Yakuza Studio

Yakuza 6 demo out tomorrow, is over 36 GB in size

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The Yakuza 6: The Song of Life demo is hitting PSN on February 27, 2018 and since some regions are ahead of us due to timezones, they can already try out the demo. For example, the English demo has now hit the Australian PlayStation Store revealing that the demo will be 36.53 GB in size! Yeah, its a big one.

So what is in this demo? The Yakuza 6: The Song of Life demo is a prologue. This lets you go through the intro segment where they teach you the basics in controls, what Kazuma Kiryu is doing now and why he is taking care of Haruka’s son, Haruto. Also your save data from this demo will carry over to the full game when it comes out April 17, 2018. This demo is basically the same one they released for the Japanese release.

So what do you think? Too big? Are you picking the demo up to give Yakuza 6: The Song of Life a early look?

[Source: Siliconera]

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Hokuto ga Gotoku demo hits Japanese PSN later today

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If you have been waiting to get your hands on Hokuto ga Gotoku, the Yakuza Studio’s take on a Fist of the North Star game, you won’t have to wait that long since the demo is launching in Japan on February 22nd! Considering how time zones work, if you live in America it should be later tonight.

If you live in America (like me) it will hit the Japanese PSN store at 5:00 pm PT/8:00 pm ET.

The demo will include

  • “Experience Hokuto Shinken” – Learn the game systems by battling Shin. Includes a battle tutorial.
  • “Experience the Story” – Play a side mission from the game. This mission will have Ken driving a buggy, fighting scoundrels, and exploring Eden.

Hokuto ga Gotoku will hit PlayStation 4 in Japan on March 8, no release dates announced outside of Japan. Yet SEGA was (not so) quick to announce Shining Resonance Re:frain, so don’t count this game out yet.

[Via: Gematsu]

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Yakuza 6 reveals in-game clan creator for real yakuza action

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SEGA has finally released a new trailer showing off Yakuza 6‘s clan creator. The clan creator is a brand new minigame created just for Yakuza 6 where you can find and recruit gang members. The minigame will allow you to train them and have them fight the ‘The Six Lunatics’. Which is funny because we have seen Kazuma Kiryu literally take on armies, but now he needs a clan of people to take down six people?

The trailer also features a in-game code for your clan: BLACKPANTSKOUMEI, which unlocks… I dunno, we will find out when the game launches on PlayStation 4 on March 20, 2018. What do you think of Yakuza 6‘s clan creator?

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SEGA releases over an hour of Hokuto Ga Gotoku gameplay

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For SEGA fans that are big fans of the First of the North Star (Hokuto Ga Gotoku) series, SEGA of Japan have now done a long form stream showing off over an hour of gameplay. As you can tell from the gameplay, Hokuto Ga Gotoku is very much a licensed Fist of the North Star game built on top of the Yakuza 0 engine. This isn’t the first time that SEGA has done something like this, Yakuza Kiwami was built this way. I just find it weird that they kept a lot of the same UI design from the Yakuza series, would have been cool to see reworked maps and other UI designed by the manga creator instead of just reusing the Yakuza look.

Hokuto ga Gotoku is coming out on PlayStation 4, in Japan on March 8 with a standard and “Century’s End Premium” edition. SEGA hasn’t mention anything about this game coming out outside of Japan… fingers crossed!

[Via: Gematsu]

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Yakuza’s Kazuma Kiryu joins Street Fighter V via fan mod

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Yakuza‘s Kazuma Kiryu joins the fight in Street Fighter V, thanks to this fan mod created for the PC version of the game. The mod was crafted by Khaled Antar, who is known in the Street Fighter V community for his past mods, this time he is giving us SEGA fans something to cheer about. If you didn’t know, when Tekken 7 producer asked fans what DLC character they wanted, Kazuma Kiryu topped their list. Maybe someone will make a Kazuma Kiryu mod for Tekken 7 next?

Download the Street Fighter V Kazuma Kiryu mod here

The mod uses Ryu as a base for Kazuma Kiryu and features three variants of the skin that each have 15 color options. You can play with shades, no shades and even have breakable shades via fighting. According to the description it also features jacket and hair physics.

[Thanks Sanus]

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Yakuza Kiwami 2 demo hits Japanese PSN in late November

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yakuza-kiwami-2-and-fist-of-the-north-star-game-announced-fo_mhjtYakuza Kiwami 2 is coming out this December 7th in Japan, so SEGA is starting to get their hype train going over there. They have promised a Yakuza Kiwami 2 demo by the end of November, starting on December 2nd to the 17th, SEGA will be launching TV advertising campaign for the game. SEGA will also be holding signing events in November.

