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Yakuza 0 |OT| Yes, you can start with this one!

Finally jumped in after buying this on sale a month ago! Just finished Chapter 1 and I'm hooked!

Any tips for me? Must-have upgrades, excellent missable content, ways to make money, etc?

Unlock health upgrades early if your playing on hard, you start off weak but can become incredibly powerful just by upgrading heat/health/strength. It'll help with bosses who don't go down as easily as your common goons.

Equip armour items if you want, but I never found it required. If you do equip armour though make sure you read the descriptions - the charismatic photo makes enemies insanely violent and aggressive, not something you want to equip!

Also upgrade wise - there are tons of great heat moves and counter moves you can unlock and they are well worth doing so, counter moves are great for bosses, heat moves are just darn fun.

Also, give all the side stuff/mini games a try. Its my favourite part of the series and there is so much excellent content to discover in these games outside of the main story path.
 

Lindsay

Dot Hacked
Hurrah! I beat the game!

I really really hate gun guys lol.

I'ma stick by my appraisement of this game being the series lowest point (not counting 5 or spinoffs, haven't played 'em)! Partially due to its own stuff and partially due to junk in the series DNA which the designers refuse to let go of... which makes me considerably less hype for Kiwami.
 
I am loving this game so much! I'm most of the way (I think) through chapter 2, just talked with the homeless guy about Tachibana. Also did the side quests with
the video game getting stolen and the choir-boy Yanki band
and was grinning all the way through.
 
Come to think of it, does
Bacchus' story get fleshed out in future games? It feels like the game build up something but failed to deliver on it with regards to him. I thought he'd become a major character.
 
Come to think of it, does
Bacchus' story get fleshed out in future games? It feels like the game build up something but failed to deliver on it with regards to him. I thought he'd become a major character.

Nope,
Bacchus
is a new character that only shows up in Yakuza 0. There is a bar named
Bacchus
in Yakuza 1 (and the future games too, I can't remember for sure) that has a slight relevance in that game's story so it MIGHT be a reference to that too.

Since you haven't played any other Yakuza games, I'm not gonna say anything clearly but all I'm gonna say is that Majima's
trainer, Komaki,
has a bigger role in the series than Yakuza 0 implies *wink*
 
Nope,
Bacchus
is a new character that only shows up in Yakuza 0. There is a bar named
Bacchus
in Yakuza 1 (and the future games too, I can't remember for sure) that has a slight relevance in that game's story so it MIGHT be a reference to that too.

Since you haven't played any other Yakuza games, I'm not gonna say anything clearly but all I'm gonna say is that Majima's
trainer, Komaki,
has a bigger role in the series than Yakuza 0 implies *wink*

Didn't the dude named Bacchus say at the end of his side story that he would be opening a bar? I swear that's how his story concluded - so Bacchus (the bar) in Yakuza 1 was directly tied to the character (or at least that's how I remember it). Pity about what happened to the bar though :(
 
Nope,
Bacchus
is a new character that only shows up in Yakuza 0. There is a bar named
Bacchus
in Yakuza 1 (and the future games too, I can't remember for sure) that has a slight relevance in that game's story so it MIGHT be a reference to that too.

Since you haven't played any other Yakuza games, I'm not gonna say anything clearly but all I'm gonna say is that Majima's
trainer, Komaki,
has a bigger role in the series than Yakuza 0 implies *wink*

I was pleasantly surprised to see
Komaki
in this game. Given his role in other Yakuza games, I didn't think they could include him, yet they found a way :)
 

HStallion

Now what's the next step in your master plan?
Finally got a good chunk of the game under my belt this weekend after dabbling here and there and loving it so far. Just the little funny lines dropped by characters and a lot of the personal interaction really sells it. I haven't watched any Yakuza movies in a while so this is actually doing the job of taking care of that niche with a lot of beat'em up action and karaoke
 
Honestly just look up a guide. Guessing at builds is super difficult. This is the guide I used and the builds they suggest lead to super easy wins. The only difficult part was getting the Godspeed Mark II motor from a Dream Machine (it took me about four hours of trying, but hopefully the RNG is kinder to you)

Just wanted to let you know that I took your advice and got the Godspeed Mark II and it's corresponding trophy after my third attempt lol I guess the rng gods were feeling kind.
 

