Why Yakuza 0 is a Masterclass in Managing Tone
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- Опубликовано: 9 фев 2017
- (No major plot spoilers in this video. Some substories are mentioned.)
Yakuza 0 is a wildly dissonant experience, swinging violently between super-serious gangster intrigue, slapstick violence and over-the-top melodrama. It's the absolute best.
In this episode of Writing on Games, I analyse why embracing this dissonance allows the game to tell more human stories.
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Dude you nailed it. This series is one of the only ones I've seen that is able to carefully balance its serious and sillier elements without them clashing horribly.
What about Metal gear solid ? I can't compare both of them (because i never played yakuza) but for me mgs is the series with the wild tone changes.
I don't think MGS pulls it off as well. Don't get me wrong I love MGS but there are time where it works against itself when it does that. Yakuza has a very clearly defined line of "this is the serious content" and "this is the silly content" while MGS melds them together and there isn't as clear of distinction.
Well I've got to play some yakuza now...
I see what you mean but I think the blurred line between the campy stuff and the serious bits works in favor of MGS.
As an example: The ending of MGS2 has you playing naked while you character deliberately hides his genitals from the player while you are getting fed a post-modern word-soup... And it's great!
Sure it can definitely work in MGS's favor, I didn't mean to imply that it never works, simply that I think Yakuza found a better way to handle it.
illidrion Z "post modern word soup"... I like this :D
As a newcomer to the series, the dissonance is spot on. I was blown away on how serious yet humorous the game was and blended together in the context of the plot and sub stories really well.
the fact you help the girl as a fake bf is funny because of the premise but serious when you learn that the father tells you about her mom passing.
or how you save the girl in the cult from being taken advantage of and you beat the dude and watch his students still play into his scam and laugh so much.
comedy and seriousness are yin and yang for this game: they want to override the other, but cannot live without them. it blends it so good that the narrative truly is outstanding for me so far.
Yeah, totally. In the most hilarious substories there is always one subtle element that tinges it with a slight sadness, and in the most serious there's always something to make you laugh out loud. The consistency in the writing here really is fantastic.
It’s interesting, this reminded me of why I thought Saints row’s humor never worked for me. There was a bit too much silliness and not enough focus on the seriousness of the situation. In fact, the same could be said for comedies in movies. Why certain satirical films just aren’t funny anymore. There’s not a good mixture of seriousness and humor. I remember a quote from someone describing the yakuza series as “a game where you can do stupid shit seriously.” And I was floored by how spot on this quote was because it is quite true. Hell the basic form of good comedy is tragic plus time. If it’s just batshit crazy shit one after another, I just start to think what’s the point of all this? Is this suppose to add up to something? You can’t tell a joke with just the punchline, you have to have a set up. There has to be a point.
A lot of people love the Yakuza games for that exact reason. This weird world they depict grabs you against your will and bombards you with relatable and unrelatable experiences alike until it just clicks and you become a part of it.
There are things to be said about the various schools of writing in the world, and what has always fascinated me about the typical Japanese way is how it absurdifies a completely mundane thing, or normalizes a completely absurd thing and in that manages to make the core issue of the situation, the human component that reader is supposed to relate to, that much clearer.
That's exactly this dissonance you talk about, and this game manages to incorporate it probably as good as one could for a method that usually builds on the reader filling in the blanks with his imagination.
Couldn't agree more. Thanks for watching!
Writing on Games name of the background music in the video
That philosophy of "absurdifying a mundane thing/normalizing an absurd thing" makes me think of British comedy, which (in my experience) tends to revolve around treating absurd situations as completely normal either by the characters steadfastly refusing to acknowledge how absurd the situation is or presenting an absurd situation as actually the norm. The "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" series, the Discworld novels, and Monty Python's Flying Circus all spring to mind.
Japan is killin it in the game scene again
They ever stopped?
I definitely got my PS4 at the right time. Sony is crushing it on the exclusives front (even though I'd rather play all of these games on PC goddamnit)
+Jade Merrydown Kinda. During the 7th gen happened a big shift towards portable and phone games, and even on home consoles I felt like they had a sort of identity crisis. Now they seem to be on track again.
