Game review of Yakuza 0: the bandit Tokyo 80s

The Japanese video game series Yakuza (original – "Like a dragon", jap.) widely known in his country. Each new part fans are greeted with enthusiasm, and overall sales of games in the series recently exceeded 9 000 000 copies. Outside the Country of the rising sun Yakuza are less well known, but even there it has its fans. Increasing popularity severely hampered by the fact that in English translate, not all games in the series, so each release Yakuza in the West is accompanied by the incredible excitement of the English public. Today I will tell you about the newly released exclusive to the PlayStation 4 the game — Yakuza 0.

It would be an unforgivable omission on my part not to tell you a little about the history of the franchise. Created a series of Yakuza Japanese producer and game designer Toshihiro Nagoshi. His first game after he got a job in a publisher Sega, in 1989, became Virtual Racing. The second was automotive simulation Daytona USA, Scud Race arcade bit em up SpikeOut. Nagoshi has risen so much in the eyes of management, in 2000 he was entrusted to lead one of several divisions of the company. Once in 2005 for the PlayStation 2 came out the first game of the series Yakuza, which has cost Sega in an impressive $ 21 million, about Toshihiro Nagoshi spoke all the Japanese media. The success of the game laid a solid Foundation for the development of multiple sequels and even spin-offs, events that unfold in a different time or even in an alternate universe. Went on sale in the many souvenir and other merchandising of the game, including t-shirts, dishes, books and even food. Speaking about the popularity of the series in Japan, it should be noted that Japanese radio from time to time the twist radio show of the same name.

All games series, Yakuza of the United style and the main characters. The protagonist invariably is a former Yakuza named Kiryu "Dragon" Kazuma. As a rule, the action takes place in the fictional Tokyo – Camarote, but sometimes the game provides players with the opportunity to leave the Japanese capital and visit other locations. Spin-offs of the Yakuza often puts the player in a very unusual place, for example, in the feudal Japan of the XVIIth century or the world, steeped in zombie Apocalypse. But in any series you will always waiting for typically the courageous Japanese characters, exploring relationships with brute force, whether fist fights or fights with Katanas. In many ways, the series reminds blockbuster franchise Grand Theft Auto, but only in distinct Japanese style, which makes it a unique piece. Some fans are comparing Yakuza with another popular Japanese series Shenmue. Indeed, they have a lot in common, but the atmosphere is still very different games.

The Game is Yakuza 0, which will be discussed today, it is a kind of prequel sequence, which makes it especially attractive. The events take place before the first Yakuza game in 1988, when still very young and inexperienced Kiryu Kazuma is one of the lower places in the hierarchy of the Tojo clan. Have Kiryu as a great disciplined fighter, it seemed like a great career prospects in the Japanese mafia, but then intervenes in the case, and suddenly he is accused of killing a man. The situation is furnished so that the protagonist has nothing to say of the police and their bosses, so he has no choice but to recuperate and to unravel the tangle of lies, politics, conspiracies and betrayals.

Beginning with the fourth part of the series the player has to turn to control multiple characters (just like in GTA V), reflecting their personal stories, intertwined and eventually spilling into the impressive scope of the story ending. This time an additional character will be a good friend of the main character – Maxima "Mad Dog" Goro, familiar to you from previous games. Yes, this is the one-eyed "captain Jack Sparrow" who prefer to burn their lives in bars and hostess clubs. The gameplay for both characters are similar in their mechanics, but each of them does their job: Kiryu is mired in a detective investigation, and Majima tries to extricate himself from a no less dangerous scrapes, which was trying to win the respect of the bosses of the criminal world.

