SEGA’s Daisuke Sato would like to remaster Binary Domain, Yakuza Kenzan and Ishin

In an interview with French website GameBlog, Yakuza series producer Daisuke Sato spoke about his desire to remaster 2012’s Binary Domain. Sato, who directed the game, said he personally would like to see it remastered and in doing so he would “make a few changes” and “redo some parts”.

Sato also cited the success of Ghost of Tsushima as a good reason for releasing remastered versions of the samurai era Yakuza Kenzan and Ishin in the West. Sato said that he had wanted to remaster the two games long before Ghost of Tsushima, but remastering Yakuza 2-5 was the priority and they missed the opportunity. However, Sato added “if anything, Ghost of Tsushima has helped Western gamers become more interested in samurai, so I should think of it as now is a more opportune time to release these titles.”

Sato ended the interview expressing a willingness to explore more genres in the future after the success of the JRPG-themed Yakuza: Like A Dragon.

[Source: GameBlog via Video Games Chronicle]

Yakuza Producer, Daisuke Sato, wants to take on developing a Sonic the Hedgehog Game

 

In the latest video interview of SEGA 60th Anniversary by SEGA Europe, Yakuza series producer, Daisuke Sato, was asked which SEGA IP would he be interested in developing that he hasn’t had a chance to be involved with. He responded that he would be interested in taking on the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise with a different direction. Here is a quote from the the interview:

“It’s an IP that I haven’t come to before. In the sense that I want to try it,… well, Sonic. After all, when you hear SEGA you think Sonic. I’d like to get involved once at least. But for me, the so call Sonic, is well, if I were to do it, I wouldn’t do Sonic as it was. I would like to make a completely different Sonic.” – Daisuke Sato

While this doesn’t confirm that he is working on a Sonic title at the moment, what are your thoughts on this take? Would you be interested in seeing a Sonic game developed by RGG Studio in the near future. I feel that this would be a interesting project for SEGA to tackle and I would love to see another Sonic fighting game spin-off or perhaps a SEGA All-Stars crossover game using past Yakuza engines.

Yakuza directors look back on Yakuza 3, Yakuza 4 and Yakuza 5 in new Interview

SEGA America got three different Yakuza directors from three different Yakuza games that are included in the Yakuza Remastered Collection. They got Daisuke Sato (Yakuza 3 director), Jun Orihara (Yakuza 4 director) and Kazuki Hosokawa (Yakuza 5 director) to sit down and look back on the series’ PlayStation 3 outings.

I really love these director, behind the scene looks into the games and its something that RGG Studios does a lot in Japan leading up to game releases. Glad we are getting the same treatment for this collection in the West. They did hint in the end that they will be doing a separate video on the stories for these games.

Yakuza Kenzan could get a Kiwami remake teases producer

Let’s start this article with a big old Tim Taylor grunt because we got Yakuza Kenzan back in the news. If you never heard of this Yakuza series spin-off, its a samurai themed Yakuza game that features characters from historical Japan’s Edo period and follows legendary samurai Miyamoto Musashi (played by Kiryu of course).

In an event in Taipei, Yakuza producer Daisuke Sato was there to celebrate the release of Yakuza 5 PS4 port over in China, which now means the whole Yakuza main series has been released in the region (when are we getting those Yakuza PS4 ports?). At this event people got to ask questions about the future of the franchise.

The following questions were brought up about a possible future Kiwami style remakes. Via Siliconera:

Yakuza Producer says Nintendo Switch isn’t an ideal platform for the series, considering Xbox One


It looks like Yakuza Producer Daisuke Sato is going to ruffle some feathers today, in a new interview with Gameblog.fr he was asked some really great questions. One of those questions was about the possibility of the Yakuza series coming to another console outside of the PlayStation, which he replied:

“To be realistic about what happened, Yakuza 1&2 HD for Wii U was a huge failure. But we are always looking to develop for multiple platforms as much as possible and know that brings in a greater audience to attract more people. However, as far as Switch is concerned, I’m convinced that it isn’t the ideal platform on which to develop Yakuza games. Maybe people don’t expect this kind of game on Switch. Maybe they’re used to different games. It may not be the ideal platform. As for Xbox One, we can consider it, knowing that Xbox One users may be more likely to be interested in a game like Yakuza. This could potentially be an option.”

Personally think Daisuke Sato is wrong on a few levels. While Yakuza 1&2 HD did bomb on the Wii U, it was only released in Japan. Not only that, it does feel like the Nintendo Switch has a much wider audience that are buying more games (and ports) in mass. This also doesn’t take into account how much more popular Yakuza is world wide than it was back in 2015, especially after the release of Yakuza 0.

He also talks about the possibilities of Binary Domain 2, seeing Kazuma Kiryu again and Yakuza 0-2.

SEGA considering bringing Yakuza 3, 4 and 5 to PlayStation 4 if there is enough demand

While I’m glad that the Yakuza series has finally gotten the attention it deserves, its just a bit sad that it happen over a decade after its initial debut on PlayStation 2. Its not surprising that every new fan that has jumped on the series since Yakuza 0 has wanted ports of all the past games for their current generation console of choice, the PlayStation 4. We already got Yakuza Kiwami (remake of the first game) and Yakuza Kiwami 2 is coming in a few months. But what about Yakuza 3, 4 and 5?

Yakuza series producer Daisuke Sato talked to PlayStation Access and stated that Yakuza 3, Yakuza 4 and Yakuza 5 are all available on PlayStation 3. As for PlayStation 4 “If we get a lot of requests to make them, we may consider it.” 

What do you guys think? Do you guys want to see ports of Yakuza 3, Yakuza 4 and Yakuza 5 on PlayStation 4? Maybe we’ll finally have a physical version of Yakuza 5 in the west!

[Via: Nichegamer]

Yakuza Producer says if Harada wants Kazuma Kiryu in Tekken 7, they’re for it

During the Yakuza 6 Live Q&A portion, one of the questions asked if Yakuza 6 is truly the end for our lovable hero or will we see him appear in other games. Once the question ended, everyone in the audience screamed “Tekken!“, which seems something that fans want to happen. I even wrote a whole article about why Kazuma Kiryu would be perfect for Tekken 7 (take notes, Namco). Yakuza Producer, Daisuke Sato took to answering the question:

“What it comes down to the whole Tekken thing, if Harada-san says he wants to use Kiryu, well then there it is.”  – Daisuke Sato, Yakuza Producer

But lets be honest, SEGA is obviously saving this big Kazuma Kiryu fighting game crossover for Virtua Fighter 6, right guys?