Yakuza 0 Director’s Cut review: Varied improvements for a fan favorite

Fans are generally split about the best starting point in the Yakuza series. Some believe that Yakuza Kiwami is the best place to start, while others think that Yakuza 0 is the way to go. A select few also think you should just jump into Yakuza: Like a Dragon and pretend the rest of the series doesn’t exist, a position I can respect, even if I think it’s markedly deranged. No matter where you fall on the spectrum, though, most people agree that Yakuza 0 is very good, and the Switch 2-exclusive Director’s Cut makes it even better. 

Yakuza 0 is the earliest game in the series, chronologically, featuring fairly young iterations of Kiryu and Majima, the series’ two most recognizable and beloved characters. The game seeks to expand on their past, drawing parallels between the two that were only hinted at in prior games and show what set them on their paths to be some of the most fearsome men in Kamurocho. 

It’s a great story that does justice to both of its leading men. There are times where it sways a little too far into overt fan service, which can be a bit much at times, but it’s filled with sweet moments and revelations that make those characters feel more alive than ever. 

It’s helped along by some fantastic performances across the board in Japanese, but in the Director’s Cut we get to hear those performances in English for the first time. I’m still not entirely sold on Yong Yea’s Kiryu, which pales in comparison to Takaya Kuroda’s Japanese rendition of the character, and a few other minor characters are a bit shaky, but the rest of the cast knocks it out of the park. 

Matt Mercer, for example, absolutely kills it as a young Majima, in a performance that’s a stark contrast to his performance in Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii — it’s calm, direct, and reserved, but still has a touch of the man that will eventually become the Mad Dog of Shimano. It’s very impressively performed, and the same can be said for most of the cast, who all perform well above what I expected for a Switch 2 re-release of a decade-old game. 

Outside of the voice acting, just about everything about Yakuza 0 has been improved in the Director’s Cut in small but meaningful ways. Lighting and textures have been slightly improved, with characters’ skin in particular looking less plasticky. You could argue that it takes away from the old charm of the original release, but I think it helps to make the game feel fresh without taking too much away from it. 

The same can’t exactly be said about the new cutscenes, which expand on the story in strange and often confusing ways. There are unnecessary retcons, with some previously deceased characters inexplicably surviving the events of the story, and while some of them make sense, I’m not entirely sure why they exist at all. It’s even weirder at times because the cinematography and cutscene design is markedly improved compared to scenes in the original, with modern design sensibilities making those new scenes stand out like a sore thumb. It doesn’t take away from the game too much, but there’s no hiding that these parts were added after the fact, which makes the game feel much less cohesive overall. 

In terms of new gameplay additions there’s not a lot to speak of — for the most part, it plays exactly like every other version of the game. There are some small tweaks here and there, some adjusted values behind the scenes and some animation tweaks to make it all flow better, but it’s the same game you know and love, running at a rock-solid 60fps with visuals that look as good as the game ever has. There is the addition of the Red Light Raid mode, which gives you a host of missions to complete alone or in multiplayer, but there’s not much meat there, and I didn’t bother spending much time on it. 

At the end of the day, Yakuza 0: Director’s Cut is the best way to play one of the best games in the series. It looks great, runs well, and the new English dub is very good — with a few exceptions here and there. It stumbles in a few places, but it rarely sullies the charm of the game that millions adore.