Talking about the story in these games is a bit tricky because each game is connected to the others even if it doesn't initially appear to be so. That's part of the charm of the series. It's why I hold Yakuza 2 in such high regard. Yakuza 2 does for Yakuza 1 what route B of Nier does for route A. It also lays the groundwork for the series to evolve into what it has become now.
Yakuza 0's story is great on its own but in the context of the overall series, it cannibalizes portions of Yakuza 1 which makes that game feel less impactful as a result. So for me personally, it loses points but it's still a damn good game.
Sorry to quote an old post, but bravo sir. I've not seen a post on the ordering of the Yakuza titles, combined with the reasoning behind why, that perfectly matches my own judgement. You should totally import and play (or at least watch the translated cutscenes of) Kenzan. It's a pretty great spin off that I'd put in the higher ranks (pretty much dead centre) as it brings in a lot of the systems you see in Yakuza 3, but strangely ends up being more robust because of the sword combat. Did you ever get around to playing Dead Souls?
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