How caught up are you on the Yakuza series, and are you ready for Yakuza 0?

This could be your first game, it is a prequel

You know how those “prequels released years after the original” arcs go. If you’ve been following along since the start you’re bound to pick up on little nuances that newcomers won’t, but it is the start of the story after all, so you can begin anew without feeling left out knowing that some sort of explaination will be present.

That’s the deal with Yakuza 0, a prequel that takes place 17 years before the original game. Kazuma Kiryu, the hero of the series, is a younger runt, and hasn’t been to prison yet. But just like the Star Wars prequels (and Rogue One for that matter) the creators have to spice things up and “super” it a bit — and this time, they’re going with giving Kiryu and his partner Majima access to multiple fighting styles, along with all of the wackiness that a Yakuza game typically entails.

But since this is a partly niche series with a spotty localization record, I want to know what your experiences are with it. I’ve played every entry outside of the spinoffs, and most regrettably due to its lack of a western release, I missed out on Ishin (the one that takes place in the 19th century).