Yakuza 0 | A Complete History and Retrospective

eventually in the life of a video game series you have to go back you're obligated to tell the stories of the characters before the games started this is a difficult task because the fates of said characters are something that the audience already knows but if you can manage to add to the world the established characters and tell an interesting story in a prequel then you've got something special that's what yakuza 0 aims to do and it does it very well it's one of my favorite entries in the series and a lot of fans put it at the top of their rankings yakuza 0 marked the start of a new era for yakuza and began its true skyrocketing of popularity in the west today i want to dive deep into yakuza 0 looking at story gameplay mechanics and everything in between if you haven't seen my previous videos on the yakuza series it would make sense to go back and watch those now as it will provide much needed context for this entry if you'd like to support the channel you can subscribe to my patreon where i upload longer versions of my full retrospectives and weekly text updates if you'd like to support the channel for free then give this video a like and make sure to subscribe as it really helps me out spoilers for everything yakuza 0. hey dad it's me your favorite son and today i'd like to talk about yakuza 0. yakuza 0 was announced at a yakuza focused event in august 2014. this entry saw the team pairing down their amount of playable characters from five to just two majima and kiriyu the team specifically wanted majima to stand out from kitiu they wanted them to be two distinct people the goal was to see both characters in a new light before they had become the people that we knew this would make for characters that we almost weren't familiar with but that would grow and change over the course of the story the game was also announced for an american release and would be sold physically this time unlike the previous game yakuza 5. it took a year and a half for the teams to localize the game for western audiences because of the large amount of japanese characters in the game it was also the first game in the series that had localization done by atlas usa in the previous entries localization had been outsourced to a company called inbound inbound worked on the translation for yakuza 0 and then atlas refined it and took the localization to the next level yakuza 0 was also designed to be a starting place for new fans of the series and putting in so much effort into the localization made for a better entry place for people who were just getting into yakuza yakuza 0 was released in japan on march 12 2015 for the playstation 4. it was then released worldwide on january 24th 2017. a few notes before we get into the game yakuza is well known for its dramatic deep in-depth crime drama main story but the other big draw to these games are all of the things that you can do outside of that because of the large plethora of side activities to get involved in i'll first look at the story of yakuza 0 and then at the end of the video we'll go back to talk about all of yakuza 0's distractions the other note is on the version of yakuza 0 that i played it was released on playstation 3 playstation 4 and also on pc over a year after its original worldwide release i ended up playing the playstation 4 version using the backwards compatibility feature of the playstation 5. as i said before yakuza 0 takes place before the first yakuza game and focuses on kitiu and majima it starts in 1988 in kamarocho for reference this game takes place 17 years before the first yakuza game starts and kitiyu is 20 years old while majima is 25. this means that not only are our characters different people but kamarocho is a very different place as well we see kitty u beating up a man in some sort of alley and at first it seems like kitty is some sort of nefarious character we find out that he's just collecting money for a local loan shark the loan shark offers kitiyu a job as a debt collector but he turns it down nishiki kittyu's sworn brother who you'll probably remember from the first game in the series contacts kittyu on his pager which will serve as our cellphones for this entry on his way he finds some goons shaking people down on his turf which is a big no-no kitty who beats them down and nishki finds him in the middle of taking care of business the two stroll the streets and talk about getting used to their new lives as yakuza they're pretty new to the whole thing and still getting their bearings in the ranks the two decide to have a good night on the town and while they're heading through the city they get into a fight with some drunkards kittium meets an old american man who teaches him to use abilities nishiki and kitty you end up drinking and singing karaoke seeing these two characters 18 years before the events that would eventually mean the downfall of not only their friendship but nishiki's life is difficult you're conflicted because you know that this is long before nishiki was corrupted but you know what's going to happen eventually as well this game will do a lot to contextualize the relationship of these two yakuza and it does it to a masterful degree the next morning the two are sobering up with some food as they see a report on the news the man that kitiu was collecting the money from the night before taiichi kurihara was found dead as yakuza it's reprehensible to kill civilians and nishiki echoes this sentiment kitiyu says that he roughed the guy up but he definitely didn't kill him kitiyu then gets a page from the dojima family ordering him back to the dojima hq at the hq kitiyu meets with the three lieutenants kuze awano and shibusawa the loan shark that he was working with is the president of toco credit and he called them to let them know kitty you had beaten the guy up kitty maintains that he didn't kill the man and the three say that he was shot in the head this clearly doesn't add up because kitty you didn't even have a gun so he thinks that someone must be trying to frame him there's a bigger problem with the whole murder though the boss wants the lieutenants to get him the empty lot the place that the man was killed in it's their sole goal right now and having a murder investigation on their turf makes acquiring the property a lot harder getting this property means a lot of money for dojima and he's even offering the rank of family captain to the first one that gets it the other complication with this whole ordeal is that kazuma kittyu's mentor and basically his father is still in prison he's the current captain but because of kittyu's screw-up he'll most likely be expelled from the clan they don't truly believe kittyu's innocence or they just don't care kuze tells kitiyu to turn himself in by the end of the day and give them his pinky finger in the yakuza there's an act called yubitsume which translates to finger shortening the member is forced to cut their little finger off to pay recompense for some grave wrong they've committed kitty who knows that he's innocent though and he can't just let this go he has to prove himself he heads to toco credit to talk to the president who was the one that gave him the job in the first place and the one that told him to rough the guy up here we have to bash our way through some enemies to reach the president's office they're not too difficult though and the president doesn't even try to fight the president doesn't get much information out though just that he was doing what he was told kuze walks in and shuts the man up kuze offers kiryu a proposition if he brushes aside his loyalty to kazuma and spies on him for kuze then kuze will help him out he'll find the real killer prove kitty use innocence and even get him promotions within the ranks it's a pretty good deal especially in kitty's position he's young and even younger in the ranks of the yakuza and he's looking down the barrel of prison time already but kittyu doesn't accept because the price to pay is too steep betraying his father kittyu leaves and nishiki wants him to head to the kazuma family office to talk to kashiwagi he's currently the leader of the kazuma family while kazuma is away kashiwagi agrees with kiriyu and believes that someone has tried to frame him kashiwagi thinks that it was most likely kuze who's behind everything or at the very least he knows what's really going on kuze realizes what this whole thing means for kazuma and he has a plan he decides that he's going to suggest that he be expelled from the family then kazuma won't have to take any of the fault for his framing also since he'll be a civilian he can confront kuze and get the truth by force kashiwagi doesn't want kiriyu to do this because he thinks it's a bad idea he even strikes kiriyu but this doesn't deter him kittyu plans to go straight to dojimo with the request on the way to the dojima hq we see a flashback of kiriyu and nishiki at the orphanage when they were younger kazuma is lashing out at them because they've decided to join the yakuza and he doesn't want them to be a part of that world kitty who confronts kuze and tells him he wants to give his request for expulsion to the boss but kuze won't let him through kitio is getting beat on and when kuze finally says he's out of the family kitiu is allowed to attack him at this point we have to fight through tons of goons and have our first large raid of the game before we get to that it seems like a good time to talk about combat in yakuza 0. yakuza 5 to yakuza 0 is one of the largest changes that the series has seen to date it's a massive difference in systems and styles it functions a lot like yakuza kiwami as this is the first appearance of the separate styles in the series the basic combat though functions mostly the same we can attack with rush combos and combine those with finishing moves to develop full combos we can also press the triangle button at certain points when indicated to initiate a heat action these are particularly outlandish in yakuza 0 and can get pretty creative in yakuza 0 kitty you can switch between three different styles of fighting each with their own use and distinct flavor the first of those is the brawler style this is the one that i would call the normal style it's the closest to kittyu's previous fighting style and is the balanced option of the three the rush style is a lot quicker and is much more focused on speed attacks are faster but do a lot less damage individually we can quick step and dodge a lot more than the other styles and it's made to counter the slower lumbering enemies the last style that kitty u has is called beast and is the big brute damage dealer of the bunch we can take a lot more damage in the style and deliver wide sweeping attacks but we're also much slower the styles each deliver a unique type of gameplay and are all represented by different approaches to the situation that's in front of you it can be used to reflect the way that the player chooses to play or it can be used as a way to counter specific types of enemies it's a wonderful system that works really well and provides a lot of variety in gameplay personally i used b style a lot just like in kiwami but in yakuza 0 i mainly use b style for large groups of enemies as it was easier to take a lot of them out at once that wasn't super effective at taking out bosses though so i would use brawler or rush for that depending on the situation now kaza zero has also changed its upgrade system dramatically we still have a plethora of abilities that can be unlocked but there is no level system in this entry we don't level up like normal and get skill points soul orbs or experience instead we use cash to unlock new abilities which are represented with a skill tree for each fighting style the reason for this and the genius of yakuza 0 systems lies in its time period yakuza 0 takes place during the late 80s in japan which happened to be a time of great affluence for the country during this era japan was seeing a miracle of economic growth and money was flowing because of this everything in yakuza 0 revolves around money even the abilities some abilities can even cost up to 500 million yen but don't worry the game provides us with plenty of ways to get that kind of cash yakuza 0's combat is pretty great overall and i think it acts as a general improvement for the series especially the skill trees one of my issues with the previous entries is how narrow your choices for skills with the new system we can look ahead to see what we can unlock and choose certain improvements over others my only large complaint with this entry is that it's incredibly easy this was one of my first yakuza games so i haven't played it for a few years and coming back to it after playing games like yakuza 3 and 4 is really odd because i don't remember it being this easy i assume they lowered the difficulty to further cement it as a new entry point for fans but most of the game isn't a challenge at all we have a really long stretch of fighting our way up the dojima hq at certain points in the journey we'll encounter yoneda one of kuze's goons who just won't stay down when we find kuze at the top he won't talk and wants to fight it's our first boss of the game and he's very easy he'll deliver a lot of longer combos that will punish us if we get caught up in them but he's pretty easily countered by using the rush style and getting out of the way of his attacks when kuze goes down the other lieutenants and dojima himself enter kuze tries to get them to attack kitiu but they deny his request kuze said he could take kitiyu one on one and he failed dojima has filled in on what happened and scolds kuze for expelling kitiu from the clan not only did he not get permission to expel a member but he also just attacked a civilian dojima forces kuze to remove his pinky for his indiscretions kitty begs dojima to help him he promises that he'll take any responsibility for what happened if it means kazuma doesn't have to take the blame dojima tells him that kazuma has to take the blame as he's the one who brought kid you into the family in the first place dojima offers no help at this point because kitiyu is a civilian and he's just putting himself into yakuza matters at this point he tells him to leave and live the rest of his life kitty was wandering the streets in the rain alone and lost he doesn't know what to do and the man who gave him everything cosmo probably also just lost everything as well kitty who feels incredibly guilty and doesn't know where to turn to he doesn't even have the family at this point and he's failed in every possible way at this moment a man walks up to kitty you and introduces himself as tachibana telling kiryu that he's been waiting to meet him kittyu heads to tachibana's office with him the strange man tells him that he's in real estate and he too has an interest in getting the empty lot on top of that he happens to know everything about kidu his upbringing his time in the yakuza and basically everything he wants to get the lot and it's