History VideoGame / Yakuza0

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Dojima loses the bid to the empty lot to Sera, and Kiryu is able to prove his innocence in the Empty Lot murder case. Meanwhile, Makoto recovers her sight and is starting a new, peaceful life in Kamurocho having survived the events of the game. However, plenty of people died because of the war for the Empty Lot, including Tachibana, who perishes moments before being reunited with Makoto. And while Majima succeeds in returning to the Tojo Clan like he wanted, he is clearly unhappy with how things went down; worst yet, he has to stay away from Makoto (who remembers him but had no idea what he looked like) [[IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy so she can live a peaceful life]]. On top of that, while Dojima and Shimano's plans failed, they managed to not suffer any direct consequences and able to continue plotting]].

* OriginStory: The game is more or less about how Kiryu and Majima end up earning their titles of "Dragon" and "Mad Dog". [[spoiler:It's also the story behind the construction of the Millennium Tower.]]
* OurFounder: Majima and Kiryu can both purchase golden statues of themselves to decorate their respective offices for a cool ten billion yen. Unfortunately for them, their employees are less than enthused.

** At one point, during Kiryu's stay at a homeless encampment, a group of school delinquents decide to violently attack homeless people for fun, using their immunity as free reign to hospitalize or even kill the outcasts of society.

''Yakuza 0'', known in Japan as 龍が如く0 誓いの場所 (''Ryū ga Gotoku 0: Chikai no Basho'', lit. ''Like a Dragon 0: The Promised Land'') is the sixth main entry and a prequel to the ''VideoGame/LikeADragon'' video game series. It was released in Japan on the Platform/PlayStation3 and Platform/PlayStation4 in March 2015, celebrating the series' [[MilestoneCelebration ten year anniversary]], and in North America and Europe as a [=PS4=] exclusive in January 2017. A port of the game to Platform/{{Steam}} was later announced at E3 2018 and was released on August 1 of that year; the game was additionally released on Platform/XboxOne on 26th February 2020.

** All of the Cabaret Clubs in Sotenbori are named after celestial bodies. The Five Stars whom Majima squares off with have space-themed names for their cabaret clubs: Mars, Jupiter, Mercury, Venus, and [[TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers Moon]]. Opposing all of them is Majima's Club Sunshine. Even the music that plays for lesser battles during the Cabaret Club Czar storyline is named [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYB-D9qEwzI "Interplanetary Spark"]].

* CatFight: One of Kamurocho's attractions is an underground wrestling circuit, where patrons bet on the outcome of matches between beautiful, scantily-clad women.

* TheCameo:
** One of Majima's sidequests has him deal with a young [[VideoGame/Yakuza2 Ryuji Goda]]. As in, back when he was a grade schooler. One of Kiryu's substories also features Ryuji on a field trip in Tokyo.
** Kan Ogita from ''VideoGame/Yakuza5'' can be met in one of the disco substories with Kiryu.
** Dolce Kamiya, the Princess League's announcer in ''5'', appears as a radio host, and gives prizes to Kiryu and Majima for getting their post cards read on his show.
** In one substory, Kiryu meets a young Daigo Dojima, who played a major role in ''VideoGame/Yakuza2'' [[spoiler:and would eventually become chairman of the Tojo Clan, something his father Sohei never accomplished]].
** Another substory for Kiryu features a young Shinji Tanaka, who was a member of a bosozoku gang and mugged yakuza, before Kiryu turned his life around and became his "aniki".
** You can find a parasol resembling the one used by [[VideoGame/Yakuza5 Sango Amon]] via the Dragon and Tiger, as well as the [=MJM56-55=] Exorcist from ''Dead Souls''.

** Majima is far more mentally balanced in this game, which becomes obvious after seeing the first cutscene where he demonstrates another side of his loyalty - that of to himself. He manages to, in the span of about five minutes: cool off a drunkard, knock him on his ass and disarm him, get him to pay the bar tab of the entire club and then has the club forgive him. His fighting styles reflect bits of his later, knife-based acrobatic style - Thug shows his finesse and pragmatism in combat, Slugger shows off his skill with a weapon, while Breaker gives him an incredible sense of unpredictability in combat. [[https://i.ytimg.com/vi/9_OLBv8A5IQ/maxresdefault.jpg Certain Heat Actions]] [[PsychoticSmirk also betray the Mad Dog boiling just under the surface...]]

