Yakuza 0[a] is a 2015 action-adventure game developed by Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio and published by Sega. It is the sixth main game in the Yakuza series, following Yakuza 5 (2012). Set in late 1988, 17 years before the original Yakuza (2005) and during the Japanese asset price bubble, the story follows the yakuza members Kazuma Kiryu and Goro Majima as they become embroiled in a conflict between various yakuza factions for control of a patch of land known as the "Empty Lot". The player controls Kiryu and Majima and explores the open world of Tokyo's fictional Kamurochō and Sotenbori regions. They alternate between engaging in combat with thugs, completing sidequests and minigames, and running businesses to earn money.
Gameplay
editYakuza 0 is an action-adventure game. From a third-person perspective, the player explores the open world of Kamurochō and Sotenbori, fictionalized recreations of Tokyo's Kabukichō and Osaka's Dōtonbori areas. The player controls one of two player characters—Kazuma Kiryu and Goro Majima—alternating at predetermined points during the story. Kiryu and Majima can freely roam the interactive world, where they can interact with non-player characters to trigger sidequests or engage enemies in beat 'em up combat.
Plot
editDevelopment
edit- https://kotaku.com/the-yakuza-prequel-was-a-long-time-coming-1627835600
- The game reverses the stoic Kiryu and nutty Majima's roles; Kiryu is a loose cannon and hotheaded while Majima is serious and code-honoring
- 0 depicts how the characters will grow into the ones fans know, Yokoyama says there are many scenes that will leave players wondering how could Kiryu do that
- RGGS wanted 0 to reflect the atmosphere of 1988 Japan, when the economy was thriving and people constantly spent money, but were far from "richer in heart than they are today"
- Nagoshi and Yokoyama had been thinking about 0's story since making Yakuza 2, but due to the series' growth and the shift from developing on the PS2 to PS3 they didn't get around to it until later
- like the first game, they targeted an older male audience. The demographic expanded with following entries but for 0 they wanted to return to that original target.
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZ2rhM2oo1U
- Majima was made the secondary protagonist because a lot of fans wanted to see him playable in a mainline Yakuza game
- the game explains how Majima became the crazy character people know
- Money corrupts people, the developers thought it'd be interesting to explore the darker side of the asset price bubble and show Kamurocho in a different era. They spent a lot of time trying to give the game an 80s flavor
- Nogoshi was a young adult and has a good memory of the era, but a lot of staff were kids during the time. They spent a lot of time researching, gathering photos so the staff could have a basis to work off. Nogoshi reviewed the game several times to judge whether the recreation of 80s Tokyo was accurate
- Yakuza series is iterative, they looked over Yakuza 5 and determined what they wanted to fix/change. For minigames they listen a lot to what fans like/don't like, improve what they do and remove what they don't
- toy car minigame - there was a team member who was really into playing with toy cars back during the 80s and wanted to recreate that. The minigame cost a lot of money to make, to the point they nearly cut it
- when they made Yakuza 1 they weren't really thinking forward but now that they've circled back around they had to re-look at it, it was difficult to make 0 come back full circle
- Yakuza is a human drama, the relationships are important and they invested a lot of time in them, they wanted the story to be easy to get into but extremely deep. This makes making a Yakuza game a monumental task
- again, developing the battle system is iterative, the team begins with a system and continually reviews it to ensure it stays true to previous games while adding complexity or iterations
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Mikf3bYiY8
- unlike previous Yakuza games, which each take place one year after their predecessor, Yakuza 0 is a prequel
- recreated Tokyo in the context of 1988, when all the technology was different
- chose to go back in time because fans had been requesting origin stories for Kiryu and Majima, chose to make the game a period piece since showing their origins would mean going back in time
- sought to recreate 1988 Tokyo as authentically as possible
- since the fights were all about money in a booming economy, RGGS chose to make opponents drop money instead of spew blood during fights. Nagoshi and/or Sam Mullen acknowledged this was strange but felt it made sense within the context of the themes and time period
- while the story is important, it's also important to make sure players enjoy the environment they're in and feel like it's a living place. A lot of effort went into the side stories/quests to flesh out the characters and city.
- Nagoshi said the city itself could be seen as a character since worldbuilding was so important to the developers.
- Side quests are a hallmark of the Yakuza series and the developers always try to iterate on what they've built. They listen to criticism, improve what fans like and get rid/replace of what they don't.
- included a telephone club side quest since mobile phones didn't exist back in 1988
marked the first time Majima was playable in a Yakuza game[1]
Localization
edit- https://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2017/02/21/sega-on-the-challenges-of-bringing-yakuza-0-west.aspx
- first mainline Yakuza game for PS4
- because the game is a prequel, the Sega producers felt it was a good starting point for new players while also providing some fan service for existing fans
- because the next game, Yakuza 6, is the conclusion to Kiryu's character arc, they felt it was important for there to be a good entry point first
- Nothing was cut during the localization process, the only thing that posed something of a challenge was the softcore video segments