Yakuza 5 promises to take the battle system to the next level and now we know a bit more on what SEGA and the Yakuza team have in store for us. This week Famitsu ran an article detailing what you can expect in the full game later this year.
Toshihiro Nagoshi or better known as the man with an awesome tan, who has helped create games like Super Monkey Ball and Yakuza, was part of a recent article by Famitsu called “Future of Games”. Nagoshi says that the Japanese console game market has had bad growth and that the international market has been showing signs of a drop. He says that developers will have to combat this by being more aware of problems with their games and come up with solutions.
We posted the rumor, now it’s confirmed. SEGA is planning on releasing Yakuza 1&2 HD for the Playstation 3. The issue states that both HD remakes are set to release on November 1st, with a price of ¥5,290 (about $67 dollars). November 1st date is a month earlier than what SEGA had in their release schedule, but can’t complain about getting games early, right?
I’m really getting sick of opening articles with a rundown of Anarchy Reigns delay in the west, so I’ll keep it short: SEGA delayed the game again and again, it now looks to be coming in 2013, and it pisses me off. To add salt to the wound, Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu reviewed the game, which releases July 5th in Japan by the name of Max Anarchy. What did they rate it? Straight 9’s for both XBOX 360 and Playstation 3 versions. So it appears the game is very, very good. 9,9,9,9 good. So tell my again why SEGA continues to delay the game? Excuse me while I belt out an old chestnut from Doctor Robotnik: “DUMBOTS!!!”
A kind soul (Captain Epic) over at the SEGA official forum has translated, in full, the Famitsu interview that series producer Toshihiro Nagoshi provided. In it, some extra bits of information were shared, such as the exact date the game is set for (December 2012) and the backstories of certain characters were explained further. It seems that series lead Kazuma Kiryu chose to leave his duty as head of the Sunshine Orphanage to investigate events in Fukuoka as a taxi driver under a false name. Also explained further is the basic plot for the latest installment of SEGA’s action adventure title, in which the Tojo Clan and the Omi Alliance are set for war and the clan’s sixth chairman Diago Dojima must create alliances with other clans all over Japan to help in the fight against the Omi Alliance. For the complete translation of the Famitsu article, hit the break!
Famitsu has announced lots of new details for the upcoming 3DS crossover video game called Project X Zone. Project X Zone will include characters from Capcom, Namco, and your favorite publisher, SEGA, in a tactical RPG game. The developer for the title has been announced as non other than Monolith Software. At first you will be excited since they created the Xenosaga franchise and the new(ish) Wii RPG Xenoblade Chronicles, but they also developed Namco x Capcom on the PS2; which wasn’t that great of a game.
Hit the jump to see new gameplay details, Famtisu scans and a full list of confirmed characters!
It was announced a few days ago that Dead or Alive 5 would be adding Virtua Fighter‘s Akira Yuki to their roster. According to the latest Famitsu interview with Team Ninja boss Yousuke Hayashi, he actually had to fight for SEGA to approve Akria as a guest character. So this means that the team went out of their way to make this happen. Team Ninja isn’t the only big developer that have wanted Virtua Fighter cross-over. Namco have also talked in interviews of their desires of doing a Virtua Fighter x Tekken title.
He says since they went through all this trouble of bringing Akira on board, that he won’t be the only character announced. Yousuke Hayashi doesn’t go into details if he even means the other planned crossover characters are SEGA related at all, but we all know that DOA has a tag-teamed style gameplay. Don’t be surprise if they announce a couple of other Virtua Fighter characters to join the roster.
Oh, for Virtua Fighter fans, Yousuke Hayashi says that Akira gameplay is mostly unchanged from VF5. At least you know some combos going into Dead or Alive 5. But guess what? Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown is set to hit PSN and XBLA arcade. That title has all the Virtua Fighter characters. That one wins.
Some juicy tidbits have escaped from Famitsu today regarding Yakuza 5 (Ryu Ga Gotoku 5) The first bit of news is that Yakuza 5 will again be released on the Playstation 3. Considering four Yakuza games have already been released for the PS3 and every game in the series have been exclusive to Playstation consoles and handhelds I’m sure anyone could have guessed that one.
The second bit of info is a lot more interesting-
You know that Nagoshi and his newly new named Yakuza Team couldn’t make a new title without featuring their most successful hero, Kazuma Kiryu. It has been confirmed that Kazuma Kiryu will be playable in the game, but not in the single player mode. He will actually be playable online.
“Since this is from the Yakuza team, after all, we figured we’d offer this as a present and as a symbol of the spirit we’re putting into this. Some people may see him as too out-of-place in this near-future setting, but the game is set in Tokyo, after all — I don’t think it’ll feel that strange. I hope you have fun having him go crazy on people.” –Producer, Toshihiro Nagoshi
Kazuma has two different looks, his government outfit will feature him in his white iconic suit. If you decide to play him as a rebel, you will get him shirtless with a Rambo type get up. This includes a bandanna as well.