in kitty's best interest as well if the lot goes to one of the lieutenants they will become captain and expel cosmo from the family tachibana also offers to prove kitiu's innocence along the way oh yeah and he has a prosthetic hand for some reason kitty was pretty reluctant to trust this man at this point because he isn't sure what his motives are but he takes his business card anyways kitty meets nishiki at the kozuma family office he tells nishiki everything and his friend invites him inside he thinks that kashiwagi might be able to help but kiriyu is a civilian now and he decides he should just keep his distance from everyone for a bit we head back to kittyu's apartment which is a quaint little place nishiki shows up later anyways and said he told kashiwagi everything that happened nishiki says that tachibana is a pretty prominent figure in kamurocho apparently even the yakuza are hesitant when it comes to dealing with the man he buys up tons of property and pushes out the residents at all costs kitty decides to do his own research around the town the next day we have to make our way around the city at this point and find people who know about tachibana real estate we eventually stumble upon a cafe owner who is being harassed by some yakuza he was originally paying them for protection but when tachibana came along they were nowhere to be found they don't deal with tachibana and the cafe owner decides to decline their services kittyu asks him about the mysterious man and he says that when tachibana sets his sights on you he doesn't stop his people know every little detail of your life the cafe owner points kitiyu to the hakuya building on shichifuku street where he met the man that works for tachibana the building is mostly abandoned at this point and there's only one real business left in operation there it's a small bar and the owner tells kitty you exactly what happened the jinsai family were offering protection in this area and one day tachibana real estate scared them all off they came around and announced that they owned the building and wanted everyone out most of the businesses ran away as soon as they figured out it was tachibana just then some tachibana men show up led by a man named oda he offers the man 2 million yen to leave and keeps piling on stacks of money the man keeps refusing and when things are about to come to violence kitty u steps in and scares the guys off the man reveals that he was just holding out to get more money and it had nothing to do with principle or making a point on his way out kitty who talks to some of the homeless men in the building most of the homeless in the town work for tachibana kitty wants more information and the man points him to the public park there we find five homeless men who all want paid in booze for different information we have to get five different kinds of specific liquor to satiate their pallets doing this requires hunting all over town at the various convenience stores in the area eventually they tell us that the homeless are hired to camp out at businesses and make themselves a nuisance this is used to push business owners out and makes pretty easy money for the homeless men the tachibana men like to work around the champion district often which is full of bars and probably a good place to push business owners out of when kitio arrives some locals from the area think he's there to push them out so they attack him we beat them down and they won't give up information about tachibana they claim that he's protecting them from being run out by the yakuza oda shows up and agrees he wants to know why kidu is investigating them kitty who tells him about his encounter with tachibana and oda wasn't aware of it he recommends that he ask tachibana all about the company himself before he leaves to meet with tachibana again otis says that they're protecting residents from being pushed out by the yakuza as tachibana actually cares about this city oda explains that the residents at the hakua building had all pushed out the previous residents who had been there for ages so basically they deserved it when kittyu arrives at the offices to meet with tachibana the guards won't let him in they say that someone upstairs gave them his description and warned them to not let him in we have to beat through the crowd and oda is upstairs waiting for us he says that the guards were a test he wanted to make sure that kitty was worth his salt and his next test is to fight oda himself oda is actually a kind of tricky fight he's pretty powerful and his tonfa attacks can take off a lot of health pretty quickly the only thing is there's a lot of improvised weapons in the room which makes things incredibly easy when using beast style tachibana shows up after we defeat oda and reveals that he has oda test kittyu oda is his right hand man and he couldn't hire somebody without making sure that oda had some say in the matter winning the fight was evidence enough for him this is certainly a strange situation but kiriyu really has no other option he doesn't even have any leads at this point and he has nothing in regards of a support network everything he knew and valued has been taken from him so his only option to prove his innocence and save his mentor is to find out what's going on here tachibana begins to explain everything he has great power and that's money he shows us as much when he causes a 10 second blackout across the entire city he plans to work this power his money against the tojo clan but he has a man on the inside an ally in that of kazuma kazuma expected everything that would happen in these past few days and entrusted tachibana to watch over kitty tajibana thinks that kazuma has a bigger reason for getting the empty lot than him or kid you even know kazuma gave something to tachibana to prove that he was telling the truth kazuma's watch he wants kiriyu to give it back once he's completed his mission kittyu realizes that joining with tachibana is taking an order from kazuma and he is ready to do that even if it costs him his life now yakuza 0 is not like the previous multi-character entries in the yakuza series in those games we would generally play four chapters of each character and then switch to a different one the games would then have a final chapter the finale that would tie all of their stories together those games were like a half finished braid with just the ends tied in yakuza 0 is more like a large taut rope threads intertwine and woven together every two chapters we switch to the other character in the game back and forth until the finale chapter at this point in the game we can switch to majima's story it begins in sotenbori the city we've become almost as familiar with at this point as kamarocho itself two men are on a trip to the city and end their night at the cabaret club grand they talk about how it used to be a dump but the new manager that started a year ago has improved business greatly a nearby customer has gotten a little too rowdy and the manager himself comes out to deal with the problem goro majima this game clearly takes place about three years after the ueno sawa event that majima was involved with and majima seems to have taken up a new profession he's much different than the majima that we see in more recent entries of yakuza he definitely hasn't found his mad dog yet he handles the disgruntled customer very professionally and refrains from violence at all costs even when he has alcohol poured all over him he keeps the mood up by making witty comments throughout the whole thing this is just such a stark contrast to the character that we know and i want to talk about the idea of prequels for a moment a prequel is an incredibly hard concept to pull off and there's always a chance of the schlocky prequel that just throws in references from later in the series to appease fans i'm looking at you solo but with this predicament how should you approach a prequel the answer is that you should do it exactly like yakuza 0. it takes the characters that we know and completely subverts our expectations making them the exact opposite of how we know them the reason this works so well is because we get to see them grow into the versions that we're familiar with over the course of the game kittyu isn't this legend he isn't the icon that people can aspire to he isn't the dragon of dojima yet majima isn't a legend either he isn't the top of the tojo clan he isn't the insane off the rails mad dog of shimano yet it's this promise that we're going to see how that happens throughout the course of the game that pulls people in it's such an interesting setup and characterization and it just works so well as mojimo we have to evade attacks from the customer we can't hit him and even our heat actions will just see us offering the customer some help the crowd loves the performance and the whole ordeal could have been a humiliating awkward situation but majima turned it into entertainment he asks that the entire place forgive the man as he just had too much to drink and he also gets the customer to buy everyone around as repayment for the disturbance this demeanor changes when majima makes it up to his office he wants the hostess to get a large bonus for dealing with the customer and to keep an eye on the man to make sure he pays the bill majima has to deal with some workers who aren't fulfilling their roles one is a hostess that's been arguing with the other girls in the club he solves the situation by putting her in her place a waiter is distracted at work because his father is sick majima gives him an advance pay and time off so he can help his father out just then one of the customers is ordering very expensive items now that he knows he doesn't have to pay the bill the man turns out to be sagawa the owner of the club and an influential yakuza he's been tasked with keeping an eye on majima and the whole thing is a test to get him back in the good graces of the tojo he has to make a certain amount of money to get back in the clan which was previously a hundred million yen he gives the money to sagawa and that number suddenly turns into 500 million majima is determined though he'll do whatever it takes to get back into the yakuza again sagawa decides to take majima's best hostess for another club that he has to run this is a big hit to the grands income so now majima has to look for someone else to replace her majima heads over to the odyssey the number one competitor to the grand he goes in disguise and surveys the situation but he isn't very impressed with what he sees eventually the owner yamagata recognizes him majima is very open with his intentions to poach his biggest hostess but in turn majima wants to trade some of his hostesses for her and he also wants to give the place some tips on how they could increase business yamagata agrees to the deal and majima heads home for the night when he gets there some thugs are waiting for him they think they can push him around because majima never hits back at the club but they don't realize that mercy only extends to customers and these men aren't his customers right now inside his apartment majima has a cigarette and sees a few men in the city keeping an eye on him this chapter is called the gilded cage and it's true to its name sotenbori is majima's cage he can't leave if he wants to get back in the tojo clan and people are keeping an eye on him from every angle he has to impress he has to always be on he can't relax and the pressure is high here we see a flashback to the events from yakuza 4 with saijima and majima getting in trouble for the ueno siwa hit after that majima was held in some sort of yakuza prison tortured by his former boss shimano and his men when he wakes up it was all a nightmare and majima heads to the grand for the day when he gets there sagawa calls him and wants to meet him for a drink majima is sure that there's some sort of ulterior motive here but he isn't sure what sagawa wants to know why majima wants back in the tojo clan so bad he tells him that he wants to be there when sajima gets out he wants to greet him as his sworn brother sagawa doesn't understand this as his sworn brother is shimano but he says that he would never die for him sagawa finally gets to the point and asks if majimo would kill to get back into the tojo segawa believes that this would prove majima's loyalty and resolve to the family and would be a true test for him to get back into their good graces majima doesn't want to do it but sagawa is just going to make things harder for majima stopping the deal with the odyssey and preventing him from making the money he needs to get back anyways tsagawa tells him that he has to kill a man named makoto makimura he runs a prostitution ring in sotenbori stealing young students and putting them on the street to earn money tagawa doesn't know where he is but he does use the local telephone club to get clients majima has two days to complete the job or he'll be killed the next day majima heads to the telephone club and he talks with a woman that knows about makimura she gets kg very quick when the name is mentioned but majima tells her that he's writing an article about the man the two meet up and majima keeps his cover of being a big star journalist akko doesn't want to talk until she gets something in return though so we have to take her to get food go dance and get her a stuffed animal at the disco some men try to rough up the girl and majima has to deal with them in return for protecting her akko gives up some information on makimota apparently he isn't anything like sagawa made him out to be he's actually the opposite he runs a chiropractic clinic in the city called hogushi kaiken he actually protects girls who work on the streets and he never asks for money in return the only thing he does ask is that they let him know if they meet someone with a bat tattooed on his arm this is confusing to majima as he doesn't understand why sagawa would lie to him about this but he heads to the clinic anyway once there he's prepared to kill but no one is in he investigates the place and finds a picture of makimura he decides to come back later to do the deed but just then a girl enters he figures out that she's blind judging by the cane in her hand and her actions he decides to try and slip out unnoticed but he bumps into her in the hallway she freaks out thinking that majima is some sort of thief but he says he was just there for a massage and is in great pain even though they're closed for the day she offers to help him out during the massage majima probes the woman about her boss she has nothing but good things to say about him and all the kind things that he does majima is starting to worry about what's going on and thinks that sagawa has tricked him just then the boss himself enters and he notices majimazyaku's a tattoo he sends the girl out of the office and he says this isn't the first time an assassin has been sent to kill him majima calls him makimura and he's confused he's not sure where majima heard that name but he's ready to fight before