Backflip

Junior Member
I just wanted to say that I got the Platinum trophy last Friday. I came close to giving up a few times but I did it.

This is my 4th Yakuza Platinum Trophy (I've already got Yakuza 3, 4 and Dead Souls). I now have to finish Yakuza 5 but I don't know if I have the patience to go through Akiyama's Coliseum fight (I also have to go through the campaign twice more as I made the mistake of playing on hard during my first playthrough).
 

Lindsay

Dot Hacked
Since you haven't played any other Yakuza games, I'm not gonna say anything clearly but all I'm gonna say is that Majima's
trainer, Komaki,
has a bigger role in the series than Yakuza 0 implies *wink*
I was pleasantly surprised to see
Komaki
in this game. Given his role in other Yakuza games, I didn't think they could include him, yet they found a way :)
Is it supposed ta be the same guy? Thought since they
spelled his name "Komeki" in this game that he was supposed to be a cheap knockoff reference to the real deal
?
 
Is it supposed ta be the same guy? Thought since they
spelled his name "Komeki" in this game that he was supposed to be a cheap knockoff reference to the real deal
?

Yeah, it's the same guy lol. The fact that he talks the same way, looks the same way, has the same voice and has the same moves gave it away.
 

danmaku

Member
Finally finished the game, about 100 hours and 50 something % complete. What a ride!
There's a lot to nitpick about the story, and the way the ending is set up is just plain stupid (
how was Makoto able to disappear when she was right before Kiryu? and why in hell did she decide to go alone against Dojima? she does nothing but crying for the whole game and now she suddenly decides to turn bad ass?
) but damn if it isn't satisfying anyway. The final fights are simply epic and the last scene with Majima (the one with Makoto, not the post-credit bit) is great. What a way to go out! Too bad Majima and Kiryu never meet, I hoped at least for some dialogue but nope.

That said, the game was great. I think most if its appeal comes from the setting and the style. It's not that different from other open world crime games in terms of gameplay, but the writing has this distinct Japanese style that gives the game all its charm and being able to play tourist around Tokio and Osaka is great. The funny side quests, the drama, the absurd fights, it shouldn't work but somehow it all clicks toghether.
 

Lindsay

Dot Hacked
Still pulling together final type thoughts on the game. Compared to the almost unanimous glowing praise all around whats been on my mind isn't lookin' pretty at all!

Well you were half right on your suspicions.

His real name is Komaki Sotarou but he used an alias/pseudonym in his time in Sotenbori, Komeki Sometaro.
I always knew he was a strange old man right from the start when he threw impossible to dodge baseballs at ya so doing something silly like that shouldn't be a surprise!
But... wait how old even is he? He's already old in 0 and then like 20 years later he's still around and kicking
o_O
 
He'll
outlive everyone
in the series.

And if not,
his grandson can also replace him. He was one of the teachers
in Yakuza 5.
Still pulling together final type thoughts on the game. Compared to the almost unanimous glowing praise all around whats been on my mind isn't lookin' pretty at all!
I would imagine most of your complaints are from "dated" game design which is something that the series really started suffering from in it's PS3 iterations and got worse and worse as the series went on. Fortunately being on the PS4 means loading times and the sprint option are a godsend but they still get in the way considerably for the overall experience.

Fortunately, Yakuza 6 drops a lot of that in favour of a new engine that takes full advantage of the PS4's capabilities.
 

Shaneus

Member

Lindsay

Dot Hacked
I would imagine most of your complaints are from "dated" game design which is something that the series really started suffering from in it's PS3 iterations and got worse and worse as the series went on. Fortunately being on the PS4 means loading times and the sprint option are a godsend but they still get in the way considerably for the overall experience.
Its true alot of complaints are MASH old dangly MASH bits from way back with the original Yakuza STILL MASHING game still clinging on to dear life to this day! But 0 does have its share of its own unique badness an they're pretty big.

