Yakuza 5

Playstation does a Yakuza 5 interview with Toshihiro Nagoshi and Masayoshi Yokoyama

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Its been a long journey for us Yakuza fans, I’m seriously surprised at the cult fanbase the franchise has garnered in the West. I have been pretty much into the Yakuza series since I heard about the first title, since it reminded me of a 3D Streets of Rage brawler mixed with RPG elements. After the sales failure that was Yakuza 1, I never thought we would really get a chance to play another entry in the west, guess what? We are literally in our 5th release (6th if you count Dead Souls) in the West and this one sets to conclude the journey.

The developers talk about their goals with the series, basically about how there weren’t many games that where aimed at an adult Japanese audience specifically and how that was the birth of the franchise. Check out the intereview and make sure to pick up Yakuza 5 this fall on Playstation 3.

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SEGA confirms they won’t have a booth at E3 this year

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So you guys already know the speculation, SEGA hasn’t signed up for a exhibition booth for this year’s E3. Of course, we thought that it would have meant that they were just going to sign up late, sadly that is not the case as SEGA has now confirmed to Game Informer via email:

“Over the next months, SEGA of America will be focusing on the restructure and relocation to Southern California, and we have decided to not attend E3 with our own booth this year. With the majority of our bigger titles launching later in 2015/2016, particularly those from our AAA studios Relic Entertainment, Sports Interactive and Creative Assembly, we are concentrating our efforts for some of these major announcements after our relocation. Instead, we will be collaborating with our various business partners for this year’s E3 show.”

It seems that them restructuring and moving to Southern California is to blame for their lack of E3 showing this year. Not only that, they will also be showing titles at other ‘business partner’ booths. I assume you can find stuff like Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax and Yakuza 5 at Sony’s booth for example. What are your thoughts on SEGA skipping E3 for this year?

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SEGA and Sony partner up to bring Yakuza 5 to US and Europe

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SEGA certainly kept us waiting on this one but it’s finally official, Yakuza 5 is hitting European and American Playstation 3’s for 2015. Partnering with Sony and part of the #buildingthelist hashtag, Yakuza 5 was one of the most requested titles and the dream is finally real. Talking about the announcement, series creator and software division head Toshihiro Nagoshi had this to say;

“After receiving so many requests from fans of the series, we have decided to bring Yakuza 5 to the US and Europe. This title was enjoyed by over one million gamers in Japan. I’m looking forward to seeing how Yakuza 5 will be received by the gamers in the U.S. and Europe.”

So far the only information we have is that the title will be available digitally via Playstation Network but that wasn’t all, also announced was Yakuza 4 and Yakuza: Dead Souls will also be released on Playstation Network.

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Swingin’ Report Show #55: Localize It! with Segalization

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This week’s episode is a special one, as Barry and George reunite to talk with Draikin and InTheSky of the SEGAbits partner site Segalization – a fan campaign dedicated to promoting the localization of SEGA games. While Western SEGA fans have enjoyed a number of great releases over the past few years, there are several titles that fans have never been able to experience due to SEGA not localizing hits from Japan for Western audiences.

Draikin and InTheSky talk about the inception of the Segalization campaign, and share their thoughts on how SEGA could go about localizing titles including Valkyria Chronicles 3, Yakuza 5, Yakuza Ishin, and Puyo Puyo Tetris. We also reveal another new partner site, Panzer Dragoon fan site The Will of the Ancients, and deliver the usual off topic banter. Enjoy the show!

Want to support Segalization? Visit their website, follow them on Facebook and Twitter and sign their petition to bring Japanese SEGA titles to the West!

[Download] [RSS] [iTunes] [Archive]

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RUMOR: Atlus to bring Yakuza 5 to the West! [UPDATE]

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Update: Barry here. We have a bit of more news regarding this rumor. While EGM says one thing, a NeoGAF member says another. User jschreier shared the following:

I just asked a couple Atlus USA folks and they haven’t heard anything about this. FWIW. Seems pretty unlikely to me – they’re not a big company and they just announced like 4 new Persona games.

Original story: According to the latest issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly, Q-Mann (that’s their rumor guy) states that Atlus may be currently working on localizing Yakuza 5 to the West. With news of Sega giving Atlus some free reign when it comes to their IP’s and Atlus having a great localization team, this doesn’t seem so far fetched. Am I hyped? Check above the comments section and see.

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Yakuza creator talks Ishin, Vita cross-play, smart phone development, testing the waters on Wii U, & localization

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At the Tokyo Game Show, Edge had a chance to interview Yakuza creator Toshihiro Nagoshi. They talked about everything from the upcoming Yakuza Ishin’s size to smart phone development! Please go over to Edge to check out the full interview, though we’ll be telling you about the more news worthy quotes here.

When asked about the size of Ishin, Nagoshi compared it favorably to Kenzan, saying:

“It will be a bit smaller than our recent games, but a lot bigger than the Kyoto in Kenzan. Also, the map itself might not seem large but there will be a lot of rooms inside the buildings that you can enter, so the total will still be many times bigger.”

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Yakuza series getting a ‘surprise announcement’ on August 18th

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It seems that SEGA of Japan (not America or Europe sadly) are having a surprise announcement on August 18th. The announcement will be part of an event where they will announce the ‘Yakuza (Ryu Ga Gotoku in Japan) Character General Election’ contest at Shinjuku Alta Vision.

So, what do you guys reckon this ‘surprise announcement’ is all about?

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Operation Rainfall wants to know what SEGA game you want localized

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There have been a ton of Japanese SEGA games that haven’t made it West and the guys from Operation Rainfall want to know what game you guys want localized. If you never heard of Operation Rainfall, it was a huge movement started because Nintendo refused to localize Xenoblade Chronicles, after the huge response the campaign got, Nintendo eventually released the game in North America.

Seems they want to help localize other games and are aiming their cross-hairs at some SEGA games.  On their site they have a poll with the following games listed:

  • Valkyria Chronicles 3 
  • Yakuza 5
  • Yakuza 1 & 2
  • Shining Hearts 

Right now Valkyria Chronicles 3 is winning with about 50% of the votes. I, on the other hand voted for Yakuza 5,  since I really want to play that game in English. What game did you vote for and why? Leave your opinions in the comment section.

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Fighters Segamix: Virtua Fighter 2

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Welcome to the first round in our new video series “Fighters Segamix”. In this series, we will be focusing on the rich history of fighting games on SEGA systems as well as SEGA fighting games themselves. In this first episode, we have both in Virtua fighter 2 for the SEGA Saturn. Note that while I love fighting games, I’m not the best player. I’m not gonna be winning any Evo tournament anytime soon. Still, I can usually tell who’s balanced and who’s cheap right away (especially in the next episode).

Don’t have a Saturn? You can pick up Virtua Fighter 2 on XBLA and PSN for only $5. As you can see in the video, you can also play Virtua Fighter 2 in Yakuza 5 (only available on PS3 through import).

Should I include brawlers like Streets of Rage and Golden Axe into the mix? Let me know in the comments.

Like this video? Subscribe to the SEGAbits YouTube channel!

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Yakuza Fan launches his ‘Bring Yakuza 5 West’ Facebook campaign

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Yakuza Fan website has decided to take a lesson from the book of the blue S and launch a Facebook sharing/like campaign to see if there is enough interest in a Yakuza 5 western release.

Over a week ago SEGA launched their own campaign for Hatsune Miku: Project Diva F, stating if the image got enough shares/likes that they would bring the game over from Japan. That game is great and all, but we want Yakuza 5 and if you do too you should probably share/like the picture to help.

Go here, share and like the picture on your Facebook.

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