Japan hasn't stopped killing it since the NES
Writing on Games Looks like you got your wish.
I was out drinking with two salarymen yesterday, and while they didn't play the newer ones they pretty much seemed to consider the Yakuza games to be almost painfully true to life despite the obvious absurdity of it all. It seems regular people do experience them very much in the way you describe, which I'd say means you did a real good job writing this video.
That reminds me of this interview I read about actual Yakuza talking about how true to life the series is. It's a really good interview.
boingboing.net/2010/08/10/yakuza-3-review.html
Thanks for the link. That was an interesting read. What are salarymen? Just regular workers?
Yeah, generally white collar workers but the term salaryman also implies being part of and suffering under the insane Japanese corporate structure and working culture.
When researching this video I did come across an interview with Nagoshi where he talked about how a lot of the situations found in the substories came from real experiences the team had (mainly whilst drinking). It's an interesting thing though, because when writing this I didn't know if this stuff was just weird to me because I'm a westerner and in fact it could be incredibly patronising to say "this is INSANE" or whatever. I'm glad it didn't come across that way though. Thanks for watching!
One thing about Japanese RPGs and Visual Novels in general, like Way of the Samurai and Yakuza for example, is that it hooks the audience in with gripping emotional moments, but relaxes when is necessary. This is why you can play games like Yakuza 0 on end without ever feeling bored because it provides a perfect balance between the two. If you'rebored of the extraneous content, you can switch back to a story mission. If you're tired of the dreary tone, you can walk around town, help people, play blackjack, go on a telephone hookup and feel refreshed before going back into a more serious tone. And all of it blends perfectly well inside the universe that it creates.
I don't think I can actually find that same level of balance in a Western game, generally a western RPG has one purpose and method or entertaining you and it sticks with it, which gets tiring at times.
Yeah, I completely agree. This game is paced near-perfectly. I usually hate long games because so many of them value quantity of content over quality. The fact that Yakuza 0 is one of the longest games I've played in a good while and has not once bored me yet is kind of astounding. Even just in the main story there seems to be something every hour that makes me go "oh shit is getting REAL now." It's constant escalation and I utterly adore that they managed to pull it off so effectively.
What about GTA?
Exactly! The story is on par with MGS IMO! The dialogues are amazingly exhilarating!
Red Dead Redemption 2 came to my mind while reading your comment
Why Yakuza is better than most anime tbh.
I say modern MMORPGs could take some notes from Yakuza 0 on how to make interesting side stories, or at least make "Kill 10 boars" or "Collect 10 flowers" more worthwhile.
Yeah, I never once had to kill any boars in yakuza 0! xD
My point is that most of MMORPG side quests seem too boring (at least for me). You click on an NPC with an exclamation mark, they give you walls of text that they expect you to read and empathize with their story but can't since execution is rather too simple and uninteresting, they give you a bucket list of things to do, you report back to them, they give you reward, rinse and repeat.
I guess what I'm looking for is a narrative and execution more interesting than all that, which made me bring up taking a page from Yakuza's side stories. If the side stories are as interesting as the video exclaims it to be, then it's worth looking at.
Watch some of the Manderville side quest cutscenes from Final Fantasy XIV they are ridiculous in tone and rather hilarious.
It's interesting, because I kinda forgot whilst I was doing these substories that they very often don't reward you with anything worthwhile. In MMOs (a genre I have very little experience with, I'll admit) the side-quests are almost always associated with a reward of some kind-they're part of the grinding process in order to grow your character. In Yakuza, the writing completely negates any need to 'reward' the player. The narrative is the reward.
You can't make the story interesting but you can make those boars super dimensional nexus boars that feed on the temperament of man and must be slain only by comically sized hammers
High five, brain.
Keith Ballard Yo keith, are you going to continue your walkthrough of yakuza 0?
There's a new one every day.
*high five*
I've never played this game before, but the artstyle I find fascinating: the characters look pretty realistic, though their eyes are somewhat exaggerated, and their movements seem cartoonish.
This contrast somehow...looks like it fits. I find this look more interesting than the generic "realistic" look Western games always have.
