An absolute masterpiece!

I have never played any game from the Yakuza series, so when I saw Yakuza 0 I figured "Hey, why not?" it's set in 1980s Japan, and it's VERY well portrayed, with neon lights everywhere and noisy gambling parlors plus many Sega HI TECH LAND arcades where hearing people talk about the old arcade games (which are fully playable btw, and emulated to near perfect accuracy) as "state of the art" and "brand new" makes me smile every time.

The graphics are amazing, the voices are in Japanese with English subtitles and I wouldn't have it any other way, the voice acting is top notch, and the MINIGAMES! OH GOOD LORD! <3 managing a cabaret club? is ridiculous fun, and you get FILTHY RICH! in the process, on the other characters side you get to be a real estate kingpin, not QUITE as fun, but nets more cash overall. There are also non-profit minigames such as Pocket Racing, the arcade games, the disco, karaoke, pool, darts, telephone club YOU NAME IT! Yakuza 0 has a minigame for it!

The story is excellent, brilliantly paced and the confrontations between bosses and the dialogue before you battle sets the mood perfectly. The combat system is excellent, very fluid and easy to work with (Similar to Sleeping Dogs combat) and has different fighting styles which can all be levelled up separately to mix things up.

Overall Yakuza 0 is one of the BEST games I've played, and I am SO glad that my first entry to the series was this one, I HIGHLY suggest you pick this up, the amount of content you get for your money is astounding and there are TONS of interesting sidequests worth your time, plus Michael Jackson (Miracle Johnson) is in it, so there's that!

ALSO: Koi No Disco Queen is such a DAMN good song. Trust me, you'll be humming it for DAYS!...plus it's my ringtone, which makes public transport WAY more fun when someone calls me.

EDIT: Nominated this game for "Game of the Year" Steam Awards 2018

An incredible game and a very worthy entry into the already stunning Yakuza series!

I enjoyed every second of this game, the RPG mechanics are excellent, the amount of creativity thrown into the RPG aspect of Yakuza 7 is simply stunning, each job had its own unique style with skills and animations, with very little copy and pasting going on, everything feels original and fleshed out. The English voice acting is also pretty good (I also played Yakuza 0, Kiwami and Kiwami 2 in Japanese with subtitles) and has a host of quality well respected voice actors, SEGA spared no expense with the voices in Yakuza 7.

As expected storyline, music, minigames and overall "feel" of the world are incredible as expected, this feels like a true AAA game experience, no corners cut. The Dragon Quest references are awesome, with Ichiban acting like a kid at times regarding being the hero who defeats the villains and it's charming and wonderful!

The only part I would say I didn't like quite as much was the business management sim, it's not bad and you get an optional and very good party member out of it, but it can seem far more complex than it really is, and I had to look up some guides at first to get the hang of it but once you figure it out, it's a good way to get some easy yen. Speaking of Yen, money in this game is not as easy to come by in comparison with previous games, don't expect to be walking around at all times with 50 million yen in the bank, you're gonna be pretty broke for the most part and have to scavenge and sell a lot before you get a steady income going.

Mini-games are the standard affair, we have the classics (Space Harrier, Super Hang On, Fantasy Zone, Virtua Fighter 2) but also an EXCELLENT port of Virtua Fighter 5 which is a nice addition! as well as Baseball & Golf which are identical to Kiwami 2, so nothing new there. However the latest minigame is the brand new DRAGON KART! and boy is it fun.

And to answer the question I see asked everywhere:

"I've never played any of the games before, can I start with this one?"

OF COURSE! other than some character references here and there this is a nice fresh start with a new location and protagonist!"

Overall Yakuza 7 is an easy 10/10 for me, and I voted it as my Game of the Year in the Steam Awards!