I think Yakuza 0 might be the perfect game for me, a distracted but dedicated Gamer in 2020. I am a Game Pass subscriber and I have my eyes on far too many outlets that tell me about games I can own and play, forever, for literally no money. What A Time. As a result, I ping-pong around my Xbox, Switch, and PC sampling things but not committing to much.

That was, until I found my buds Kiryu and Majima. It's wild that a game where I sit the controller down for minutes at a time has me so hooked. I just have to know what kind of pickle these rad dudes are getting themselves into next.

Yakuza 0 offers a kind of open-world that I think most games with its budget would be afraid to attempt. It is small but dense, with a few buildings you can enter and many stories to stumble upon. You get around exlusively on foot, but you can hit people in the face with bikes and scooters. It's got great storytelling, fighting, and minigames, and it's confident enough to let the game stand on those three pillars.

It also stays from the momentum poison prevalent in a lot of RPGs: heavy inventory management and long to-do lists. Inventory in Yakuza is small and you never really need more than a handful of healing items. Sidequests are not kept in a list for you to follow but the next steps are marked by exclamation points on the map. A couple of sentences on the start menu remind you where you in the story. I never need to be in the menu for more than about 10 seconds. Revolutionary.

I think I'm in this one for the long haul, so I'll report back after a dozen more hours of messing up faces on the streets of Kamurocho.