Yakuza 0 Director’s Cut

Genre: Action-RPG

Players: 1-4 Co-Op (Online)

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Review:

The Yakuza series of Action-RPGs has generally skipped Nintendo platforms for quite some time, but Sega seems to be making a point to gradually correct that oversight, with Yakuza Kiwami releasing on Nintendo Switch in 2024, and then Yakuza 0 releasing on Nintendo Switch 2 in 2025 as a “Director’s Cut” with new cutscenes and a new online multiplayer game mode. This release was technically Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive for about a half a year, before other versions of Yakuza 0 on modern platforms were updated to include this content as well in late 2025.

Yakuza 0 was originally released in 2015 on PlayStation 3 and 4 in Japan, though only the PlayStation 4 release would come to the West, and it wouldn’t arrive outside of Japan until 2017, with a PC port in 2018, an Xbox One port in 2020, then the aforementioned versions for modern platforms releasing in 2025. While this is the sixth mainline game in the series, as you might guess from the “0” in the title, this is a prequel, taking place before the first game and following that game’s protagonist, Kazuma Kiryu, as well as the eyepatch-wearing sometimes-protagonist, sometimes-antagonist Goro Majima.

The plot of this game is kicked off when Kiryu is framed for a murder that upsets a delicate situation involving an empty lot his employers in the Yakuza have their sights set on, involving multiple parties all trying to manipulate the situation to their benefit. Both to restore his own reputation and to prevent that reputation tarnishing his adoptive father figure, the head of the Kazama mafia family, Kiryu resolves to reveal the truth behind the murder and frame job.

The story is usually one of the main attractions of the Yakuza games, and Yakuza 0 is no exception. While it has a large helping of absurd silliness on occasion, it’s hard to deny that the story here is compelling, much like a soap opera, with the driving force pushing players to continue often being seeing where the story will go next.

The graphical presentation here is as good as Yakuza 0 has ever been, but this isn’t a remake. Even so, in general the streets of Tokyo’s fictional Kamurocho district (based on the real-life Kabukicho district) are a dazzling display of neon signs, detailed storefronts, and intricately-crafted menu standees, all impeccably-detailed, and these streets are filled with numerous people all going about their day doing various behaviors. What’s more, the character designs here are generally detailed in a way that’s still impressive, even a decade after the game’s original release. This is all par for the course for this franchise though – these games have always had an insanely good eye for detail, which is all the easier to see in the Nintendo Switch 2 version’s 4K resolution and 60FPS framerates.

That said, in this release of a decade-old game, the cracks are starting to show. There’s plenty of pop-in, and some textures are shockingly low-resolution in a way that makes them stick out like a sore thumb next to the high detail most of the rest of the game displays. Make no mistake, this is still a superb-looking game, but it’s a decent port of a game that looked great 10 years ago, not something truly on par with the best-looking games of today.

The voice acting here is good, with the English-language dub featuring skilled veterans like Matt Mercer, David Hayter, and Paul Nakaouchi, though purists may prefer to swap over to the Japanese dub, which may feel more authentic.

Here’s where I need to criticize one of the issues with this release, which is just how uneven it is. Some of the game’s story moments are conveyed fully-voiced with in-game cutscenes, some are conveyed fully-voiced with characters who are in still poses with unmoving mouths but changing expressions (which is really off-putting), and some are conveyed in-game only via text dialogue. While I understand that the Yakuza games have a lot of story to have to convey in fully voiced and animated cutscenes, I feel like it’s jarring to cut between multiple different ways of depicting these cutscenes.

The gameplay here will be familiar to those who played Yakuza Kiwami, with a mix of action-focused fight scenes and RPG elements, including a full upgrade tree for each of your character’s fighting styles, a gameplay mechanic originally created for this game and copied to subsequent games in the series. I feel like most of my complaints of Yakuza Kiwami’s fighting engine are still present here, and I won’t fully rehash them here, but suffice it to say that I felt that the game mechanics were inconsistent and at times tedious.

I mentioned the new gameplay mode in this release, Red Light Raid, giving players the opportunity to throw down in a crowd of attackers joined by up to three other players. Or, at this point, you’re more likely to play alongside three computer-controlled bots, since it appears the online play for this game is largely abandoned at this point.

I don’t think anyone who disliked the Yakuza franchise is going to have their minds changed by Yakuza 0, but I do agree that this is a great entry point for the series for any players curious to try out these games and experience the incredibly detailed depiction of a bust Tokyo district, with a compelling story and characters, and this release of the game is as good as it has ever been. And while I’m not thrilled with the combat, I think the graphics have aged somewhat, some presentation choices seem odd and off-putting, and the new Red Light Raid mode is a bit pointless without others to play with… despite these issues, this is still a great game worth checking out for its better qualities.

tl;dr – Yakuza 0 is an Action-RPG taking place prior to the first Yakuza game, exemplifying many of the qualities the series has come to be known for, such as a compelling story and characters, and a brilliant simulation of a busy Tokyo district. This release’s added features are a mixed bag, and some of the elements of the original game have aged worse than others, but overall this is a solid game and a good entry point for the Yakuza franchise.

Grade: B+

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