Yakuza 0 (PS4)
By: Sega
ONLY a month into the new year and the traditionally barren release schedules are groaning with top treats from the East. Leading the pack – and certainly the most Japanese – is the latest slice of Mafia mullarkey from Sega.
The sixth game proper in the Yakuza series once again jacks the humble beat 'em up with a mountain of roadside distractions and thick melodrama set in a gloriously absurd world of Japanese pop-culture. Chronologically the first game in the long-running open-world series, there's the usual mix of high drama, soap-opera twists and beefy beatdowns.
Yakuza virgins needn't worry – as an origin story, there's none of the series' lore to decipher, making Zero a perfect launchpad for the curious as loveable hard-ass Kiryu Kazuma, here a mere stripling in his 20s, joins the Dojima crime syndicate. Set in 80s Japan (less radiation, more Clive James), Yakuza 0 offers a glimpse of what Japan's economic bubble was like, and with the country flush with success, money flows like fine Sake.
Players take control of both Kiryu and cycloptic gangster Goro Majima in a potboiler that once again mixes the violent underworld doings of the Asian Mafia with goofball side quests, chapters guiding both through the stinking underbelly of mob politics. Gameplay is a bizarre mix of decking deadbeats and exploring the vibrant cityscapes of Tokyo's Kamurocho and Osaka's Sotenbori, each stuffed rotten with side quests and miscreants ready to be kicked open for their sweet yen, upgrading your cocktail of kicks, punches and weapon-swings en route.
Y'know, in many ways 80s Japan was slightly different to Northern Ireland (apart from finding yourself on the wrong end of a beating for looking at someone cockeyed), with its dense neon jungle of arcades, karaoke bars and massage parlours to visit.
The arcades are full of claw machines and fully playable versions of Sega classics Outrun and Space Harrier while there are dancing and singing games aplenty. In only the first few hours you'll shut down a high school panty-flogging ring, help a dominatrix sharpen her skills and beat seven shades of Shinto out of a load of dudes.
Created for both PS3 and PS4, Yakuza 0 suffers from understandable technical hangover, with chunky visuals and gameplay elements rooted in geriatric hardware. The just-released Yakuza 6 (due on these shores next year) will see the series finally enter the current-gen proper, but until then, this offers all the 80s Orient retro Japanophiles crave.
Like cheap bog roll, Yakuza 0 is both soft and gritty at the same time and perfect for those leaping, like fey trout, into the finger-lopping world of Japanese gangsterism.
