Living the Life of Kazuma Kiryu in Yakuza 0 Director's Cut | Adli's Quick Games Review

Header for Yakuza 0 Director's Cut.
Credit to RGG Studio, SEGA, embedded from Steam.

This article is in English. Untuk membaca versi Bahasa Indonesia, klik di sini.

Notice and Specs

• This article aims to share information about this game.
• There is no intention to infringe on any copyright.
• The copyright for any images, videos, or other media used in this article belongs to their respective owners, whether developers or publishers of this game, unless otherwise stated.
• The author is not an employee, internal staff member, or official representative of the game's developer or publisher. The author's relationship with the game's team is limited to that of an independent creator partner through the SEGA/ATLUS Summer Sale campaign.
• This article purely reflects the author's own perspective.
• This article is based on the author's personal experience playing this game. Future patches or changes to this game may not be reflected in this article.
• This article was translated from Indonesian to English with the assistance of Claude, an AI by Anthropic. Translation quality may not be on par with that of a human translator.

Introduction

As someone who isn't very "cultured" in the Yakuza franchise — who only knows the wildly popular Baka Mitai, even among people who've never touched the franchise; who has only ever played Yakuza via emulator; and whose viewers are far more well-versed in this franchise than I am — this occasion, as part of the SEGA/ATLUS Summer Sale promotion, gave me the chance to try one of the Yakuza titles: Yakuza 0. Was it fun?

Game Details

Detail

Trailer (Switch Version)

Check out the game's trailer below :)

Yakuza 0 Director's Cut | Announce Trailer | Nintendo Switch™ 2

Credit to SEGA channel on YouTube.

Adli's Gameplay

Want to watch my gameplay video? You can check it out below:

Teller's Duty, Yakuza 0: Director's Cut, Metaphor: ReFantazio, and 6 other games!

Credit to Adli_HM channel on YouTube.

Review and Recommendation

Short Review

Once again, as someone who has only ever played Yakuza via emulator — and it wasn't the most enjoyable experience, since some buttons didn't register correctly — playing this officially released PC version of Yakuza 0 was actually a far more enjoyable experience. The gameplay and combos are easy to grasp, the story is easy to follow, and the audio — voice acting, SFX, music — is great. The game is also impressively optimized for modern PCs. So all the frustrations from playing the emulator version before were completely made up for by this PC release.

Adli's Recommendation

[VERDICT: YES]

Why Should You Buy It?

So, why should you buy this title?

Stunning visuals!

This game, despite having been released a long time ago — its first announcement trailer was eight years ago — still has visuals, models, and designs that I'd say hold up well against modern standards. If anything, comparing it to some newer engines, the character models here feel more "expressive" than those in many newer games. So as someone experiencing the PC version of this franchise for the first time, the first impression was genuinely impressive. It felt like watching an HD animated film!

Stunning and cinematic cutscenes!

Now let's talk about the cutscenes. While some cutscenes are just static models with no lip movement, most of them feature fully animated 3D models with voice acting and subtitles — if you have them enabled. And the cutscenes are genuinely well-made, clearly crafted with care and budget. Even the ambient atmosphere of the environment makes it feel like you're actually walking through an urban city. Though... there are a few moments where the ambient sounds go oddly quiet, not quite matching the busy city setting...

Great optimization!

This is from my perspective as someone with a fairly capable PC. The game is well optimized. The file size is large, around 87 GB or so. But the game runs extremely well on High settings. CPU, GPU, vRAM, and RAM rarely max out, and the FPS holds steady at 60 with virtually no stuttering at all. So the overall experience of playing this game is genuinely enjoyable.

Great audio!

While I already mentioned the great voice acting for cutscenes above, this game also has solid SFX, ambient sound, and music throughout. Even though not every line of dialogue is voiced, it still greatly supports the overall experience of playing the game. The voice acting genuinely feels professional and truly "acted" — nothing about it feels amateurish. The SFX when walking, punching, or when enemies hit certain objects also feels satisfying, like watching an action film. Audio and subtitle options are available in several languages, including Japanese and English.

The one downside... This might still be the tutorial portion, but in the karaoke section, for some reason there was no music at all. I was looking forward to hearing Baka Mitai at the café, but... the music just wasn't there... Such a shame...

Price and Playtime

Lastly, it's worth comparing the price of this game against the amount of content it offers. The non-discounted price is around USD 50. Expensive. And right now, with the discount, it's USD 30. Not bad — saving USD 20. And according to How Long to Beat, the Main Story runs around 30+ hours, and the Completionist route can go up to 120 hours.

In my opinion... With quality like this, and a main story that long — even stretching to 120 hours if you milk it — the USD 30 to 50 price tag feels worth the price. Expensive, yes, but the experience you'll get out of it will more than pay it off.

Closing

Wrapping this up... Maybe I should summarize, and at the same time answer the questions raised at the beginning.

Is the game good for someone new to the Yakuza franchise?

Yep. Based on my playtime — around 72 minutes — and the experience I had, it was genuinely fun.

Is the price worth it for what's offered?

Yep, it feels worth the price. Expensive, yes, but with the quality of the story, audio, visuals, optimization, and content on offer, the experience you'll get will more than pay it off.