we get into our first big boss battle of majima's story we should talk about his combat style majima is similar to kiriyu and that he has three distinct styles that he can use the first is his thug style this is pretty similar to kiriu's brawler style in its use it's an all-around balanced sort of style that lends some decent damage with good defense and movement there's a distinct difference in every one of majima's styles and kitty use though and that's flair kitty who's fighting is very rigid he holds a large frame and stays steady he's a calm lake in terms of fighting but majima is a flowing river he moves a lot he's fluid his unique and unorthodox fighting lends to his character as well just as we've seen in his previous appearances throughout the games as a boss battle he brings that sort of mad dog energy in his fighting approach majima's counterpart to kittyu's rush style is his breaker style this one is pretty similar to rush in that it's all about speed and movement this one is based around the break dancing craze in japan during the 80s this one can be used for major crowd control though especially when majima spins on his head using his legs to attack the last style majima totes is the slugger style this is most similar to kittyu's beast style we see a stronger majima that constantly wields a bat he delivers powerful attacks with his weapon and can provide large swipes that punish enemies thoroughly the downside of this is that majima can't do any sort of grab attacks in this stance overall i think i used slugger the most because it deals with crowds of smaller enemies very easily i generally tried to use the thug style for bosses but slugger is much more proficient at single target damage than kittyu's beast style is so it was a viable option i didn't use the breaker style very much at all as i found it kind of odd and it just didn't give me results like the others with all that being said the massive man is kind of an awkward fight he's not very difficult but the environment makes it hard to fight him we are trapped in this tiny little room and we don't have a lot of space to work with some omi men interrupt their fight and are looking for makimura majima is confused because makimura is standing right in front of them eventually they call the man by his real name wen hai lee the girl enters at this time and we realize what's actually going on makoto makimora is really the girl and this man has been using her name to protect her the yakuza take her and shoot lee lee saves majima from getting shot and we defeat the men there before heading out to rescue the girl we find makoto on the streets and we have to lead her around there are a ton of yakuza patrolling the area and if we get caught in their sights we have to battle them we want to avoid this though because makoto has a health bar here and during battles she can actually take enough damage that we get a game over we can avoid the groups of yakuza by hiding in crowds majima eventually gets the girl out of harm's way near his apartment but she collapses and begins sobbing not only is being chased by tons of yakuza that want to kill you terrifying but she's blind as well she has no idea what's going on and has completely resigned herself to majima majima's second chapter ends with him staring at his dagger conflicted as he realizes that he still has to kill her at this point we jump back to kitty you and yakuza zero has a neat little feature that provides a short recap as you're switching characters so that you don't forget what happened in between chapters kitty was at the batting center with nishiki discussing his new job with tachibana he's basically a real estate worker now and he needs some new threads for the job so he doesn't look like a yakuza he gets a new suit which is almost just as yakuza as before if not more kitty who has to meet with oda today for basically a training session they meet with an old man who has some squatters living in his place of business we get this really funny sequence where we have to choose what kitty you should do or say and even have a quick time event to give a business card yamanoi the old man says the squatters at his place won't leave and they're backed by yakuza oda wants to deal with the situation but we have to get a gift first the two enter the building and talk to suji the man squatting there he doesn't want to budge and won't reveal the yakuza that are protecting him the yakuza reveal themselves once we're outside though and kittyu has to fight them as they're asking a ridiculous amount to get them to leave after the battle they reveal they're with the thai high association awano's men one of the dojima family lieutenants with the yakuza defeated though tsuji leaves the place oda sends kitty yutigo report to yamanoi and meet with oda at sedna when he's done kitty meets nishki at sedina surprised to find him there it turns out he's a good friend of reyna the woman who owns the place we're seeing the origin of the boys finding their watering hole oda is running late but eventually arrives beaten and bloodied with awano's men behind him awano has taken the whole thing as an insult to the yakuza themselves kitty who left the yakuza and immediately joined up with tachibana nishiki gets mouthy and awano slams his head against the bar kitiu is forced into a confrontation when okabe one of awano's men starts talking bad about nishiki awano confronts kiriyu outside and kittyu tries to use fists to solve it but awano won't let him he tries to get some information out of kiriyu and figures out that kazuma is involved with tachibana but they don't know who owns the empty lot yet he warns kitty you hear that if he doesn't give him tachibana his friends are going to get hurt and they'll hunt him down after kitiyu tells him what happened oda has his reservations he thinks kiriyu will give tachibana over to the yakuza to clear his name this causes oda to call tachibana and tell him to hide and not tell anyone where he is kittyu makes it clear that he doesn't plan to give over the man and nishiki protests this strongly kitty heads to the empty lot on his way home and finds tachibana there anyway he tells him that even though it seems like it the situation isn't that dire he has found no evidence to link kuze as the one behind the framing so it must be another in the dojima family tachibana leaves and tells kiriu to lay low for a bit shortly after this we meet a man who gives us the cash confetti ability this allows us to throw a pile of cash out when enemies are approaching in the streets this will distract them and cause them to go for the cash instead of us avoiding random encounters if we so choose this was a welcome addition to this entry especially after the absolute catastrophe that was random encounters in yakuza 5. i think the option to avoid them should always be there especially since yakuza is trying to cater to such a wide audience there are some people that play these games just because of the story and want to beeline through that there are some people that play these games just for the side stuff and want to get to that as quick as possible there are even some people that just enjoy the culture presented in the atmosphere of the game no one plays yakuza to get into as many random encounters as possible kitty you also kill some time here as we're introduced to the cat fights mini game which we'll talk about more in the distractions section after kitty who gets back to his apartment we see the lieutenants of the dojima family meeting they assume that kitiyu will not be giving up tachibana anytime soon and gets permission from dojima to start a hunt for kitiyu kuze wants him kept alive so he can make him kneel before he kills him they also make sure to tell kashiwagi and nishiki that they want their help in the city were accosted by tons of dojima family members we have a time limit to defeat each group of enemies so that we can get away before reinforcements arrive and we're surrounded i won't say that yakuza 0's combat system is my favorite but it is really good the main thing that's on full tilt here is the satisfaction in fighting it's always been extremely pleasing to just wipe out a group of enemies but with the ui changes and system upgrades it's as satisfying as ever when you kill an enemy there's a cha-ching sound money flies all over the place modifiers pop up on the screen and it just feels so much more impactful when you take down three at once kitty eventually takes down kawamura a large dojima member and is free of the men chasing him for now he needs a place to hide though and a stripper offers him a hideout that he can use she leads him into her boss's office which has a secret entrance to a set of tunnels that can get him out of there quickly we soon realize as kitty was walking away that the woman has just sold him out just then kuze the psychopath that he is rushes down the tunnel on a motorcycle and smashes kitiu with a pipe kuze tells him that he's half-assing his approach to the situation it doesn't matter if you fall down you just have to get back up that's the way of the yakuza kuze is going to keep coming at kitty u no matter what we have to fight kuze another time and he's not that strong our heat actions take off huge chunks of his health he also uses his pipe to deal big damage and block but a finishing move will break through his guard pretty easily kitty who hesitates for a moment with koozai's pipe in his hands but he puts it down deciding not to kill the man this is a really big moment it would have ended a lot of his troubles albeit probably getting him in more trouble to just kill kuze there and then but he didn't i think this is one of the first big moments that establishes kitu as the man that he is one of restrained even though he knows that kuze won't stop chasing him he doesn't end it here kittyu continues through the sewers and arrives in a dance club with awano grooving on the stage awano tries to tempt kid you again with money and ending all of this the only payment he requires is turning in tachibana kitty refuses yet again and awano reveals that he knows about sunflower orphanage the place that kitiu and nishiki came from he says that he gave the old caretaker a ton of money and it would be a shame if anything happened to the place this is when awano stops being nice and loses it he pulls a gun on kitu and tells him he virtually has an army outside kitty who basically tells him he would rather get shot and die than work for awano awano doesn't understand but let's kitty you go outside kiti prepares to be shot by the men waiting for him but there's not a single yakuza there nishiki arrives and tells kitty you to get in he's decided after everything they've been through he can't neglect to help kid you even if it means his own fate kitty falls asleep in the car at this point a long day of being chased around the city when he wakes up nishiki has taken him to a spot in the middle of the woods nishiki says he just drove until they got to a dead end he doesn't know where they are they get out and he gives kitty you a smoke he tells him to enjoy because it's going to be his last at this point nishiki pulls a gun on kitio he explains that even though he doesn't want to kill his sworn brother he wants this to end [Music] he doesn't want to see kitty you have to face a torturous slow death at the hands of the dojima kitty was not shaken by this he tells nishki to do it and apologizes for getting him involved in everything he asks only one thing that nishiki takes his head and turns it in for the promotion so he can at least get something out of this nishiki breaks down at this point he can't kill his best friend and sworn brother he just doesn't have the strength to pull the trigger kitty who tells him to stop getting involved or the dojima will be after him as well and he takes the car leaving nishiki in the woods this scene is probably one of the best in the entire series it builds on both characters so much in such a short amount of time it makes us realize that nishiki was almost willing to kill his brother to put him out of his misery but even then he couldn't do it he couldn't rationalize the orders that the dojima family gave him it also cements how kitty who deals with problems resolve in the face of danger it begs the same question that we asked way back in the first yakuza game when kitty was confronted by majima did he know that nishiki wouldn't pull the trigger is he just that good at reading people or did he just not care if he died not only all that but it's incredibly emotional seeing nishiki break down and all of this raw emotion coming out of him clearly not able to keep level headed in the situation after this we jump to majima again he's brought makoto to a safe house owned by yamagata makoto doesn't have any information on the man that lee is looking for the one with the bat tattoo we have to track down lee at this point and get some information from a chinese man who shows up at the chiropractor's office he leads majima to a mahjong parlor where he finds lee already patched up he's decided that majima must not be his enemy because otherwise he would have harmed makoto by now and would not have sought him out lee tells majima about the man with the bat tattoo apparently he is the one who is responsible for her blindness she was sold off to the korean mafia and she was made a slave this gave her post-traumatic blindness he rescued her and has been searching for the man ever since but it seems he has nothing to do with the hit that was recently put out on her lee has some sort of plan to prevent majima from having to kill makoto but he won't tell majima the details until he sets everything up when majima gets back to the warehouse he tries to relate to makoto telling her about how he got his eye taken from him makoto becomes somber after thinking about the experiences she went through and majima goes out to get her one of her favorite foods takoyaki as the two are eating their food majima asks about makoto's watch it doesn't make much sense that she'd wear one but she tells him it reminds her of her life before she was blind it has a music box inside but it's broken she decides to leave it behind and majima picks it up without her knowing majima has to head to work and before he leaves he asks makoto if she knows someone named sagawa but she doesn't on his way to work he meets a man outside of another cabaret club in town and this leads into majima's large mini-game the cabaret club which i'll detail in the distractions section after his shift the chinese doctor from earlier meets him outside he tells majima that lee wants to meet with him lee and majima discuss the fact that sagawa has people tailing him lee doesn't want to give away makoto's location so he lets majima use a hidden tunnel in his clinic the three of them meet back at the warehouse and they get ready to discuss the plan makoto nods off and lee says he spiked her drink so they could talk about the plan without her knowing weird lee has apparently