The prequel to Sega’s critically-acclaimed and fan-favorite Yakuza series will be coming to the states and Europe. As announced on the Playstation Blog, Yakuza 0 will be coming to PS4 sometime in early 2017. Although the game is also available for PS3 in Japan, only the PS4 version will be coming to the West.
Yakuza 0 will show players the origin of series protagonist Kazuma Kiryu and what lead him to join the Yakuza. After Kiryu is blamed for a debt collection that ends in murder, he must try to regain his honor and save the reputation of his father figure, Shintaro Kazama.
Players will also get to see the origin of series regular Goro Majima, “the mad dog of the Shimano Family.” Majima is living a good life and runs an above-board cabaret, but what he really desires is to rejoin the Yakuza Clan he was kicked out of. This will be the first game of the series where fans can play as Goro Majima.
From the screenshots shown, it looks as though Yakuza 0 will have all the features that fans are familiar with. The open-world city is yours to explore, with plenty of capsule toys and arcade games to interact with. Players will traverse the hidden world of the Yakuza, fighting off enemies with a wide arrange of melee moves and combos. For anyone who hasn’t played a game in the Yakuza series, it’s basically like Shenmue but with much more violence and sleaze. Fans of the Yakuza series will have a blast while finding out the origins of some of their favorite characters when Yakuza 0 comes out in early 2017.