Above is a very short YouTube video showing Kazuma Kiryu in Binary Domain. He is only available for the multiplayer portion of the game and has nothing to do with the story, as far as we know. Got to say, he is looking good for being over a hundred years old.
[Via: AndriaSang]
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]
SEGA’s action adventure series Yakuza has never moved from the Sony platforms and it does not seem like that will be changning anytime soon. Speaking to Eurogamer, Nagoshi revealed recently why Yakuza is exclusive solely to Sony platforms;
“At the beginning of the project we spoke to all the platform holders including Sony and Microsoft,” he said, “Every platform holder was negative about this prospect, but we kept on pushing because we believed in the potential, and as we kept going one platform holder that showed interest and saw the prospects of this title was Sony.”
“That’s how we started working with them, and that’s probably not going to change.”
Nagoshi also revealed that Yakuza of the End is the end of one particular era of Yakuza games, saying that as the series started as a Playstation 2 game, some design aspects were not changed when they moved to the Playstation 3.
“The basic style and mechanics is really an old game that started on PS2 and continued on PS3,” Nagoshi said, “Times keep changing, and if we started on some new games they would be in a very different shape – so the last game was the end of one particular era.”
[Source: Eurogamer]
As I revealed in my last SEGA in the Charts post, the Yakuza series was due to cross over the 4 million mark in Japan if sales of Yakuza of the End were to continue and indeed, as confirmed by SEGA, it has shipped 400,000, which means that the series has crossed the 4 million mark in Japan. SEGA however also confirmed that the series has topped over 5 million units worldwide, making the series one of SEGA’s most consistent and best sellers in the last seven years.
[Source: Andriasang]
We are bringing you this week’s round table early, to celebrate the closing of Yakuza week. This time we are talking about one thing we love about the Yakuza series… while Cube_b3 lists everything he hates. What a negative Nancy.
If you guys liked what we did for Yakuza week, tell SEGA about it. I’m sure we can do this for more games if there’s positive feedback.
Not for the squeamish!
Today is the final give away and we have two great prizes for you to win!
PRIZE 1: Yakuza 4 Game (Signed by YAZ) & Yakuza 4 Art Book
PRIZE 2: Yakuza branded Bowl + Yakuza branded Chopsticks
All you have to do to have a shot at winning these awesome prizes is follow us on twitter, CLICK HERE follow SEGAbits and simply retweet this message;
“RT & Follow @SEGAbits – YAKUZA WEEK – DAY 6 – CONTEST! Retweet to win Yakuza prizes! Info: http://www.segabits.com/?p=12277“
We’ll pick a winner at random!
Day 5 winners are:
-sakanakami
-skrammas
You’ve both won a set of Yakuza branded chopsticks and a Yakuza branded bowl!
Congratulations!
There are no other games like it! Yakuza is a one of a kind game, in fact it is a game made up of multiple games. Besides the fantastic main story driven game you can easily spend hours doing the sub-games found all over the city. Be it running the Hostess bar, training your fighters or heck even just playing darts or in the batting cage. There is even an arcade in the game where you can play slot machines, claw machines and a Shoot-em-up! Every game is fleshed out and a full game in its own right.
If there is one game that is close to Yakuza, it’s the master piece that is Shenmue and even then they are worlds apart.
Do yourself a favor and look at our side bar, over there on the right. We’ve made it easy for you to buy! Just click on that BUY NOW button!
“Practice for your first date!”
We have two prizes today, winners can finally fulfill their dream of eating like a Yakuza with these bad boys!
Prize 1: Yakuza branded Bowl & Yakuza branded Chopsticks
Prize 2: Yakuza branded Bowl & Yakuza branded Chopsticks
All you have to do to have a shot at winning this awesome prize is follow us on twitter, CLICK HERE follow SEGAbits and simply retweet this message;
“RT & Follow @SEGAbits – YAKUZA WEEK – DAY 5 – CONTEST! Retweet to win Yakuza prizes! Info: http://www.segabits.com/?p=12235“
We’ll pick a winner at random!
If you don’t win, don’t fret, there will be another chance tomorrow!
Day 4 winner is:
Of the Yakuza 4 game (signed) and the Yakuza art book is – Vittoriogiorgi
Congratulations!
Any long time Sega fan will notice that there is something uniquely ‘Sega’ about the Yakuza series. It’s hard to put your finger on what makes something a ‘Sega styled game’, you could be playing Panzer Dragon Saga or Jet Set Radio, two completely different games, and yet you’ll know both have a very Sega feel about them. Weird!
It could be down to the music, one of the things Sega rarely fails to impress with. Or it could simply be that the Yakuza series has game play elements reminiscent of other Sega series. I wouldn’t blame you for being reminded of the Shenmue games or even Streets of Rage whilst playing Yakuza. Not to mention Yakuza games are littered with throwbacks to other Sega games, like music tracks, that only the most hardcore of Sega fans would spot. Or… Perhaps it could be that Sega characters have a disproportionate hand to face to ratio? The hands are always massive. (Anyone else noticed this?)