found a woman that looks just like makoto and he suggests that majima kill her afterwards lee will remove all evidence of her identity and will id her as makoto majima doesn't agree with the plan one bit lee used to be an assassin for a chinese mafia type group during his last few jobs with them he met makoto and she reminded him of his daughter who also went blind from medication she was taking for an illness she's gone now but lee is willing to do anything to keep makoto alive lee tries to convince majima of the plan ensuring him that the woman is a terrible person that marries men for money and gets them killed so she gets the inheritance because the two don't agree they battle it out lee is a pretty tough opponent with a ton of health i should also point out here that he looks suspiciously like saijima same jacket and everything don't worry i'm not hinting at any big reveal he just looks like him lee uses some strong attacks but dodging and getting well-timed combos in makes this fight pretty easy lee begs majima to help him after he defeats him he tells him that this is the only way he can save his own life majima takes the uniform that lee planned to dress the body double in and denies lee's request again outside he throws it in the trash and someone comes along looking through the items lee is looking for majima the next day and he heads to his clinic we learn that the body double was found dead with the uniform that majima threw away last night majima says he didn't do it so someone else must have known of their plan and of makoto's fate just then majima gets a call from the man who did it he's waiting for majima at the grand looking for a trade majima heads to the grand and finds the killer to be nishitani head of the kijin clan nishitani's trade consists of majima giving makoto to him as reward for dealing with the body double he says he won't kill her he just wants to talk but majima doesn't believe him he wants to fight majima but majima can't hit a customer so nishitani calls the police and tells them he's robbing the place nishitani is an extremely odd fight his movements are even more obscure and strange than majimas the oddest thing that he does is fake being downed and crawl backwards across the ground when we get close to him slicing his way across the floor he's really different and this makes him hard to predict so it can be a challenging fight he doesn't give any information even after we defeat him he says he'll see majima another time before being taken away by the police sagawa is waiting for majima in his office and has some questions for the man he wants to know why he didn't contact him after he killed makoto and why her face was brutalized majima says that he doesn't even remember doing the deed and forgot to call sagawa also wants to know why nishitani and omi alliance upper yakuza was at the club majima chalks this up to a drunken brawl sagawa trusts all of these answers and leaves to go speak with shimano about getting majima reinstated majima is nervous that sagawa will figure out the ruse that's been put on so he needs to get makoto out of the city on his way back to meet lee the chinese doctor asks him to take some painkillers to the man back at the warehouse makoto is finally fed up with being in the dark she wants to know what's going on and why yakuza are after her majima tells her about nishitani and the omi alliance that are trying to get her majima thinks sagawa has already figured out that the body wasn't makoto and tells the two to get out of sotenbori even if the omi track them to different places he promises he'll help them out in any way he can as they're about to leave the chinese doctor enters and tells lee that he has decided to follow the advice he gave him since it's difficult for chinese people to thrive in japan they have to pick money over loyalty the man has sold them out and sagawa's men pour in the doctor is promptly silenced and we have to take down the brutes they need to get out of the city but lee decides to stay back and make sure that the doctor survives we have to meet lee back at the clinic where he has a van that will get them out of town we have another section of trying to get through the city with makoto behind us hiding from all of the yakuza that we can once we arrive at the clinic the van is in sight but just as lee starts the ignition the vehicle explodes lee is killed in the blast and majima is injured sagawa emerges from the smoke and approaches majima gun in hand ready to end him he says he was actually going to talk to shimano this time but since majima betrayed him he's dead before he can do it he's shot by someone the man that would become the third chairman of the tojo clan he disarms sera and before majima can get any answers he knocks him out cold we jump back to kitiyu and his apartment has been destroyed by the tojo clan still hunting him kitty was in a rough spot he has nowhere to go at this point he could go to the kazuma family offices but he doesn't want to get kashiwagi in trouble he's just wandering the streets at this point hoping not to get caught eventually he gets into a fight with a drunk man who's cut him with a bottle he's sitting in the park and reyna comes along noticing his wound she's incredibly concerned for him and she invites him to come back to sedena he doesn't want to involve her in the situation but she knows how much kitty you means to nishki and she can't just let him sit outside back at sedna reina wants to know if nishiki is okay she saw him outside the kazuma family offices earlier and he looked very upset kitty you tells her that he cut ties with him for now so that he can be safe reina says a detective came looking for him at the bar and kitio explains the whole situation to her the dojima family enters the bar and we have to battle them they anticipated that he would use the bar as a hideout and kiriyu truly isn't safe anywhere reyna wants to call the police but kiriu doesn't think that would stop the dojima family from trying to kill him before he leaves he gives her the watch from kazuma telling her to give it to nishki he wants her to pass on a message that he can't go trying to avenge kitiu if he dies when kittyu makes it outside we're faced with the three lieutenants again kuze wants to end this here and now killing kid you for good we have to battle him again this time with some goons and an upgrade in that of a pair of steel fists he's a little tougher in this third fight but not too much when we're focusing on the goons he can be really annoying as it's very easy for him to catch us off guard but when we focus him the battle becomes incredibly simple and he gets backed into a corner kuze begins to beat kitty you and raises a bat over his head before he can deal the killing blow tachibana comes through and hits kuze with a car rescuing kitty you in the process tachibana takes kityu to an underground parking lot to hide out while the heat dies down apparently with the dojima family out in force it's been hard for him to give orders to others this is why he had to go hands-on in rescuing kitiu just now the scene is really important and builds kittyu's character incredibly well it also focuses on the juxtaposition between him and tachibana kittyu says that he hasn't realized it till now but he's been relying on everyone else around him to save him tachibana nishiki even reina if he didn't have these people around he wouldn't have even made it this far this makes him feel two things one he's reliant on others which he doesn't seem comfortable with because he doesn't want to bring other people into this mess he also feels like a burden in general and not strong enough to survive on his own this first realization in kitty use history would make for him realizing that he's stronger with others around him which would clearly be an instrumental part of him surviving through future ordeals tachibana has a completely different outlook on this situation he thinks that you should use everyone around you as much as you possibly can it's the only way to get ahead in life and he learned this from his rough childhood tachibana reflects that this way of looking at things has made him use people and in turn they use him this doesn't exactly create friends for him but with kittyu's outlook he has friends and a support network people around him that care enough to put their lives on the line for him tachibana eventually grows ill during the conversation and oda comes to rescue them taking them to a place that the dojima can't find them tachibana is in the hospital and oda explains the situation tachibana and hee are chinese nationals hiding out in japan a few years ago tachibana was attacked in the streets and lost his arm because of how much blood he lost he had kidney failure and has to have steady dialysis to mitigate it this complicates things for them and makes it harder to battle the dojima family and gain control of the empty lot before oda takes kitiu out of the room kitiyu notices a bat tattoo on tachibana's arm at this point oda takes kitiyu to little asia which has made a return in this entry we meet elder chen the leader of little asia oda tries to get him to let kitty you stay there but he doesn't want a dojima family member on their premises the two have been at odds for years because of the dojima stealing turf from them and killing their men tachibana recommends that kitty you stay in the west park homeless camp as the dojima most likely won't look for him there kitty defends the camp from some thugs trying to hunt the homeless men in the park oda picks kitty you up the next morning and explains that they're heading to the tojo hq tachibana is already there trying to negotiate terms for letting off the hunt for kitiyu inside tachibana is talking to nihada the current interim chairman of the tojo clan he respects kiriyu because he reminds him of kazuma when he was younger but he doesn't think that he should let tachibana interfere in dojima family business tachibana argues that dojima getting more power than he already has would make him a prime candidate for the seat of third chairman and he wouldn't be respectful to the elders of the clan at all tachibana finally offers nihada 1 billion yen plus 50 percent if kitiu is insured safety and a thirty percent cut of all of tachibana's profits moving forward nihara is shocked and asks if kitiyu is worth that much tachibana replies that you can't put a price tag on a good friend nihada accepts and agrees to call off the hunt and when the group is leaving he tells kitty you that he reminds him of the uncompromising and strong cosma of his youth he would easily pay a billion yen to have the best yakuza he's ever seen back mihada wants to test their strength as they leave and sends a group of tojo men after them this isn't a betrayal he just wants to see if they have what it takes to be worth it we have to fight our way through the tojo grounds with tachibana and oda battling at our side we get to use some pretty cool teammate heat actions and eventually make it through the place nihada watches them leave and finally sees why kazuma is so interested in kitty the group hides out at the tokyo pier for the moment being the dojima family is already watching them though and they have orders to not touch kiriu shibasawa says he saw all of this coming and is one step ahead promising to succeed in the failure of his fellow lieutenants and secure the empty lot the group knows that shibusawa has found the owner of the empty lot so they have to hurry to sotenbori kittyu tries to find out why the empty lot is so important to tachibana but he doesn't want to give that information up yet they head back to kamurocho so kitty you can get his affairs in order before heading to sotenbori back in little asia oda and kitiu are prepping to leave and tachibana promises to tell kitty you why the lot is so special to him when he gets back for now he reveals who owns the empty lot a girl named makimota makoto we jump back to majima at this point and we see sera carrying away makoto sagawa has captured majima and is torturing him sagawa plans to kill him for his betrayal but he needs majima for now to find the man that took makoto majima doesn't know who the man was and sagawa reveals that he doesn't even know why majima was supposed to kill makoto in the first place the order came from shimano himself and he never gave him an explanation majima notes that the man in the white suit took makoto unharmed and because of this may be in league with nishitani sagawa sends majima to the kijin family offices to look for clues that nishitani left behind before he leaves he tells him not to betray him again or it'll mean his death for sure this time at the kijin family office the yakuza aren't giving up any information we of course have to beat it out of them but they still don't know anything they don't know why nishitani wanted the girl or who the man in the white suit is they tell him to try and find billiken a corrupt police detective that the family has in their pocket he might be able to arrange a talk with nishitani billiken isn't willing to take majima to nishitani as he's his enemy but maybe after they get to know each other a bit he can be paid to do so he takes him aboard a pleasure barge and gives us nishitani's origins billiken adopted nishitani when he was young and he had already killed someone by the time he was in high school he was born to be a yakuza billiken takes majima through an underground elevator and eventually into the river styx the place was built during the war but they've since become the location of the new underground fighting ring billiken has started the ring himself he takes criminals that are incredibly powerful and has them fight in the ring if they can survive as fighters for one year they can go free no one has earned this reward yet he wants majima to fight three matches in the ring to prove himself and if he does he'll take him to nishitani our first battle is against the yakuza joker i'm the joker baby who's a pretty weak opponent the second is against dr kirihito who's even weaker and the third against dead puncher who just has a ton of health billiken agrees to fulfill his end of the bargain but tells majima that nishiki killed a kid in high school as revenge for him billiken's daughter was murdered at a young age by a minor who was given no consequences because he couldn't be tried nishitani got revenge for the man by killing the minor and eventually became a higher up yakuza inside the prison nishitani is being treated well it's revealed that he really went to jail to get away from sagawa and make sure he wasn't killed since he owns a lot of the cops he has it pretty comfy in here he might know who the man in the white suit is but he definitely knows he isn't a friend he thinks a third party is interested in taking makoto but before he gives more information he wants a good battle for majuma we have to fight nishitani in his cell which is pretty similar to before he has a bunch more health now but