Yakuza 0 - PlayStation Hits - PlayStation 4

125 hours, I've beaten the story and am just finishing up some post-game hoopla to prep my clear save data for the new game plus.This was the first Yakuza game I've ever played and I've been playing games since '85.Been following the Yakuza news on Siliconera, the metacritic hit so positive on this I decided to take a look. Some youtube guys were showing off all the sexy minigames, and I was just coming off Valkyrie Drive, so I'm not ashamed to say that Catfight Club, et al... peaked my interest.Turns out that Yakuza is very Persona-esque, which was a very unexpected surprise. Except that the story is japanese crime drama, very well done, kind of reminded me of Oldboy. Like if you put Park Chan-wook and John Woo in a blender with a couple of the Dead or Alive beach volleyball girls and an entire minigame collection and hit frappe. Action, romance, the wife kept turning off her sodapop games to watch me play and help run the cabaret club and find the telephone cards and grind the arcade games. I highly recommend a quality wife if you're going for completion.Cabaret club, real estate royale, the funny substories, the 30 second videos of japanese pornstar girls in bikinis playing with balloon animals, this is what Sega does that nintendon't. Bowling was fun. Poker, blackjack. The equipment searches, crafting, leveling the skill trees. Mr shakedown. Fight club! Darts, fishing. I liked that you can customize the appearance of your hostess girls and that's how they look when you go on disco dates. Karaoke, while not my thing, was a thing to see. Racing pocket circuit cars was kind of fun, collecting parts. And the telephone club hook-up game, like old school tinder in japan of '88. This is video games the way they were meant to be played.So many diversions, and it never felt like the side stuff hurt the pace of the main story. All the characters were so great, with so much character, makes Bioware look like high school community theater. Now it wasn't Witcher III good. There was no nudity. Not enough blood. No Ciri, Yen, Triss, etc... depth of romance. Koi-koi is no japanese gwent. Not enough messed up shenanigans. Although it got pretty damn close. I mean this wasn't full-on Battle Royale, it was more like Red Cliff, but if the future Yakuza games can hit this type of content and quality, then I'm all-in.Senran Kagura is the type of tone a lot of the fun parts had. Some Saints Row The Third. Almost a little Kung Fu Hustle.When I'm done with Nier Automata and Persona 5, and its the dog days of summer, Yakuza 0 ng+ is going to be a beautiful pina colada.Very few video games come along and give you as much as Yakuza 0 does.I think they might be onto something here.

What else can honestly be said about this game that hasn't already been covered. I played the original Yakuza back on the PS2 when I was fairly young. I remembered that game being the first video game to ever make me sad, and bring tears to my eyes. Sadly I can barely remember it now, and hope to correct that soon with Kiwami. However as for this game. What I do remember from Yakuza 1, is made even more tragic and upsetting because of this game. This is the absolute best place to start for this franchise in my opinion. This series has been criminally underrated for years, due mainly to their unwillingness to import to the west, because Japan is weird about their video games.This game has almost everything you could ask for, and more. It has Karaoke, Disco Dancing, Phone Dating, Arcades with real, old school arcade games, an underground female fighting tournament you can bet money on where all the women wear blatantly sexual outfits, a fighting tournament for men you can participate in, real softcore porn videos you can watch at an Adult Store that the character masturbates to in comedic fashion, it has a Real Estate mini game with a side story attached that unlocks an amazing Fighting Style when finally completed, another mini game managing a Cabaret Club with basically a copy paste storyline, however this was by far the most enjoyable mini game to me. It has some of the most well constructed and well timed humor I've seen in a game for a very long time. I was laughing out loud on more than one occasion.This game also has one of the most touching, heartbreaking, deadly serious stories I've ever played, as well as basically flawless character and world building. It also oozes in the Cool Factor, but never sacrifices the stories credibility for it. The cinematic cutscenes are a master work, steeped in emotion and suspense. To explain why this is the case would be to spoil the story, and this a plot worth preserving for personal consumption. The games final cutscene is probably nearly 30 minutes in length, in order to wrap up every single character and plot thread in a nice, neat way, that leads perfectly into Yakuza 1, otherwise known as Kiwami. That may sound outrageous for some of you, the idea of a 30 minute cutscene can sound ludicrous. Let me assure you, that final 30 minutes had me in tears, especially the final 10 or so minutes. This game will punch you in the feels, over and over again, and make no apologies for it. There is no doubt this game will only enhance your enjoyment of Kiwami, which you will no doubt purchase after finishing this game. This is one the best overall video game experiences I've ever had the privilege to enjoy, and 5 Stars does not begin to describe just how great I think this game is. Do yourself a favor, and buy this game.