First Yakuza: Ishin details revealed by Famitsu

Even though Yakuza 5 only came out 8 months ago over in Japan, SEGA is already teasing the next title in the franchise, Yakuza: Ishin (Ishin apparently translates to Resurrection). So, why not just make Yakuza 6?

“In terms of volume and quality, we felt like we did everything we could with Yakuza 5. If I had to put it out there, I’d say that if we want to do another numbered title in the series, we’ll need a little time for that.” – Toshihiro Nagoshi, director of Yakuza series

Like we told you when the game was first revealed, you will take the role of a real life historical figure, Sakamoto Ryoma. The game will take place in mid 19th century Japan during the final years of the shogunate ruling.

Just like in history, Sakamoto was born into a low ranking Samurai clan known as Tosa fiefdom. Ryoma gets frustrated with the strict caste system, so him and his friend Takechi Hanpeita form a political group to reform the government and resist the rapid Westernization that is taking place in Japan at the time. The villain the the game? Saito Hajime, leader of the Shinsengumi group of samurai that are loyal to the shogunate.

 

“It’s not that the era itself was attractive to us so much as the people involved with it trigger stories in our minds. I wanted to build a story this time around Sakamoto Ryoma, who’s this really attention-grabbing character in history, but really there’s such a vast amount of people involved with this era. You have hardline traditional samurai, you have people trying to create a whole new era for themselves, and you have others turning their eyes toward other countries. Trying to build a coherent story that brought all of these people together is a real challenge.”  –  Masayoshi Yokoyama, producer and writer for Yakuza: Ishin

Just like Yakuza: Kenzan, another samurai type Yakuza ‘side game’, this game will also have historical figures modeled after Yakuza main series characters. If you didn’t notice, Sakamoto Ryoma is modeled after Kazuma Kiryu.  Since SEGA threw up a campaign asking fans who their favorite characters  in Yakuza are  and got 1.7 million votes! So don’t be shocked when you see other main Yakuza characters in the full game. Who got the most votes? That’s easy, Goro Majima.

“To be honest, this was a lot more [response] than I thought we would get. I figured we would see a spike on the first day and then it’d taper off later, but the number of votes just kept on rising. The way that the top-ranked characters kept changing positions probably contributed as well. A lot of the most popular characters from the election will appear in Ishin, so it’ll be nice to see people try to guess which characters will play which historical roles in the story. We’ll be providing answers to some of those guesses shortly.” –  Masayoshi Yokoyama, producer and writer for Yakuza: Ishin

“We won’t have all of them, but there will be a lot of characters making appearances, including the ones that ranked the highest. It’ll be kind of a festival atmosphere for fans of the series, and it’s something I felt was important to do because it makes us feel more connected to gamers and the project we’re working on.” – Toshihiro Nagoshi, director of Yakuza series

Sadly they haven’t announced what platform, release date or even gameplay details. The project is still being kept under wraps and will most likely be fully detailed during TGS in a few weeks.

“We may have deployed everything we could with Yakuza 5, but that doesn’t mean we’re on cruise control with the quality and volume of this title. We are challenging ourselves with new things here, from the graphical presentation to the way we’re bringing back the full cast. It’ll be a huge step forward.” – Toshihiro Nagoshi, director of Yakuza series

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