In Sega’s offices, seated in front of a Nintendo Switch 2 console running Yakuza 0 Director’s Cut, I was told: “Right, now it’s time to make a lobby.” Jesus. I don’t know these people here at the event with me (I’m pretty sure I’m the only member of the UK press, actually). This is going to be awful. S**t. S**t. S**t.
The PR comes over, loads me into one of the most rudimentary lobbies I’ve seen in a game in the last 20 years, and we get going. I’m presented with a screen that looks like something from a 00s fighting game (no shame there, Tekken is great) where I’m asked to select one character from the entire Yakuza 0 roster. I choose Goro Majima, obviously.
The lead player boots us into a game, and we’re off: four ragtag Yakuza 0 models – antagonists, people you’ll see in side missions, and major characters all together – start fending off waves of hired goons. It’s stupid: four men yelling, powering up, and battering wave after wave of leather jacket-wearing thugs in the middle of a Japanese street in the 80s. Someone gets pile-drivered into a bin. Someone spins around whilst brandishing a knife until they fall over. This is Yakuza, alright, and it works weirdly well in multiplayer.
And there’s the thing, then. This version of Yakuza 0 is a Switch 2 exclusive (for now, at least). So if you want to try out this baffling rumpus of a mode, you’re going to need to shell out the £45 asking price. Is it worth it? Probably not on its own, but it is a fascinating insight into how Sega, and probably Nintendo, sees what the Switch 2 is putting down for consumers.
This mode, Red Light Raid, is silly fun. It’s an arcade-inspired, wave-based curio that focuses solely on the game’s esoteric combat and pushes the brawling mechanics of the game to breaking point in makeshift arenas that can barely contain the game’s burgeoning chaos. I imagine that with a fully-working GameChat function, you and your mates can have a blast in this mode; shouting about taking down bosses, squabbling over who gets to keep which item as they fall on the floor, jostling over weapons dropped by thugs. It’ll be fun.
It’s also a fascinating way for the RGG Studio folks to reuse assets in a fun way; the character select screen is huge. It’s got 60 playable characters! And you can level up each of the fighters, too. Completionists, watch out. I imagine it’ll take forever. Notably, if you’re playing as either Kiryu or Majima, you’ll have to choose just one style. Otherwise you’d have an unfair advantage via style switching, especially over characters like those found in the fight club that are limited to quite a small selection of moves. Then again, Ginger Chapman has a knife, and Vengeful Otake has a gun. So.
I really can imagine whole nights of sitting in this mode and working through the various courses RGG has set you as a gauntlet. It was all a bit braindead in the early levels I played with my erstwhile colleagues at the event, but I should hope that the later levels ramp up the challenge to some degree, at least.
Chatting with mates, thumping waifs and strays over and over again, and being able to see their little low-res faces as they get their asses handed to them by shirtless men with back tattoos… is that Nintendo’s vision for the Switch 2? To have us all collected in a little lobby like the Uno/Xbox 360 days, gawping at cartoonish hyperviolence on our tiny little 4K monitors? If that’s what Ninty is putting down, I guess that’s what I’m picking up. It sounds great.
But it’s weird that it’s on Sega and RGG to release a game like this – as a launch exclusive – on Switch 2. There are other draws, sure: 26 minutes of never-before-scene cutscenes (though that’s not much in the scheme of things), and a French, Italian, German and Spanish text option now, too (this was missing before). As well as an English voiceover. So there are small temptations for you to double-dip on this, but as a locked exclusive it feels peculiar.
But isn’t it that exact sort-of off-beat weirdness that we all love Nintendo for? In a way, it reminds me of the bizarre bonus content that Tekken Tag Tournament 2 got for the Nintendo Wii U that never made it to other platforms: Mushroom Battle mode and Tekken Ball, which were sorely missed elsewhere. But it wanted to play into the Wii U’s ‘social’ side more, similar to what RGG and Sega is doing here with Red Light Raid mode… I just don’t really know who it’s for.
It’s not bad. It’s fun! And it plays really well. But you have to assume it’s going to come to other platforms, too, hopefully alongside a cheaper upgrade option so that you don’t have to buy the full product just to get the ‘definitive’ version of the game (Sega’s words, not mine). As a product on Switch 2, it looks, plays, and feels great… but let’s just hope it’s not locked onto the platform forever.
Yakuza 0 Director’s Cut launches alongside Nintendo Switch 2 on June 5. Yakuza 0 originally released in 2015 on PS3 and PS4, later coming to Xbox One.
