Yakuza 0

Yakuza 0 is an action-adventure game set in an open world environment and played from a third-person perspective. The game takes place from December 1988 to January 1989, in Kamurochō and Sotenbori, fictionalized recreations of Tokyo's Kabukichō and Osaka's Dōtonbori areas respectively. The player controls series protagonist Kazuma Kiryu and recurring character Goro Majima, alternating between the two at predetermined points during the story.

Players can freely walk around Kamurocho and Sotenbori, interacting with people they meet to trigger side-quests, battling enemies who attack them on the street, or playing several minigames, including fully playable versions of Sega arcade games such as Out Run, Super Hang-On, Space Harrier, and Fantasy Zone. Completing certain objectives, such as eating every dish at a restaurant or reaching a target score in a minigame, will also grant the player special Completion Point currency; these Completion Points can be spent at a shrine to receive additional bonuses, such as special items or character upgrades.

Character customization and growth is similar to the system from Ryu ga Gotoku Ishin!, with abilities bought off of a skill tree that is gradually unlocked during the game. Instead of using experience points to buy skills, the player uses money acquired from fights or via Kiryu and Majima's side businesses. Money is more liberally awarded in Yakuza 0 than in previous entries, with every heavy attack causing enemies to drop cash. The player can lose their money if they encounter a special enemy called Mr. Shakedown, huge men who are far stronger than normal. If the player is beaten, they will lose all their cash, but can beat the enemy again to earn back their money and extra.

Kiryu and Majima also have side businesses that they run during the game to earn money: Kiryu invests in real estate in Kamurocho, while Majima runs a cabaret club in Sotenbori. Completing side-quests will often result in characters they meet offering to help with side businesses, allowing players to more easily and quickly progress. Progressing in side business sequences or training with specific masters will unlock additional abilities for purchase on the characters' skill trees.

A major innovation of Yakuza 0 is the addition of multiple fighting styles for both Kiryu and Majima that can be switched in the middle of battle. Kiryu utilizes the balanced Brawler style, similar to that of previous entries; the powerful but slow Beast style, which allows him to use heavy weapons; and the fast boxing-based Rush style, which emphasizes mobility. Conversely, Majima uses the balanced Thug style; the weapons-oriented Slugger style, primarily focused around a baseball bat; and the capoeira-based Breaker style. Completing Kiryu and Majima's side businesses will unlock an additional "Legendary" fighting style for the characters, the "Dragon of Dojima" and "Mad Dog of Shimano" styles, respectively.

In December 1988, yakuza Kazuma Kiryu is framed for murder in an empty lot in Kamurochō, Tokyo. As the Empty Lot is the last piece of land needing to be purchased before the Tojo Clan can redevelop the area, it has become the target of Dojima Family patriarch Sohei Dojima, believing obtaining it will grant him enough power and influence to become Tojo Clan chairman. To protect his adoptive father, Shintaro Kazama, from punishment, Kiryu leaves the Dojima Family.

Kiryu meets real estate agent Tetsu Tachibana, who promises to clear his name in exchange for helping him acquire the Empty Lot before Dojima. After Kiryu and Jun Oda, Tachibana's right-hand man, interfere with squatters related to the Dojima family, Dojima lieutenants Daisaku Kuze, Hiroki Awano and Keiji Shibusawa demand Kiryu turn over Tachibana. Kiryu refuses, prompting the Dojima family to hunt him down. His oath brother Akira Nishikiyama cuts ties with Kiryu to keep each other safe. Tachibana tells Kiryu that the Empty Lot's owner is his estranged sister, Makoto Makimura, who inherited it from their grandfather and lives in Sotenbori, Osaka.

In Sotenbori, ex-yakuza Goro Majima is forced to run a cabaret club, as punishment for his involvement in the Ueno-Seiwa assassination in 1985. Per the orders of his former patriarch Futoshi Shimano, Majima is under constant surveillance by Shimano's oath brother, Tsukasa Sagawa, a member of the Omi Alliance, the Tojo Clan's rivals. Following a new order from Shimano, Sagawa offers Majima a chance to rejoin the Shimano Family by assassinating Makoto, who suffers from psychogenic blindness.

Majima finds Makoto under the protection of Wen Hai Lee, a former assassin. After Majima decides to protect Makoto, Lee suggests murdering a look-alike of Makoto to fool Sagawa. Though Majima rejects the idea, Shibusawa's assistant Homare Nishitani commits the deed in his place, hoping to attract Majima's attention. Suspecting the fraud, Sagawa sends his men to kill Majima and Makoto. Sagawa sets up a trap to kill Lee, then attempts to kill Majima and Makoto, but is stopped by Masaru Sera, an ally of Kazama, who takes Makoto away. Following a lengthy investigation, Majima and Sagawa confront Sera at his headquarters and find that he turned Makoto over to Kiryu.

Kiryu and Oda escort Makoto to Kamurocho but are chased by Shibusawa's men. Oda, revealed to be a mole for Shibusawa, attempts to kill Kiryu and Makoto. Kiryu subdues him, and Oda explains that he and Tachibana were former Chinese gangsters in Japan. At that time, Makoto migrated to Japan to find her brother, but ran afoul of Oda, who sold her to a Korean gang, where she was sexually abused. Oda discovered Makoto's identity after Tachibana saw her on a documentary, and feared his reprisal ever since. Regretting his crimes, he allows Kiryu and Makoto to flee, before being executed by Shibusawa.