it's mostly the same battle nishitani thinks the nikkio consortium kidnapped makoto they are a gray ops company that's employed by the tojo he thinks the man in the white suit is masado sera and spoiler alert he's right if you played the first yakuza game then this would be clear as he's already the chairman of the tojo at that time the whole thing is complicated because nishitani was getting his orders from the dojima family specifically shibusawa majimo was getting his orders from shimano and now the nikkio consortium has also been hired to get the girl this means that three different factions of the tojo are looking for her and these two aren't sure why nishitani and majima decide to team up and head to the consortium hopefully being able to backstab shimano and sagawa in the end majima truly cares about this girl and decides that all he wants in the end is to give her a good life nishitani relates to this and tells him that the nikkio are hiding out at the benton inn majima tells nishitani that he's not going to give makoto to him when they find her and nishitani says they'll figure that out when the time comes when they step out of the cell which wasn't locked in the first place a tojoklan member arrives shooting nishitani nishitani ends up sacrificing himself so that majima can get away and goes out guns blazing majima is chided upon returning to sotenbori by sagawa he doesn't like that he left and kidnaps him for it he tells sagawa everything that nishitani told him and sagawa replies that they'll be going to find the nikkio consortium the two arrive at camellia grove a place of true vice and villainy the two split up to cover more ground and we have to make our way through the place it's an odd environment for sure we're going up against masked thugs and even some wearing kimonos but the whole place is extremely stylized and makes for a great battleground at the top of the building sarah is waiting for majima sarah doesn't want to kill majima and he doesn't even truly consider him to be an enemy he understands now why he was considered one of the best of shimano's family sarah doesn't want them to be enemies but he tells majima that makoto has already been handed off to someone else to keep her safe majima just wants to protect the girl but before seda reveals where she is and why she's important he wants majima to prove himself further seda is one of the more difficult battles in the game which to be honest really isn't saying much he's a slick fighter he's smooth and calculated he doesn't deal in any of the flashy nonsense that others do he moves distinctly but that doesn't mean he's weak his punches are powerful and deal a ton of damage eventually we take him down and set adeem's majima worthy of protecting makoto he reveals that makoto is under the protection of someone in kamurocho the head of a real estate firm presumably tachibana she was gifted the empty lot in a will and everyone in the tojo clan is gunning for the piece of land because it will bring them great power and influence sera ensures majima that makoto is safe he doesn't want to harm makoto and neither do his partners majima wants to know where she is and setter gives him a gun he says that if he really doesn't trust him he can shoot sarah and take the business card with her location majima decides to put his trust in seda but vows to kill him if the girl is harmed seda wants majima to stay in sultan body with sagawa while the girl is hidden but zagawa shoots him from behind he takes the business card and gives it to majima he sees the tachibana real estate name and the name of the agent on the card kazuma kitty sagawa now wants the two to head to kamurocho and find the agent who has makoto we jump back to kittyu once more shortly before the events we just saw in majima's chapter oda is going to talk with some of his old contacts and kid you is supposed to head to the cal videos and wait for a call from seda to arrange the handover of makoto while waiting for the call the clerk reveals that he was part of oda and tachibana's small gang back in the day apparently the gang was run by oda butachibana and him butted heads over the leadership tachibana used to be a real powerhouse back in the day before he lost his arm and oda was so impressed with his strength that he begged the man to lead them tachibana was the son of a japanese war orphan in china and was bullied as a child because of this he found family in the chinese mafia and was bred to be involved in the criminal lifestyle from a very young age oda shows up during their conversation and tells the clerk to return to the front of the store oda says the tale was a bit of a tall one that he didn't exactly admire tachibana as much as the clerk said apparently they've learned of the makoto body double that was found dead and the omi and shibusawa's men are out in full force looking for her oda takes over phone duty and tells kitty you to kill some time once kitty returns oda says the plan is ready they are headed to camellia grove to get makoto she's been informed that she owns the empty lot and of the lot's significance she wasn't aware of the will apparently her grandfather died and gave it to her but she was on the run at the time and no one could contact her as soon as they get makoto they have to get her to a safe place as fast as possible and oda makes it clear that he will prioritize her safety over everything else kitty who finally meets sera and he wants to make the meeting quick as they don't have much time sera introduces makoto to kitio makoto is still very afraid at this point she didn't even realize her grandfather had died until today and she just wants to get rid of the empty lot as fast as possible seda sends the two back to oda so they can get her to kamarocho as fast as possible when the two find oda makoto freezes upon hearing his voice something is clearly off with the girl even when she gets inside the taxi oda gives an odd look to makoto and seems to know more than he's letting on the group is being tailed by shibusawa and we finally see the return of the on the rail shooting sections that the first couple games had i love these and they just pump up the action so much it ironically makes the game go off the rails in the best way possible especially shooting down a helicopter from the sky they ditch the car and head to a construction site to hide out for a bit oda seems to be losing his cool wondering how shibusawa got their location makoto is getting scared and oda goes to hit her but kitty u steps in he heads downstairs to get his bearings and makoto has something to say about oda she says she already knows the man and oda interrupts them with a gun oda grabs makoto a gun aimed at her head and says he plans to kill the both of them because he can't let tachibana have her makoto stabs oda with a hidden knife and kitiyu disarms him makoto asks kitty you to check if oda has a bat tattoo on his arm and oda confirms it makoto reveals that oda was the one who abducted her and sold her two years ago oda reveals that the tattoo was a symbol of his gang and every member had one he came to japan five years ago and was selling young women into slavery including makoto when he'd met tachibana he wanted the man to lead them so he could make his gang legit when tachibana lost his arm oda felt responsible and never wanted to betray him again eventually the two were watching tv and saw makoto on the news during a section about chinese war orphans with japanese parents it was at that time that oda realized that this was tachibana's sister oda was trying to kill makoto so that he didn't have to come clean to tachibana shibusawa's men have found the group and oda decides to sacrifice himself so they can get away his last request is that kitty you tell tachibana of his sins and that he loves him kitty who escapes with makoto and we have to battle our way through a construction site the lights and set pieces here are so cool especially fighting off the man with a buzz saw and many different interesting and unique ways it's also flashy and really reminds me of a high octane 80s action flick we see oda bleeding out and shibusawa approaching him realizing that they were in talks previously oda doesn't reveal where the girl went and is killed for it makoto and kidyu are in a hotel room and have a conversation about what she remembers of tachibana he left when she was 10 and headed to japan her mother discovered that they had relatives in japan and moved there her mother ended up taking her own life and makoto fell out of place in the world she ran away from her grandfather's to find some semblance of family and home tachibana this is how she eventually stumbled upon oda and was sold into slavery makoto breaks down at this point she's lost in the world not only figuratively but literally she's blind and on top of that she's going through the worst possible situations everyone around her is dying or betraying her she wants to give up but kitty you provide some words to rouse her spirit he understands how hard it can be to rely on everyone around you and how it can be difficult to look forward when the future seems so dark but there's only two options to move forward or stand still and cry it's her choice but he vows to help her get there if she wants this motivates her and she decides to go to kamarocho to find her brother kitu and makoto head back to kamarocho but kitty you can't get in contact with tachibana kitty has makoto stay with the homeless man he met in west park to keep her in a place that the people hunting her won't look for he goes to little asia to find tachibana who has grown more ill since odo left him he tells him that he's found his sister tachibana apologizes for not telling kid you about their relationship but he planned to once everything had settled down kitty tells him of oda's fate and tachibana regrets leaving for japan when he was younger it has clearly caused chaos among everyone he knows tachibana reflects on his life and says that since he was half chinese half japanese he never felt at home anywhere he had to build a shell to protect him from both sides and become strong to combat everyone tachibana tells him about the empty lot and the will he eventually realized that the dojima family had their sights on the lot and he knew this would put his sister in the crosshairs of the yakuza he eventually tried to approach the tojo in an attempt to make a deal for the safety of his sister kazuma was willing to help him and realized how bad this could be if dojima got power he was the one originally behind tachibana real estate and wanted tachibana to have a better legal claim to the land backed behind a legitimate firm tachibana breaks at this point finally realizing that his sister has been looking for him all this time and he finally has someone out there he can call family he begs kitty you to take him to her just then dojima men storm little asia they're coming to kill tachibana and a group of them burst into the room we defeat the group of men and the two leave the building when they're trying to leave kitty was shot and almost killed by an assassin tachibana knows the man a famed chinese assassin named lao gui who was most likely the one behind the murder at the empty lot he doesn't want to kill tachibana just take him in tachibana decides that they cannot fight the man in their current condition he grabs a shard of glass and tells kitty you to go look for makoto he tells lao gui that he will end his life if the man kills anyone else and he can take him in if he promises not to take any more innocent lives kitty who passes out from the wound and wakes up in little asia chen tells him that in the three hours that he's been out the dojima have had tachibana in their hands he believes shibusawa was biding his time and letting kidu and tachibana do the heavy lifting of finding makoto so he could swoop in chen has men out looking for him right now but they haven't found him yet chen has grown close to tachibana and actually plans to name him his successor so he has stake in tachibana living chen found this history of makoto and tachibana's grandfather genzo makimota he apparently owned a lot of land in kamarocho and sold a lot of it off to different buyers in bundles he kept the empty lot as a way for his daughter that he had lost to contact him chen relinquishes his hate for the yakuza to help kid you because he thinks he'll be able to help tachibana in the end outside of little asia dojima men are waiting for him nishiki appears and tells him he doesn't have long before tachibana talks because he's being tortured for the information nishiki doesn't know where tachibana is and says he couldn't tell kiriyu even if he did the goons leaders tell nishiki to kill kiriyu and he turns on them nishiki doesn't care about the yakuza anymore not if it means he has to get better positions without kidding you by his side nishiki joins kittyu and the two battle the goons together shirtless like yakuza do nishiki and kitiyu have to get to west park to retrieve makoto kittyu fills makoto in on everything that happened and apologizes for letting her brother slip through his fingers he promises to make sure that tachibana is safe chen contacts kiriyu and he says that he's found tachibana in the crescendo building kittyu fills nishki in and he relates to tachibana for a moment he says he too has a younger sister and would do anything to protect her a huge foreboding for his future we see tachibana being tortured in the basement of the building and he's not giving up any information kitty you anishki managed to burst in just in time we fight kuze one final [ __ ] time and he's pretty easy here with nishiki at our side he can't do much to combat us the two weren't fast enough though because by the time they get to tachibana he's already fading kitty who has nishki rush off to get makoto but tachibana can't hold on much longer before he dies he tells kiriyu that dojima was the one controlling everything all along he employed lao gui he was trying to get kazuma expelled and framed kid you kitty who promises to protect makoto and tachibana dies in his arms is awake now and apologizes he was just following orders apparently the situation has grown even worse because a traitor in the tojo clan is trying to sell the land to the omi alliance thus giving them a major foothold on tojo territory kittyu doesn't care at all and tells koozai as much [Music] as kitty who leaves the room with tachibana he has finally earned kuze's respect kitty who takes his body to the empty lot and nishki arrives with makoto kitty you can't speak as makoto tries to find her brother and eventually realizes that he's dead this whole scene is just so tragic it's dripping with sorrow and pain makoto has been through so much only for her brother to die moments before she arrived we jump back to majima again in kamurocho looking for makoto majima tells sagawa that he hasn't found any leads sagawa can't help him because he's omi and can't officially do business on tojo turf