As far as what the demo will contain, that is all a mystery but I hope it gives us a glimpse at some of the Goro Majima content that is exclusive to this title. This will also give us a look to see how this title is running on the Yakuza 6 Dragon Engine, since this is the second title by the studio to use the new engine. The first Kiwami game actually ran on the Yakuza 0 engine.

[Via: Gematsu]

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Fist of the North Star (Hokuto ga Gotoku) Extended Trailer shows off gameplay systems

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The Fist of the North Star (Hokuto ga Gotoku) seemed to come out of nowhere. It was announced a few months ago and in Japan its already going to get a early February 2018 release. It seems that the Yakuza Studio people are on a roll with releasing Yakuza Kiwami 2 in December, 2017, then a few months after that releasing this! I have to say, very ambitious studio.

This extended Tokyo Game Show 2017 trailer gives you a look at the story, some fighting mechanics, how leveling up works, mini-games (which we wrote about), and the most important thing is that they confirmed that Out Run is playable in the game. What is your opinion on The Fist of the North Star (Hokuto ga Gotoku)? Do you want to see the title come to the west?

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Yakuza Kiwami 2 extended trailer shows why its the best remake SEGA’s ever produced

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Yakuza Kiwami 2 had its big showing at the Tokyo Game Show 2017 and is set to hit Japan in a few short months. SEGA has gone out of its way to impress Japanese consumers with a extended story trailer giving them a look at all the plot points from the 2006 PlayStation 2 game and brand new plots being introduced in the remake.

This remake is one of the best (if not the best) remake SEGA has ever produced. Or at least its looking that way. Though stating that is sorta a given considering that SEGA doesn’t produce many remakes, which I really do feel that they should. Especially of a high caliber such as this. SEGA always seems like a company that loves moving forward, so I’m glad that they are remaking these decade old titles. What are your opinions on Yakuza Kiwami 2? Will you be picking it up when it finally comes West?

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Fist of the North Star reveals more story, new characters and play spots details

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maxresdefaultSEGA has updated the official website for Fist of the North Star (Hokuto ga Gotoku) website offering new details on the story, four new characters and even details on play spots within the game. Of course there are also new screenshots. I won’t go into great detail about the story right here, you can visit Gematsu who translated the website news themselves. The story goes into more detail but its piratically the same.

As for the new characters confirmed, the first one is Souther (voiced by Hiroki Touchi) the man who calls himself ‘Emperor’. This man is the sole successor of the Nanto Houhouken martial arts style. A prideful warrior that looks down on his weaker opponents and holds a secret you will discover. Next we got Jagi (voiced by Hidenari Ugaki) one of Kenshiro’s brothers who also studied Hokuto Shinken. Envious of Kenshiro, he wears a strange helmet and is an unpredictable person. Uighur (voiced by Naomi Kusumi) is a man that runs the prison known as Cassandra, which is considered a death sentence by many since no one leaves alive. Nadai (voiced by Masato Obara) is the founder of Eden. A accomplished man that created Eden within a generation but died suddenly several years ago.

Hit the jump to talk about the new minigames.

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SEGA’s Fist of the North Star hits Japan in February 22

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SEGA’s Fist of the North Star (Hokuto ga Gotoku) has a release date, for Japan at least. The title will launch in February 22, 2018. That means that before we get Yakuza 6 (in March), Japan will get both Yakuza Kiwami 2 and Fist of the North Star (Hokuto ga Gotoku). While its a bummer that we have to wait for these two titles, its nice to know we have a lot of content coming (hopefully) in the near future.

The announcement was made at Sony’s press conference at Tokyo Game Show. Above you can see the new Fist of the North Star (Hokuto ga Gotoku).

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SEGA showing off Tokyo Game Show 2017 lineup

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SEGA has launched their Tokyo Game Show 2017 website, showing off what games will be playable, only shown in video and which games will have press conferences. Not all SEGA games at Tokyo Game Show 2017 will be playable, sadly. So, lets get to it and see what we will see more of later this month.

