Yakuza 0 release date set for January
Smooth criminal.
Yakuza 0 will launch on 24th January in Europe and the Americas, Sega has announced.
It will be available both physically and digitally, exclusively on PS4.
Set in 1988, Yakuza 0 will let players assume the role of two different protagonists. There's series stalwart Kazuma Kiryu and everyone's favourite fashionable one-eyed mobster Goro Majima, before he became known as the Mad Dog of Shimano. This will be the first numbered game in the series where Majima is playable, as he was previously only a controllable character in the zombie spin-off Yakuza: Dead Souls.
As with all Yakuza titles, this prequel will feature a host of mini-games based around Tokyo's red district nightlife. These include dancing at disco halls, engaging in Pocket Circuit car races, and frequenting Telephone Clubs (i.e. clubs where one talks to a pretty girl on the phone behind glass. Think webcam work crossed with visiting someone in prison).
For more on the Yakuza series, Eurogamer contributor Rich Stanton praised the franchise's most recent outing, Yakuza 5, upon its western release last December. "Yakuza 5 is all about refining what was already a great series, and delivering the ultimate version of it," he stated in his glowing Yakuza 5 review.
"There's just so much of it to do and, unlike many 'content-rich' games, almost none of it feels like filler. You can go hunting and fishing, play baseball or golf, darts or pachinko, take on NPCs at Shogi or Mahjong, cook noodles, have snowball fights, dabble in chicken racing or flutter it all away at the casino. It's an imaginary world of such richness that, once you're in, the Yakuza are the least interesting thing about it."