Money = exp was either a terrible idea, or a good idea done terribly. Regardless of which the result was grinding several orders of magnitude higher than any previous game!

6 fighting styles between 2 characters was not the focused, back to basic approach I was expecting with this game
I now know its 8 styles but that makes it worse!
. I mean maybe its on me for having such expectations? Having to choose what to upgrade next along with trying to remember the moves for each was kinda a chore. It also meant running around town to 3 seperate masters instead of one. And a downgrade from 3 equipped weapon slots to 1 which ended up making me use less of 'em, despite the infinite wealth ta buy/repair more!

Speaking of focus, going from 4 to 2 characters didn't exactly improve the pacing. Switching characters every 2 chapters instead of every 4 was still jarring. Although it was nice not having to start fresh more than once! I woulda really liked the option somewhere to play Kiryu story or Majima story straight through in one go (or choosing when you wanna switch) instead of the flipflopping though.

The story was filler as should be expected. I mean c'mon its a prequel. Any new character introduced is either gonna die or become irrelevant afterwards cause they'll never be mentioned again. So it was kinda hard ta get attached to any of 'em? Even so
I feel bad for Sagawa since he's likely a dead man. Or maybe I'm just upset we never had the chance to deck him >.>
Given the large time gap between this and Yakuza I guess its plausible Kiryu
forgot all about the homeless park/hunters, going to Sotenbori, and that new real first time he busted up his own clan
? Majima was just kinda there and in the end got
Big Bossed. He'll go nutso an start killing without a second thought someday, but we'll never see or play that part
.

Businesses... this goes back to money exp and styles. Large chunks of your upgrades are literally gated behind these business quests. Talk about an awful needless overcomplication! In the past ya just needed exp for the basics and some master training for the special stuff. But now they felt the need to lock stuff behind hours and hours of real estate/cabaret management? I liked doing the club stuff in other games since it was totally optional but forcing me to do it to make the fighting system better? Totally pushed me away from doing 'em. Hours that coulda been spent doing substories which used to net ya the needed exp and money and sometimes items to get by, an almost certainly still didn't take even half the time to clear out than this business stuff! Now the rewards for substories are maybe an item but mostly just another body to put to work in the businesses ya won't bother to run!

Pretty much all this stuff ties together. Moneys a big theme in the story and ya need loads of it in the game to level up. One of the ways to get big money is to spend hours doing business stuff. Doing business stuff unlocks more things to level up in each style. Both style masters and businesses are awkwardly forced into main story moments. Its a giant circle of "hey these games are plenty long as-is. please stop trying to one up their length by making something as basic as leveling up a freaking chore! thx!"
 
Quick question: are sidequests missable? Can some side stories only be done or started in certain chapters or will they stay available until the end of the game?
 
Quick question: are sidequests missable? Can some side stories only be done or started in certain chapters or will they stay available until the end of the game?
A lot of substories only unlock/become available once you've reached a particular chapter.

But none of them are missable.

You can do all OF them by the end of the game or even after you've ended the game by going into Premium Adventure Mode.
 

Jimrpg

Member
This game is in my top 3 games of all time, and given a little time to think about it it'll probably be number 1, so my comments are going to be very different to yours!

Its true alot of complaints are MASH old dangly MASH bits from way back with the original Yakuza STILL MASHING game still clinging on to dear life to this day! But 0 does have its share of its own unique badness an they're pretty big.

Money = exp was either a terrible idea, or a good idea done terribly. Regardless of which the result was grinding several orders of magnitude higher than any previous game!

I think money in general is fine, but I would have liked the random enemies to drop other items in this game too.

If you want to do everything in this game, then money can be a problem I suppose. It is a little too obvious that the most elite upgrades can only be effectively done by the businesses. The real estate business isn't that fun of a mini game, as the amount of money you make back gets put back into the next property and becomes a rinse and repeat thing. Not only that but going from building to building and trying to find a property to buy out was probably the thing that annoyed me the most in the game. I think it would have been better to buy straight from the map.

