Yakuza 0: Director's Cut - Switch 2 Review
"The additions to the game were largely unnecessary."
With the series’ meteoric rise in popularity outside of Japan this past decade, I don’t believe the Yakuza franchise needs an introduction at this point. Yakuza 0 is a prequel to the legendary franchise and widely considered the best in the series. Well, RGG Studios thought the release of the Switch 2 would be the perfect time to announce an updated port of the game, Yakuza 0: Director’s Cut, boasting a new multiplayer mode, new cutscenes and a full English dub. But those of us who are familiar with movies would know that sometimes Director’s Cuts aren’t the best way to watch a movie. Will this game fall into the same trap or will it stick the landing?
The Good
First things first, coming from my somewhat recent review of the original Switch’s port of Yakuza Kiwami to this is like night and day. My biggest gripe with that port was that, obviously, the original Switch was nowhere near powerful enough to run the game properly but being able to play Yakuza 0: Director’s Cut in 4k 120fps is a sight to behold. When Nintendo announced the Switch 2 was capable of those numbers, I was highly sceptical, but this made me see the light.
As for its gameplay, it's all here, as good as ever. Yakuza 0’s legendary combat is as tight and responsive as it always has been; the addictive cabaret and real estate minigames have not needed any tweaks; and who could forget the multitude of side content ranging from wacky substories to fully playable Sega Arcade games? The Yakuza franchise is known for its deluge of content with each game and Yakuza 0: Director’s Cut is no exception.
Lastly, I want to touch on my personal favourite addition to the game, Red Light Raid. This is the newly added multiplayer mode added to Yakuza 0: Director’s Cut but don’t worry, you can play it solo if you wish. Red Light Raid is a wave-based horde mode that lets you play as pretty much every named character the game has that has a moveset, from random bums from one of the many substories to major bosses (yes, you can play as Kuze). As you fight, you earn money, which can be used to upgrade your chosen character. Lesser-known characters are weaker but require less money to upgrade, while major characters are stronger but take significantly more money to upgrade. While it's not the deepest thing the franchise has introduced, it's a nice snippet of gameplay for those that just want to jump straight into the combat or just want to show friends what they’re missing out on.
TL;DR
- Superb performance
- Gameplay is as good as ever
- Red Light Raid is a fun addition
The Bad
When I heard that they were adding new cutscenes with Yakuza 0: Director’s Cut, my heart sank because rarely does adding extra stuff into an already finished story make it any better and here it is no exception. At best the new cutscenes add nothing but at worst they undermine key emotional moments within the story and character growth. Rubber bullets have kind of become a joke within the community—well, I guess we have to add rubber explosions to that too (if you know, you know).
Now, I am a voice actor, not a very good one but regardless, I have a lot more insight into these kinds of things than the average person. For the most part, the English dubs of the more recent Yakuza games have been really good, with one exception: Yong Yea as Kazuma Kiryu. Voice acting is hard, incredibly hard, though most issues people have with certain voice actors’ performances can be blamed on the voice director and not the actor. Not this time around; it's been very clear from the start that Yong Yea as Kiryu was just a poor casting decision. Trying to match Takaya Kuroda’s performance as Kiryu is an impossible task and I would not envy anyone who would be forced to be compared to him and his work but Yong Yea’s performance is just distracting. He just doesn’t have the intensity for all the action Kiryu goes through nor does he have the stoic subtlety for the slower, sombre moments. What makes his performance stick out worse, though, is that he’s put right next to legendary voice actor Matt Mercer and his stellar performance as secondary protagonist and franchise favourite Goro Majima. Yong Yea as Kiryu is the one sour spot in an otherwise incredible dub and it's a shame he’s playing the face of the entire franchise. However, this is all to say that the new English dub is optional and you can still play the game, in its entirety, with the original Japanese dub.
TL;DR
- New cutscenes actively ruin the story
- Yong Yea as Kiryu is still distracting
Final Score: 7/10
I should not be scoring a port of Yakuza 0 this low but the additions to the game were largely unnecessary. While I enjoyed my time with Red Light Raid, it was not worth all the negatives that were brought in alongside it. If you just want to play Yakuza 0 at 4k 120fps, then this is the port for you. Everything that made the original game great is still here, but if you want the best version of the game, then I’d steer clear of Yakuza 0: Director’s Cut.
Thank you for checking out our Yakuza 0: Director’s Cut Switch review, thank you to Sega (via Five Star Games PR) for providing the review code and thank you to our Patreon Backers for their ongoing support:
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