Yeah, in western games you rarely have even the pores of the skin visible
I've wanted to play the Yakuza series for years. Mainly because I felt it may fill the Shenmue void. But I picked up Yakuza 0 recently and I love it. It's so unapologetic in its approach. And the thing is, that you never question the switch in tone. You just accept it, because it's balanced so well and there is conviction in every moment. Whether you're dancing in a disco or your life is being threatened. This may be slightly off topic, but I also think the localisation in this game is amazing. The conversations in this game are gold.
Very well said. I love this series so much ever since I played Yakuza 4 a few years back. I call it my "virtual holiday in Japan". While I really like the main stories, the absurd amount of side stuff to do is equally important and a great counterpoint to the dark and serious gangster story. A few days ago I spent an hour(an HOUR!) on a Ufo-Catcher to help out a little girl. I love all those little weird stories that these games are full off. Play two or three hours and then try to tell someone, what you did in this time. In a game about Yakuza.
"Well .. first I was bowling with this girl I met on the Telephone Club. We went for Karaoke after. Then I helped out a tax fraud agent who I met while managing my real estate business. One of my competitors challenged me to a game of Outrun in the Arcade. I had some sushi on the way there and smacked some guys around with a motorcycle. On my way home I had a whiskey with a reporter friend, discussing local arms dealers, went for a game of darts and had a little dance off on the disco floor. Yeah. that's about it. Completely normal session in a game about Yakuza. "
I've gotta say, I really love that Yakuza 0 is getting as much praise as it is, because the series is criminally underrated here in the west. Like, Dead Souls aside, every game in the series has been really good, but no one ever buys them. I'm super stoked that we finally got this game, and that we're gonna get Kiwami and 6 in the next year or so.
Here's hoping that we eventually get localisations of Kenzan and Isshin some day.
that's never gonna happen, why do i keep doing this to myself
I feel you, brother. I remember how painful it was waiting for Yakuza 5 to come out.
A fellow RGG fan, I concur with everything. It's a shame we're probably never going to get Ishin or kenzan.
I mean, Yakuza was developed from the ground up as an almost ruthlessly Japanese series, and Kenzan and Isshin take that even further (the history they draw from there is fairly common knowledge in Japan whereas it's far less known about in the west). In that sense, I can see why they're even more nervous to bring those games over than the numbered titles. Doesn't make me want them any less, though.
+SherlockHyde But...Dead Souls was great though... The only thing that was bad about it was the crappy fps, which could be easily fixed with a remaster onto PS4 pro.
Kiwami comes in summer
Steven Speilberg dancing on the street and the Yakuza guy is the normal one here. I just decided that I need to play this game.
I feel like dissonance like this, at least where it's woven together nicely, is also just very relatable in the sense that it's a lot like a reflection of reality itself - we all experience serious circumstances throughout our own lives, and sometimes even when things get particularly rough, you also have to have a sense of humor/optimism and learn to enjoy life despite all that. Now Yakuza may really exaggerate the kinds of experiences someone may encounter since it does revolve around organized crime and a fictional story, however the constant changes in tone between serious and humorous content much like our own lives make the game that much more immersive (vs games/movies that stick to an entirely serious or comedic theme), while simultaneously keeping things interesting in getting to explore what the yakuza culture may be like.
I cried twice, end of Chapter 6 and end of Chapter 14 I never cry at video games, it’s either once or never at all I am SO playing this game like 50 times, the fact that they could even do that to me has such a big effect on me personally.
Takeshi Kitano's film Kikujiro has the exact same tonal shifts - violent gangster drama, touching melodrama, goofy comedy, etc all at he drop of a hat. None of this would work if it wasn't Japanese.
I would wager that is less because "this work if it wasn't Japanese" rather writing and balancing tonal shifts in fiction is a difficult thing to do in the first place but the Japanese seem to be better at doing it - to this extent, at least - than The West. (Excessive puritanism in America doesn't help...)
Sonatine also had some tonal shifts. Playing Yakuza makes me think of that movie.
I'm currently playing a Yakuza game for the first time (yakuza 0) and i am completely obsessed with it!
Yakuza 0 directly belonged in my top 10 games of all time! And oh boy i have played a lot of games in my life!
This game is an absolute blast to play. You're absolutely spot on with the tonal shifts throughout the game. I love how wacky the game can be while also being able to tell a really compelling and serious story.