  • Fist of the North Star – (Stage show, photo spot, trailers and gameplay videos)
  • Yakuza Kiwami 2 – (Playable, stage show, trailers, playable footage, merchandise, and photo spots)
  • A Certain Magical Virtual-On – (Playable, stage show, trailers and merchandise)
  • Hatsune Miku Project DIVA Future Tone DX – (Playable, trailers and merchandise)
  • Sonic Forces – (Playable, stage show, trailers, and merchandise)
  • Phantasy Star Online 2 – (Playable, trailers, stage show, merchandise, and photo spot)
  • Yakuza Online – (Trailers)
  • Dx2 Shin Megami Tensei: Liberation – (Playable, Stage Show and Trailers)

Translation is a bit iffy, but it seems that the stage shows will be streamed online from what I gather. We shall keep you updated on that via our twitter and on this blog. We will be having a writer at Tokyo Game Show, so expect a SEGA News Bits video and write up discussing some of these playable games.

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Yakuza Kiwami 2 happened due to how well Yakuza 0 and Yakuza Kiwami did outside Japan

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Yesterday we discussed how Yakuza Studio head Toshihiro Nagoshi had a live stream to explain details on their earlier announcements. One of those was to confirm that the Fist of the North Star game was running on the studio’s older Yakuza 0 engine and the other fun tidbit was that Yakuza Kiwami 2 is only happening due to how well Yakuza 0 and Yakuza Kiwami performed with pre-orders and overall sales.

According to NeoGAF poster Gacha-pin, he specifically mentioned ‘Yakuza‘ and not ‘Ryū Ga Gotoku‘ (Like a Dragon) as the franchise is known as in Japan and Asian countries. This means that maybe SEGA is finally impressed with how the game has performed in Europe and in the Americas? We are getting a impressive Yakuza 6 premium edition and it seemed that when Yakuza 0 came out it kept selling out on Amazon. Its good to see a game that I have been following for more than a decade finally get the recognition it deserves outside of Japan. Seeing as SEGA America is already asking fans if they are hyped for the upcoming Yakuza games, I would wager that we will be getting more Yakuza titles in the future. Good times.

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SEGA’s Fist of the North Star confirmed to run on Yakuza 0’s engine, not Yakuza 6

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thumb-chara01-modalSEGA held another live stream the other day to confirm some misconceptions revolving around their recent Yakuza Studio announcements which included a new Fist of the North Star game. At the time it was highly believed to be running on the ‘Dragon Engine’ which is the latest in-house engine created by the studio, this was mostly due to Yakuza Kiwami 2 using the engine.

So why will Fist of the North Star use the older, Yakuza 0/Kiwami engine? According to studio head Toshihiro Nagoshi its because the team has more experience with the ‘Kiwami engine’ and its better for celshaded graphics. Also note that the Dragon Engine is still under development, while the older engine already achieves 60fps at 1080p on the PlayStation 4 while Yakuza 6 ran at 30 fps.

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SEGA America survey wants to know if you’re hyped for Yakuza Kiwami 2 and Fist of the North Star

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SEGA has put up a survey asking English consumers if they are interested in the newly announced Yakuza Studio titles: Yakuza Kiwami 2, Yakuza Online and The Fist of the North Star video game. If you really want these games to come over to the west, I suggest you take the survey and share it with other English speaking fans of Yakuza Studio’s games.

SEGA SURVEY HERE

I think its quite obvious that everyone that reads this blog would love to play Yakuza Kiwami 2 and Fist of the North Star console games, but how do you feel about the mobile Yakuza Online? I will also like to add that its fantastic to see SEGA acknowledge Japanese releases so quickly, before the management team pretended that Japan didn’t exist. Maybe studies are correct that Americans don’t have good geography skills? Glad to see we got some people with good navigational skills over at SEGA America now.

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SEGA announces Fist of the North Star game by Yakuza studio

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It seems that Yakuza Studios is hard at work over there, because they announced not one, not two, not three, but four new projects. As you seen from our last posts, this amounts to a remake of Yakuza 2, a new Yakuza side game with new protagonist and even a Yakuza Online mobile game. But sometimes the studio wants to take a break from the world of Yakuza, hint them making a Fist of the North Star game with the Yakuza 6 graphical engine. UPDATE: Its actually running on the Yakuza 0 engine!

The game is going by the name of ‘Yakuza of the North Star‘, but will probably get a real title down the road. It seems like a working title. It has been confirmed that the voice actor for Kazuma Kiryu (Takaya Kurdoa) will also be voicing Kenshiro! Seems that the game is in early stages and we will be hearing more about it come 2018 or even in the Tokyo Game Show next month!

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