majimo wonders why they can't ask shimano for help but sagawa says he can't show weakness to the man not just because of pride but because finding makoto is part of a deal between the omi and the tojo we realize that the traitor of the tojo is shimano himself who's planning to sell the land to the omi for 10 billion yen and make a bid for the seat of chairman sagawa is to become the leader of the omi area in kamarocho when the deal goes through he isn't exactly sure why shimano wants to kill makoto but he trusts that shimano has it all figured out sagawa tells majima to head to the champion district to search for tachibana men in the district the locals tell him the tachibana men stopped appearing a few days ago without warning outside of the champion district some shimano men want to bring majima in they find his presence in the city suspicious especially since he hasn't gotten permission from shimano to be walking around after he beats up the goons another group show up and apologize for their colleague's behavior they officially extend an invitation from shimano to join him for a meeting majima obliges and he meets his former boss sagawa shows up after some awkward conversation between shimano and majima sagawa finally spills the beans and tells him that they lost the girl shimano says this is all according to plan and he says he knew majima could never go through with killing makoto he wanted makoto kept safe and he knew exactly what majima would do shimano remarks that the worst case scenario he can imagine is dojima getting makoto because he will become chairman and it would mean bad things for them in the end he's using majima to fight a proxy war against dojima because he can't outright defy him shimano banked on makoto falling in love with and trusting majima by getting her to trust majima she would be able to escape with him and lay low this would then bring out other groups looking for her so he could identify his enemies shimano reveals that sera is alive sagawa didn't kill him shimano tells majima he doesn't want makoto dead he wants him to get her back and bring her to him he's going to buy the land off of her and majimo will be reinstated to the tojo he then tells the two to track down nishiki as he might know where makoto is sagawa is happy with the outcome of the conversation and thinks majima should be too but he isn't majima is depressed in the streets at this point in the story he has no idea what to do and he feels helpless not only that but he's been used as a pawn this entire time every move he made was expected and he played right into their hands betrayed by his former boss yet again some punks attack majima in the streets and he lets them he feels so bad about himself at this point that he thinks he deserves the punishment majima goes to the kazuma family offices resigned to his fate at this point kashiwagi is there and refuses to give up either nishiki or kidu he doesn't want to fight majima in the office so they head to the roof kashiwagi delivers the most badass line saying that the janitorial staff is excellent and can clean up his body in no time kashiwagi is excited to fight majima and we do battle with him kashiwagi is a strong fighter but he's no match for majima he delivers some powerful blows but he's easily dodged and doesn't course correct very often kashiwagi is unconscious from the battle and after threatening him a low-rank member of the kazuma family tells him that nishiki is at sedna majima doesn't know what nishiki looks like and upon entering the bar doesn't recognize him nishiki gets up to leave but stops when he hears majima asking for him the two have a conversation nishiki having heard of majima's expulsion years ago majima says he needs to find makoto so that he can protect her nishiki reaches for a gun but majima knocks it out of his hands the two end up battling neither wanting to budge nishiki really isn't tough at all and using the slugger style works perfectly to lock him up in combos nishiki is defeated and still won't give any answers reina finally steps in to protect nishiki and tells majima that makoto went missing kitty younishki are looking for her after she disappeared following her brother's death nishiki fills him in on the situation with tachibana and makoto apparently after tachibana died kitiyunishki went to west park with makoto but she ran off and they lost her nishiki asks majima if he really wants to protect her and he says that he does nishiki finally asks if majima will help them look for her and majima promptly leaves majima heads to the empty lot to look for clues and finds makoto standing on the roof of a building he finds her and she turns around looking right at him apparently having gotten her sight back makoto elaborates and says that her vision is still hazy but she can sort of make things out she can walk around on her own now when she touched her brother's body something finally came back and she could see light for the first time in years she clearly is angry and is seeking payment for her brother's death majima tries to convince her to sell the land to shimano so she can be safe and this whole thing can be over with he even offers to accompany her through the whole thing so she doesn't get hurt dojima and his lieutenants are responsible and she wants vengeance no matter what makoto tries to leave and says she doesn't need him and quickly falls to the ground majima tries to help her but she's insistent that she doesn't want help finally majima asks if she wants takoyaki they can talk over food and if she still doesn't want him to help he'll be gone when they get food we realize something is brewing between the two the takoyaki chef says majima must be a keeper when he removes a leaf from makoto's head majima tries to explain that they aren't together but makoto doesn't mind and says that he's great and she wouldn't be here without him makoto won't tell majima how she plans to get revenge but majima is still trying to get her to reconsider majima leaves to get makoto more takoyaki and when he gets back she's gone she gave a message to a homeless man that she would meet majima tomorrow on the roof overlooking the empty lot when he arrives there the next day makoto doesn't show up and some shibusawa men come in her place majima learns that they were the ones who killed nishitani the men say that makoto handed herself over to shibusawa so she could strike a deal with him for the land she put herself in danger so that majima would have to come save her we trashed the huge pile of goons and the leader reveals that makoto is on the roof of the sebastian building in roppongi majima heads there and we see dojima kuze awano and lao gui arriving to meet with makoto shibusawa is to be made captain soon for bringing him the girl makoto says that she doesn't want money for the lot she wants the heads of his lieutenants as they murdered her brother majima arrives at that moment swinging his way through more groups of goons when majima reaches the terrace he calls out to makoto and she turns around only to be shot by lao gui majima can only watch as the men fly away from the building as he's quickly surrounded by guards we have to fight another massive group of guards majima now shirtless makoto comes to and apologizes for making things worse she tells him that before he got there dojima explained that he bought all the land around the lot in hopes to build on it the kamarocho revitalization project going off without a hitch but no one even knows of the lot's existence and unless a complaint is lodged he can build anything he wants there it turns out that the only person that can lodge a complaint is makoto herself and lao gui raised his gun makoto starts to fade at this point and majima's begging for anyone to help but no one is there until seda shows up to save the day he has his men take makoto away and get her medical care majima tells makoto to hang on and begs her not to die at this point we finally reach the finale chapter of the game where everything is wrapped up and our story can come to its full resolution after hours of waiting majima gets the news that makoto is stable but in a coma she doesn't know when makoto will wake up she also reveals that she's part of the consortium sarah says that they will be taking makoto to a safe guarded facility and asks majima to come along majima says that the only way he can help makoto is to get rid of the dojima family because they will always be after her no matter what dojima talks to his lieutenants and tells them that he's moving forward with the revitalization project he commends shibusawa on his work but there's still more to be done dojima says that kazuma is their last threat and they need to be rid of him shibusawa deems that they need to take out the entire kazuma family if they're ever going to be able to move on from his schemes we're back at the empty lot and nishiki tells kiddy you that there isn't any news on makoto he asks if he knows who goro majima is and kiriyu says that he's never met him but he knows the name nishiki tells him that he's looking for makoto as well and his goal is the same as theirs to keep her safe seda calls kitiyu and wants to meet up with him in little asia chen thanks kiriyu for trying to save tajibana but kitiu doesn't accept he's ridden with guilt and feels like it was his fault in the first place sera tells him everything that happened with makoto and that dojima still thinks she's dead kittyu asks if they can trust majima and seta thinks they can but he isn't sure of his next move seda tells kitty that shibusawa is a dangerous enemy and kittyu is probably at the top of his hit list right now on top of that the police are still looking for him in connection with the empty lot murder so he should lay low and get out of town seda says that if makoto wakes up the consortium will take the land off her hands this was kazuma's plan all along and if tachibana made it through he would have given the land over to seta just the same the original goal was to prevent dojima from taking power and pushing sera up the ranks into the seat of chairman kitty was shocked that he and kazuma had such a close relationship and seda says that kazuma is the reason he's gotten to where he is today seda tells kitty you that there's nothing left to do at this point but wait makoto is in a safe place a ship docked at tokyo bay nishiki intercepts kitiyu on his way out and tells him a group of shibusawa's men are at the kazuma family offices kitty who tells nishiki what's happened and asks him to warn kashiwagi that they're being hunted so he can get somewhere safe we deal with the tojo goons and head toward the kazuma offices kuze is in the street and wants to have a one-on-one with kitiyu now that he's shown he's a real yakuza a man to be respected kittyu doesn't want to fight kuze because he knows he's out for blood he knows that kuze will go all the way this time and he's not even going to look out for himself you thought the fourth fight was the last one i was just kidding dad kuze has a ton of health but heat actions in combination with the area's weapons make this a pretty easy actual final kuze fight kuze tells kiryu that he finally sees what kazuma must have seen in him a monster yakuza he'd better look out though because there's another who's fighting for that title shibusawa they gave orders to lao gui to not strike a fatal blow on makoto keeping her alive and giving them the ability to track the consortium now shibusawa is going to take out every single person that was associated with kazuma nishiki runs to get the car as shibusawa is about to raid the boat that makoto is on kuze warns kitiyu that he's about to find the dark side of the yakuza exactly what kazuma didn't want him to see kittyu finally salutes kuze and thanks him finding the respect for him somewhere deep down nishiki and kitty head to the docks to put an end to this majima finds the men that he let beat him up the day before this time he retaliates and this is the first true signs of the mad dog coming out sagawa finds majima and tries to get some answers out of him but majima is having none of it sagawa tries to stop majima and he threatens him with blood dripping from his voice as majima walks away heading for dojima himself sagawa tells him that he has the look of a mad dog in his eye and says to himself that the crazy bastard has finally broken his cage we see majima blasting his way into the dojima family hq and he's out for blood shibusawa is about to begin his attack on the ship holding makoto he gives the order and kiriyu anishki arrive nishiki isn't too confident that they can make this work but kitty you is shibusawa heads onto the boat with his men in full force just then kashiwagi arrives with a truck full of goons and there's a full out battle on the edge of the ship we have to battle our way up the ship making it through tons and tons of thugs along the way this part was really annoying for me to be honest there are a lot of gunmen interspersed throughout the thugs and they generally sit at the back getting shot takes a ton of your health away and it can be incredibly annoying getting shot over and over getting downed each time and not even having a chance to retaliate this makes you think you should just target the gunman first but even with rush style you can't avoid every single gunshot volleyed at you it's incredibly annoying and especially if there's two gunmen because when you're dealing with one you're getting shot by another kitiyu arrives at the bridge to find shibusawa has already got makoto in tow we jump back to majima and have to fight our way through the dojima family headquarters this section has a similar problem with the gunmen though not nearly as bad as the ship version the rooms are generally less open so we can get to the gunman quicker i will compliment the story design here and say that jumping back from each character during the finale is a fantastic choice it makes you feel like the events are happening simultaneously awano and majima face off in the waiting room of dojima's office majima doesn't respect iwano at all he's just a shield for someone more powerful than him but awano looks down on majima he's someone from a bygone era who doesn't realize that money is everything in the yakuza now awano says that he originally became a yakuza because he loved fighting but has gotten lost in the money recently majima tells him that's great because he'll get to die doing what he loves awana was pretty easy in general and majima's slugger style at this point in the game is really just op against bosses majima defeats iwano and tells him that he wished he never got caught up in the money because with the way he fights he could have made it to the top awano says that the yakuza has changed and with people like kazuma plodding and scheming he never had a chance majima wasn't always this headstrong but after meeting people like lee and nishitani he was inspired by their courage and they're the finest bastards he's ever met at this point