'Yakuza 0 Director's Cut' Review

Video Games

Jun 25

If you like crime dramas like The Sopranos and the satire of Grand Theft Auto, then the Yakuza/Like a Dragon series might be for you. Yakuza 0 received an enhanced port to the Nintendo Switch 2 titled Yakuza 0: Director’s Cut. How does the title fare on the beefed-up hybrid console? Let’s find out!

Warning: There may be minor spoilers for Yakuza 0 contained in this review.

Gameplay

The gameplay of Yakuza 0: Director’s Cut remains unchanged from its initial 2015 release, featuring a fusion of intense beat-em-up action and role-playing elements. The game focuses on both Kazunma Kiryu and Goro Majima as they traverse the streets of the fictional Kamurocho and Sotenbori (modeled after the real-life Kabukicho district in Tokyo and Otenbori district in Osaka, respectively), alternating between the two of them at certain points in the story. Combat is a huge focus of the game. Kazuma Kiryu and Goro Majima each have their own similar yet distinct fighting styles. You will encounter several enemies to smash, including yakuza members, men in black, and even drunk hooligans. No matter who Kiryu or Majima encounter, beating enemies to a pulp rewards the player with cash that can be spent on food, weapons, equipment, or themselves, as money is used to unlock abilities. Each of their fighting styles also has a mentor that the player can visit to learn new moves.

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There’s also plenty to do outside of smashing faces into the streets of Kamurocho or Sotenbori. You can explore those streets too! Some exploration will be needed for the main story, but much of it consists of fun side quests and mini-games. Side quests are triggered by talking to pretty much anyone on the street, and they range from the mundane to the absolutely silly. For example, there’s a Majima side quest where you must rescue a girl from a cult that has taken advantage of her, and the practitioners are all sitting in a room chanting “Shooreh pippi” to try and attain “kulipaas” to get spiritual purity.

Kiryu and Majima can also entertain themselves while roaming the streets. Both can go to karaoke bars to sing in special rhythm mini-games, and they can also play darts and billiards in other bars. Bowling, golf, and batting cages are also available as activities, but perhaps the highlight of these little distractions is the inclusion of classic SEGA arcade games, something inherited from the franchise’s spiritual predecessor, the Dreamcast title Shenmue.

Both characters also have their own businesses to run. Kiryu has a real estate agency where he can buy commercial properties and earn revenue from them. Majima has his cabaret club, Club Sunshine, and this is slightly more interactive than Kiryu’s real estate ventures. Whereas in both, the player can assign people to certain functions, the cabaret club’s activity is more hands-on, as Majima actively monitors the business day of Club Sunshine, helping out when needed. These side businesses ultimately exist as another way for the player to earn in-game currency.

Lastly, there’s also an online mode where players can team up with other players and take on hordes of enemies in a certain amount of time. This mode, called the Red Light Raid, can be played solo, online with strangers, or online with friends. It boasts 60 playable characters (with Kiryu and Majima’s fighting styles each being a separate character), and players earn in-game money, which can be used to unlock these characters. Overall, there’s a lot to do in the game, and you can easily sink several hours into any of the gameplay facets.

Story

As mentioned earlier, Kazuma Kiryu and Goro Majima are both playable characters in this title, so Yakuza 0 has two interconnected main stories. The game takes place in 1988, and we first focus on Kazuma Kiryu in Kamurocho, Tokyo. Kiryu starts as a member of the Dojima family, a subsidiary of the Tojo Clan. However, he is soon framed for the murder of a salaryman whom he was assigned to collect a debt from. To protect his adoptive father, Shintaro Kazama, he leaves the family and begins searching for information on who really killed the salaryman, clearing his name. Along the way, he joins forces with Tachibana Real Estate, a real estate company founded by Tetsu Tachibana. Tachibana offers to help Kiryu clear his name if he helps him acquire the cornerstone to a redevelopment project that is important to Tachibana and the Dojima Clan: the Empty Lot. Kiryu agrees to this arrangement, and the battle lines between Kiryu and the Dojima Clan are officially drawn.

In Sotenbori, Osaka, we focus on Goro Majima, a disgraced former Tojo Clan yakuza from the Shimano family turned Cabaret Grand club manager, a role he took as punishment due to his role in an assassination years earlier. Majima is desperate to earn his way back into the ranks of the yakuza, and he finally gets an assignment from Tsukasa Sagawa, the oath brother of the Shimano family’s former patriarch, Futoshi Shimano, who was assigned to watch over Majima. Sagawa offers him a chance to rejoin the family if he assassinates someone named Makoto Makimura. Majima accepts the job but soon finds out that Makimura is not at all who he expected to be. Makoto Makimura, the target of the hit, is a young blind girl under the protection of former assassin Wen Hai Lee.

