LogFAQs > #957665316

I wouldn't worry TOO much about 'having' to play the Yakuza games.

While there is a good deal of continuity for the series such that you want to play them in order, each individual game is otherwise a self contained story. There isn't one giant overarching plot and tons of cliffhangers or anything, its just the character development/relationships that progress from game to game for the most part. You can mostly think of them as like... idk something like the Die Hard movies or something. Self contained stories that feature the same characters that sometimes references past events.

As such, it's very easy to just stop and not play the games and be satisfied with where you are after finishing one. As said, 0 especially is pretty stand alone since it's a prequel. (Though with all that said, I do recommend them all eventually- they're mostly all pretty good to some extent or another)

Anyway, Yakuza 0 gets my vote because it's my favorite of the ones you listed, but really all of those games are quite good. I haven't played them all, but the ones I have played (Y0, Prey, Pillars of Eternity, Psychonauts, Impossible Lair, Enter the Gungeon, and Myst) are all well worth it and I'd recommend any of them.