6 fighting styles between 2 characters was not the focused, back to basic approach I was expecting with this game
I now know its 8 styles but that makes it worse!
. I mean maybe its on me for having such expectations? Having to choose what to upgrade next along with trying to remember the moves for each was kinda a chore. It also meant running around town to 3 seperate masters instead of one. And a downgrade from 3 equipped weapon slots to 1 which ended up making me use less of 'em, despite the infinite wealth ta buy/repair more!

I really enjoyed the various fighting styles, though I thought the default (thug/brawler) styles were vastly superior to the other two.

Speaking of focus, going from 4 to 2 characters didn't exactly improve the pacing. Switching characters every 2 chapters instead of every 4 was still jarring. Although it was nice not having to start fresh more than once! I woulda really liked the option somewhere to play Kiryu story or Majima story straight through in one go (or choosing when you wanna switch) instead of the flipflopping though.

I really disagree with this one, because going to 2 characters really streamlined the story, and by changing them every 2 chapters kept the momentum of the story up right to the end.

The story was filler as should be expected. I mean c'mon its a prequel. Any new character introduced is either gonna die or become irrelevant afterwards cause they'll never be mentioned again. So it was kinda hard ta get attached to any of 'em? Even so
I feel bad for Sagawa since he's likely a dead man. Or maybe I'm just upset we never had the chance to deck him >.>
Given the large time gap between this and Yakuza I guess its plausible Kiryu
forgot all about the homeless park/hunters, going to Sotenbori, and that new real first time he busted up his own clan
? Majima was just kinda there and in the end got
Big Bossed. He'll go nutso an start killing without a second thought someday, but we'll never see or play that part
.

Story was the best in the entire series. I think they did a great job especially given the fact they had to cater for new comers AND vets, I don't think they missed a beat at all. And all the fluff/bloated story content of Y5 and other titles were ultimately removed. It had easily the best story since Yakuza 1 and Yakuza 4.

Btw the ending pretty much implies Sagawa is dead right?

Businesses... this goes back to money exp and styles. Large chunks of your upgrades are literally gated behind these business quests. Talk about an awful needless overcomplication! In the past ya just needed exp for the basics and some master training for the special stuff. But now they felt the need to lock stuff behind hours and hours of real estate/cabaret management? I liked doing the club stuff in other games since it was totally optional but forcing me to do it to make the fighting system better? Totally pushed me away from doing 'em. Hours that coulda been spent doing substories which used to net ya the needed exp and money and sometimes items to get by, an almost certainly still didn't take even half the time to clear out than this business stuff! Now the rewards for substories are maybe an item but mostly just another body to put to work in the businesses ya won't bother to run!

Gating the better upgrades behind higher money unlocks was a bit annoying. I agree here, but I just went and completed the story without worrying too much about all the other abilities. At least the game can be completed without too much grinding, which isn't something you can say about other games.

Pretty much all this stuff ties together. Moneys a big theme in the story and ya need loads of it in the game to level up. One of the ways to get big money is to spend hours doing business stuff. Doing business stuff unlocks more things to level up in each style. Both style masters and businesses are awkwardly forced into main story moments. Its a giant circle of "hey these games are plenty long as-is. please stop trying to one up their length by making something as basic as leveling up a freaking chore! thx!"

It's too bad you didn't enjoy the game as much as I did! The strong points this game represents for me are

- Incredible Japanese crime drama, that's probably the most accessible chapter yet
- Improved combat controls and mechanics
- Ridiculous amount of mini games and probably the best all round package of mini games yet
- 1080p / 60fps
- The two best cities to run around in
- Amazing motion capture, acting and voice acting
- Just being the biggest badass in town and putting people back in their place gives me great pleasure.
 
The story was filler as should be expected. I mean c'mon its a prequel. Any new character introduced is either gonna die or become irrelevant afterwards cause they'll never be mentioned again.

Filler? I feel like you came into the game with a lot of preconceptions and maybe bias. Why does a character need to exist in five other Yakuza games for them to be worth telling a story about? The characters in Y0 were mostly really memorable and enjoyable. It was a great story, and they served their purpose within it.

