SEGA has announced that the new upcoming Yakuza game on the Playstation 3 and Playstation 4 is being called Yakuza Zero (in Japan: Like a Dragon Zero: The Place of the Vow). Sadly that is all that they really mentioned considering that most of the news will be coming next month during the Tokyo Game Show.
But if ‘Zero’ trends continue this could be a prequel to the franchise. Considering that in the first Yakuza game you control Kazuma Kiryu ten years after coming out of prison. Not only that, there has already been a prologue of sorts written in movie form to promote the first game.
What do you guys think?
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Swanning around in 1995 – with today’s next gen tech, interesting. Good stuff, as a prequel, maybe Sega will see renewed sense to try and give this iteration a western presence, and maybe the franchise as a whole again.
Maybe it takes place during prison?
Knowing the series it would probably something crazy that wouldn’t make much sense, but it will have great character moments featuring Nishki, Yumi and Kazuma.
Still bashing anything and everything Sega does eh, we don’t yet know if it’ll get a localisation in the western territory, they only main game of the entire series that hasn’t come out west was Yakuza 5 (not a problem if you get an imported copy and follow the high production English translation by KHH on DailyMotion or YT).
Only the spin off titles in the Ryu Ga Gotoku franchise haven’t made it west, the exception would be the spin off ‘Yakuza: Dead Souls’ (aka ‘Ryu Ga Gotoku: of the End’ in Japan) which did receive a western localisation. Pretty decent for a spin off too, based in the Yakuza world of Kamurocho with a much more heavy emphasis on gun play.
So all in all, we’ve only seen one game in the main series that did not get a localisation, though this was likely due to it being too close to the next gen to warrant a worthwhile release in the west, as console owners in the west don’t tend to be as Conservative with their consoles as the Japanese do, Yakuza 2 almost very nearly never made it west either being so late into the PS2 for Sega to bother with.
If zero does not get the localisation treatment then I will conclude that Sega has for what ever reason, given up bothering to localise the franchise, but as they ‘still’ have never stated that Yakuza 5 is cancelled, I’d rule this out, and wait to see with the prequel. There’s still significant demand for Yakuza 5, significant enough to get Sega talking about it.
I haven’t heard Sega express any interest in localizing Yakuza 5, quite the opposite in fact.
I don’t see why we should be giving them the benefit of the doubt.
If they announce it for Western release, then great; it’ll be 2 years late.
Until then, yeah, fuck that.
I don’t expect Yakuza to ever come out from Japan unless SEGA wants a vanity project or the series is rebooted with the West in mind. It sold worse than the Wonderful 101 and Tearaway, that should tell you how badly it sells when two of the worst selling “major games” have done better than it on a dead platform. Any hope of Yakuza coming here is pretty slim.
Until then, can’t wait for this, loved 5 a lot. I hope that if this is a prequel then we can at least get to play as Kazama, maybe even Majima if they want to go with the multiple protagonists. Though it would probably feature Kiryu as the main hero one way or another. I’ll be there… Day Zero.
@Ben, By ‘opposite’ then, you mean Sega has officially stated themselves that it’ll never come west? Where? I’ve never heard them say it will come west, but I’ve never heard them say it’ll never come west either, that’s what I’m saying, it’s like the Shenmue project, 13 years on and they’ve still not officially cancelled it, which doesn’t completely rule it out either, as unlikely it may seem.
People were saying that the Yakuza franchise was actually selling well in the west, could always be much better of course, but it wasn’t that bad sales wise was it?
It was starting to gain a cult following in the west title by title a little bit more than the last release in the franchise.
Do you have the exact figures of every release in the western regions?
@Rinkiz, I think you misunderstood my comment.
I took note that 5 Yakuza titles didn’t get localised, that’s why I used the term ‘Spin-Offs’ – as these titles are not part of the main franchise story, they are related to it but not directly part of it.
For example, Ryu Ga Gotoku: Kenzan and Ryu Ga Gotoku: Ishin are both part of the franchise, but they are not directly part of the main storyline as the numbered entries in the series are such as Ryu Ga Gotoku/Yakuza, 2, 3, 4 and 5 are.
Same with the PSP branch of the spin offs, they are part of the same root Ryu Ga Gotoku/Yakuza franchise, but they are not part of the same branch story-wise.
The only title of the main series that has yet to receive a localisation is 5, every other numbered entry has been localised, only the 5th hasn’t.
And the only title of the spin offs that have received a localisation is Yakuza: Dead Souls (Known as ‘Ryu Ga Gotoku: Of the End’ in Japan).
So that’s what I was saying, the whole of the main series except 5 has been localised, and the whole of the spin off title entries in the franchise except Dead Souls/Of The End hasn’t been localised.
*His
@Rinkiz, I think you misunderstood my comment.
I took note that 5 Yakuza titles didn’t get localised, that’s why I used the term ‘SPIN-Offs’ – as these titles are not part of the main franchise story, they are related to it but not directly part of it.
For example, Ryu Ga Gotoku: Kenzan and Ryu Ga Gotoku: Ishin are both part of the franchise, but they are not directly part of the main storyline as the numbered entries in the series are such as Ryu Ga Gotoku/Yakuza, 2, 3, 4 and 5 are.
Same with the PSP branch of the spin offs, they are part of the same root Ryu Ga Gotoku/Yakuza franchise, but they are not part of the same branch story-wise.
The only title of the main series that has yet to receive a localisation is 5, every other numbered entry has been localised, only the 5th hasn’t.
And the only title of the spin offs that have received a localisation is Yakuza: Dead Souls (Known as ‘Ryu Ga Gotoku: Of the End’ in Japan).
So that’s what I was saying, the whole of the main series except 5 has been localised, and the whole of the spin off title entries in the franchise except Dead Souls/Of The End hasn’t been localised.
@Leo The Woodlouse Are you quoting me? His? I was talking to Rinkiz.
@Gen;
Companies tend not to make announcements along the lines of “we’re not releasing that game West” anymore due to the negative publicity it brings.
Why would Sega make an announcement that they know will get them negative press? Typically these days Japanese companies like Sega and Nintendo remain silent rather than saying “that game’s not coming over.”
By continuing to tell yourself year after year that silence “doesn’t mean it’s not coming,” you’re actually contributing to the problem. What we should be doing as fans is pressuring companies like Sega for direct responses and answers as to why these games aren’t coming over, and we should be demanding their release, not simply hoping that one day they’ll announce it.
Been over 7 years since Yakuza Kenzan came out. Sega never said it wasn’t coming West, either. Are you still waiting for that one?
That’s a good point, I think you’re likely right.
And I didn’t mean to say that you *specifically* were part of the problem, haha. I realize how douchey that came off. I meant to say though that these aren’t the types of things (I feel) the fans need to be apathetic about.
My honest guess (And it is just a guess, albeit I think it’s an educated one) is that Mike Hayes was the main reason we got Yakuza’s 3, 4, and Dead Souls localized. I think with him gone…..nobody else at Sega West seems to care, frankly, about localizing these games, and I think it’s unfortunate.