In October 2021, six years after the original release of Yakuza 0, longtime series’ director Toshihiro Nagoshi left Sega and Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio for greener pastures, so it’s a little weird that in 2025 we get to play a so-called “Director’s Cut” of one of the franchise’s most beloved games.
Still, here we are, fresh off a new Nintendo console launch and with it, the release of Yakuza 0: Director’s Cut, a system-exclusive version with some added content in the form of 25 extra minutes worth of cutscenes and a brand new multiplayer game mode. While it’s a toss up whether or not these additions would indeed be categorized as stuff that Nagoshi would sign on adding to the game, they do feel like material that would constitute as bonus DVD content at best.
First, there’s the touted 25+ minutes of new cutscene footage. Now, as a fan of how Yakuza 0 played originally, I thought it was pretty good as it was, with plenty of character development for just about every face that showed up during the story, which there were plenty of. Now, some of those relationships get somewhat more fleshed out, even if unnecessarily, through these new scenes. One in particular is Kiryu and Kuze’s, which outside of the fighting, composed some of the best back-to- backs from the original.
If you’re like me and have gotten your fill out of that version, this extra layer of story content isn’t really worth the price of entry here, but to someone who is just getting to Yakuza 0 now, they work just fine – after all, 25 minutes is a drop in a bucket considering how long the overall playtime is. But the additions don’t stop here, as there’s now an English dub track in the game as well.
I’ve been playing games in this series ever since the very first entry, even before that, technically, if I count the few hours I tried dabbling with the Japanese version of the first one, so I remember how it was like to dive into the English version of that. Star-studded with talent like dearly departed Michael Madsen and Mark Hamill, it was an outlandishly put together show that Sega would regret forking the cash for in later entries.
So much so that it’s been only recently trying to bring back an alternative dub to the Japanese original with Yakuza: Like a Dragon and its sequels, which okay results. With Yakuza 0: Director’s Cut, I find myself torn: everyone BUT Kiryu sounds totally fine. Our main man, though, after years listening to original voice actor Takaya Kuroda’s gruff performance, just sounds off as Yong Yea steps up to the plate, like a kid filling in. On the other hand, taking over for the second protagonist, Majima, is Matthew Mercer, who manages to be quite convincing, on par with Hamill’s part in the 2006 original.
Rounding out the exclusive features in Yakuza 0: Director’s Cut is Red Light Raid mode, a new online cooperative minigame where you and up to three friends can join forces and fight your way through levels taking place in a variety of locations from the main game. The baffling decision to force you to pay exorbitant amounts of cash to unlock each and every playable character is only one of the things that keep this mode from being great. The fact that there’s so little gameplay depth between them is the killer, with even main characters being split into three different versions, one for each fighting style.
Then there’s the less than exciting nature of actually playing Red Light Raid: failing to connect to anyone puts you in a game with three CPU-controlled allies who do such a good job clearing out levels that you hardly have to touch your controller in order to make it to the end. A month and change after release and there’s no one playing either, as I’ve tried to matchmake multiple times at different hours in the day to no avail. All these problems combined make Red Light Raid feel like an afterthought, something Nagoshi would definitely not have signed on.
Regardless of my feelings in regards to all the added content, it’s hard to deny that Yakuza 0: Director’s Cut plays really well on the Switch 2. Both portably and in console mode, the game performs very well, looking on-par with the other versions that I’ve played in the past. For some reason, cutscenes now play in 60 fps instead of 30, making some of the animations that were never meant to be played at that framerate look funny. This is a sharp looking game for sure, but there’s no hiding its age, as the movement is stiff, especially compared to modern entries in the series. And between you and me, I’ve become much more of a fan of the turn-based battles after spending 300+ hours between Ichiban’s misadventures, and going back to the constant button-mashing of old felt tiring to me.
Yakuza 0: Director’s Cut is definitely a good entry to those who have never had any contact with the franchise, much like the original version. Getting to see the first days in the two legendary protagonists’ illustrious careers is especially fun when combined with the setting. 1980s Japan during the economic bubble that the country went through at the time makes for a much more boisterous and insane scenario that perfectly marries with the story of the game, which is one of the series’ best. For those who have already experienced it in the past, there’s not much to make the return trip worth it, though.