Kiryu meets Tachibana, who reveals that he knew that Makoto was looking for him. He also reveals that upon learning her inheritance of the Empty Lot, he turned to Kazama, who helped him form his company to protect Makoto from Dojima, who also planned to annihilate the Kazama Family. With their interests coinciding, Kiryu and Tachibana flee but Tachibana is captured by Dojima's assassin, Lao Gui, the true perpetrator of the Empty Lot murder. Tachibana is tortured to death by Kuze and his men, whom Kiryu and Nishikiyama defeat. Makoto discovers her brother's body and regains partial sight.

Meanwhile, Majima learns that Shimano sent the kill order so that Majima would be pressured to have Makoto willingly hand over the Empty Lot to Shimano. Majima finds Makoto in the Empty Lot, plotting revenge for Tachibana's death. Despite Majima's concerns, Makoto meets Dojima, offering the Empty Lot in exchange for the deaths of his lieutenants. Dojima declines and has her shot. Sera arrives and escorts Makoto to a hospital. However, Shibusawa finds Makoto and holds her captive on a ship. Kiryu and his family storm the ship and save Makoto, whilst Majima battles the Dojima family in the Tojo HQ, including Awano who dies at Lao Gui's hands. Nishikiyama prevents Kiryu from killing Shibusawa, and both him and Kuze are handed over to the police. Majima defeats Lao Gui and prepares to kill Dojima, but is stopped by Sera, who has ultimately acquired the deeds to the Empty Lot. He orders Majima to kill Shimano for his treachery, but upon confronting Shimano, Majima relents, wanting to learn the fate of his oath brother Taiga Saejima. Shimano terminates his dealings with the Omi Alliance and reinstates Majima into his family.

In January 1989, Sera becomes the Tojo Clan Captain (and later Third Chairman), with Dojima languishing after the loss of his lieutenants. Kiryu rejoins the Dojima Family under a new oath, hoping to find his own path as a yakuza. Meanwhile, Majima adopts a new persona, inspired by Lee, Nishitani and Sagawa, to empower himself, and bids Sagawa farewell, who is later assassinated by the Omi Alliance for his failure to secure a deal with Shimano. Majima allows Makoto to live a peaceful life with her new boyfriend, and later encounters Kiryu for the first time in Kamurocho.

The top four most-voted AV idols in Sega's booth at Tokyo Game Show 2014. Left to right: Chika Arimura, Hibiki Ōtsuki, Ai Uehara and Mana Sakura.

The game was first announced in a special Yakuza event on August 24, 2014, together with a trailer. Thirty most popular AV idols, as voted by fans in an earlier poll, were also announced to make cameo appearances in the game, with the top 10 having more significant roles (the top five would appear as the highest tier hostesses in the cabaret club minigame).[9] A Chinese-language localization of the game was announced in 2014 and eventually released in Asia in May 2015. Shonan no Kaze performed the game's main theme and ending theme, "Bubble" (バブル) and "Kurenai" (紅, Crimson) respectively; these songs were not licensed for the English release and were instead replaced by original instrumental tracks.

Sega wanted to make Majima stand out from Kiryu, as the two share the role of protagonists. Sega described Kiryu as a "straight man trait – tough but honorable and keeps to himself a bit" implying little difficulty in writing him. Through this game and the remake of the first game, Kiwami, the relationship between Kiryu and Majima is explored further than in the first game of the franchise, most notably because of changes to Majima's characterization and his views on Kiryu's actions, with the two being friends and enemies simultaneously. Yakuza 0 also showed a part of Kiryu's story that Sega wanted players to know before Yakuza 6.[10] Kiryu's traits in Yakuza 0 were specifically changed to a "loose-cannon hot-head" to the point long time fans would be surprised by his actions. However, chief Masayoshi Yokoyama stated the character would mature across the storyline.[11] The goal of the localization team was to make Majima and Kiryu more likeable, although Strichart believed Kiryu was more popular than Majima in Western countries.[12] Despite Kiryu's fame, Sato noted that players ended up enjoying Majima far more in the franchise.[13]

The Chinese localization of the game replaces late-game character Lao Gui, a Chinese assassin hired by the Dojima Family, with the face model and voice of Hong Kong actor Sam Lee.[14]

On December 5, 2015, at PlayStation Experience in San Francisco, Sony Computer Entertainment's Gio Corsi announced that Yakuza 0 would be coming to the Americas for the PlayStation 4. Initially, no official confirmation was made of a European release. In July 2016, it was announced that the game would release in North America and Europe for the PlayStation 4 in January 2017.[15]

Western localization of the game was led by Scott Strichart, associate producer of Atlus USA, who has localized Yakuza Kiwami, Yakuza Kiwami 2, and Yakuza 6.[12] The team took a year and a half to localize Yakuza 0, which has 1.8 million Japanese characters, nearly twice as many as the average JRPG, which has 1 to 1.2 million Japanese characters.[12] In addition to challenges translating tone and humor, Strichart's team at Atlus had difficulties localizing traditional Asian games, including Mahjong and Shogi. In order to make these minigames accessible to Western audiences, Atlus had to provide detailed rules alongside gameplay. During the localization process, Strichart said the team wrote a total of "34 pages of Mahjong explanation."[14]

• Official website