Yakuza 0 : First experience with the honorable series.

Completed : Yakuza 0

The yakuza series had been on my watch from long.

Needles to say, it is worth a punch for anyone who owns a playstation.

Not the cleanest of experiences, especially for someone who doesn't like to hold the controller down for a lengthy period and yakuza makes you do that plenty.

Yes, frustrating at times but exceptionally effective, charging for an emotional rollercoaster full of twists and turns.

The main story and missions are carved with thoroughly written characters and sequences.

The build up in every chapter leads to finales that actually feel personal and epic putting most games' main ending to bow down.

Also,these greatly compliment the game's huge cast of memorable and unique personalities.

The stories of our two charismatic playable characters,kiryu and Majima along with numerous antagonists to match, although completely different connect in the most dramatic fashion.

Understandably, the excessive dialogues play a major role in these and didn't mind them in the main story.

But even with an open-mind, the repeated random encounters take most of your immersion out of the game, fighting the same thugs again and again or the unskipable and lengthy sub story dialogues in the middle of exploration or main missions end up being forced and tedious.

The small and crowded world full of mini games,real life sub angles and arcadey as well as professional activities come together well to create an authentic japanese feel.

Only if its map also used some of the world's incredible detail.

The hand to hand combat with different stances is a decent combination of button mashing and strategy.

Also at this stage, yakuza 0 could have easily used more gameplay mechanics.

Apart from brawling, there's isn't much to the game with respect to the core gameplay.

VERDICT :

An over the top crime thriller ?

A grand interactive drama ?

An intense beat em up ?

A deep Japan simulator ?

It is difficult to categorise yakuza under one sub genre, but what could have been the defining open world game series of the era is suppressed to an overall satisfying, yet very standard experience due to repititiveness and constant gameplay interruption.

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