Yakuza 0 Director's Cut

I still remember Masayoshi Yokoyama's statements, back in 2022 (which is almost like saying the day before yesterday), in which the executive producer of the Yakuza series at Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio didn't see it likely that his stories of the Japanese crime underworld would come to a console like the Nintendo Switch. I remember those statements because they led to a new era for the series with Yakuza: Like a Dragon, its sequels and spin-offs, a TV series... and finally the moment of truth, with a first field test in late 2024 with a simple but effective port of Yakuza Kiwami to Switch 1. Sales figures for Kiwami on Nintendo Switch have never been released, but Yokoyama himself admitted a few days after release that he "got it wrong", and that Yakuza on Switch sold "like hot cakes".

All this trajectory has led us to the opposite situation from the comments of less than three years ago, when Yakuza 0 Director's Cut arrives not only for Nintendo Switch 2, but in its definitive version, as a temporary exclusive for the console, and as a launch game for the hardware itself. A very solid vote of confidence between Nintendo and the Sega-published franchise... perhaps the start of something big.

It's clearer to me now that Yakuza Kiwami was just a trial to see Nintendo's public reaction to the franchise, and that the next logical step would be to bring all the games in the franchise (of which there are many) to the new hardware, designed more than ever to favour third-parties. And what better way than to do it at the beginning of the chronology, which also happens to be one of the best stories in the series. Yakuza 0 Director's Cut is the definitive version of the first great adventure of two of the main protagonists, Kiryu Kazuma and Goro Majima, and also where important backgrounds of their personalities are forged to be considered in the years to come as Japan's greatest Yakuza legends.

And while I wouldn't normally dwell too much on this topic, I'm sure that many players will have their first real taste of the action side of RGG thanks to this one, so I can assure you that you're in for a story of honour, betrayal and lots and lots of humour, set in a fairly accurate recreation of the underworld of late 80s Japan.

Yakuza 0 Director's Cut is a dual release consisting of the stories of Kiryu and Goro before they meet and intertwine their destinies forever with the events of Yakuza Kiwami and, specifically, with the figure of Haruka. Here they are two twentysomethings looking to make their way in the Yakuza world, each with their own problems. Normally the franchise's plots are quite dramatic, and this one is not only no slouch, it's one of the best, if not the best. Yakuza 0 already knew how to surprise the new player with its plot twists, and for the veteran it offers a more in-depth look at these two protagonists, but it's so much more. The club and real estate management mini-games, the hundred side stories full of humour and hilarious caricatures of the society of the time, dozens of classic SEGA mini-games and arcade games, the combat system with mid-combat style switching... all of those pieces were already great in 2017, and now they return with superior visuals. Yakuza 0 was a great game, but what does this Director's Cut include, and is it worth paying full price for?

As I just mentioned, it now looks better than ever. Nintendo Switch 2 allows the title to look full HD in handheld mode and 4K on the Dock, but always at a steady 60fps. There's little to complain about in this regard, and it's true that the graphical tweaks, especially in the cinematic scenes, are quite noticeable. I didn't realise there was a need to show even the pores of Kiryu's cheekbones on screen with such sharpness, but it makes it easier to notice the little telltale gestures in certain parts of the story, and also to laugh louder when one of the characters does a comic encore in the side stories. Yakuza 0 Director's Cut has expanded with precisely 30 minutes of brand new, never-before-seen cinematics, but the vast majority of them are brief additions to the story that don't make any major changes. They serve, rather, to make the characters' situations and reflections clearer. A little candy for those who return to this story, but they don't necessarily justify a new game just for the sake of them.

There's also a new game mode for this installment, called Red Light Raid, which is really just the same Colosseum mode we've seen in other recent entries of the series as well, with the added bonus that here you can join forces with up to three other friends to take on hordes of enemies together and unlock other recurring characters from the franchise. Admittedly, it's not a mode I've spent a lot of time on, but it's certainly enough for a few sessions of fighting and laughing with friends via GameChat.

Localisation into more languages seems to have been the highlight of this Director's Cut. Yakuza 0 finally debuts English dubbing with the classic and recognisable English-speaking voices of the series (Matt Mercer giving the register of a calm Majima is surprising), and the result is satisfying. I played the first few hours with this new dub and the performances are flawless. The other big news is that we finally have subtitles in French, Italian, German and Spanish. Gamers have waited a long time to be able to play this title in their own language, but this is where ambition seems to have neglected the final product. At least in the Spanish version there are numerous localisation errors, missing punctuation and question marks, as well as incorrect sentences and even text panels that mix English and Spanish. Nothing catastrophic, but noticeable, and more common than what I would consider an isolated error.

I can't confirm that this problem is widespread in other new Yakuza 0 Director's Cut localisations, but for a game of such calibre and one of the flagships for Nintendo Switch 2's landing among gamers, it does seem more serious to me.

So, is Yakuza 0 Director's Cut worth buying? Despite its flaws (which will hopefully be fixed in future patches), RGG Studio's work remains a true gem of an action game, and the best gateway to the fantastic action Yakuza series. The new content and added/improved details alone may not convince many, but there's no doubt that, all in all, this is the best way to play Yakuza 0 that we'll ever have.