''Yakuza 0'', known in Japan as 龍が如く0 誓いの場所 (''Ryū ga Gotoku 0: Chikai no Basho'', lit. ''Like a Dragon 0: The Promised Land'') is the sixth main entry and a prequel to the ''VideoGame/LikeADragon'' video game series. It was released in Japan on the Platform/PlayStation3 and Platform/Playstation4 in March 2015, celebrating the series' [[MilestoneCelebration ten year anniversary]], and in North America and Europe as a [=PS4=] exclusive in January 2017. A port of the game to Platform/{{Steam}} was later announced at E3 2018 and was released on August 1 of that year; the game was additionally released on Platform/XboxOne on 26th February 2020.

''Yakuza 0'', known in Japan as 龍が如く0 誓いの場所 (''Ryū ga Gotoku 0: Chikai no Basho'', lit. ''Like a Dragon 0: The Promised Land'') is the sixth main entry and a prequel to the ''VideoGame/LikeADragon'' video game series. It was released in Japan on the UsefulNotes/PlayStation3 and UsefulNotes/Playstation4 in March 2015, celebrating the series' [[MilestoneCelebration ten year anniversary]], and in North America and Europe as a [=PS4=] exclusive in January 2017. A port of the game to UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} was later announced at E3 2018 and was released on August 1 of that year; the game was additionally released on UsefulNotes/XboxOne on 26th February 2020.

* {{Fingore}}: This being a story about yakuza, the practice of [[{{Yubitsume}} cutting off the end of one's pinky finger as a result of a major screw-up]] is discussed. Kuze explicitly tells Kiryu to do this after the shakedown target in the Empty Lot ends up dead. [[spoiler:Kuze himself has to go through with it when Kiryu leaves the Dojima family, since Kuze would effectively be murdering a civilian if he killed Kiryu in Dojima HQ, which would get the family in even more trouble. [[GoryDiscrtionShot The player doesn't get to actually see Kuze doing the deed]], but the blood splatters afterwards clearly show that he went through with it.]]

* {{Fingore}}: This being a story about yakuza, the practice of [[{{Yubitsume}} cutting off the end of one's pinky finger as a result of a major screw-up]] is discussed. Kuze explicitly tells Kiryu to do this after the shakwdown target in the Empty Lot ends up dead. [[spoiler:Kuze himself has to go through with it when Kiryu leaves the Dojima family, since he'd effectively be murdering a civilian, which would get the family in even more trouble. [[GoryDiscrtionShot The player doesn't get to actually see Kuze doing the deed]], but the blood splatters on the ground afterwards clearly show that he went through with it.]]

** The Item menu now has 3 separate sections - Inventory, Components, and Valuables. You can carry more on your person and manage your inventory much better.

*** The most you'll ever need to score in ''[=OutRun=]'' is 5 million points, in order to beat [[spoiler: The Electronics King]]. This roughly equates to about halfway through the game.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Dojima loses the bid to the empty lot to Sera and Kiryu is able to prove his innocence. Meanwhile, Makoto recovers her sight and is starting a new, peaceful life in Kamurocho having survived the events of the game. However, plenty of people died because of the war for the Empty Lot, including Tachibana, who perishes moments before being reunited with Makoto. And while Majima succeeds in returning to the Tojo Clan like he wanted, he is clearly unhappy with how things went down; worst yet, he has to stay away from Makoto (who remembers him but had no idea what he looked like) [[IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy so she can live a peaceful life]]. On top of that, while Dojima and Shimano's plans failed, they managed to not suffer any direct consequences and able to continue plotting]].

* BullyingADragon: After Majima learns that [[spoiler:[[UnwittingPawn he was being used]] by Shimano the whole time]], he suffers a HeroicBSOD and even lets himself get beaten up by a group of street punks. But when [[spoiler:he goes to get revenge against Dojima]], he runs into the same punks from before, who harass and ridicule him. [[TooDumbToLive It ends as well as you'd expect]].

** Shortly after he's framed for murder, Kiryu decides to get himself expelled from the Dojima Family so Kazama won't be held accountable for his actions. Although Dojima honors his expulsion, he still has Kazama take full responsibility for what happened, making Kiryu's efforts in vain.

* DumbMuscle: Downplayed. Kuze starts the game as TheHeavy, being the one who triggers Kiryu's initial defection from the Dojima family to begin with; he remains the most visible antagonist throughout the rest of the game, fighting Kiryu multiple times. While he definitely isn't stupid, Kuze's inability to see the race for the Empty Lot as the complex GambitPileUp that it really is winds up biting him hard. By the time of his final duel with Kiryu, he's been relegated to acting as muscle for the true BigBad, [[spoiler:Shibusawa]]. Kiryu flatly [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech predicts that this]] [[KirkSummation will happen]] in the Loan Shark's office at the start of the game.

