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Three Yakuza games will be free to play through Xbox Live Gold this weekend thanks to the latest Free Play Days event, Microsoft and Sega announced today.
Yakuza 0, Yakuza Kiwami, and Yakuza Kiwami 2 will be free for Xbox Live Gold subscribers through Sunday, October 4. You won't be able to keep the games for free, so if you want to continue playing them after the free weekend is up, you'll need to buy them – assuming you don't have Xbox Game Pass, because all three games are also available through Game Pass on Xbox One and Windows 10 PCs.
Yakuza Kiwami is a remake of the original PS2 Yakuza game, and Kiwami 2 is obviously a direct sequel. Yakuza Zero, meanwhile, is a prequel set in the 1980s. However, because it came out between Yakuza 5 and Yakuza 6, its content and systems live up to the series' modern standards. And because it's a prequel, it's also an excellent jumping on point for the series, so if you're a newcomer looking to pick one of these Yakuza games to try this weekend, we'd recommend Yakuza Zero. And for the record, you'll probably only want to pick one. Even if you don't try to 100% them, Yakuza games have big, dense open worlds, so four days is barely enough time to finish one.
As it happens, the next Yakuza game, Yakuza: Like a Dragon, is just around the corner. It's coming to PS4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and PC in November. The PS5 version isn't out until March 2021, though. Here's what our resident Yakuza fan Connor Sheridan had to say about Like a Dragon in his preview:
"Yakuza: Like a Dragon converts the street-brawling action of the Yakuza series into traditional, turn-based JRPG combat. I'm usually a big supporter of game franchises reinventing themselves, especially at natural break points like the arrival of a new protagonist - but I was filled with more dread than joy when I first heard the news last year. After Sega took me on a lengthy tour of the combat system, I have some hope again. This might be the first JRPG I ever finish."