The tone of the game is exactly what made me fall in love with it. It actually reminds me a lot of Shadow Hearts Covenant on PS2. Both games have very serious main storylines but constantly break away from it with silly and funny side quests and NPC personalities. Both also have a fair dose of cheeky humor.
I've played several Yakuza games. After watching your video, I realized that you describe something I've always felt, but never bothered to articulate on my own. Thank you
but even the sillier aspects of the game make a point in reality. Majima effecting tax policy in japans future. The real estate mini game foreshadowing the real estate bubble and recession that happened in the 90s. Kiryu coming up with parcel service sent in m-store (7-11 in japan are amazing.) Each story has a bit to say. Some of these things I wouldnt of known without yakuza. A shift of perspective and the reminder its better to know and love someone than to hate that this game encapsulates. Like of mice and men
You know, I wonder if this whole "dissonance of tone" thing is what got the Saint's Row series so popular, and why it's always been so contentious. Like, fans of the series seem to always want it to go entirely serious or entirely insane, but maybe it was at it's best when it did both? That would explain why Saint's Row 2 always seems to be the game fans of the series agree was good, even if not a personal favorite. (Perhaps an idea for another video?)
Dragynn5 personally, saints row 2 is the best specifically because of the perfect balance it struck between serious and funny moments, i enjoyed the later entries in the series too, but i wish we had another saints row game that it's closer to the second one.
In a way, I think the Yakuza series (and other works of fiction with dissonant aspects that somehow blend together) pulls it off by amping up these aspects instead of toning them down to create a story "grounded in reality".
Whenever I read the dreaded words "grounded in reality", I prepare for disappointment. Games that focus so much on the realism angle are oftentimes morally confusing, stylistically bland, and end up being boring or depressing.
But when you let some absurdity in, something magical happens. It's not "realistic" - nobody should be able to rip off their suit jacket/shirt in one smooth motion, those old crime bosses shouldn't all be jacked as hell - but it heightens the emotion behind the serious scenes.
It's a "world of the hot-blooded" - everyone wears their hearts on their sleeves, everything seems to be on a higher setting than normal, but it works. The honor and kindness of Kiryu and Majima makes them protagonists we can rally behind wholeheartedly. The world they live in may be almost fantasy, but their struggles feel real - perhaps because of that almost fantastical touch.
This really nails down what makes the series special to me. sub'd!
Thanks so much!
An excellent, vintage opinion. As someone just playing this game in 2022, I love seeing the analysis from before other entries came out. Spot on about the dissonance, the thing people tried to sell me on was how “random” the stories were. Nice and insightful ideo even five years later
This was incredibly well done. Thanks for putting into words so many of the reasons why I love this series.
I find the dissonance when done right to strengthen each counter-aspect by contrast. Making it be both more empathetic and funny in the ebb and flow.
This game looks so damn good
It really is that good!
You truly appreciate how good of a prequel yakuza 0 is once you finish yakuza Kiwami. It makes the plot twists even more shocking
I love the fact yakuza 0 pretty much inspires essays
A big reason from where the Yakuza series manages tone is probably where it heavily borrows its influence from; Yakuza movies. My foray into Yakuza movies is still very few with Beat Takeshi's 'Brother' and Takashii Mike's Dead or Alive trilogy but I feel those movies did a good job adding certain emotional dynamics while keeping straight to the point of the movie. The Dead or Alive movies have a bit of an exception as things escalate at a high level at a certain point that just makes you accept that wild ride you have been glued to watch. But overall the format of how the tone is managed is what makes the Yakuza series a digital successor in a sense to Yakuza J-Cinema. And which is why certain cult J-Cinema stars appear in the Yakuza series make all of the sense having their likeness be in there.
The reason I got a PS3 was to play Yakuza 3, then 4, then 5. I got a PS4 for Yakuza 0 and don't regret it at all. Honestly some of my favorite games ever made, they have a magic that is so rare in games to have such a serious main narrative but at the same time not taking itself seriously outside the story. Brilliant video man you hit the nail right on the head, glad I've discovered you!
