I still don't get how Yakuza 0 made Lieutenants of a Yakuza family seem so important when the rest of the series makes them all seem like small fries in the grand scale of the conflict of each story. Yakuza 0 really is the best, because it really makes the Yakuza and its hierarchy seem a lot more serious than the rest of the series.
well, before kiryu left the yakuza life in 1, he was a lieutenant about to become a patriarch, and by the end he's an ex chairman. so in all the games that come after 1, kiryu would technically outrank any lieutenant he encounters, while he was a low level grunt in 0. not to mention, the tojo clan is on a steep decline in every game after 1, so ranking in it wouldn't be as impressive. meanwhile in 0, the tojo clan is at the peak of its power, and the dojima clan all but runs the clan. so being a lieutenant at that time absolutely means a ton more than being a lieutenant of a family in a crumbling, near-bankrupt clan that lost almost all its biggest players in a few years.
@@Wusodoolo He was never a lieutenant. You don't have to be one to start a family. He was a soldier to the end. You don't see lieutenants collecting debts.
Kuze: I never give up. Kuze: Man who loses isn't the loser, the loser is the one who stops trying. Kuze: Unlike all other dumbasses, I recognize Kiryu is a threat. BASED.
@@Aurora-bv1ys this comment was from a while ago and i did half of every yakuza games if I count the judgment and ishin gaiden games I'm currently playing yakuza 5 and I'm close to finishing it I guess and I'm plaining to do the entire yakuza series
@@whensomethingcriesagain With their dragons also staring each other down? Absolutely, but this one just has more power behind it. The speech is superior, Kuze is (probably) the better character, the setting is completely unique. Plus it had the kind of strength in that you could show someone this intro and the motorbike joust as the only piece of Yakuza footage they've ever seen and it'll probably convince them to try the game.
@ShadicRothZz1998 That and also just the pose is super iconic, you see an homage to that anywhere and you know immediately what it's referencing, regardless of the characters involved
Kuze is one of the best written antagonists not just in the Yakuza series, but one of the best written antagonists of all time. The introduction of making you think he's just some slimeball who makes everyone else do his dirty work and is framing Kiryu, to revealing that he's insanely strong and tough and isn't the one behind the murder in the empty lot, to showing how he does honor himself and his traditions by cutting off a finger without hesitation, followed by the sewer rematch where he stops fucking around and is out for blood, to him coming at you with brass knuckles and his gang and almost killing Kiryu if not for a last minute save, to when he realizes KIryu isn't some two bit punk when Kiryu hits him after realizing Tachibana was tortured by him and critically injured, all finally wrapping up with the last fight where he brings everything he has in an even one on one with Kiryu. The fact you go from hating this man to respecting him is incredible and a testament to how well written these characters are.
Thank you for this video, it's so good to be able to hear the audio and music together without looking up someone's playthrough or playing the game yourself to get to this point. Hope this video gets more exposure in the future, you deserve it!
Kiryu destroying his arms blocking that pipe when it was going like 80 mph just to block it with his arms again on a full swing a minute later is amazing
These two are my idols when it comes to martial arts man. Kuze has technique but both of them just have raw power and a primal passion for the fight that they don't need to rely on technique but can simply just put their power behind their fists and succeed
Both of them do but Kiryu's was still unrefined. That's why his base style is called "Brawler" because he's still a good fighter but doesn't have the finesse that he does in later years
@@MrLlama-rc8nj true, lmao I started with yakuza 0, I saw the cronological order , can't wait to play the whole franchise (also the jusdgement ones). He does use also the kickboxing style in this game tho, but yea his main one is brawler, I saw some fights of Kiwama and the later ones and his style is refined of course.
@@italianduded1161 Dragon Style imo is its own art entirely because it combines a bunch of different techniques; the legwork is very Muay-Thai-esque and the fist-based parts of the Rush Combos reflect a boxing inspiration, not to mention the Komaki moves AND the heat actions with pieces of Sumo wrestling, Judo and Jiu-Jitsu. Seeing it in action is so cool because you can see each martial art style blend together almost perfectly and it really defines his power in a fight
@@quiltzgamingyt237it was mention that when he got out of jail the Tojo clans decided to give him one final mission to perform before he ever got retired. I'm not gonna to in detail but at the end of the day Kuze is no longer a Yakuza but a fisherman living a quiet life now.
holy shit! i heard this theme in a youtube video about a year ago and instant loved it. i tried finding out where the song came from, but never got that info. lol i had got all the yakuza games sometime afterwards cause they were on sell, but never booted them up. for some reason, i had the urge to play zero and booted it up. i been playing it slowly, but surely while flipping back and forth from it and youtube. no lie, for whatever reason, i decided to look for that video that had the them, JUST to hear it again. what are the odds, i just got done fighting kuze only to hear that damn song was his theme......i literally had no words. now i feeling like a absolute moron haha 😅
I think the one of the first ever cutscenes in zero (probably also a lot of people's first ever yakuza cutscene) being just 3 a'holes bullying you and making you know that they are the true bad boys around there, helped Yakuza 0 define its villains and make the player remember them. If it didn't one of them literally stalked you to a sewer, brought a motorcycle with him, and demolished you, THAT must make you remember him.
