SEGA’s much anticipated Yakuza 5 releases December 8th digitally for the Playstation 3 in the Americas and Europe! To celebrate, we’re teaming with SEGA to give away official Yakuza 5 t-shirts (contest open to the US and Canada). To enter, all you have to do is head on over to Twitter, follow SEGAbits, and retweet our contest tweet to spread the word of the game. Three winners will be randomly selected on Twitter! Not a Twitter user or want to double your chances? Below in the comments section, share your Yakuza franchise memories in celebration of the series 10th anniversary – which happens to December 8th, the same day as Yakuza 5‘s Western release! Two winners will be selected from the comments section based on quality of comment.
The contest ends on Monday, December 14th at 11:59PM CT and winners will be announced the following day. As mentioned, the contest is for the US and Canada only and five winners will be selected. You cannot win twice. Good luck to all who enter and don’t forget to buy Yakuza 5!
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My most memorable Yakuza moment was when Aizawa and Kiryu both strip and “Battle for the Dream” starts playing while they both charge at each other.
I enjoy the Yakuza franchise a whole ton, and all my friends know it, since I keep on telling them to play it. It’s a fun little memory, and something that keep happening: Since all my friends know I love Yakuza, they will share with me every time they find or hear news about the Yakuza series. Most the time I already know it though, hah.
My favorite memory is playing through Ishin day 1 with a few friends and not knowing what was going on and making up as we went along and later finding out we were partially right.
Aizawa and Kiryu stripe while having Right Said Fred “too sexy” in the back… o wait think I dream that lol could a of happen tho
The Yakuza 1 english version will always stick out in my mind. The battle banter from the street thugs are forever burned in my brain like…
“HEY YOU!”
“WANNA DIE?”
“YOU GONNA GET IN MY FACE?”
etc.
I remember the prequel episodes (or movie) that were released on Sega’s website. It made me super psyched for the game. I made a lot of non gaming friends watch the episodes as well and they all were quickly engrossed into the drama.
It was also really exciting playing the first chapter of the game and comparing it to the scenes in the movie.
yay yakuza5! i own all the games, japanese and english versions!!
This franchise is the only one that I can say I truly love.
From the grandiose story threads found in each game to the brutal yet gleeful heat moves, I find myself engrossed with each game in the series. So much that I’ve spent over 400+ hours getting 100% completion on yakuza 1 and 2 as well as the platinum trophies in yakuza 3,4 and dead souls.
As for a favourite memory, it’s not any particular one but more so the feeling of nostalgia I get from seeing the Millennium tower and remembering the epic battles that have happened in the series. That feeling of digital recollection extends to other parts of the game world as well with each new game and that’s a big part of why I’m enamored with this series.
Thanks Sega and Nagoshi-san for this awesome franchise. Looking forward to yakuza 0 while making new memories in yakuza 5!
My favorite aspect of the Yakuza series is the vibrant recreation of Japan. Having visited before it brought back so many fond memories. Playing through Yakuza 3, visiting Okinawa and it’s gorgeous beach, to having the Don Quixote theme song stuck in my head (I made it a point to visit a Don Quixote during my 2nd visit to japan), along with the story and quirky side quests made it a memorable experience. It made the lack of Shemue 3 much more bearable.
Yakuza 4, near the end, when all characters including Kazuma suit up to fight in the streets of Kamurocho.
Epicness.
My Yakuza memory is definitely coming home after blind-buying Yakuza 4 three years ago and basically doing nothing with my life but play it. Thankfully it was summer break so I wasn’t neglecting too much (other than sleep)! Very thankful I randomly decided to pick it up with the thought of “Oh, this is the phoenix that rose from Shenmue’s ashes?” I never knew how badly I wanted to manage a hostess club, go to batting cages, play Boxcelios, or get swept up with Japanese crime drama until that day. Flash forward to now and it’s one of my favorite series and I’m getting lost all over again in 5. I’ve got some authorized-but-illegal cab racing to do.
From 2002-2007 my band toured extensively and so I fell out of regular gaming. One day I noticed the box for Yakuza here in Scotland in 2005/06 and had to pick it up without even reading a review. I’ve always been a huge fan of Japanese culture and yakuza movies and when I played it it was the closest thing to shenmue id seen in years….been in love with the franchise since. Desperately want the HD remasters and spinoffs now. X
My most memorable moment was in Yakuza 2, when Sayama and Kiryu are sitting together after defeating Ryudo, and the bomb is ticking. The second it hits zero, the credits roll. That was the most jaw-dropping cliffhanger of all time.
