Yakuza 0 Director's Cut preview — The real deal is coming

This is the first time I've returned to Yakuza 0 since I first played it when it was released on PS4 in 2017. Despite coming out the same week as other notable PS4 games like Resident Evil 7 and Gravity Rush 2, it went on to be a massive success.

For those unfamiliar with Yakuza or the larger Like a Dragon series, the series started on the PlayStation 2 and is often seen as a successor to Shenmue. The original games are 3D beat-em ups with gripping crime drama stories that house tons of twists and turns. They're also known for their copius amounts of side activities and those are just as plentiful as the story itself. Whether you're playing classic Sega arcade games, singing karaoke, racing RC cars, playing darts, or even a business management minigame. Yakuza 0 specifically is a series prequel that first launched worldwide in January 2017 and this Director's Cut release is the first time the game has come to a Nintendo platform.

Yakuza 0 made its way to Xbox and PC but that port was content adjacent to that original PlayStation 3 and 4 releases. Director's Cut adds tons of additional content such as additional cutscenes, a new English dub, and the biggest addition is probably an entire raid mode with online support. Let’s not get too ahead of ourselves here, as we didn’t get to experience a ton in the short time we had with the game.

We were dropped into the beginning of Chapter 3, playing as Majima with his standard form for combat. I ran around Sotenbori for a bit, tried to go fishing but failed, played some Space Harrier, and punched some goons. The game ran at a decent frame rate and resolution, 1080p and 60 frames per second. Though it's worth noting the high amount of pop in and the texture quality being low on both the UI and the signs around the city. I imagine the game will look fine in handheld mode, but it was worth noting.

Combat felt responsive, I was able to pull off combos consistently enough though options were limited because of the placement in the story. Given how short our playtime was, we didn’t get to hear much of the English dub but I imagine if you’ve enjoyed Matt Mercer’s take on the Mad Dog so far, you’ll enjoy his performance here.

After a while we were told to hop to the main menu to try the new Raid Mode. The raid mode has multiple challenges from level one to six, though we only were told to try levels one and three. Each one has multiple stages - each with their own layouts, weapon pickups, and even some boss fights.

There are over 60 playable characters, mostly comprised of various goons you'll encounter in Yakuza 0. But all three forms of Kiryu and Majima, along with a few of the boss characters like Kuze - with their own movesets. I immediately jumped into the third rank, safety be damned. I'm a gamer, I'm tough enough. And yeah, if you've played a decent amount of Yakuza 0, the first couple tiers may be a bit easy. But even then, what I played felt like a well-balanced challenge.

I played as Kiryu just to keep things simple for the time being but there's an entire system of landing hits to build up combos which grants additional money and time. It's a fun beat-em up mode but like some Yakuza side modes, this is more of an extensive minigame than it is its own entire game.

Maybe in a demo setting, it doesn’t feel as satisfying since almost everything gets unlocked after finishing one round. There is a leveling system as well, which I imagine will add replayability, using the money you earn from challenges to increase the capabilities of your lineup. It’ll be interesting to see how well the full mode plays once the game is out, but for what it’s worth, this was a fun time. I imagine it’ll all come together more once we have access to the online modes where you can play with friends or randoms.

Overall, Yakuza 0 Director's Cut is shaping up to be yet another fantastic experience. Yakuza 0 is already one of Sega's greatest games of the modern era with its intense narrative and cavalcade of side content both heartfelt and silly. Having all of that portably on Nintendo Switch 2 with additional options, features, and a new mode has me really excited for the full release on June 5th. Thanks again to Sega for the opportunity! You can expect GamingTrend will be covering Yakuza 0 Director's Cut and more near launch in just a couple weeks. We also have previews for Atlus's Raidou Remastered and Sega's Puyo Puyo Tetris 2S if you're interested in those so keep it locked to GamingTrend!