters and although I have always had difficulty remembering names and faces in video games, and names in different languages ​​are even more difficult, I can clearly remember almost all the characters important parts of this game.

The voice acting is top-notch, I never thought, seeing how "silly" this game was before I started playing it, that I would be able to get so excited and attached to characters because of the way they are interpreted, even though I don't understand a single word of the VO, there are cinematics and stories that are simply, in my opinion, some of the best you can find in this industry.

And mainly, the game is just fun, the story is fun, the secondary parts are often even funnier, and generally, the gameplay is pretty fun too. The main ways to get money and some of the minigames could be a smooth standalone game, where you can spend a lot of hours without getting tired of them.

Although I must say that the combat, which is good, begins to lose its charm a little over the hours, I think the number of combats is a little abused, and I could win a little if I had a little less of them (I write this after having played a couple more games and I must say that, unfortunately, this game is much better in that sense than some that follow)

But overall, it's an incredible game, quite unique, that made me go from being a little curious to buying just over 10 games after finishing this one. I really recommend it.

95/100

Yakuza Kiwami Review: https://steamproxy.com/id/apxxiv/recommended/834530/