The game World is traditionally "pseudotty". Like you available great Tokyo area and some additional locations, but during some missions you won't be able to deviate from the prescribed route developers, and will have to run only in the specified direction. However, you will have access to dozens of points of interest and plenty of ways to entertain yourself in the Japan of the 80s. the Yakuza Series has always been famous for fitted mini-games, and new game is no exception. You can play Billiards, sing karaoke, go fishing, play Darts, chess, baseball, arcade, or participate in underground fights or dance battles at the local disco. There are also races on toy machines, female wrestling, bowling, and collecting rare cards. Bored in Yakuza 0 will never happen, because in addition to the story quests you traditionally wait hundreds of mini-quests or the so-called subhistory, allowing to feel the atmosphere of the Japan of the 80s.

The game features two major locations: this quarter Camarote, which is the interpretation of the real Tokyo district of Kabuki-Cho, and also quarter Sotobori, copied from Dotonbori located in Osaka. Apart from them, you will be available and the location is smaller, but they paid much less attention. I was touched when I saw how you looked familiar to me from previous games places in the past. If you are familiar with the Yakuza series, you'll recognize many local landmarks, which in the future will greatly change. While walking around the city, you'll stumble on wanting to compete with your own. These can be members of the Yakuza, drunken brawlers, returning home from the bars, bullies, or fighters singles, which do not feed bread, only let me scratch his fists. In principle, you can avoid the fight, just to get away from them, but I would advise you to join in fights as often as possible. Because from defeated enemies hail strewed the Japanese currency in the form of banknotes and coins. But it is just vital in this game, but I will tell you later.

The Fights take place on a familiar fans of the series circuit. Buttons "square" and "triangle" you apply, respectively, medium and strong attack, putting them in a combo-chaining, button "circle" is responsible for attacks and throws, and the button "X" — Dodge enemy attacks. When the enemy falls to the ground, you can activate a furious final attack, consuming a good portion of its life scale. In the battle actively used the objects around us: you can crush the enemy's head sanfayansovogo urinal or put his teeth on the metal handrail. If there was lying a piece of pipe or a wooden stick, you can use them as weapons for throwing and attacking. You can even raise a sofa, or (!!!) motorcycle to launch them at the enemy. Well what do you want? The Japanese are a tough crowd.

A New game for the first time offers us the use of combat styles. The character is able to switch between them right in the heat of battle using the arrow keys D-Pad on your controller. Kiryu is able to switch between styles Brawler (balanced style reminiscent of the previous game), Beast (incredibly powerful, but slow attacks), and Rush (quick movements and strikes). Maxima is able to choose between Thug (balanced style), the Slugger (the style that uses improvised weapons) and Breaker (when in fights, the character uses dance moves). Combining together the three available for each character style, you can easily defeat the most dangerous opponents. But if some of the powerful bosses turned out to be stronger and more agile, don't despair. On the screen that prompts you to "try again", the game will tell the correct tactics for the match against them.

Leveling is done on the system, is introduced to us in the spin-off series with subtitle Isshin. In a special radial menu you can buy for the money new perks and skills. If the base skill costs 30 000 yen, over the next improvement will have to dump hundreds of thousands and even tens of millions. That's why I previously advised you not to shirk from street battles and try to knock out enemies as much cash. On city streets beware of only one thing: a meeting with a thug named Mr. Shakedown. He is literally able to shake out of your accumulated savings. Both main characters of the game are running your own business: Kiryu investing in real estate and trade, and develops his Maxima cabaret club Sunshine. Don't forget to apply extra income for its intended purpose, namely, waste money on the development of characters.

Visually, the game is much prettier, because it is, in fact, the first English-speaking part of a series of Yakuza for the PlayStation 4. Clear texture, stable 60 frames per second, high resolution, excellent optical effects (especially the "Boke" and reflection) – all this allows us to look at favorite characters in new ways. But, unfortunately, quite often there are echoes of the era of the PS3, when you notice too angular 3D model of the subject, muddy the texture or too clumsy NPC animations. In General – impressions of moving the series to a new platform I have a positive, but the developers still have work to do. Very pleased with the attention of the creators of the game to translate on the screen of the atmosphere of the 80-ies. Then it was not available mobile phones, so the main characters are actively using pagers and calling from phone...