I don't have the perspective you do because this was my first Yakuza game, but for my money it had one of the better stories and some of the best characters I've seen in a game.
 
Thematically, locking the Legendary styles and your upgrade progression behind the business quests doesn't really make sense, but it works really well with how all the substories and character interactions feed back into the main game.

Instead of just getting item rewards for completed quests, a lot of them have characters and/or shops join your business ventures which helps your progression in those. And those business ventures spawn a couple of their own substories as well.

Even the JAV actress video shops (Which you unlock by doing sidequests.) have substories of their own which in turn feed back into your big business adventures. It's all connected and you and your crazy Kamurocho/Sotenbori buddies become one big, happy family. It works a lot better than doing sidequests just because.

Any tips on how to beat the electronics king on outrun? Closest I got was 4.7 million. I always take the left route.

Take your loss and move on. try to get 5 million points when you're not under pressure later, if you still want them then.
 
Quick question about Chapter 10.
It's asking me to leave town but can I come back and do the other side quests and stuff later? Is there anything I will miss if I go?
 

danmaku

Member
I'm not entirely sure Sagawa is dead, considering the amount of people that get shot and survive throughout the story. I assumed he was dead when the Nikkyo guy shot him but nope, then I assumed the Nikkyo guy was dead when Sagawa shot him but no again. Yakuza have terrible aim.
 
Quick question about Chapter 10.
It's asking me to leave town but can I come back and do the other side quests and stuff later? Is there anything I will miss if I go?

You won't miss anything. Even if you finish game (which you still have ways to go, to get there), you can still do the rest of the side quests in Premium Adventure mode that unlocks after beating the game.
 
Quick question about Chapter 10.
It's asking me to leave town but can I come back and do the other side quests and stuff later? Is there anything I will miss if I go?
Yes,
you eventually return to the city
. No you don't miss anything. You'll be able to wrap up EVERY SINGLE side-activity before the end of the game, so don't worry.
And even if you don't, you can wrap it up AFTER completing the main-story as well by accessing Premium Adventure Mode.

I'm not entirely sure Sagawa is dead, considering the amount of people that get shot and survive throughout the story. I assumed he was dead when the Nikkyo guy shot him but nope, then I assumed the Nikkyo guy was dead when Sagawa shot him but no again. Yakuza have terrible aim.
He's
dead........
.... Trust me.
 
You won't miss anything. Even if you finish game (which you still have ways to go, to get there), you can still do the rest of the side quests in Premium Adventure mode that unlocks after beating the game.

Yes,
you eventually return to the city
. No you don't miss anything. You'll be able to wrap up EVERY SINGLE side-activity before the end of the game, so don't worry.
And even if you don't, you can wrap it up AFTER completing the main-story as well by accessing Premium Adventure Mode.

Thanks!
 
What's the most efficient way to get the blackjack CP? I can only ever bet 100 chips. (it rises when I win but still). Takes forever at this rate.

edit: I was a the low stakes table, nvm
 

stn

Member
As much as I love Yakuza as a franchise, the combat is very frustrating in this one. Every attack you do is sooooooo slow. I find myself getting constantly hit out of everything when facing mobs. And even when I do land an attack, I get hit from behind anyway. I dig the variety and different styles, but everything is too damn slow.
 

Lindsay

Dot Hacked
I think money in general is fine, but I would have liked the random enemies to drop other items in this game too.
Random baddies used ta give items/money/exp, now in this game its just the money (which doubles as exp). With the massive amount of cash ya get, buying items is never an issue so I can see why they changed that for this game. Kinda wonder how newcomers will take to being cash strapped in Kiwami (unless they really changed money distribution up for the remake).

If you want to do everything in this game, then money can be a problem I suppose. It is a little too obvious that the most elite upgrades can only be effectively done by the businesses. The real estate business isn't that fun of a mini game, as the amount of money you make back gets put back into the next property and becomes a rinse and repeat thing. Not only that but going from building to building and trying to find a property to buy out was probably the thing that annoyed me the most in the game. I think it would have been better to buy straight from the map.
I try to do everything on later playthroughs, never my first. I just wanna beat dudes up, mess around with the odd mini-game or two, an see the cool story! Powering up your character / unlocking the full battle system being locked behind boring mini-games was so lame!

