The ‘Yakuza’ series is one of SEGA’s premier franchises, developed by Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio, which all began in 2005, on PlayStation 2. Now rebranded as ‘Like a Dragon’, which is also the English translation of its Japanese name Ryū ga Gotoku, the series has seen a slow but well-deserved rise in popularity outside of Japan thanks to its remakes and remasters of older games, allowing new fans to enjoy them on modern consoles.

In 2015, ‘Yakuza 0’ was released and was a prequel to the franchise, which had five mainline games released at this point. It was a brand new adventure set in the 80s, telling the origin stories of Kazuma Kiryu and Goro Majima during their younger years and their early days of being part of the yakuza. It served as both great fan service for longtime fans and a great starting point for newcomers interested in the series. Now in 2025, an enhanced version titled ‘Yakuza 0: Director’s Cut’ is now breaking bones and breaking hearts on the recently released Nintendo Switch 2.

The story takes place in 1988 and tells the stories of Kazuma Kiryu and Goro Majima and how their paths become intertwined. Kiryu is a member of the Dojima Family, one of the most powerful yakuza organisations under the Tojo Clan. He was raised at the Sunflower Orphanage established by the Dojima Family captain, Shintaro Kazama, to whom he swore an oath at an early age. While on a job collecting an overdue debt, his mark turns up dead, leading him to set out and clear his name from being a murder suspect.

On Majima’s side, he was once a member of the Tojo Clan before he defied a direct order from his superiors and was tortured before being sent out to serve in the purgatory of civilian life. Majima now manages the Grand Cabaret, unable to find a way to return to the Tojo Clan. That is, until one fateful day when he is assigned a dark mission that will guarantee his return.

Players will take control of both Kazuma Kiryu and Goro Majima, with chapters focusing on each character. They each have three different fighting styles with Brawler, Rush and Beast styles for Kiryu, while Majima has Thug, Breaker and Slugger styles. Brawler and Thug are balanced styles and great for a smaller number of enemies or 1 on 1 fights, especially the epic boss battles the series is known for.

Rush and Breaker are speed-based styles, great for dealing with a larger number of enemies. Beast and Slugger are power-based styles, allowing them to deal heavy damage to their enemies, with the former allowing Kiryu to pick up and wield heavier objects like motorised scooters, while Majima wields a baseball bat and swings for the fences without ever dropping it.

Many weapons are available at the players’ disposal from traffic cones, chairs, bicycles, swords, guns and more, all adding to the mayhem on screen. Along with specific moves, they contain cinematics and simple quick-time events highlighting the bare-knuckle, bone-crunching and face-smashing action. The only drawback is that the camera still occasionally disrupts the player’s view of the action, but rarely affects the overall flow of combat.

Players will have a wide variety of options to decimate their enemies in a spectacular and hilarious fashion. Thugs, gangs and yakuza are always roaming the streets, so Kiryu and Majima will have plenty of opportunities to get their hands dirty, which also helps with boosting stats such as learning new moves or getting extra health, heat meter and other little things that will help aid you in battle.

A brand new mode in the Director’s Cut is Red Light Raid, an online multiplayer mode for up to 4 players with 60 playable characters to choose from and take down hordes of enemies. There is no story, just pure all-out brawls with the same brutal and bloody action.

There are various stages with specific conditions, and players can level up their characters. CPU players will fill in empty spots, and even though there are no cinematics for certain moves, likely to not interrupt other players, it has the same intensity and excitement as the main game. Hopefully, this mode can be included in future games or even be its own game.

The entertainment districts of Tokyo and Osaka are the primary settings, which have been seen in previous games and offer plenty to do from different restaurants, bars, various stores and plenty of venues with different activities. It’s interesting to see all these familiar locations during the late 80s, especially the arcades with classic SEGA games such as Out Run, Super Hang-On, Space Harrier, and Fantasy Zon,e which are all fully playable. Other side activities include blackjack, poker, Mahjong, shogi darts, fishing and pool, just to name a few.

Activities introduced in this game include Pocket Circuit, where players can race and customise a toy car against savage kids, disco for those wanting to dance the night away 80s style and Japan Catfight Club, where we’ll just let players discover what this is.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a Yakuza game without the cabaret clubs, picking a hostess, buying them drinks and flirting with them. Majima’s story also involves him running a cabaret club, which has its own side missions, but he is also able to visit other clubs for a change of scenery.

The cabaret clubs are entertaining and a nice way to wind down from the hectic main story. There are many other activities to list, but the most important one, karaoke, is also available with various songs, including everyone’s favourite, ‘Baka Mitai’.

The Yakuza/Like a Dragon games are known for the incredible amount of content included in each game, but the biggest feature has always been its story. Kiryu has always been seen as a tough fighter who never backs down from a fight, no matter how big the odds are stacked against him, while Majima has always been seen as wild and unhinged. Seeing them both during their younger years is certainly interesting, knowing how far they’ve come in the more recent games.

In this prequel, before becoming the legendary Dragon of Dojima, Kiryu’s inexperience clearly shows, and his iconic back tattoo only has the outline and no colour yet. He finds himself in an impossible situation and not knowing who to trust. When he might have found a way to clear his name, there’s always a catch. Meanwhile, Majima doesn’t have his unhinged personality yet and it’s interesting to see how it develops.

For the first in the series, he shows his soft side as he swears to protect a blind woman from the same people who ordered him to assassinate her. The story becomes more and more intriguing and emotional as it unfolds, and everything begins to make sense with how Kiryu and Majima’s paths cross. In the Director’s Cut, all new cutscenes have been added to enhance the already epic story, but also changes some of the context, which fans may or may not be happy with.

Just like Yakuza games, the cutscenes are of cinema quality and add to the intensity and urgency of the overall story. This is also thanks to the talented voice cast with original Japanese dub from the original game, and the Director’s Cut also adds English and Chinese dubbing. The game, of course, sounds the best and most natural in Japanese, but the other two languages also sound great.

Yong Yea provides the English voice of Kiryu and has been doing so since 2023’s Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name. Fans have not been receptive to his performance as he sounds too young and replaced Darryl Kurylo, who sounded more appropriate to Kiryu’s current age. Since this is a younger Kiryu, Yea’s performance doesn’t sound too out of place and fits in rather well.

Hopefully, if Yea continues to voice the Dragon of Dojima in future, he’ll be able to develop the more gravelly voice the character should currently have.

The original Yakuza 0 was a great way to introduce newcomers to the series while also providing more lore to diehard fans. The Director’s Cut adds some unique features not seen in the original and changes some story context that didn’t seem necessary, but we’ll see if this leads to anything. Regardless, this is a great launch title for the Switch 2 and the sequel, Yakuza Kiwami (remake of the original game), is already available on the original Switch.

Now is a good time as any to get into the Yakuza/Like a Dragon series to experience the origins of the Dragon of Dojima and the Mad Dog of Shimano, and it all starts with Yakuza 0: Director’s Cut.

Written by: Sammy Hanson