Tag Archives: Yakuza

Yakuza Kiwami: Story PV, New Character Introduction

InTheSky December 12, 2015 Leave a reply

Sega has produced a new promotional video for Yakuza Kiwami and uploaded it to their Japanese YouTube account for the Yakuza franchise. It’s an eight minute trailer that skims over the story of Kiwami, a remake of the first Yakuza title. We see here Kiryu’s sacrifice and Nishiki’s descent as he is overcome with guilt and inadequacy. While one man falls and then rises from the ashes, the other rises to power but falls into corruption.

Of course we see other key characters receiving some spotlight in this trailer, with Haruka’s introduction (“I am not ‘omae’/you. I am Haruka”) and Majima being his lovable self, who will be around to harass Kiryu at the player’s leisure. A new character introduced specially for Kiwami is Shinichi Shinohara, a videogame representation of a real-life retired judo talent. He’s the new face shown in the featured image for this article, but he’s not shown in the Story video. Kiryu is supposed to be his tour guide for Kamuro-cho, but Shinohara is also a participant in a underground fighting club and invites Kiryu to participate. Between him and Beat Takeshi in Yakuza 6, Yakuza’s certainly got its celebrity cameos covered. Not a bad look for the franchise.

Yakuza Kiwami’s Japanese release date of January 21, 2016 is fast approaching. Check out the trailer below!

Yakuza 5 is Now Available in the West on the PlayStation Store!

Draikin December 8, 2015 Leave a reply

Three years after its launch in Japan, Yakuza 5 for the PlayStation 3 is now finally available on the US and EU PlayStation Store! To celebrate the launch, SEGA of America posted a launch trailer on their Youtube channel, which you can watch below! For the EU gamers out there: while it wasn’t possible to preorder the game, PSN Plus subscribers can get the same 15% discount that US gamers got when they preordered, as long as you purchase the game before the end of the year. The regular price for the game is $39.99/€39.99/£32.99.

PSN Store link: Yakuza 5 EU

More Yakuza 0 Details Revealed While Confusion Abounds Over EU Release

Draikin December 6, 2015 1 Reply

We’re getting some mixed messages over a potential EU release for Yakuza 0. While SEGA’s official Twitter account mentioned that they’re unable to confirm a EU release, Eurogamer pointed out that the trailer featured on the official PlayStation Youtube channel clearly mentions the game is coming to Europe as well. On the other hand, the US trailer on the official Sega of America Youtube channel only mentions the release for the Americas. It’s certainly odd to see the conflicting statements, so we hope SEGA will clarify the situation soon.

Yakuza 0 Confirmed for the West on PS4, Yakuza 5 Releasing on December 8th! (UPDATED)

Draikin December 5, 2015 1 Reply

At PlayStation Experience 2015, Gio Corsi has just announced that Yakuza 0 will be heading to the west! At the same time, he also confirmed that Yakuza 5 has also been confirmed for a release on December 8th.

It’s interesting to see that SEGA didn’t wait to see how well Yakuza 5 sells before announcing Yakuza 0. Not that we’re complaining! For now, that’s all we have, but we’ll provide more updates as they become available!

UPDATE: the Yakuza 0 trailer shown at PlayStation Experience can be found below!

UPDATE 2: InTheSky pointed out that Atlus PR Manager John Hardin confirmed both a physical and digital release! There’s been no word on a EU release so far.

UPDATE 3: EU release is uncertain, here’s what SEGA tweeted to their EU fans:

We know the Yakuza series is loved by all its fans in Europe but unfortunately at this time we’re not able to confirm a Yakuza 0 EU release.

The official English website has also been revealed, and can be found here: http://yakuza.sega.com/yakuza0/

Yakuza 0 and Phantasy Star Online 2 Recognized at Playstation Awards

InTheSky December 4, 2015 Leave a reply

The winning titles of this year’s Playstation awards have been announced, and certain Sega games have received some distinction for commercial performance or through fan recognition. These awards are based on the performance of games released from the start of November 2014 to the end of October 2015 and covers combined sales throughout Japan and the Asia commercial region.

Phantasy Star Online 2 (PS Vita version) received the Playstation Network Award for being one of the top three highest-selling downloadable titles.

Yakuza 0 received the the Gold Prize for shipping over 500,000 units, and the User Choice Prize for fans polled in the Asia region (Yakuza 0 being one of five recipients for this award.)

It’s worth noting that with receipt of the Gold Prize, Yakuza 0 earned itself recognition alongside some powerful competitors. Here are the other Gold Prize recipients:

Bloodborne
God Eater 2: Rage Burst
One Piece: Pirate Warriors 3
Grand Theft Auto V

While it’s true that Japan is generally regarded as a hostile environment for conventional “packaged games” (games on dedicated gaming platforms like Playstation 3, Nintendo 3DS, etc.) a number like 500,000 is quite good for a franchise that releases as regularly as the Yakuza franchise does. It also probably shows that Sega’s pivot towards more inclusion and marketing in the Asia region is going to pay off. With a strong Playstation 4 and PC userbase in North American and Europe, hopefully with some proper execution Sega can gain more footing in games in the West. I’m sure many fans can attest to the sentiment that Western Sega presence of its Japanese franchises could be better.