lao gui comes out to shoot majima but awano takes all of the bullets and even a blade for the man he respects now dojima didn't expect majima in all of this and majima tells him that until both him and lau gui are dead makoto will never be free we have to fight lau gui here who is a lot tougher than awano just simply because of his weapons he first uses a pair of claws that do a lot of damage and then pulls out a sword and a gun he also moves pretty quickly and can take a ton of damage after his battle majima puts laoghui under relentless knees to the face dojima tries to shoot majima and misses sarah is there and shoots the gun from dojima's hand we jump back to kitty you at the bridge of the ship shibusawa wants to kill kittyu before he deals with makoto shibusawa wants glory and to get that he has to surpass kazuma he's going to kill kiriyu sera and makoto and get everything he needs shibusawa tells kidyu about his father a politician who was forced to take the fall for his boss's scandal and committed suicide he didn't want to be like his father and realized that power was everything in the world of the yakuza kitiyu says that kazuma is nothing like the politicians or shibusawa he built the dojima family up even working under a tyrant like dojima shibusawa blames kazuma for everything and tells kiriyu that he has just as much blood on his hands he was a hit man and when he started this entire war he brought civilians into yakuza business shibusawa plans to write his legacy in kittyu's blood and rips his shirt off revealing a green dragon tattoo he plans to become the dragon of dojima but kitty remarks there's only room for one dragon we have the final battle of yakuza 0 and shibusawa has a ton of health just as a final yakuza boss should his style is strange though because during each phase he will mimic a different style of kitty use the first is rush the second is beast and the third is his version of a brawler style during each stage i found it best to counter his style with the same and go blow for blow with the man shibusawa says that no matter what he intends to kill anyone who is in his way kiti realizes that he can't let shibu saw live shibusawa tells him to give in and finally kill him paving the way to be a true yakuza like kazuma kitty beats him bloody not stopping until he's tackled by nishiki nishiki begs kid you not to cross that line as there's no coming back nishiki tells kiriyu since they promised to cross that line together they'll stand side by side someday as they make that decision back at the dojima family offices majima intends to kill lau gui and dojima realizing that makoto will never be safe while they live sarah tells him not to do it as it would break makoto to realize that he had done that it would give her the same pain that majima felt when sajumo went away for killing the ueno siwa which they haven't realized yet was rubber bullets he almost kills lao but decides not to and asks seda what he should do seda reveals that makoto is alive and tells dojima he now owns the empty lot it's for sale but the asking price is 100 billion yen the dojima family's glory days are officially over seda needs lao gui alive as a bargaining chip to keep dojima in check his testimony could [ __ ] dojima and seta plans to keep him in custody and use him to blackmail dojima if need be seda promises that makoto will never be in harm's way again that majima succeeded in saving her before majima leaves seda gives him a gun and tells him to give a message to shimano to take responsibility for his betrayal of the tojo clan majima heads to shimano's office he tells tagawa on the outside that sera has the empty lot and their plan is over sagawa asks if majima is here to kill shimano and he doesn't respond sagawa thinks the two of them had some fun and majima heads into the office majima enters the office and shimano is meeting with one of the omi alliance heads to broker a deal for the land he thinks he's getting majima tells him that seda is looking for a traitor in the tojo and raises the gun at shimano seda needs proof of shimano's innocence and majima sets the gun next to shimano before saying that he's still a member of the clan shimano asks majima if he'd be willing to die for him majima says yes but that he has to tell sajima that he's sorry for what happened to him shimano turns the gun on the omi man and shoots him this works as proof of shimano's loyalty to the clan he tells majima that if he wants to get anywhere in the clan he has to be one step ahead shimano is looking to the future and thinks that in 10 years it will be shimano's turn to rule with majima at his side he's confident they'll get there we skip ahead a month and the tojo are having a meeting nihada apologizes to dojima for what's happened to his family awano is dead kuze and shibusawa are arrested and kazuma failed to grab the empty lot for them he announces then that seda will become the new chairman dojimo will be his guardian and seda will manage the kamarocho revitalization project kitty was meeting with kazuma in jail kitty who has to report something to kazuma and kazuma asks him if he has what it takes to carry this through kitty who thinks he does kittyu is at sedna later and nishiki asks him if he's joining back up with the dojima family gideo says yes even though kazuma protested wanting him to stay a civilian kitty who says that this might be a hard decision but it also might be the first step in making things right this whole ordeal made him realize how green he is and if he can walk forward without running he might be able to find out how to be a better man he wants to forge his own path now without following in kosuma's footsteps kitty who gets up and puts on his jacket revealing the classic look we all know nishiki doesn't think the look suits him but kitty doesn't care he doesn't want a black or white suit because these days he's feeling grey he's done with people telling him what is and isn't him he chose this himself and he's keeping it kitty you vows to make everything up to nishki paying him back someday the two finally head out for some food and get to enjoy their time together this is kind of a somber ending for kitty you because we know what will happen to these two friends but it can also be read as a happy ending because at least for now they can enjoy friendship spending their days dreaming of the future at least for a little bit majima is back in sultan bori finally with his signature look as well he says goodbye to segawa as he's back in the clan and he's heading to tokyo sagawa doesn't like his new look but majima has realized that no one is right or wrong so he might as well be the craziest sagawa tells him to contact him if he ever needs him and majima says jokingly that if he ever sees him again it would be too soon before he leaves he thanks sagawa he taught him bravery and the ability to survive after majima leaves the omi fall upon sagawa and kill him for his part in shimano's murdering of one of their top brass in kamarocho we see makoto walking down the street with her doctor they're being harassed by some men on the street makoto hits one of them and they let her doctor go makoto slaps them again when one of them tries to offer her some time at a hotel at this point majima arrives and makoto doesn't recognize him turns out these are majima's men and before they can reveal his identity he knocks them out majima stares at makoto realizing that she doesn't know who he is she must not be able to recognize him with his new look signifying that this transformation into the mad dog is an entirely new person majima doesn't say anything and the doctor returns with makoto sensei she says this man defended her majima takes the young man off to the side and asks if he's makoto's boyfriend but he says she's a patient of his the man reveals that he's in love with makoto and that she's recently regained her eyesight he tells the man to confess his feelings for makoto and take care of her majima walks away and makoto's suitor returns to her makoto says that the man had a sad look in his eye and the young doctor takes makoto off to tell her his real feelings she looks off in the distance as majima walks away after the credits roll makoto is back at the empty lot bringing flowers for her brother she thanks everyone that helped her in the process but she never got to learn the one man's name she wishes that she could have told him how much he meant to her in the pile of dirt from the ground she hears a song and begins to dig inside she finds her watch repaired she breaks down and thanks the mystery man for bringing it back to her the last scene of the game sees kitiu and majima walking down the same street the two men who have never officially met only heard of each other in passing finally meeting face to face and majima introduces himself with his famous phrase and his new style fully cemented you [Music] these two characters becoming exactly who they're supposed to be yakuza zero's story is such a fantastic prequel as we talked about before it's an incredibly hard move to pull off without seeming like a cash grab a story taking place before an established series can easily become a can of references and callbacks to please the fans but yakuza 0 isn't that it manages to stay faithful to the series all while creating an interesting and intense story at the same time developing the characters that we know and love even further kitty you at the start of the story is just trying to do what's right by kazuma trying to be someone else he's taking orders and fulfilling his duty trying to get by and rise in the ranks he realizes by the end that that's not him he needs to do what he feels is right if he's ever going to make a name for himself in the yakuza or kamurocho itself setting up the man who would become the dragon of dojima majima's story is just as interesting he started off a neutered dog one that's trapped in a cage this cage was made for him through betrayal and circumstance and he's following orders all the same he's playing fetch sitting when told just so he can get back in the good graces of the tojo clan throughout the story though he's broken the leash is torn off and the mad dog is free to roam the last thing tethering him to the real world was makoto and this yearning longing for something real some affection for this woman he truly cared for and wanted when he realized that she didn't even recognize him he had a choice he could either remind her who he was or take his leave and spare makoto from any more pain and strife he chose the latter and decided to fully descend into the madness that this world presents yakuza 0 is a fantastic entry point for new fans and isn't riddled with references that won't make any sense to fans who haven't played the previous games it's made for new fans there's definitely little moments of foreshadowing and some things that call forward to the series that's to come but those are just the cherry on top and they're few and far between before we can get to the distraction section of the video we need to go back and cover something that i purposefully didn't talk about in the kiwami 2 video if you haven't seen that video i'll give you a brief rundown there's a small extra story in that game called the majima saga that tries to bridge the first two games in the series from majima's perspective there's a pivotal moment in the last chapter where majima meets back up with makoto and i want to go over that briefly here as i left it out of my yakuza 2 video because it had huge spoilers for yakuza 0. when majima arrives at the massage parlor he realizes that makoto is there he gets a massage from her but tries not to speak at all as he doesn't want her to recognize his voice she still has her watch and replaces the straps when they wear out but the new colors don't match she tells majima where she got it from she says she never got to thank the man that saved her and that's why she's at the clinic because she hopes one day he'll show up and she can close that chapter of her life other than that though she's mostly moved on she's married with a family now before he leaves he thanks makoto for getting rid of 18 years of knots he thanks the receptionist for makoto's service the receptionist says she's the best they have but she's leaving soon she got a job overseas and has one more week before she heads there at the end of the maji masaga makoto is heading on a plane and finds a gift box that was given to her on her last day it's new straps for her watch that fit the style exact replicas of the old ones she had she realizes that the only person that would have known what those straps looked like would have had to have been the man that saved her the whole thing hits her at once and she figures out that majima was the same man the last we see of her is her husband asking if she's okay and she says that she has no regrets going forward makoto finally gets to move on and have peace in her new family and majima does as well knowing that she's safe and has found happiness the makoto majima story will forever be one of the most tragic and heartfelt stories the yakuza series tells majima wasn't made for a relationship that's for sure and it isn't even practical at this point to ask him to give up his life as the mad dog for a woman because it wouldn't even suit him but just to see him break throughout the course of this game and eventually have to descend into what he is today all because of what he went through is so rough on the other side though majuma wouldn't be who he is today had none of that happened we wouldn't get the mad dog that we know and love his strong bond with saijima his half friendship half rivalry with kitiyu it's all part of what makes this series so great it's about time in the video that we talk about yakuza's distractions and yakuza zeroes are top notch each yakuza game has a ton of side content to make your way through all of them serving up their unique brand of fun and interesting mini-games or stories to explore this section of the video is where i detail all of them and my experience with each with yakuza 0 we're back to the two large mini-games per entry system i'd like to get the cabaret club one out of the way first to be honest there isn't much to say here that i haven't said about the cabaret club mini-game and yakuza kiwami 2. it functions basically the same because that mini-game was based on this one and made quite a few improvements this one is honestly just a slightly downgraded version of the kiwami 2 minigame in my opinion we manage a cabaret club as majima and try to generate as much income as possible eventually battling other clubs along the way it's great and is almost just as fun as the other version the other large mini game in yakuza 0 is the real estate management this is kittyu's large side story and focuses on trying to revitalize the real estate business that's introduced in one of his earlier chapters the basic framework is that we have to take on five different districts with each one