A special live broadcast for Yakuza’s 15th Anniversary will be held on Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio official YouTube channel on Tuesday, December 8th at 20:00 JST. The live stream will feature Takaya Kuroda (Kazuma Kiryu) and Kazuhiro Nakaya (Ichiban Kasuga) as special guests.
The stream will also cover the history of the Yakuza series for the past 15 years and will make announcements on future developments on the series. Click here to set a reminder for the upcoming live stream.
In the latest video interview of SEGA 60th Anniversary by SEGA Europe, Yakuza series producer, Daisuke Sato, was asked which SEGA IP would he be interested in developing that he hasn’t had a chance to be involved with. He responded that he would be interested in taking on the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise with a different direction. Here is a quote from the the interview:
“It’s an IP that I haven’t come to before. In the sense that I want to try it,… well, Sonic. After all, when you hear SEGA you think Sonic. I’d like to get involved once at least. But for me, the so call Sonic, is well, if I were to do it, I wouldn’t do Sonic as it was. I would like to make a completely different Sonic.” – Daisuke Sato
While this doesn’t confirm that he is working on a Sonic title at the moment, what are your thoughts on this take? Would you be interested in seeing a Sonic game developed by RGG Studio in the near future. I feel that this would be a interesting project for SEGA to tackle and I would love to see another Sonic fighting game spin-off or perhaps a SEGA All-Stars crossover game using past Yakuza engines.
While Kazuma Kiryu is a big, strong Japanese man that has slapped children and even killed a few people. It seems that series Creator and Producer Toshihiro Nagoshi doesn’t want his leading hero in fighting games because, he doesn’t want him hitting women. According to a recent Red Bull France interview:
“We do get this request a lot. Of course there are exceptions, but fighting games generally have female characters, and personally I don’t really want to see Kiryu beating up women.”
Its understandable to feel this way since Kazuma Kiryu is a old school type and wouldn’t make sense for a character like him to assault women. I don’t disagree with him, but fighting games aren’t considered canon or real. Its like, are we really gonna say Mario is out there hitting women and knocking them into a internal abyss when he ring outs them? I think you guys all agree that Kazuma Kiryu joining a game like Tekken 7 or even a new Virtua Fighter won’t ruin his character?
While SEGA of Japan kicked off the SEGA 60th anniversary celebrations earlier this year, SEGA West has officially started celebrations today with a 60 day long GO SEGA event and a dedicated website, SEGA60th.com. During the next 60 days, there will be let’s plays, competitions, employee interviews and content covering the company’s history. Additionally, a large Steam sale has begun, with themed weeks planned.
Most exciting are the reveal of four exclusive mini games. Available on Steam for a limited tile, the games include: Relic Entertainment’s Armor of Heroes, a multiplayer tank battle game featuring assets from the Company of Heroes games. Amplitude Studios’ Endless Zone, a mashup of the developer’s Endless franchise and SEGA’s Fantasy Zone franchise. Streets of Kamurocho, a Streets of Rage and Yakuza mash-up from SEGA. And finally… Golden Axed, the never thought to ever be released working prototype of SEGA Studios Australia’s SEGA Reborn project! The last one we are especially excited to play, as it is a cancelled project we covered quite a bit on this site in the past.
After the break, the full press release and a gallery of mini game screenshots!
The SEGA Cinematic Universe expands with the announcement of a Yakuza movie! Produced by 1212 Entertainment and Wild Sheep Content, this new live action project looks to bring the Yakuza games to the big screen. Who is behind it all and what can we expect? Find out by clicking that play button!
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Steam Database, a tool that tracks down applications and packages on Steam has picked up a recent update for an application of Yakuza: Like a Dragon (aka Yakuza 7), the latest installment in the Yakuza series as of this writing. While it is unusual for Yakuza 6 to still not be available on Steam, Yakuza: Like a Dragon is possibly next in line since it has key differences that separate it from past installments. Mainly because it focuses on a new character Ichiban Kasuga and adapts a turn based battle style inspired by the Dragon Quest games (which funnily enough is referenced in-game).
However, SEGA has not officially announced anything about Yakuza: Like a Dragon coming to Steam at this time, and there is no page officially uploaded. It’s also unknown what features the game will support with a PC release, but it will likely support higher resolutions and frame rates, similar to past Yakuza games released on Steam.
After the ESRB leaking it’s rating and SEGA themselves teasing it on Steam, SEGA has officially revealed that Yakuza Kiwami 2 will arrive on PC in May 9th, for the asking price of $29.99. The game is available for pre-purchase on it’s Steam page, with the promise of unlocked framerates, 4K support, customizable controls, and extensive graphics options. In addition, for those that pre-order Yakuza Kiwami 2, they will receive the Clan Creator Bundle for free, which contains exclusive weapons, outfits, items, and rare Leader Cards.
Yakuza Kiwami 2 on PC is also notable for technically having a Virtual-On game appear on PC for the first time, and also having the new “Dragon Engine” introduced in Yakuza 6 be utilized on PC for the first time. So if you have the spare money, join in on one of the finest games in the Yakuza series this May.
If you have been like me, sitting around and waiting for SEGA to ask for our opinion on how they’ve been handling the Phantasy Star franchise; then you are in luck! SEGA has tweeted out asking for fans to give them feedback on their on-going and some legacy brands. You can take the survey here.
This survey is also good for the future direction of the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, considering it was announced that the next Sonic the Hedgehog game has already begun production.
