Playing like a Designer
Part I: Gamer Perspective
The game I'm doing a review on is Yakuza Zero on the Ps4. Yakuza Zero is an Action-Adventure game where you played as Junior Yakuza, Kiryu Kazama, who is the star of the previous Yakuza games. Along with the ride is another character, Goro Mamiji whose story is connected to Kiryu. The Story takes place in the City of Tokyo at the Kabukichō District and Osaka's Dōtonbori district during 1988. Kiryu was during a collection job for a debt collector and wind up in trouble when the guy who he rough up to get his money ended up dead. The Dojima family are in hot water because the police are investigate the murder which will link to them and put Kiryu in a bad position since he was frame. For Mamiji, he was force to live in Osaka and work at his Mafia Cabaret Club making money for them as punishment for disobey his boss. In order to come back into the family, he must assassinate a person given by his handler but little does he know it will lead to a web of mystery. In this game, Both Characters must complete a series of Missions in order to beat the single player mode, there are mini games to enjoy yourself if you want a break from the main story, like Fishing, Mini circuits car race, Karaoke, and batting cage.
In the Game, Both characters will battle a variety of enemies and gain some currency from beaten them. Kiryu and Mamiji have three different fighting styles to use in battle, each style makes use of speed, power, technique, and weapons. After getting some money from Battle, they can shop for health items or power up for their Heat meter which allow them to pull off some over the top actions on their opponents. They can buy weapons and protection for themselves or gifts for some of the NPC in the game for them to give back a gift for us to use or sell for more money. The Moneys can also be use to upgrade the characters to become stronger and learn new moves to make combat easier. Yakuza Zero is a fun game to have if you enjoy a lot button smasher action and many mini-games to keep you bust in the criminal underworld of Tokyo, Japan.
Part 2 - Designer Perspective
In a Designer Perspective, This game has some flaws. The Animations when the characters talk look robotic with its janky walking movements. The Enemies AI are cheap when outnumber, they keep attacking when you get up. Some of the cutscenes can't be skip like on the side missions, I didn't care about its sub stories. The graphics is better since it plays on PlayStation 4 but when the story cutscenes start, I can't tell its the same or a downgrade. The city has many invisible walls that exploration limit and random encounters are very annoying, with the city map being the same like the previous games. Yakuza zero was hail as one of the best entry in this long running series that caught the attentions of the west for its story and gameplay. With new fans coming into this dark world of Yakuza, will leave some hungry for more.