Streaming Yakuza 0 to my friends:
The subquest: "HAHAHAHAH man that's such a silly funny moment"
The story: ".....this shit cuts deep man."
A pleasure to stumble on content of this caliber. Well played indeed. My first of many videos from this channel. :)
Great video man! As the others said, you nailed it. I shared this out to my followers.
Playing this right now on my channel.
Thanks a lot man!
Thanks for not including any major spoilers here. You are one of the better ones.
Nice video essay on one of my favourite games.
Honestly this game makes me think of Gintama, because that show bounces back between comedy and drama all the time. Maybe that's why I got hooked into the series. Gintama energy
u'v done it again .. excellent writing as always .. gg man
On the side, Majima Goro is also 50% of the sole reason to buy Yakuza as well. Even as average as Dead Souls, Majima in that game was NUT. Actually, Yakuza Dead Souls alone by itself would worth like 120$ if you compare to the current AAA titles with their BS DLC practices. Yet, those Yakuza are pretty damn functional and rarely patch at launch.
Majimas Karaoke song in Dead Souls made the rest of the game worthwhile.
Thank you for supporting Yakuza 0!! God bless you bro
It's really interesting that while I was watching this, I kept drawing comparisons to Sleeping Dogs. I get the feeling that this sort of contrast is what they were going for (albeit from a Chinese instead of Japanese perspective), but they didn't manage it with the same level of skill. I loved the analysis though, and I really want to play Yakuza 0 now.
Sleeping Dogs showed you how a group of innocents were brutally murdered. Then you walked and it gave you a collectable. It was not a good contrast.
you should. You won't regret it
Sleeping dogs is more akin to GTA in terms of gameplay and story telling, Yakuza is more of an action rpg with open world elements.
i like to describe it as an open-district/town, action/adventure, brawler/beat em up with RPG elements set in Japan
I have a video on Sleeping Dogs planned actually. I utterly adore that game, but you're right-its narrative is nowhere near as good. Thanks so much for watching man!
You got me into these games. Thank you
Fantastic video i've been enjoying Yakuza 0 a lot even grinding for money in the game hasn't gotten too old somehow but man you nailed exactly why the writing of this game is so genius and it has definitely pushed me to be excited for the upcoming yakuza kiwami and the rest of them.
I couldn't be more excited for Kiwami!
Writing on Games Same i played the original back in the day like when i was 12ish probably but at that point i didnt care too much for story in game and i never finished it but i really have a love for this series now
Glad to see you write on this game!
Glad to see you comment on this video!
When you brought up the whole aesthetic distance approach of Brecht's Epic Theatre I liked amd subscribed.
Awesome video! I played Yakuza 1 on my PS2 more than a decade ago and after all this time, just started playing Yakuza 0 on my PS4 yesterday. Felt ashamed of myself for missing Yakuza for so long before picking a new game of the series to play.
Fantastic analysis.
Love your stuff brother, keep up the great work!
Thanks so much for your support man!
got here through the endless recommended tab after blasting 0's ost haha. great vid = 1 new sub
holy shit didnt expect you would extually put a video out on this so fast
Ha, I told you! Thanks a lot for watching.
Love what you do Hamish!
Thanks a lot!
Just bought this game because of this. Super happy to give it a go, I always remember seeing the Yakuza titles when I was little since Blockbuster was renting games out on the ps2. Ready to see what I missed.
Good stuff man. Initially I didn't find the tone of this series very appealing but for some reason recently my interest has been peaked. I'll have to check this out after getting Nioh and Hitman.
Glad I could help convince you!
After playing 0 and Kiwami im really trying to play all the games now 😢
Have you done it?
Excellent video~
This video is amazing. Thank you so much. I love the Yakuza franchise..
What a king move, bringing Brecht into this analysis. Nice! I could tell while playing the game that it wasn't your typical postmodern trope of the characters lampshading their own narrative in order to make an anachronistic story more palatable. Well, not just that.
It all comes down to a deep level of understanding and respect for itself and its subjects. Not once does comedy directly clash with seriousness, when it wants to be serious its serious when it wants to be wacky its wacky.
Often games break when they fail to get you invested in their serious story or when their jokes come off as tasteless or tone deaf.