So what do I think it is? Most likely the announcement for the Dragon Engine Yakuza games coming to PC which includes Yakuza Kiwami 2 and Yakuza 6. I wouldn’t expect a new game announcement or anything, just because Ryu Ga Gotoku Studios announces new games in Japan, not Western shows like Kinda Funny Showcase. It could also be the release dates for Yakuza 3, 4 and 5 in the West, which would make sense since Kinda Funny Games is ran by Greg ‘I love PlayStation’ Miller (not making a sly remark, the man loves PlayStation). It would also be nice to get a Western finalized name for Project JUDGE. What are your thoughts?
A few weeks ago we asked our twitter followers what SEGA franchises or characters deserve a roster spot in the upcoming Super Smash Bros Ultimate. While its cool that SEGA has great representation with Sonic the Hedgehog and Bayonetta, but what if they could squeeze in one more? What franchise should get in? Something more obscure? Something Iconic? In this video I go over the franchises you all asked for and give my two cents on each choice.
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“It will still be quite hardcore at the beginning, but I want the player to think “Oh this game seems really interesting” – that’s what I’m aiming for this time. That goes for the technology too, though I don’t want to say more as it will spoil the fun. By introducing a new and more current systems, I’d like to increase the number of players. And if I do that, I can re-introducing Kiryu-san to some new fans. That would be ideal.” – Toshihiro Nagoshi
The most interesting part is where he says he wants to re-introduce Kiryu-san to new fans, which is odd because the next Yakuza project, being titled ShinYakuza, is suppose to have a brand new lead character and Yakuza 6 was meant to be Kiryu’s last game. Some people are assuming there is some translation errors, but could it be that Shin Yakuza will have Kazuma Kiryu as a NPC supporting character in the story? I guess we will find out sooner than later, with Tokyo Game Show 2018 around the corner… What do you think?
It looks like Yakuza Producer Daisuke Sato is going to ruffle some feathers today, in a new interview with Gameblog.fr he was asked some really great questions. One of those questions was about the possibility of the Yakuza series coming to another console outside of the PlayStation, which he replied:
“To be realistic about what happened, Yakuza 1&2 HD for Wii U was a huge failure. But we are always looking to develop for multiple platforms as much as possible and know that brings in a greater audience to attract more people. However, as far as Switch is concerned, I’m convinced that it isn’t the ideal platform on which to develop Yakuza games. Maybe people don’t expect this kind of game on Switch. Maybe they’re used to different games. It may not be the ideal platform. As for Xbox One, we can consider it, knowing that Xbox One users may be more likely to be interested in a game like Yakuza. This could potentially be an option.”
Personally think Daisuke Sato is wrong on a few levels. While Yakuza 1&2 HD did bomb on the Wii U, it was only released in Japan. Not only that, it does feel like the Nintendo Switch has a much wider audience that are buying more games (and ports) in mass. This also doesn’t take into account how much more popular Yakuza is world wide than it was back in 2015, especially after the release of Yakuza 0.
He also talks about the possibilities of Binary Domain 2, seeing Kazuma Kiryu again and Yakuza 0-2.
In a recent streaming broadcast discussing the upcoming Yakuza 3, Yakuza 4 and Yakuza 5 remasters for PlayStation 4, SEGA’s chief creative officer Toshihiro Nagoshi revealed new information about the genesis of the remasters. According to Nagoshi, the remasters are intended for new overseas fans. Following the release of Yakuza 0, the franchise has seen a renaissance outside Japan with latest title Yakuza 6: The Song of Lifebeing the biggest US launch in the series’ history. So it only made sense to fill the gap between Yakuza Kiwami 2 and Yakuza 6.
Also revealed in the video, Nagoshi states that there will not be cut content in the remasters, which is great news for those who played the PS3 originals outside Japan. Check out the full video here, and in the comments below share your thoughts on the news!
According to the latest issue of Dengeki PlayStation, SEGA plans to release remastered versions of previous Yakuza installments (Yakuza 3, Yakuza 4 and Yakuza 5) for the Playstation 4 with improved resolution and frame rates. No further news on if SEGA is planning to localize the remastered versions to the West. All three titles are scheduled for release in 2018 and 2019 starting with Yakuza 3 on August 9th for 3,990 yen including a download code & soundtrack.
Here is the Japanese release schedule for the other titles.
Yakuza 4 – Fall 2018
Yakuza 5 – Spring 2019
I am happy to see that SEGA is pushing forward with the demand of remastering more Yakuza games and a great opportunity for fans to play Yakuza 3 in it’s original format if it gets localized. How do you guys feel about this news? Feel free to post your thoughts on the comment section below.
Thanks to a series of translated interviews with Yakuza series directors and producers, specifically one with Masayoshi Yokoyama, we learned that in Yokoyama’s personal opinion the series protagonist Kazuma Kiryu is probably a virgin. Yokoyama has long been involved in the Yakuza series, being in charge of script, sound direction and stage direction for all the numbered games as well as Kenzan and Ishin, and has been a producer since Yakuza 5.
The translated interview, which can be read in full here, touches on Yokoyama’s approach to the characters and the inspirations he takes in portraying them. When it comes to Kazuma, Yokoyama mentions that Kazuma is probably a virgin. While this is just his own opinion and is not official in any way, the notion went a long way in the development of the character. Yokoyama also cited that this what if scenario is a fun discussion one could have at a bar between friends who are fans of the Yakuza series. [WARNING: Yakuza 1 spoilers!]
