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Tuesday 16 January, 2018
As an avid fan of the Yakuza series, I was really happy to find that the prequel to the series was something we were allowed to play. I was not as familiar with Yakuza 0 as with the other ones(Yakuza Kiwami and Yakuza 4), and I was eager to get in. Right off the bat, before even starting the game, the first thing that stands out is the title of the game--"Yakuza", which is a term to refer to the Japanese Mafia. From the get go you know that you're going to be playing a shady character.
The opening cutscene also emphasizes this as it presents (a younger) Kazuma Kiryu beating a man to near death and stealing his money. He doesn't even wipe the blood off his face when he leaves him in some back alley! He is later approached by a loan shark, and it's revealed it was a job he took up to get back some "overdue fees". The game's tone shifts suddenly as it goes into an upbeat, rock-themed intro showing you how Kamurocho, Tokyo, is where the nightlife is. It was quite a 180 from the serious tones of the beginning.
Due to the PlayStation belonging to my brother, I could only play for about an hour. However, if I was looking at this as someone who had no knowledge of Kiryu and his personality, it does a good job at presenting you with what he is like. It also gets you thinking about his morals, as it seems he has them pretty skewed, to an extent. He's fine with carrying out a job that requires him to beat a man, take his money, and leave him in a back alley. However, when he sees some hooligans threaten and shakedown a passerby, he immediately steps in and stops them--also beating them to a pulp, but this time to defend a stranger. Although Kiryu's character is pretty set from the get go in Kiwami, which is the next game in the series, it's interesting to see him be a bit more bold and brash, and see him more willing to do some more questionable things. Along with that, we also Nishikiyama, Kiryu's best friend/brother, and they interact just like brother's do, and it seems that the beating up random hooligans is a normal occurrence for them, like the equivalent of taking an extra cookie before dinner.
For these two, that's nothing serious. For the average person playing, beating people up on the daily for no true reason besides getting some cash is a horrid thing to do. Why would you ever beat someone to near death for cash or for just looking at you funny? It's unthinkable. It lets the typical player, who isn't a thug, see what that life is like for people like the Yakuza, where beating people up for no reason is as common as seeing pigeons on the street. At one point, the pair come across a pair of drunks blocking the way, and Kiryu literally goes "I'll just sober them up... with my fists." Nishikiyama only shakes his head like "oh, Kiryu, you silly goose".
When they're not beating people up, they're wandering around, getting junk food, and talking about cute girls. It makes me think about the first discussion in class where we were discussing what morality and ethics are, and it was brought up that it really varies from person to person. To me, beating people for no reason is against my morals, but to Kiryu, it's alright because they were in his way. Right after a day of beating up some dudes, Kiryu goes to some local bar and does some karaoke where he astral projects himself into a killer rock band with Nishiki. Like any other Yakuza.
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