The Empty Lot connects both stories, but though this review contains spoilers, this is one spoiler this writer will leave hidden. Yakuza 0’s story is full of twists, turns, and melodrama that truly make it a compelling narrative. In addition to the main story, several side stories may or may not connect to the main plot in some way. Yakuza 0: Director’s Cut also features new cutscenes that expand upon certain characters, such as Kiryu’s adoptive brother Nishikiyama. This is a nice bonus for returning fans and not too distracting for newcomers. Overall, the story of Yakuza 0: Director’s Cut will truly pull you in.

Graphics

As the original game is from 2015 and originally released on eighth-generation consoles, there is some slight age to the graphics. However, they still look rather impressive even 10 years later. Better yet, they look fantastic on both the Switch 2’s LCD screen and on a high-definition 4K display. Yakuza 0: Director’s Cut appears to have also gained some more detail due to the higher resolution when compared to the original title. The game also runs at a smooth 60fps with little, if any, slowdown. Artistically, it has a stylized realism that helps sell you on the drama, but it also makes the sillier moments even more hilarious. Overall, Yakuza 0: Director’s Cut looks great graphically.

Music And Sound

The music is fantastic. Each track perfectly sells the mood of the scene using primarily electronic styles. However, other styles are represented too, such as rock, pop, and smooth jazz. Some tracks even have an ‘80s flair, which is highly appropriate given the game’s setting. The background music, though impressive in its own right, isn’t the real star. Rather, it’s the vocal songs that Kiryu and Majima can sing in karaoke. These songs could pass for legitimate '80s chart-toppers, and having these two hardened criminal types singing them adds to their charm.

The voice acting is good in Japanese and in the game’s new English dub. On the Japanese side, we have Takaya Kuroda as Kazuya Kiryu and Hidenari Ugaki as Majima. Both do fantastically in their roles, with Kuroda capturing Kiryu’s stoic and serious demeanor well, and Ugaki mostly keeping it calm and collected while still being able to show his flamboyant and vicious sides as well. On the English side of things, Yong Yea voices Kiryu, and Matthew Mercer (known for Espio in the Sonic the Hedgehog series and Hit in Dragon Ball Super). Yea leans a lot into the stoicism of Kiryu, but that doesn’t mean he’s a stone-cold robot. He’s still pretty expressive, especially in one of the new cutscenes with Nishikiyama (voiced by Kaiji Tang in English). Mercer does a great job as Majima and isn’t afraid to ham it up when needed. The voice acting in both languages has a tone that’s in between that of an anime and a dramatic film, but the English dub admittedly leans a little more into the anime tone. Both voice-over tracks beautifully convey the story and immerse the player in the world.

Pros And Cons

Let’s begin with the pros. First, the game looks and plays well. It can be a bit slow at times, but there’s just so much to do that you can’t help but get sucked in. The story is also full of twists and turns that make the game feel even more impactful. Plus, having this game on the Switch 2 makes it even more impossible to put down, seeing as you can take it anywhere practically. The inclusion of an English dub also gives something new for returning fans who may have played this game 10 years ago. Furthermore, though the game does take itself seriously most of the time, it has plenty of welcome campy and goofy parts, including the Michael Jackson parody, Miracle Johnson

There are some cons, however. Firstly, though the game does look good, there are several times where the graphics clearly show their age, particularly in the transition from pre-rendered cutscenes to in-game cutscenes. Though the models themselves look detailed, they have a stiffness to them that was common in early eighth-generation titles. Some of the NPC models also haven’t aged that well. Another con has to do with the voice-over. Though there is an English voice-over track, there’s still plenty of Japanese voices, particularly for a lot of the minor NPCs. This isn’t a major deal-breaker, but it can seem odd, particularly when you still have Kiryu and Majima in English responding to the Japanese NPCs. Furthermore, though the Red Light Raid mode is a nice addition, it’s a rather shallow multiplayer experience that doesn’t really add much. Lastly, this is a game-key card title, so this means if you purchase it physically, you will need to download the whole game onto the system rather than the game being on the cart itself. The cart acts as a license to play the title, and it must be inserted into the console in order to play, should you have a physical copy. This is a minor con, but it may be a deciding factor for whether or not you buy the game physically or digitally.

Verdict

Yakuza 0: Director’s Cut is an excellent update to the original Yakuza 0. It cleans up great and runs well on the Nintendo Switch 2 and is a blast to play. Returning Yakuza/Like a Dragon Fans might not get much out of this game if they’ve already played it on PlayStation 4 or Xbox One, as the English voice-over track, Red Light Raid, and additional cutscenes are the only major additions to the title, but this is definitely the version to pick up if you haven’t played it yet. So don’t be a fool! Pick up Yakuza 0: Director’s Cut Today!

Rating: 9/10

Developers: Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio; Publisher: SEGA; Players: Single player locally, 1-4 players online; Released: June 05, 2025; ESRB: M for Blood, Intense Violence, Sexual Content, Use of Alcohol; MSRP: $49.99

Review played on Nintendo Switch 2

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