controlled by one of the five billionaires the leisure king electronics king pleasure king gambling king and the media king there's another one behind it all the finance king that we face at the end the way we go about this is simple though we have to buy up properties in a district to increase our share of that district each of these properties generate revenue through collections and we can use advisors to improve individual properties causing them to generate more revenue and increasing our share of the district at certain intervals of share namely thirty percent sixty percent and ninety percent we will trigger events with the billionaires that control that district eventually we will have to battle them one-on-one and defeat them to take control of the entire district there's some intricacies here though like employees for example there are some advisors that are better at improving businesses than others these can be obtained mostly through sub-stories and having a good staff on hand is a must we can also assign a manager and security officer to each district the manager's skills will determine how much of a profit the area generates and the security officer will determine how hard it is for the billionaire to retake control of the district every once in a while the king of the district will enter us into a money battle and we have to throw money at our officer to get them to protect our businesses if we don't we lose a bit of our share and have to regain it certain properties in specific districts can't be bought they have to be earned by becoming friends with people who work there or own the place one specific example is the club sega and the electronics district we have to befriend the girl working there and beat her score and out run a few times which happens to be one of the best aesthetics in video games of all time this will actually unlock a surprise for us at the end in addition to owning the club a new game in the store kitty who thinks that the girl means something else when she says she'll give him a ride though because he's horny on main in this entry the whole mini-game was really interesting and reminded me of when i started playing this series this was one of the first mini games i was really enthralled with and was just overtaken by how addicting it was returning to it later made me realize that there are much better mini games in this series the real estate mini game has one huge downfall and that's waiting every time we get to gather money from the district we have to start collections this is a process that takes a few minutes and can be upgraded by using completion points even at its highest ranking though it's a little too slow we can't advance this side story until these collections are complete because we need to upgrade our businesses and that can only be done once per collection cycle it quickly becomes a slow process that i just wish went along a lot faster i do realize that this was probably made to be done in tandem with the main story returning to the mini-game throughout our adventures and progressing it slowly over the course of the game one of the large systems that i didn't talk about in the main section of the game is mr shakedown these are large tall and strong enemies that appear throughout the game wandering the streets of either city they have a ton of money and shake people down across the place we can battle them but every time we get hit we lose cash it's a risk reward though because if we beat them we get all of their money which can eventually be in the billions of yen these guys are pretty tough but not impossible to beat and are an interesting feature that i just completely avoided my first time through this game there are plenty of ways to train and get stronger in yakuza 0. each character has three trainers one for each of their style bacchus the american man we meet at the beginning of the game will teach us new moves for the brawler style these moves are locked off in the skill tree and all proceeding skills will have to be unlocked first to be able to train them these are usually just fights with hitmen that are chasing bacchus komoji is kitty u's rush style trainer and also happens to be a punch-out artist these are the men that frequent the kamarocho parking lot and try not to get hit for money our training is doing exactly that trying not to get hit miss tatsu is kittyu's beast style trainer and resides on the docks she will have us do jobs for her and also train with mannequins we have to smash as many objects over the mannequin heads as we can majima has a very special and familiar trainer for his thug style named komeki komeki clearly looks like someone we know and after completing all of his training we realize that he is that man he came to sotonbori to find his skills again and was going under an alias that wasn't that far off from his real name komaki faihu is a man who owns a nearby restaurant and weapons vendor he'll train us in using different weapons which will inspire majima to upgrade his slugger style areshi is a part of a break dancing crew that will help majima learn new abilities for his breaker style each of the characters also have secret styles that get unlocked after beating their respective lengthy side stories i loved all of the trainers in this game because they each feel tailored to the style that they're improving especially trainers like komoji framing the training as something that we're already familiar with in the world is fantastic majima has a special bit of training that only he can do at the dragon and tiger this is a weapons shop run by his slugger trainer phi who his wife manages an organization that will search for special weapons around the world we can send out agents on missions and pay them a hefty amount to make sure the whole thing goes right there are a ton of new events to get caught up in as per usual pocket circuit makes its first appearance in this game and i won't talk about this one a ton because i went over it a lot in the yakuza 2 video a new way to make money in kamarocho is cat fights these are virtually the same system as the mesa king fights from yakuza kiwami you bet on a scantily clad fighter and have to choose their moves for each bout if we get a draw we can mash buttons to try and overpower the opponent but no matter how fast i pressed i couldn't get this to work i would win maybe 1 out of every 10 draws this whole thing is just really rng based and has a lot of similar problems to mesa king overall yakuza 0 has a strange relationship with adult video actresses as there's a ton in this entry kitty you can go to a video store and watch videos of girls and bikinis different actresses can be unlocked at the store by finding them in game there's also a smattering of telephone cards located all over town that we can pick up and effectively act as our locker keys in this entry completing a set and showing it to a local collector will give us some cash we can also go to the telephone club to talk to girls over the phone and try to score a date this whole thing is incredibly outlandish and flashy as yakuza normally is it's great and sees us pointing a cursor at different text bubbles on the screen if we pick the correct one the woman's affection will go up after three fillings of the heart we can get a better picture of the woman and also get her to meet up with us this will result in a substory that usually sees kitty you finding out the woman isn't all she's cracked up to be we can also participate in the sutenbori fighting ring that was opened by billiken this functions pretty similarly to the other coliseums of the series but by far the best part of yakuza 0 is its sub stories these are small side missions that take place on the streets of either city they're generally quick and most of them have a much lighter tone than the main story this game has some of my favorites and i really want to showcase the ones that stuck out to me here most of yakuza 0's sub stories are really funny and the first one i want to talk about is the shrink wrapped dream kitty who finds a young man on the street that's run away from home his mom wouldn't let him buy from a vending machine in town so he saved up money to get to the city the only problem is the vending machine is in the back of a pretty scary alley so he wants kitty you to get him something from the machine in the back of the alley kitty realizes that it's an adult magazine machine he tells the child he can't buy it for him but the kid gets upset at this kitty realizes he doesn't want to become one of those adults that lie all the time he hated them when he was a kid so he decides to buy it for him the only problem is there are a ton of people on the street and they can't see kitty you going to the vending machine we have to sneak around them and kitty who gives the magazine to the kid telling him to only open it when he's alone and to not hide it under his bed another one of my favorites arokure quest begins when kittyu finds a line of people waiting outside for a new video game the boy who's last in line gets his game stolen and is distraught kitty promises to get akio his game back and chases the thug down before he gets to the goon though someone else shows up and steals the game he chases down the next thug to realize that someone stole it again right before he got there eventually he gets to the end of the chain and finds the man that stole the game the thug was stealing the game for his son who would be very happy if he got it kitty who tells him that he was really stealing the game from another kid in the first place the man owns up and gives the game back not wanting to make another child sad as akio approaches we realize that this man is akio's father and he was stealing the game for his son who he didn't know already got it in the end the two decide to go home and play the game together and kitty remarks that's how games should be played between father and son the sub-story a watery investment begins when we find a woman being harassed in the street we defend her and she wants to meet at cafe alps to thank us when we get there it turns out she's trying to sell us a product called aha water a revitalizing drink that will heal and calm her real motive is to get us to buy the product and sell it to our friends thus earning money from them and so on you know a pyramid scheme we refuse her multiple times and eventually her boss comes over trying to entice us at the end nezu commends our resistance and rewards us with a drink of the water i think this story was hilarious because i can't tell you the amount of people i've seen in my real life fall for pyramid schemes the last substory i want to talk about is a shining example this one begins when kid you find a woman that needs help down a suspicious alleyway at the end a masked man in a very familiar purple jacket begins to fight us when we beat him he takes off his mask and reveals that it's shinji if you've seen my video on the first yakuza game or played the first game yourself you'll know who shinji is the two don't know each other yet and shinji is actually trying to kill any yakuza that he can find on the streets he's only 16 in high school already in a bike gang and has a large grudge the yakuza beat his father when he was young and shinji was abused in turn so he thinks all yakuza are terrible kitty who doesn't care about what shinji thinks and doesn't even really try and dissuade him from thinking the way he does a while later some yakuza pick kitty you up and say that they have shinji back at their office kitty you saved shinji but is upset that he dragged him into this mess kitty who doesn't mince words with the guy he tells him that he's being stupid and he needs to grow up he needs to stop the vigilante act and get it together kitty who says he only saved shinji because kazuma saved him when he was younger and he wouldn't be where he was today without the man he'd probably have turned out just like shinji shinji says that he's found someone he can aspire to be maybe even someday be better than kid you it's a wonderful story that fills us in on the background of these two characters also seeing shinji be this bitter terrible tragic kid only to realize later that he would go on to give his life for others is sad yakuza zero has a ton of amazing sub stories that i can't all talk about here a lot of them are truly fantastic and if you plan to play the game i'd highly recommend completing all of them if nothing else yakuza 0 is easily one of the best in the series it isn't my favorite but this entry is the best it could possibly be like i've said before taking on the burden of a prequel is not an easy task there's so many pitfalls along the way to get caught in and rgg and sega completed their task with a true mastery of the craft of storytelling the gameplay is also fantastic in this entry and would in my opinion mark the beginning of an era of truly smooth fighting in yakuza games the variety in styles also provides a constant change in the flow of combat whenever you need it it's incredibly useful to be able to switch to another stance mid-battle and i think it really changes the entire framework that the gameplay stands on the characters and story are handled so gracefully and every person that appears is built up and expanded upon no one is used here just for a recognizable name everyone's legacy is built up to make them larger characters we learned so much more about how each one of these people came to be how they were tried tested and forged in the flames of battle and the love the game is also probably one of the best reasons that yakuza even became popular in the west so many new fans started at this point and it was a great landing pad for people who knew nothing about the series in general the side content is great though not nearly as packed as some of the other entries in the series it takes quality over quantity in my opinion the substories are some of the best the series has to offer and playing each one i felt like i wanted to put it into the video but i knew i didn't have the time for every single one yakuza 0 is a truly fantastic game and if you've been at all hesitant about playing these games while watching me go through this series i would say that it's a fantastic starting point yakuza 0 sold far beyond expectations with 500 000 units being sold in japan during the first three months critics received the game well giving it high scores across the board our story doesn't end there though we're not nearly done yet the rgg team would again return to yakuza for the final game in kitu's saga but we'll talk about that next time bye dad

Channel: YourFavoriteSon

Views: 113,226

Keywords: yakuza 0, yakuza, yakuza 0 gameplay, yakuza 0 review, yakuza 0 retrospective, yakuza 0 ost, yakuza 0 friday night, yakuza 0 video essay, yakuza 7, yakuza 6, yakuza 5, yakuza like a dragon, yakuza gameplay, yakuza review, yakuza kiwami, yakuza 0 intro

Id: lHa-OS5EiwY

Length: 119min 49sec (7189 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 14 2022