I really disagree with this one, because going to 2 characters really streamlined the story, and by changing them every 2 chapters kept the momentum of the story up right to the end.
I disagree with this disagree! For a much as I liked Yakuza 4, it does always suck going from character to character with a cliffhanger instead of closure. Its the same here except the cliffhangers are more frequent! I dun see the harm in having the option to choose who ya wanna play as and when.

Story was the best in the entire series. I think they did a great job especially given the fact they had to cater for new comers AND vets, I don't think they missed a beat at all. And all the fluff/bloated story content of Y5 and other titles were ultimately removed. It had easily the best story since Yakuza 1 and Yakuza 4.

At least the game can be completed without too much grinding, which isn't something you can say about other games.
Ya but it kinda feels unfulfilling haves loads of unlearned skills. I could load up my original save games of any of the others in the series an see a near or max level Kiryu. Can't say that for this one!

Filler? I feel like you came into the game with a lot of preconceptions and maybe bias.
I am bias about prequels! Not hiding that! They don't advance stories an the absence or even mentions of characters/big events that took place in 'em in any of the games that follow seems silly.

Why does a character need to exist in five other Yakuza games for them to be worth telling a story about? The characters in Y0 were mostly really memorable and enjoyable. It was a great story, and they served their purpose within it.
They dun gotta exist or be given mention in every game but for a series which references people/stuff from previous games (yet never sees fit to lay a foundation for the next games story. Don't get me wrong its nice ta not have some sequel bait post-credits scene but~) it feels like an omission.

I don't have the perspective you do because this was my first Yakuza game, but for my money it had one of the better stories and some of the best characters I've seen in a game.
Don't get me wrong I did like the story outside of a couple things! Was pumped to see where it was all going. Just found it really hard ta invest in the characters we'd surely never see of hear about again.

I'm not entirely sure Sagawa is dead, considering the amount of people that get shot and survive throughout the story. I assumed he was dead when the Nikkyo guy shot him but nope, then I assumed the Nikkyo guy was dead when Sagawa shot him but no again. Yakuza have terrible aim.
He was likened to a father figure to Majima and at the end Majima was like "dude I'ma take after you but even so you'll outlive us all". Thats a death flag clear as day.
 

Shaneus

Member
Just wanted to say: FUCK RUSH TRAINING!
Is that the avoid punching one? Yeah, I hated that too. Probably my least favourite out of all the training.

Loved the docks one the most, though. But that's just because Beast is the god-tier fighting mode (and the little side-stories are nice, too).
 
Is that the avoid punching one? Yeah, I hated that too. Probably my least favourite out of all the training.

Loved the docks one the most, though. But that's just because Beast is the god-tier fighting mode (and the little side-stories are nice, too).

Yeah, avoiding getting knocked down on the ground. It's such horse shit, because the one I'm stuck on is the third match. If it wasn't bad enough that the crowd blocks my ability to get a good angle on the guy im fighting against, he will knock me down in one hit. He has a string of like 3 or 4 swings, and the final one ALWAYS knocks you down. So even if you manage to avoid all the others, if he touches you with that one punch, you go flying.
 
Yeah, avoiding getting knocked down on the ground. It's such horse shit, because the one I'm stuck on is the third match. If it wasn't bad enough that the crowd blocks my ability to get a good angle on the guy im fighting against, he will knock me down in one hit. He has a string of like 3 or 4 swings, and the final one ALWAYS knocks you down. So even if you manage to avoid all the others, if he touches you with that one punch, you go flying.

Have you bought the ability for multiple sidesteps yet? I thought it was pretty easy to avoid getting hit with that, just do 3-4 sidesteps as soon as he starts swinging to get to the opposite side of the circle.
 
Is Mr Shakedown supposed to be this easy on normal? Because they're making fighting regular fights pointless because I'm swimming in cash. Pretty disappointing if I'm supposed to limit myself and avoid him.
 
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