* MacguffinLocation: The Empty Lot, a small piece of property located in Kamurocho that is in the middle of a land development deal, which is central to the plot. It's essentially the last piece of free land that isn't owned by the Dojima clan. Whoever owns the Empty Lot can either use it to build some very valuable real estate, or sell it back to the Japanese government for a large sum of clean cash that they can use for whatever they want. And whoever in the Dojima family secures the Empty Lot will be all but guaranteed to receive a promotion in the family as a reward. But the thing is, nobody knows who actually owns the Empty Lot, and there's very little that can legally be done to force the owner to sell it, which is why the Dojima family so interested in finding the owner's identity. [[spoiler:The Empty Lot eventually becomes the Millennium Tower later in the series, and it's also revealed that Makoto is the land's owner via inheritance from her grandfather.]]

* MercyKill: [[spoiler:Nishikiyama almost does this to Kiryu at the end of Chapter 6: he reasons that if the Dojima Family get their hands on Kiryu, they'd torture him and draw out his suffering, so killing him before then would've been merciful. In the end, he can't go through with it.]]

* TheEighties: The game takes place in 1988, at the height of Japan's Bubble Economy.
* AbsurdlyHighLevelCap: Both Kiryu and Majima has a special "Legend" Style, which is unlocked by completing their Business story. If you also have the Limit Breaker CP reward, you can fully upgrade it 999 times. At that point, you basically become [[Anime/OnePunchMan Saitama.]]

* MacguffinLocation: The Empty Lot, a small piece of property located in Kamurocho that is in the middle of a land development deal, which is central to the plot. It's essentially the last piece of free land in Kamurocho that isn't owned by a yakuza clan. Whoever owns the Empty Lot can either use it to build some very valuable real estate, or sell it back to the Japanese government for a large sum of clean cash that they can use for whatever they want. But the thing is, nobody knows who actually owns the Empty Lot, and there's very little that can be legally done to force the owner to sell it, which is why the yakuza clans are so interested in finding the owner. [[spoiler:The Empty Lot eventually becomes the Millennium Tower later in the series, and it's also revealed that Makoto is the land's owner via inheritance from her grandfather.]]

* MacguffinLocation: The Empty Lot, a small piece of property located in Kamurocho that is in the middle of a land development deal that is central to the plot. [[spoiler:It eventually becomes the Millennium Tower.]]

** Oaths and promises, how malleable is one's integrity to keep their promises to those around in a time when money and all that it brings can warp a person's view on just what can be sacrificed for it.
** The concept of public personas and how it is sometimes a necessity for certain people to function or survive in society, even if it means living a lie and/or sacrificing their personal happiness. The game features a number of characters, both major and minor, that were or are driven to reinvent themselves for different personal reasons, some more complex than others.

* DevelopersForesight: During the part where you have to get takoyaki for Makoto, if you already have takoyaki in your inventory Majima will acknowledge that he already has some. That said, he insists on getting her fresh, hot takoyaki instead of leftovers so you still have to go and buy them.

** One of Kiryu's substories revolves around a hot new RPG called ''[[VideoGame/DragonQuestIII Arakure Quest 3]]'', which is so popular that people are getting mugged over it! Said substory also has one of its enemies exclaim "[[VideoGame/AlteredBeast Welcome to your doom!]]" before he fights Kiryu, and another one named "Gangster [[TheGoomba Goomba]]" that talks about [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros getting stomped]] upon his defeat.

* GameplayAndStorySegregation: The Dragon and Tiger (both the one in Sotenbori and the Kamurocho location) is an actual Chinese restaurant in addition to being a secret weapon shop. Despite this, Majima only eats there once, in a cutscene; there's no way to eat there like a regular restaurant, and Kiryu never eats at the Kamurocho branch.

** The ads for host clubs feature very modern looking hosts. The androgynous faces and spiky [[Creator/TetsuyaNomura Nomura-ian]] J-rock haircuts weren't really a thing until about a decade after the games take place. 80s hosts were more likely to have frizzy EightiesHair.

** The ads for host clubs feature very modern looking hosts. The androgynous faces and spiky [[Creator/TetsuyaNomura Nomura-ian]] J-rock haircuts weren't really a thing until about a decade after the games take place. 80s hosts were more likely to have frizzy 80sHair.

[[quoteright:320:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/yakuza0_1.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:320:The legend of the Dragon of Dojima has not yet begun.]]

--->'''Majima:''' What the hell?!\\
--->'''Yakuza:''' Oh, perfect timing! Welcome back, [[spoiler:Makoto Makimura-chan.]]