Mature mafia story packs loads of violence, repetitive acts.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 18+?
Any Positive Content?
Violence & Scariness
a lot
Over-the-top violence with blood and gore's shown as the player's character engages in frequent melee combat involving punching, kicking, and ad-hoc weapons such as bats and chairs. Finishing moves show close-ups of faces being smashed into objects and bones being crushed via blunt trauma. Non-interactive scenes show a character chopping off his own finger, or others being shot or impaled.
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The player's character frequently visits bars and can imbibe a variety of alcoholic beverages. A bottle icon appears to indicate intoxication. Characters are often shown smoking cigarettes.
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Women are frequently shown wearing revealing outfits, with the camera lingering on jiggling breasts. Gangsters grope and demean women, and the player's character can flirt with sex workers.
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Combat alternates between strategy and button-mashing, but the sheer variety of what you can do creates a steep learning curve. Multiple difficulty levels allow players to adjust the level of challenge.
Positive Messages
none
Storylines focus on revenge, murder, and betrayal. There are also strong themes of duty, loyalty, and honor within criminal organizations.
Positive Role Models
none
Most characters are criminals. Some behave kindly and help others, but still continue to engage in criminal activity. While it sends a message that anyone's capable of kindness, it doesn't explore how behaviors are able to coexist.
Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that Yakuza 0 is an action-adventure game for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows PCs. It's filled with morally gray gangster characters who act with honor in their organizations and even occasionally help people, but still take part in vicious criminal activity. The player's character engages in melee combat, primarily using punches and kicks but also picking up makeshift weapons and knives to maim and injure enemies. Blood spatters with most hits, and finishing moves show faces being smashed, as well as bones and necks broken. There are also scenes of torture and gore, including a man who chops off his own finger and people who get shot at point blank range. Characters use strong profanity throughout dialogue, and there are frequent moments where players go into bars and drink heavily, their drunkenness indicated by an onscreen icon. Characters are seen smoking cigarettes, often in glamorous fashion. Women are frequently shown wearing revealing outfits, and the camera sometimes lingers on jiggling breasts. Some scenes depict gangsters groping women in bars and clubs, and the player's character can flirt with sex workers.
Violent, gritty crime drama with a goofy side, but too much moral ambiguity and adult themes for younger kids
This prequel to the Yakuza series follows two mainstays - young thug Kiryu Kazuma and sorrowful loner Goro Majima - as they attempt to rejoin a criminal world that has cast them out. Kiryu in later games becomes a more wholesome, friendly character, but in this early incarnation is angry, tense and violent; the game opens with him beating a man over money. Majima later becomes a relatively benign Joker to Kiryu's Batman, but here is more muted and repressed, being suffocated by his debt to the criminal world.
Although the game has the usual goofy side quests where both characters get to show their warmer, kinder sides, the main storyline is extremely dark and pulls no punches in its depiction of the criminal world as a place without honour except among a few - like Kiryu and Majima. Both men become involved in the search for a young woman who was sex-trafficked and now holds the key to enormous wealth. There is no nudity or sexual imagery, but the woman talks briefly about how the was kidnapped and gang-raped, leading to her psychosomatic blindness. The game does end on a relatively positive note for the series, with "good" - or at least less-bad - triumphing, but of course, both our heroes willingly rejoin the criminal underworld in the closing.
The game's combat is fast, entertaining but bloody and violent (although the blood can be toned down in options). Characters are slashed, shot and beaten, although canonically neither man kills any opponents except during a single shoot-'em-up sequence. Villains do murder, including civilians, however. Characters drink, swear and smoke regularly. There is a torture scene in which a man is hit with a sledgehammer. There are gambling minigames. Sex workers are depicted, but there is no nudity. This is an excellent game, but the moral complexity of the protagonists and their world means it's better saved for mid-teens and up.
As a southeast asian kid that Its Fine Playing 18+ game its idk Just Trust the Rating ok if The product is 17+ and ur son is 15+ i also doesnt know just wait till the age is 17 or 18 its worth the wait
What's It About?
In YAKUZA 0, you play as both the series' main protagonist Kazuma Kiryu and familiar face Goro Majima as they struggle to make a name for themselves and keep the peace with the way of the yakuza in 1980s Japan. Kiryu is investigating why he was framed for murder, which causes him to be expelled and ultimately turn against his Tojo Clan family to clear his name. Meanwhile, Majima emerges from a year of torture -- a punishment for being part of a plot to assassinate someone within his own family -- and tries to work his way back into his superior officers' good graces. They both struggle with what it means to be loyal and true to your word, even when you're on the wrong side of the law and trying to be a good person. Action is focused on melee combat, with players taking on groups of thugs with martial arts skills that involve both disciplined combos and brute force attacks. Players spend much of their time between objectives and battles wandering around urban Japanese streets, chatting with characters and engaging in side activities such as a batting cage game, karaoke, and dancing.
This action game has a compelling story, though it can become repetitive in places. Yakuza 0's story is engaging, featuring complicated criminal characters with their own moral codes who are grappling with difficult situations. There's some over-the-top action (you can pick up a bicycle and wield it as a club or even find a stray salt shaker to season people's eyeballs), but the overall tone's serious, and is bound to leave players wondering what they would do in similar situations. That said, there's some comic relief in the form of goofy side missions, such as one in which players help Miracle Johnson -- a clear stand-in for Michael Jackson -- shoot a music video by punching "Thriller"-style zombies away from him.
Yakuza 0 is bound to draw comparisons to Grand Theft Auto for its bloody open world crime drama antics and occasional dabbling in bizarre side activities. Indeed, other than the intriguing setting of Japan in the 1980s, there isn't much here that will feel particularly original to veteran players, especially those who've worked their way through the rest of the games in this epic, ongoing series. But it's also polished. The combat's smooth and satisfying, providing plenty of options that allow players to develop their own style. And the dialogue -- though lengthy and spoken entirely in Japanese with English subtitles -- draws us into the characters' stories and plights effectively and emotionally. Like a good gangster movie, you're bound to care about these hard men. You'll appreciate their motives even as you question their actions. It's not quite a classic in the open world gangster genus, but Yakuza 0 is still worth a look-see for those interested in a glimpse into the criminal underworld.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about violence in video games. Is the impact of the violence in Yakuza 0 affected by its focus on blood and gore? The action glamorizes its violence with gory close-ups and a general sense that toughness equates to coolness, but does this make sense to you? Does it seem over the top and unrealistic?
Why would someone who makes a living through criminal enterprise sometimes choose to help others? Is it possible to make up for the bad things one does by doing equal acts of good?
ESRB rating:
M for Blood, Intense Violence, Sexual Content, Strong Language, Use of Alcohol
Last updated:
March 5, 2020
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