Yakuza Black Panther footage

Somewhere deep in this Japanese madness is ingame footage of Yakuza Black Panther for the PSP.

One clip shows off a two player battle mode that looks a lot like a fighting game and another shows off one of the hostesses doing her thing. The graphics look really good for a PSP game, check it out!

Shun Akiyama revealed for ‘Yakuza 5′

Sega today announced a 3rd playable character for their upcoming but unnamed 5th game in the Yakuza series. (Not including spin-offs)

Yakuza 4’s Shun Akiyama will return with a pair of nifty handguns to join existing cast of badass Goro Majima and tiger puncher Kazuma Kiryu.

Each character so far has had a gun or guns in hand, what does this mean for the series that has always been a brawler… Well I hope that they have incorporated shooting levels and areas into the existing game play as they did chasing people down in Yakuza 3 and not all out changed the game into some kind of 3rd person shooter.

We’ll just have to wait and see but I will say one thing… I think this game will have the best playable cast yet.

Vote for the next Yakuza hostess models

So I hear you like walking the streets punching wayward youth in the face and looking at boobs? Who doesn’t? Well good news for all of us! There’s more Yakuza on the way in the form of Yakuza 5 aka ‘That one with Goro playable‘ and with Yakuza comes hostesses to harass. (Apart from in Yakuza 3 lol.)

It’s that time again, Voting time! Sega have picked 16 of the most creepy beautiful looking girls Japan has to offer. It’s up to us mouth breathing, neck bearded internet nerds to pick which one we’re least likely to sleep with.

Check them out and vote HERE!
Alternatively you can see full body shots and info in English HERE!

[Thanks Suzuki Yu]

Kazuma to star alongside Majima in Yakuza game

 

SEGA have recently revealed that Kazuma Kiryu will indeed be starring alongside Goro Majima for the new Yakuza title and carrying on the theme with weapons, Kazuma comes equipped with a large new gun. Not much has been revealed about the game from Nagoshi in the latest Famitsu magazine. On the announcement of Kazuma Kiryu, Toshihiro Nagoshi said;

It’s said that if Kiryu doesn’t appear, Yakuza cannot begin. However, when we revealed Majima as the first main character, in addition to the reaction of ‘You can use Majima this time!’ it was widely said that ‘Kiryu is gone!’ and ‘It’s a game exclusively with Majima,’ so we wanted to quickly get out information about Kiryu’s appearance as well. Please wait just a bit more for the next update.

No doubt that guns will now be playing a bigger part in the series than ever before but in what capacity remains to be seen, before weapons have been largely ineffective in brawls in the game so a massive overhaul on the typical gameplay seems to be on the cards as Nagoshi hinted in an earlier interview. Tokyo Game Show should present fans of the series with a better idea of what to look forward to in this latest installment.

[Source: Andriasang]

Yakuza 4 announced for the West!

Typically, companies love money. Apparently, SEGA loves the handful of people who buy the Yakuza series in the west just a little bit more! Yes, that’s right, it seems Kazuma Kiryuu’s final adventure is now heading westward, with an expected release of Spring 2011.

That’s all that’s really known at this time, though we should find out more come E3. For those wanting to ask Yakuza creator Toshihiro Nagoshi questions regarding the series, the good people at SEGA Europe have offered you a chance to post them in their blog. The questions that are chosen will be answered after E3.

Rejoice everyone, we’re getting yet another stellar beat ’em up adventure from SEGA!

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Sony asking if you want a Yakuza HD collection


So you bought a PS3 and never got to play the amazing Yakuza original and the sequel. Sony is now asking if you would purchase a HD collection with both the originals for the Playstation 3. This screen above was caught in a recent Sony survey.

God of War Collection, which Sony released recently, had HD picture (720p), anti-aliased graphics, two sets of trophies (one for each game), and was locked at 60fps. If SEGA can do both of this for the collection, plus cut down on the loading in the first game to match the second, that would be awesome.

[Source: Kotaku]

Nagoshi talks Yakuza and Shenmue similarities

I’m one of those guys that does not think Yakuza is much like Shenmue, I think it have small elements that barrow for Yu Suzuki’s amazing game, but much different in the end. What does Nagoshi have to say about the comparisons?

“Fans are free to judge the game as they like. All of these games were created by SEGA. We might have included game elements from past titles unconsciously. But all of those elements appear in an evolved style.”

I dunno about “evolved style”, Shenmue had a better weather system on the Dreamcast and more varied character NPCs. Just saying. You can read the SPOnG interview here.

Project K screens look really good

No joke, the game is on PSP and it seems (from screens) that it will end up looking better than Yakuza 2! Got to give it up to  the team working on the game.

Also the Official Project K teaser site has now been launched. The message says the game has been revealed (this we know) and that it will take place in the Yakuza universe, but going to be something different.  The site teases May 13th, we assume an update on the site will be made on this day.

Hit the jump to see some artwork.

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Nagoshi talks about Project K


You saw the scans below, with all the Japanese writing. Well, in the magazine they talked to playboy Toshihiro Nagoshi about the upcoming PSP game. First thing we know is that the game will take place in Kamurocho (inspired by Tokyo’s Shinjuku).

The obvious? The game will not be called Project K, that is a place holder at the moment. He did say that the game won’t be like any other Yakuza game before it and will not be called “Ryu ga Gotoku”. He did mention using it as a subtitle though.

New Yakuza game coming to PSP


SEGA’s Project K is going to be a new Yakuza title exclusively for the PSP home system. The game appeared in this week’s Famitsu magazine.

Not much is known about the game, due to being able to read Japanese. But you can check out the scans below.

Yakuza 4 pushes 480,000 units for March


Sales numbers for the month of March are in, Yakuza 4 dominated the competition to become the best selling game for the month, pushing an impressive 480,626 units.

Even though the sales count the whole month of March, Yakuza 4 came out on March 18th, so this is really just half a month of sales. We will have to see if the game has better legs than Yakuza 3. No signs if Yakuza 4 will be heading west, as of yet.

[Source: NeoGAF]