The Yakuza series is known for all things bizarre and unapologetically weird. Quests in Yakuza 0 range from training a timid dominatrix to let out her inner S&M Queen in front of a group of children, to helping a woman solve a crossword puzzle so she can find a proposal hidden inside by her boyfriend. However, alongside a sense of the strange and unexpected, there are also sincere, characterful, and dramatic stories about crime and integrity. This is thanks to the radically grounded environment its stories play across. The streets of Kamuchuro are a red-light district of Tokyo so finely detailed that players have gone on pilgrimages to Kabukicho, its real world inspiration, and navigated the streets like a second home.
But some of the finest details come from its people and their incidental animations. The dozens of small NPC actions that make the city tangible, even if you never notice them. Let’s take a minute to appreciate these smokers, lovers and workers as they go through their everyday lives.
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