What stands out to me with each entry as I punch and bash my way through it is how familiar and yet different Kamurocho feels. To the point that when reporter Jake Adelstein interviewed several actual Yakuza members shortly after the launch of Yakuza 3 and they were pointing out and recognizing places in the game. Modelled after the real-life entertainment district in Japan, Kabukicho, Kamurocho is a lovingly crafted and realistic digital recreation of this district’s major streets and buildings. Yakuza 0 is a great place to start in the series, despite its fair share of pacing issues, but what I fell in love with wasn’t just the over the top brawler combat, heat actions, minigames and soap opera drama, it was the city. The whole affair ending in heartbreak and helped to colour why he acts so aloof and chaotic in the following entries.
#Yakuza kiwami majima building something series#
Yakuza 0 aimed to fix that, making Nishki much more involved in the plot by trying to help Kiryu and by being his best friend, staunch ally and supporter, instead of being the cold distant rival he became in the first game.Īnd while Kiryu had his own host of problems to solve in 0, Majima had his own plotline in a first for the series where he helped save a woman in tragic circumstances. This caused their conflict in the first game to lack weight and context. Yakuza 1 misstepped a bit by not giving the player enough time to buy into the dynamic between Kiryu and his blood brother, Akira Nishikiyama. It was a strong entry in the series and helped to further contextualize the series’ main protagonists, the stoic stone-faced Kazuma Kiryu and the crazy Mad Dog himself Majima Goro. Years later I would be pushed into picking up the prequel, Yakuza 0. I was first dropped into the neon lit streets of Kamurocho when Sony made Yakuza 5 free for a month and while it was a fun experience, it didn’t hook with me enough to finish it, but it was enough to put the franchise on my radar.
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