if you're a casual gamer that only wants to finish the game without the 100% achievement, i would give 10000000/10. previously, i've played Yakuza game in old consoles, Yakuza 1, Yakuza 3, Yakuza 5, Yakuza 6, Yakuza Dead Souls, and The Man Who Erased His Name in PS5. So far, Yakuza 0 is the best out of all the Yakuza games. in terms of story, character building, fighting mechanism, skill progression, money making, gameplay, QoL, everything is perfect. I highly recommend Yakuza 0 for those whose new to the franchise and for those who loves Yakuza franchise but havent played the game.
But after i reached my 100% achievement completion under 150 hrs (i didnt believe it myself either, thought its gonna be longer), MY GOD THIS GAME IS IRRITATING. why? here's some of my tips, and struggles that i found.
1. Since 100% completion list needs to be finished, you need to play minigames and reach the goal. AND SOME OF THE MINIGAMES ARE RNG (i.e. mahjong, shogi, casino games, casino in west park, AND JCC CATFIGHT), thankfully i know how to play mahjong irl, its a bit different rules from what i know and its FULLY RNG but at least im enjoying it, for shogi, theres a way to cheese it, casino games, you can chip in everytime you win some, so theres a strategy to win it. and for the rest, GOOD LUCK. ESPECIALLY JCC CATFIGHT MY GOD.
2. A LOT OF POINTLESS CHALLENGES. for example, CLIMAX BATTLE. its pointless, cos it doesnt have any significance to the story and to the progress in the story mode, and most of the challenges are frustrating, you can call me skill issue and idgaf the challenges are still pointless.
3. LEGEND DIFFICULTY, i only encountered 2 problems, escort mission, dude the npc that youre escorting can only take 2-3 hits max. and if they dead, you'd have to restart the mission. some of the escort mission is also on the end of the whole mission (i.e. the car chase mission) so, PAY EXTRA ATTENTION to the one you escort. make a perimeter and dont commit to one enemy. Second problem is the FINALE, the lack of checkpoints makes me wanna vomit, times I spent on legend difficulty is 9 hrs. but i think i spent more than 5 hrs alone on the finale (disclaimer: i only had several 50 million skills, and 1-2 100 million yen skills) im very underleveled. once you reached the point of no return, make sure you have max inventory of Staminan Royale. cos there's literally no checkpoint.
All in all, its a great game. thanks to the developer for creatinga checklist of all the telephone cards, ufo catcher prizes, fishes, etc. it helps a lot. Subquest is king, i actually finished the majority of the subquests accidentally cos its very enjoyable and funny. the Casino Club Czar, and Real Estate Royale is fun but repetitive, however, its very rewarding so i dont really mind. Some of the challenges honestly can be removed, like the climax battle. or at least remove it from the achivement list. Great game RGG, ya'll did it. Its a MUST PLAY.