I guess Kazuma is a better choice than something from Super Monkey Ball.
[Source: 1up]
Six days to go until Sonic Generations arrives! In the meantime, enjoy these new screens of the rarely seen Speed Highway while your digital copy of Daytona USA downloads. The screens come courtesy of Famitsu, and show not only the remade Sonic Adventure stage, but also the Sonic and Shadow race plus more screens on the 3DS stage Radical Highway. You’ll note that the above screen seems to be taking place at dawn. Could that mean… at dawn concludes the stage? Also, nearly every Speed Highway screen features a fan service sign somewhere in the background. One screen in particular, you’ll know it when you see it, name drops just about every Sonic character in a cluster of road signs. Pretty funny stuff.
UPDATE: See high res versions of the screens here.
[Source: Famitsu]
[Artwork for the first PSP game, Black Panther]
Nagoshi teased that he had some big announcements coming up in the end of the month, but thanks to Famisu we already know what they are. SEGA is going to have a pretty nice TGS line-up.
First of all Nagoshi has his own studio to make Yakuza titles called “Ryu ga Gotoku Studio.” Ryu Ga Gotoku is the name of the Yakuza series in Japan, it means Like a Dragon.
The first game that the Yakuza team will work on is Black Panther 2, a sequel to the handheld Yakuza spin-off. It will be called in Japan “Kurohyou 2 Ryu ga Gotoku.” This title will be playable at TGS and is set to be released in Japan in Spring 2012. Also its for the PSP. Odd, wonder if this has to do with the ‘rumored’ Yakuza title for Vita.
In the end the magazine says that they are also working on Yakuza 5. I guess we might get more details about this come the press conference.
We will post scans when we get them.
[Source: AndriaSang]
SEGA has decided to create an original rhythm game IP for the 3DS, after the they have launched two successful different license rhythm games to the market. This original game will be called “Rhythm Phantom Thief R: Inheritance of the Emperor Napoleon” Yes, pretty long title.
The game will be a hybrid of rhythm action with adventure elements. You play as Phantom Thief R, traveling Paris with your dog Fondue, stealing treasure form historical landmarks like Notre-Dame and The Louvre.
So where does the rhythm aspect of the game come in? When you are sneaking into places to steal treasure. The game will use button timing and tilt controls. SEGA has confirmed that they are teaming up with a famous artist for the game.
The game is set to debut in a week. The art has been described as a mix between Lupin III and Professor Layton. Famitsu says the title is 50% complete. We will post scans when we get them, if you have scans leave them in the comment section or contact us.
[Source: AndriaSang]
Yu Suzuki was interviewed in the latest Famitsu issue, isn’t it great having more and more Yu Suzuki content? This time around he talks about why Shenmue cost so much. Basically his team was an arcade team and they tried to do a game that wasn’t thought about before, on a console that they haven’t really worked on much.
“The main difference between open-world games and other types of games is the overwhelming size of them. Making all the endless objects that build up the world one by one, and portraying how the weather and time of day affects it all, requires massive amounts of time and manpower. “For example, if you enter a building, the room on the other side of the door doesn’t exist until the game generates it in the sliver of time when the player pulls the knob. We didn’t make every tree in town individually, either. There are a bunch of graphic resources for tree branches and leaves, and trees are generated mathematically based off of them. The NPCs in town are also independent — instead of giving unique motions to every single one, they all function independently based on road data and behavior pattern programming.” – Yu Suzuki, producer and director for Shenmue
Not to mention all the details that Shenmue had, which most had to be done by hand!
Yukio Sugino had an interview in the latest Famitsu magazine, where he talks about the past, present and future of SEGA. One of the quotes that I loved was when he described what made SEGA great.
“Sega’s philosophy has always been that creativity is our lifeblood and we try to reflect that not just in what we make, but in all aspects of our work. Staying consistent with this spirit is what’s allowed us to approach the world of entertainment in such a broad scope.” – Yukio Sugino
He goes on to talk about a lot of great stuff, about how they used to make games with world wide appeal and not just split it up into regions. So what about not having hardware? Yukio Sugino says it’s hard to go from a hardware company to software.
Binary Domain, Nagoshi’s new shooter, was revealed back in January. We saw a trailer that didn’t give much away about the game and we haven’t heard much about it since. Talking to Famitsu, Nagoshi didn’t give much away! Why? Because as much as he would like to tell you more about Binary Domain, he isn’t allowed to!
”To be honest, there’s very little that we can actually reveal at this precise time,” he admitted to Famitsu.
“There’s a lot I want to talk about; it’s practically all about to burst out of my mouth, but I just have to keep it all bottled up for now. All I can really say is that it’s getting better by the day.”
Hit the jump to find out more!