The serious tone makes us want to know more about the characters and the silly side stuff lets us get to know them so we care about them more.
If the quality of either part would be bad the whole thing would fall apart so Yakuza is masterfully treading a thin line.
Great video as always. This isn't the first time you've mentioned a passion for music. What are some of your favorite artists and bands? what genres do you lean on?
Works like a charm. Thanks
You could convey in words things I felt while playing, thank you. Btw your accent is so new to me (and also interesting), I am not not native speaker tho
I started Yakuza recently and will never no love the insanity of it. One minute I'm watching thr most well written serious cutscene, later I'm shaking it it with some silly sub stories.
Enjoy the ride 🔥
When I was playing this game, I was constantly asking myself "What is the theme here? What is it trying to convey?" Enough so that once I finished (literally yesterday), I immediately wanted to find some literary analysis. The dissonance absolutely made me take a step back and ask what is trying to be conveyed.
Just got into this game series recently, and i started with yakuza 0...i haven't put it down since i started week ago
At points it felt like I was playing in the film The raid 2. I was so happy to find a new game I loved instantly
Facts
I would like to add though that yakuza does in fact have such good story telling in games. The reason why they use substories, from what I think, is so that you can level up but through a fun kind of way. You can definitely go through the game without the substories, but you may end up seeing that the game becomes more difficult when you don’t get enough experience or money through just the story. This is why substories exist as a way to earn experience and money, but in a fun way, so that the player doesn’t get bored of doing tedious things to level up. When I first played yakuza, I really got invested in the substories because there are so so many different stories for the game. I have no fucking clue how the devs even make up these stories but there is just no end to how many they can make. I even played judgement and it’s just as good as yakuza itself. This is why I love yakuza a lot UwU
Zero is where I fell in love with Majima. :) I hated him in Kiwami, but seeing what he's been through makes me feel for him.
The music really hit the mood of the video. May I ask the names of the songs?
Subscribed my good man
haha I find Kiryu issue with killing as funny as Batman's policy of no kill cause some of Kiryu's heat action definitely killed his target.
Batman also has brutal ways of taking targets out.
Great video Hamish. I was wondering if you could give some examples of experimental dissonant literature you've read? I'm interested in expanding my library :)
Oh, where to even begin? Haha. I always recommend Vladimir Nabokov's 'Pale Fire' as the prime example of literary dissonance being used to great effect. That book is totally designed to take you out of your comfort zone and getting you to ask "wait... WHY is this written like this? What is being said here?" It turns you into a detective of sorts, and therefore the conclusions you draw are far more meaningful to you. Aside from that, my favourite author is a fellow Glaswegian called Alasdair Gray who is kind of a mix between Nabokov, James Joyce and Gabriel Garcia Marquez (the latter two also being authors you should totally check out - 'Ulysses' is the obvious Joyce choice but 'Dubliners' might prime you for it better. As for Marquez, start with 'One Hundred Days of Solitude'). He tells utterly wild, fantastical stories in a sort-of magical realistic style and through those fantastical scenarios, he manages to cut to the core of what it means to be human, to want power, to create art, to desire sex, etc. It's fucking wild. 'Lanark' is his most famous book, but '1982, Janine' is basically his 'Pale Fire', and as such is maybe my favourite book ever.
Phew, hope that helped!
That's rad!
Im sorry for being one of those people and i wish to say that this video got me to get to play these games but i wish to know the music in the backgroundin this video and 6 because it is so GOOD
I'd argue that the beauty is not on the dissonance, but the lack of it. It seems as this duality crashes with itself towards the player, but why all the substories, minigames and events contribute so much to the immersion? Because the world is presented as something both bizarre and realistic. It tries to say that there's so much light between the darkness, and no matter how bad things turn out, because at the end of the day Kiryu is a sentient human being that likes to sing or help people around like anyone else. It's the humanization of the character. I'd say, if it contributes to engaging with the world or the character itself, it's not so much dissonant as it would seem. Other than that - great video, man.
very good watch, this made me a subscriber
Thanks so much!
You've got yourself a subscriber!
"Through the eyes of a hooligan and a Heart of Gold"
I finished the main storyline + exploration in 40+ hours..