Toshihiro Nagoshi and Masayoshi Yokoyama were present at the event as representatives of the Yakuza franchise, per YakuzaFan. You can check out some nice images of Nagoshi and Yokoyama accepting awards at this DualShockers article.

Credit goes to the above-linked YakuzaFan post for the featured image.

Meet the Supporting Cast of Yakuza 5

Draikin December 3, 2015 1 Reply

Sega has issued some new press materials for Yakuza 5’s English release that detail some of its supporting cast. Yakuza is known for cool gameplay traits like its evolving combat systems and minigames, but Yakuza is still also a story-heavy franchise, so its many characters are important in creating a rich mythology to engross fans with.

Continue reading to browse some cast profiles! Character descriptions drafted by SEGA are provided via this heypoorplayer article. We also have an image gallery of our own for you to check out at the end of the article after all of the character descriptions.

Yakuza Kiwami Comprehensive Preview Trailer, Boxart Available

InTheSky November 20, 2015 Leave a reply

Sega has just published a new trailer for Yakuza Kiwami. It features narration from Kazuma Kiryu and Goro Majima’s voice actors. The trailer shows three battle styles for Kiryu – these are the ones that were present in Yakuza Zero. In addition, there’s a fourth battle style that can be seen throughout the video, marked in red in the upper left during fights. It also appears that you can speak to Majima in a hostess club. Alongside a new feature that allows you to fight Majima anywhere, this all seems to me a natural progression of their relationship, to be honest. Except for the whole being the first game in the series thing. Anyway, the rest of the trailer shows off the many minigames present in Yakuza Kiwami and a look at the revamped Kamurocho. It clocks in at four and a half minutes, be sure to check it out. The trailer also mentions that Yakuza Kiwami comes with a download code for a Yakuza 6 demo, in case you forgot!

Amazon Japan has updated the product pages for Yakuza Kiwami with boxart for both PS3 and PS4 versions. I can’t wait until we get product pages for localized versions of this game! *hint hint*

You can see all of the media after the break!

Yakuza Kiwami Receiving Korean and Chinese Versions

InTheSky November 10, 2015 Leave a reply

While the West gears up for the English release of Yakuza 5, the next major Yakuza title to be released in Japan is Yakuza Kiwami, a full remake of the first Yakuza game. And this time it won’t just be Japanese Yakuza fans that will get to play the game – Yakuza Kiwami is set to receive Korean and Chinese localizations. The Korean-subtitled version was announced on the Japanese official website for the Yakuza series, and was noticed by KHHSubs. The Mandarin Chinese version was mentioned in this tweet from the Ryu ga Gotoku official Twitter account. This tweet also provides us with our featured image for this writeup. There’s a tall banner for Yakuza Kiwami on the right, and this banner is an advertisement in Taiwan.

Toshihiro Nagoshi has in the past expressed doubts about the sustainability of Yakuza maintaining a Japan-only presence, so this is a logical step. It also seems unsurprising given Phantasy Star Nova and Shining Resonance‘s Chinese localizations. It isn’t as if Sega’s had a strong console presence in China or Korea (especially the former, since laws against games have only recently been relaxed there) though we might attribute that to the relative weakness of console gaming nowadays compared to the past. So what we’re seeing here is Sega should be Sega doing their best to cement a foothold in Asia.

Ideally, what we should also be seeing is greater Western presence for Yakuza games too! Let’s hope that such a path pans out.

New Yakuza 5 Screenshots Make a Big Impact

Draikin November 8, 2015 Leave a reply

Sega has recently released a new (and rather large) batch of screenshots for Yakuza 5‘s Western release. Many of them are themed around combat and Heat actions, but there are some other types of screenshots to look at as well. With the release of new media and live stream demos of the game, promotional activity for Yakuza 5 has starkly increased over the past couple of weeks. Perhaps the game’s release is soon to come?

Check out the images below! Also, if you missed the most recent Twitch broadcast (the second one) of Yakuza 5, we’ve attached that for your viewing after the image gallery.

Yakuza 5 Shows its Impressive Range of Mini-Games in These New Screenshots

Draikin November 1, 2015 Leave a reply

As you could already see in Sega’s recent Twitch Stream for Yakuza 5, there’s plenty of activties to do in the game aside from just following the main storyline. You can play darts, visit a Hostess Club, try your luck getting a prize from the UFO catcher, go bowling or play pool, take pictures at a photo booth, participate in idol handshake meetings as Haruka, play Virtua Fighter 2 in the arcades … You can even breed, race and bet on chickens. You’re bound to find something to enjoy! The game’s precise release date is still unknown, but it’s expected to be released somewhere mid-November on PS3 as a digital download. Take a look at the screenshots featuring the mini-games below, courtesy of Sega! We also included the official press release.