Yakuza 0 versus Yakuza 0 Director's Cut: What's new, and is it worth it?

Yakuza 0 Director's Cut is a re-release/update of the classic 2017 (2015 in Japan) game, and offers players quite a few changes. These updates can be incredibly important to the overall enjoyment of the game, especially if your native language isn’t English or Japanese. There are some changes that are on the more contentious side, and many fans have spoken up about these over the last month or two.

No matter how you feel about them, there are important changes in Yakuza 0 Director’s Cut, when you consider the age of the game. It was originally designed for PlayStation 3 and 4 in Japan, and came out here, on PlayStation 4 exclusively. Now available everywhere, here’s what’s new and interesting in the Director’s Cut.

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What’s new in Yakuza 0 Director's Cut?

Yakuza 0 Director's Cut has a few particularly great features added to it, aside from technological improvements. While the game doesn’t have major changes to the gameplay, it does run better, without sacrificing any of the visual quality of the game. Below is a list of all the new features you can expect:

It's always worth a return to Sotenbori (Image via SEGA)

• A full English dub is available.
• Subtitles in French, Italian, German, Spanish, Latin American Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese and Russian.
• Cut content (music) re-added to this release.
• Gameplay is 60 fps 4k (on machines that allow for this). Cutscenes are still 30 fps.
• Additional cutscenes help flesh out some of the lore of the game.
• New out-of-game content: Red Light Raids.

However, it’s worth pointing out that some of this content (new cutscenes) are pretty controversial amongst some of the fans. I won’t spoil the particular reasons why here, but there were some changes made that upset long-time fans. Personally, I’m not in that camp, but I understand their frustration. Are these changes enough to warrant getting the game, though?

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Is Yakuza 0 Director's Cut worth it?

Yes, I know the cutscenes aren't popular with everyone, but I think it's still worth it (Image via SEGA)

I think it’s worth it to get Yakuza 0 Director's Cut, and not just because the original was delisted on Steam. You can always buy a physical copy of the original game for most consoles, so that is still an option for some.

I’m a fan of many of the changes, and while I’m not a huge fan of some of the canonical changes made in the cutscenes, I don’t think any of them are going to have huge, long-reaching consequences in the franchise.

Some of the characters featured, I seriously doubt are suddenly going to show up in Like a Dragon 9, whenever that game inevitably drops. That said, I certainly think the updates are positive ones, the game plays fantastically well on both the Switch 2, and the PlayStation 5 Pro.

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