I was wondering about this...is he more of a bad guy in 0? As opposed to the Yakuza with a heart of gold in the rest of the series.
He's a thug in this game, its set before he calms down in the first game. Its sorta entertaining to see Majima appearing to be the more calm and collected character out of the two in this game, bearing in mind he's a lunatic in the entire rest of the series!
I've been playing around on the demo, here are my impressions so far:
First the bad - I experienced a bit of screen tearing in certain portions of the map - quickly moving the camera while looking up at the large brightly lit signs caused the top of the screen to tear a bit. Not a deal breaker by any means but a tad disappointing. Likewise there was a single point in the game where the frame rate wasn't locked at 60FPS - Theater Square at night toward the end of the demo. Again, that's just a very small issue I'm nitpicking as the game runs perfectly for the entire rest of the game. Did anyone else notice these issues (especially the tearing) or was that just me? I'm guessing this'll probably be cleaned up by release though, as Ishin was so polished that I'd put this down to the game just being in development at the mo?
Anyway, the good stuff:
The cutscenes - they are the best looking ones ever, they look even "cleaner" than Ishin and the attention to detail (especially on the faces) is really impressive.
The fighting styles - They are all ace, I only dabbled with the three of them but I like all three so far. The default style (with the blue aura) felt more like a less refined, more vicious version of his trademark fighting style.
The speed style seemed pretty cool, especially with all the dashing around but I didn't really work out how to make the most out of it.
The "power" style seemed sorta like Seijima's style from 4 and 5. You can charge the finishing triangle attack on your combo's for massive damage. Plus you can pick up large objects like motorcycles and bash goons round the head with them. Also I really like that if you attack weapons like signs you automatically pick them up and continue your combo without breaking a sweat. Makes fights even more awesome!
I also love how each fighting style gets different music, its a really nice touch.
The graphics - Kamuracho has never looked better, little details like puddles, readable signs, better lighting (especially in the day time) really help bring the city alive. Its still not the most beautiful game around but I think it looks fantastic all the same.
The mini games - Looks like there is even more to do in Kamuracho than before, even if most of the places were locked for the demo. The battle cage looks more evil than ever and Mah Jong and singing still just as awesome and addictive as ever.
The new/changed areas - One advantage of playing the 5 main games in the series is that I know the city like the back of my hand. So its really awesome to explore areas and see what they looked like all those years before the events of the first game took place.
Theater Square looks slightly nicer, with plants adorning the center of the square.
The vacant lot in the middle of the map is now a dilapidated area with a shrine in the middle like out of Ishin.
The site where the homeless haven Purgatory should be is actually opened out slightly, with a nice view of a "garden" looking area. You can't explore any further though so who knows what is really there.
The future site of the Millennium Tower is the largest of these new areas, as instead of a large building you have smaller, narrow streets that look like they've seen better days.
As always I can see this game taking over my life for a few months as I try to 100% it. I like what I played so far and I can't wait to sink my teeth into the full game. I've personally no issue with the levelling system in this game. Ishin's issue was that you had to firstly unlock moves via many means, then purchase them with the orbs that you could only get through levelling up. Zero though looks like you get tons of money by doing just about anything so I don't think it'll be anywhere near as bad.
Does anyone have a list of how to perform all the heat moves available in the demo, along with better explanations of the fighting styles? I've seen there are quite a few heat moves (via youtube) that I missed that I'd like to try and unlock.
