The Case

The Yakuza series has been a mainstay of the Sony platform since the days of the PlayStation 2. Growing, in large part, out of Suzuki Yu’s Shenmue, it features similar themes and almost identical gameplay. It’s always had something of a niche appeal, but has long been requested for PC porting. Which, finally, we now have in the form of Yakuza 0. A prequel to the original game, set at the end of the 1980’s. And boy oh boy, but it is about damned time.

The Trial

Bear in mind, this is actually the sixth mainline entry in the Yakuza series, tenth if you’re factoring in all the spin-offs. And though it may be set, chronologically, earliest in the timeline of protagonist Kazuma Kiryu’s story, it’s honestly not the best place to jump into the franchise. Though there’s nothing explicitly excluding one from doing so, much like the Star Wars prequels, it has certain in jokes and callbacks that will lack context, if not be flat out missed completely, by new arrivals. However, as it currently stands as the only Yakuza game available on the PC, that’s not a big enough deal that it should scare you away. Just be prepared for a trip back, at a future date, to make sense of some things.

Having said that, all of the games in the series are frikkin’ enormous, loaded with sidequests and extra activities that will have you wanting to come back anyway. These are honestly some of the most densely packed games ever made. The world of Kamurocho may be relatively small, as far as worldmaps go, but the sheer volume of content makes it feel immense. And that’s even before you factor in the extra areas you visit during your journey, each of them also packed to the gills.

The size ultimately works in their favour. Where some games, even those possessed of more content, are so huge and sprawling that they feel empty, Yakuza games are small enough that everything is right there. You quite literally cannot go round a corner without bumping into something going on. Also, even though a lot of it may not directly, or even tangentially, connect to the main plot, everything is so tonally consistent that everything fits together just right. No matter how bizarre it may be, it all just…works.

At its core, Yakuza is a pretty simple beat-em-up. The combat system is complex enough to be entertaining, but it’s not what one would call deep. And this is about the most complicated it’s ever been, offering up three fighting styles to each of the two playable character. The thing is though, each of them is functionally almost identical. Different animations, but ultimately you mash buttons until your enemy falls over and doesn’t get up again.

Okay, maybe you’ll want to dodge or block once in a blue moon, during a boss fight, but that pretty much sums it up. Think of it as being a very simple, easy to use system, possessed of some interesting mechanics underneath if you want them, but without any of them ever being essential to progress. Which is honestly one of the best things about it. It makes the series very accessible, without being so trimmed down as to be insulting to more seasoned players.

However, to say that’s all it is would be grossly inaccurate. Those previously mentioned side activities throw in a huge amount of diversity. Everything from darts, to disco (seriously) dancing and fishing. And that’s just scratching the surface of what you have on offer. Again, each, individual mini-game is pretty straight forward, but there are so many of them there’s actually a lot to get to grips with. Plus, there are several of SEGA’s, period appropriate, arcade games available to play. It’s not quite a game within a game within a game, more like fifty different games all in one package.

Now, it’s worth noting that this is a port through and through. Built to be played with a controller, none of that has really been changed for the PC. Which isn’t a bad thing in itself, as the game runs with just about every controller in the universe, right out of the box. But should you so choose, there are (almost) fully rebindable keyboard options. The only part lacking is the in game substitute for the right analogue stick, which most mini-games rely on. For whatever reason, these are hard bound to I, J, K and L. That gives things like the karaoke rhythm game an unnecessarily steep learning curve.

Aside from that, this should be paraded as a casestudy in how to do a port right. It doesn’t do anything particularly exciting, with graphics options being about the minimum one would require for a modern release, but it does everything competently, whilst having enough PC specific features that it never feels lazy. Ultra wide support and an unlocked framerate being among the most commendable additions. And though it may not be an exceptionally pretty game, it does look really damned nice, and is noticeably improved over its PlayStation 4 counterpart, whilst running at an absolutely rock solid 60+ even on lower end hardware.

There are no significant bugs to speak of, the only one I noticed being hilarious. During the darts mini-game, the dart would often fly out of the hand faster before it had finished its animation, most amusing during AI turns. When their hand wouldn’t move at all, and the dart would just seem to launch itself, often in an arch. It might be patched out, but I honestly hope it isn’t. The only other issue was that the game has issues launching when things are trying to hook in. Though this can be easily circumvented by starting the game, and then firing up whatever you’re using (probably recording software) once it’s open.

The Verdict

Okay, there’s a hell of a lot more that we should probably go into, but because of how densely packed the series is with plot, it’s difficult to talk about most of it without going into massive spoiler territory. So let’s leave it by saying that this is a strong port of an amazing game and I, for one, cannot wait for the rest of the games to make their way over.