Loving Yakuza 5 so far!
My favorite yakuza memory is from yakuza 4 when Saejima sees his boss, since the hit he had to do. Its was heart breaking when the boss said Saejimas name and broke down in tears.
The best one is fighting the four final bosses in Yakuza 4. Very good time to be the new fan of the series.
2 moments in Yakuza 2:
Majima beating up the Omi alliance invasion in Kamurocho singlehandedly, and when Majima was doing bomb disarming.
My favorite Yakuza memory is in Yakuza 2, where you have to take out samurai in a golden castle then have a boss fight with two tigers. I never get tired of watching Kiryu punch a tiger in the face.
My favorite moment was when Ryuji and Takashima shot each other at the end of Yakuza 2. And then Ryuji went on to fight Kazuma? What a man.
Mine was watching the early Japanese trailers for Yakuza 2 at school. I was in a “game design” program at my community college where no one knew what they were doing, but some of them oversaw what I was watching and couldn’t believe how (awesomely) brutal the heat actions were. Rewind, watch again, rewind, watch again. Then the game came out and the place I pre-ordered it (the now defunct Game Crazy) didn’t get it, so I cancelled that and got it at Wal-Mart instead.
My favorite memory is from the first game at the beginning where Kazuma is lured to a bar by a hot chick and offered a drink. The first time I took it and Kazuma blacks out, finds his stuff missing, goes back to the bar to kick some ass, and after that the bartender tries to apologize by giving me my stuff and a bunch of money and I took it. After that, my memory card was erased (It wasn’t the first time), so I restarted the game, but this time I refused the drink and got straight to the fight. When the bartender apologized this time though, I didn’t accept it the first time and he gave me a key to an underground gambling den along with the money. I really felt like a badass for making different choices and getting much better results.
I remember spending two hours at the pachinko parlor at one Virtua Fighter machine. I had intended to show a little bit of the world before moving back to combat to friend of mine. All of a sudden, I started to hit jackpots back to back! I couldn’t put the controller down as I was getting so excited. My friends had no idea what was going on, till they realized how much time had past. They looked at me and said, “You can leave the parlor you know.” “I could,” I replied, “but then I’d lose out on all of this luck!”
I’m honestly excited to get back to the parlor when I boot up Yakuza 5!!
My most favorite memory of Yakuza is when I finally realized some of the places in Yakuza 3 were real life places.
I had started with Yakuza 3 in 2010 and spent a lot of time visiting the different restaurants and Don Quijote. Never thought they were real places. Later that year I was browsing a home goods store and came across a large print of the Don Quijote and flipped out! These places were real? No way. Of course I bought the print and now it hangs in my home. 🙂
But that made me curious – what else was real in Yakuza? I couldn’t believe how many places were actually real life establishments! If I ever got the chance to go to Tokyo, I certainly wanted to visit the real Kabukicho and visit Don Quijote, Karaoke-Kan, Pronto…
Flash forward to 2014. My husband and I decided to bite the bullet and go to Tokyo. We stayed at a hotel in close proximity to Kabukicho. Our first evening we wandered up the street and I saw the Don Quijote – live and in person! I freaked out and ran inside, expecting the Don Quijote jingle to be playing; it wasn’t, but the store still lived up to my expectations.
Thankfully my husband tolerates my Yakuza obsession and went along with it. We were in Tokyo for 10 days and while we did all kinds of things, the memories that stick out to me are the ones Yakuza related. We went to Don Quijote 3 times. I made him eat at Pronto once during the day and once at night. We had lunch at Matsuya. We made friends with bar patrons at a small bar in the Golden Gai (Champion’s District). One night we got pretty plastered and had a great time singing our faces off at Karaoke-Kan. We visited a Club Sega and played the UFO Catcher. It was amazing.
It’s certainly an experience i’ll never forget and I can’t wait to go back someday. And for some of it, I have Yakuza to thank for. 🙂
I really need this one because I started to play the japanese version but couldn’t go to far!!!