Now I'm playing the in game mini games.. they are so much fun
Have you taken on the Amon bosses?
Whats mad is I have never batted an eye at this game at all. And were it anyone else pitching it to me (although i know youre not pitching the game), I dont think I would be half as interested. So congrats. I dont know how you do it but the combination of your voice and writing make for magical experience. So yeah. Probs gonna check this shit out now
it is absolutely worth it. you won't regret it
im on it
Thanks so much! I'd really recommend everyone check the series out. It's truly something special.
To paraphrase Super Eyepatch Wolf in his video on the Yakuza series, "Yakuza is tragic and silly, because life is tragic and silly." Every day life is a jumbled mess of emotions. You could be feeling great one minute, and terrible the next. It's something that fiction, with its efforts to maintain a consistent tone, can't really convey. Because of that, Yakuza, with its high drama and low comedy, actually feels more true to life than something more "realistic" would.
really agree on this sentiment. The saying is cliche for some but Yakuza resembles real life more than any other realistic games would every dream of. Instead of being focused on realism, the series instead focused more on lots of emotions. It is both tragic and silly, both heartbreaking and heartwarming, both contemplative and chaotic.
what music is this? really fantastic
Strictly speaking this game does not involve much killing just beating up, which makes the moment of killing much more significant when it does arrive.
I feel like playful dissonance, and disregard for genre expectations is more common in Japanese and Korean art. Some of the music that comes from that part of the world jumps around constantly, and the same in cinema especially Japanese horror and Anime which benefits from the odd combination of ideas and imagery. In the West there is much more of a focus on consistency in tone which isn't necessarily bad but can lead to much Western art feeling a little more safe .
Aside from the main quest, it's rare to play a game wherein the side quests are funny, entertaining, with ample storyline of its own and also memorable. I stopped progressing the main quest for a while because I just enjoy all the side quests in the game.
please make a video on the borderlands series
Brilliant video - I made a similar video recently discussing the balance of tone, the two main characters and the distinction between the story and its open world elements.
A like for you, man. You deserve way more subscribers.
Thank you so much!
Playing through 0 right now and the way I'd describe the tone is: Yakuza 0's main storyline is a Scorsese film, that occasionally breaks out into an episode of the Simpsons when doing side quests.
I enjoyed the video and I think the main reason the tones work so well is because the side missions and main story are completed separated and don’t coincide with each other for the most part. The main story did an amazing job with the serious tone and idk if anyone noticed but there was little to no ‘comedy’ in the main story. Closest thing I can think of is in the beginning when you need to get a new suit with Nishiki and Nishitani’s moments with Majima, but that ends in an extremely serious tone as well. The comedic tone was basically exclusive to the sub stories and I feel they did an amazing job with splitting the two.
I am so infinitely glad that, finally, after the long years of hell, Yakuza gets the recognition in the West that it deserves.
RGG studios deserved it, they had many rough times.
The best part is how real it feels. Life can be everything
Off topic, but I love your accent!
Yakuza 0 is an early front runner for my GOTY in 2017 and it isnt even spring yet!
Not really related to this vide, but have you looked at the 'I have no mouth but I must scream' game? It's very... intersting.
Odd question for you Hamish, and if you've answered this somewhere else, well, I obviously haven't gotten that far. I found your channel a couple months ago along with a number of other critical analysis channels (all of which I love, but yours have become a stand-out even among them), that is to say, I haven't watched every video you've made... yet.
Anyway, what is your accent? Scottish? It's pinging me as Scottish. But I'm not an expert. I ask not to make fun of you, I like the character your voice brings to your videos and wouldn't change it. Accents are just something I'm fascinated by and learning to mimic them is something of a hobby of mine.
Anyway, thanks for another awesome vid. Someday when I'm a little better off financially, I'd like to become a patron, but that dream lives in another time.
Thanks for answering! I really appreciate it. I hope you don't mind if I model a Scottish accent off your voice. Most of the ones in media are really exaggerated so I prefer to model off real people, and your long-from videos would give me lots to work with.
God damn this game hooked me. Badly. I thought it was better then uncharted 4. Fun gameplay and great story. Didn’t think I would ever see the two in one game, but here they are.
1:22 same
its gangsta with fun stuff