I've played alot of games. Good ones, Bad ones. This was certainly one of the best games I have played in a long long LONG time. I started up this game pretty blind. I had it on my backlog for a long time, pushed it aside for other stuff. Until finally a friend recommended me to play it. I had NO idea what I was about to get myself into.


You start the game as a young (sexy ahem) Yakuza man, Kiryu Kazuma, in the year 1988, beating up a guy for money he owes. He then gets framed for murder and that's where it takes off from there for the rest of the game. The beginning of the game is slow cause obviously they have to introduce the characters and the plot. But after you get access to the entire map that's when things got interesting. There's about 100 Sub stories throughout the game you will encounter randomly. Each and every one of them were goofy, quirky, or touching in some way. From helping a little boy regain his faith in adults by giving him a naughty magazine, Helping a Dominatrix dominate, Helping a man find his pants that were stolen from him, Teaching a kid not to be used by a girl he really likes, Helping a mother get her daughter back from a bunch of cultists who are trying to brainwash her for money. You can befriend all kinds of random people along the way too. And trust me all of these side quests were worth it.

You got all kinds of mini games too! I couldn't even believe just how many their were. There's American gambling games like Poker, Blackjack, Super 6, Roulette. Japanese gambling games like Cee-Lo, Oicho-Kabu (Both which I really enjoyed learning how to play) Cho-han, Koi-Koi and Mah Jong (Which I simply could not figure out how to play haha) Then you got some Bar games such as Pool and Darts. Real Arcade games! Fantasy Zone, Out Run, Space Harrier, Super Hang On, and UFO Catcher (but beware the audio when playing these mini games wonks out and blows out my ears every single time) And then lastly you have other stuff like Fishing, Bowling, Batting, Karaoke (My personal favorite), Telephone Club (Absolutely hilarious), Cat Fights, Shogi (a much harder chess. i couldn't play this lol), Disco Club (You can even dance w the famous MJ himself), Pocket Racers (Dreadfully long substory but i enjoyed it nonetheless), Real Estate (Quite boring tbh) and The Cabaret Club (I had a BLAST playing this one. I miss my girls already)

When I found out the game had two protagonists, I was upset at first. I had no idea who this other dude was and all of sudden it put a halt on the main story and now i was a guy who originally I called ugly and uninteresting. Only for moments later to eat back those words and Fall absolutely in love with him. Goro Majima quickly became my absolute favorite, and funnily enough i started to actually find him attractive too. Both protagonists have insanely great stories that at one point link up to each other, which was beyond exciting for me. Every single character that i met was intriguing. The voice acting is absolutely outstanding! You can feel all of their respect and love as they speak to eachother. I mean heck I teared up and cried about 3 times!! Not many games have been able to get me to that state and i'm telling you it was quite a journey. I'm so sad it took me this long to play this.. I look forward to playing the rest of the series but Yakuza 0 really knocked it out of the park for me, that I don't know if the others would be able to beat this. But There's no way i'm stopping now.

Overall I have never played anything like this. I only wish I could have understood Japanese that way I could have been more immersed, esp when some stuff aren't subtitled. This game might not be for everyone though. The game is uncensored from Japan so there are quite abit moments in the game that could easily offend someone. But for those willing to give the game a try you will most likely get such a fulfilling and satisfying experience out of the whole game. Amazing story, great late combat and Boss battles, and quite alot of humor. If you wanted to give Yakuza a try this is exactly where you want to start.

Pros-
~Great music,
~Excellent voice acting,
~Intriguing story,
~Well-made cutscenes
~Loveable characters
~The world around you feels SO alive
~Karaoke - Baka Mitai (ばかみたい) / 24-Hour Cinderella!
~Super serious crime drama

Cons-
~Monotonous random fight encounters,
~Equipment search missions essentially useless,
~Upgrades gated behind boring content at times (ahem Real estate)
~Camera angles can get quite wonky
~Not enough karaoke songs ._.

10/10 My only regret is I didn't play this sooner in my life. I pray for the rest of the series to make it's way to steam (sooner than later), and I'm very thankful these made their way to steam to begin with.

Thank you SEGA <3