Yakuza 6: The Song of Life does not suffer from such issues. From a gameplay perspective, some of the older games are pretty clunky compared to their more recent, streamlined counterparts. Like a lot of PlayStation 2 and early PlayStation 3 titles, some of the Yakuza games haven't aged super well. Playing Yakuza games in 2020 can be all over the place. Now that Yakuza 0 is also on Game Pass for Xbox One and PC, there's really no reason to not try it out.Īfter you finish playing Yakuza 0, just jump all the way to the end. It also serves as the best introduction to the series’ characters, even better than the first Yakuza game, giving each plenty of screen time to explore their personalities and motivations. It tells a mature story of trauma, love, and camaraderie and how all of those things can be intertwined with sometimes messy results. We're also given a chance to explore series protagonist Kazuma Kiryu's younger self, his role within the Tojo yakuza clan, and the friendships and relationships long-established in earlier games.Ī lot of people point to Yakuza 0 as the best game in the series, and for good reason. Later in the Yakuza timeline, Majima is a loose cannon and a bit of an oddball antihero, but in Yakuza 0 we're introduced to a subdued, almost subtle Majima and discover the life events that led him to lose control and become the person he is in later games. The standout here is Goro Majima, playable for the first time, and given one of the better story arcs in the series. Taking place more than a decade before the events of the first Yakuza game, Yakuza 0 reintroduces the series' characters, allowing new players to get to know its large cast and where each of them came from. This is the best place to start your Yakuza journey. The recent Yakuza renaissance outside of Japan, in a lot of ways, can be attributed to the 2017 release of Yakuza 0, the sixth main entry in the series.

Best order to play yakuza games