Some juicy tidbits have escaped from Famitsu today regarding Yakuza 5 (Ryu Ga Gotoku 5) The first bit of news is that Yakuza 5 will again be released on the Playstation 3. Considering four Yakuza games have already been released for the PS3 and every game in the series have been exclusive to Playstation consoles and handhelds I’m sure anyone could have guessed that one.
The second bit of info is a lot more interesting- you may remember Sega Japan were holding a Poll asking fans which Japanese city they would like to see feature in the new Yakuza game. Choices were between Sapporo, Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka and Fukuoka. (Sapporo won by a large margin) Well it turns out that might have just been a sneaky marketing ploy. According to this rumour all five of those cities will be featured in Yakuza 5 alongside the iconic fictional city of Kamorocho.
Now that is something worth talking about, personally I’m hoping that the game has had an engine upgrade because Yakuza 4 was beginning to show its age. I would also love to hear that the entire main story events are 100% voiced, I’m starting to find the back and forth between cinematics and that tap-tap-tap sound of text boxes awfully jarring. I’m about ready to get excited for another Yakuza game!
EDIT: It’s no longer a rumour, here is some more info.
- The game will have massive volume.
- Nagoshi says that if likening the series to a house, 5 would be like building a new house rather than adding an extension to an existing house.
- The five cities will be of scale at or beyond the previous Osaka (Dotonbori) and Okinawa (Ryukyu) locations.
- Rather than seeking out hostesses to appear in the game, Sega will be traveling to the five cities to seek out girls who will serve as a cheering squad for the game. The girls will appear in commercials as well.
- The game will have presentation improvements, including shortened load times, improved camerawork and better character expressions. The team is using some of the knowhow they gained from working on Binary Domain.
- The game will also have improved technology to allow for seamless conversations and battles. Nagoshi says that you will be surprised with the result.
- The story will connect directly with Yakuza 4. It will not carry over from the zombie-themed Yakuza Of the End.
- Masayoshi Yokoyama is now a producer. On past Yakuza games, he worked on such areas as script and scenario.
- Development is currently in an early phase. Famitsu lists the game as date TBA.
Hm. 5 cities kind of scares me. Yakuza 2 had the most cities with 3, and the problem with that game was that 1 was fully-developed…the other 2 felt small and rushed in comparrison. I’d rather have 1 big city than 5 tiny ones…though I’d rather that city be somewhere new.
I dunno. It’ll be interesting to see how it turns out. I’m pretty sure a new engine was already confirmed however.
More info Added nSega.
I think having multiple medium sized cities is better than having one large one. I like to feel like I’m progessing to new places with new seenary.
Think about if all of Shenmue took place in Dobuita… Blarg! New areas introduced periodically keep the game freash and exciting.
some really good infos right there!
mind blown at 5 cities in the game! but seriously i have no idea how they will manage a story connecting 5 cities spanning from north to south of Japan!
I’m with 54 on this one.
Give few but well developed.
In Shenmue the environments got bigger as you moved forward when as in Yakuza 2, new cities were the embodiment of tiny and rushed.
I loved both Osaka and Okinawa in Yakuza 2 and 3 already, having 5 extra cities is beyond fantastic to me.
Looks like Yakuza 5 is about to take the game of the generation for me, oh wait, VF5FS comes out next year, so second place it is!
*unrelated
what’s wrong with the forum??
@Suzuki Yu,
There is nothing wrong with the forum. Maybe you just loaded it at a time when the server was having a random issue, but it’s working fine for me. I haven’t made any changes to it recently… so yeah…
If you are having login issues… clear your cookies, that solves everything!
i have a question that its offtopic in the 3ds version of sonic generations you can change the voices like in the console versions pease answer me
“•The five cities will be of scale at or beyond the previous Osaka (Dotonbori) and Okinawa (Ryukyu) locations.”
Hopefully beyond, lol.
“I like to feel like I’m progessing to new places with new seenary.
Think about if all of Shenmue took place in Dobuita… Blarg! New areas introduced periodically keep the game freash and exciting.”
I agree with that in theory, but like someone else said, Shenmue’s new areas (Shenmue 2) were expansive and dwarfed the original….Shenmue showcased a work ethic on the part of the developers nearly unheard of. The total opposite of lazy game design. Yakuza, on the other hand… :p
@Shadi
thanks… working fine now.
This sounds awesome. I can’t wait to see more in 2012. Year of SEGA. Hands down.