But whatever it is, Yakuza is undoubtedly a Sega game, and if you’re a Sega fan (and I suspect you are as you’re on Segabits.com) then Yakuza 4 is simply a must.
Do yourself a favor and look at our side bar, over there on the right. We’ve made it easy for you to buy! Just click on that BUY NOW button!
“Well, isn’t that strange!”
We have just one prize to give away today, but it’s a good one!
Today’s prize is; Yakuza 4 the game, signed by YAZ and the Yakuza 4 Art book!
All you have to do to have a shot at winning this awesome prize is follow us on twitter, CLICK HERE follow SEGAbits and simply retweet this message;
“RT & Follow @SEGAbits – YAKUZA WEEK – DAY 4 – CONTEST! Retweet to win Yakuza prizes! Info: http://www.segabits.com/?p=12213“
We’ll pick a winner at random!
If you don’t win, don’t fret, there will be another chance tomorrow!
Day 3 winners are:
Of the Yakuza 4 game (Signed by YAZ) and branded Chopsticks! – Stinkdeken
Of the Yakuza 4 Art book and branded bowl! – Krup213
Congratulations guys!
It’s very rare that a game can be ‘laugh out loud funny’ I find more often than not the attempts to inspire laughter in videogames fall flat and more often then not are pretty cringe worthy.
The Yakuza series is one of the very few videogame series that have got a real, hearty laugh out of me. Whilst the main storylines are a serious affair, just below the surface there is always something to make you chuckle. Be it the often crazy revelations, some over the top heat moves or side missions like outrunning a cross dresser that wants to have his/her way with you. In Yakuza 4 you’ll also encounter some great look-a-likes and Cameos too; such as Dr. Emmett Brown from Back to the Future. Yeah, this game has it all!
Do yourself a favor and look at our side bar, over there on the right. We’ve made it easy for you to buy! Just click on that BUY NOW button!
Today, like day one we have 2 prizes to give away!
Prize one: Yakuza 4 Art book & Yakuza 4 branded Bowl!
Prize two: Yakuza 4 game signed by YAZ & Yakuza 4 branded Chopsticks!
All you have to do to have a shot at winning these awesome prizes is follow us on twitter, CLICK HERE follow SEGAbits and retweet this message;
“RT & Follow @SEGAbits – YAKUZA WEEK – DAY 3 – CONTEST! Retweet to win Yakuza prizes! Info: http://www.segabits.com/?p=11998
“
We’ll pick a winner at random!
If you don’t win, don’t fret, there will be another chance tomorrow!
Day 2 winner:
jegarcia
Congratulations!
That story!
I love my fair share of Japanese games; in fact, looking at my collection I tend to prefer Japanese games than western games. That said one thing I find the Japanese are trailing behind the West with is really good stories in games. Whilst I’m a firm believer in game play before storyline when it comes to videogames if a game has both it’s always a plus!
Story driven Japanese games are often made for a Japanese audience, (and rightly so) but that often means they’ll be littered with the kind of clichéd characters and plots I’ve seen a hundred times by now are wearing thin. Yakuza games are right on top of the game when it comes to interesting mature plots and compelling, likeable characters and it’s easily as good as any of the top story driven western games I’ve played.
Whilst Yakuza 3 lost a bit of its flair and became quite tame and monotonous at times, Yakuza 4 took the series back to the top of its game with four playable characters each with uniquely thrilling stories and backgrounds.
Do yourself a favor and look at our side bar, over there on the right. We’ve made it easy for you to buy! Just click on that BUY NOW button!
Video of the Day: Yakuza 4 Revelations – Essence of Triple Strike
Why you should own this game, Day 1 – Reason 1: There isn’t a bad time to jump in!
Every time a new Yakuza game is about to release I see the same question cropping up in every forum I visit; ‘Can I buy this game now or do I have to play the series from the start to understand the storyline?’
You can jump in RIGHT AWAY; Each Yakuza game has its own story arc with a beginning and an end. If you don’t care to know about the series history you can play right off the bat and you won’t feel lost at all.
However if you are one of those kinds of people who just needs to know all the history of the game and the characters, Yakuza 4 has you covered. At the start of every Yakuza sequel so far there’s the chance to ‘reminisce’, which is a fancy way of saying ‘watch videos of the events of the previous games’ and they go really in-depth too!
Do yourself a favor and look at our side bar, over there on the right. We’ve made it easy for you to buy! Just click on that BUY NOW button!
TWITTER GIVE AWAY – Day 1 of 6
Prize 1: A Yakuza 4 Branded Bowl & Yakuza game signed by YAZ
Prize 2: A Yakuza 4 Art Book & Yakuza 4 branded chopsticks
All you have to do to have a shot at winning these awesome prizes is follow us on twitter, CLICK HERE follow SEGAbits and retweet this message;
“RT & Follow @SEGAbits – YAKUZA WEEK – DAY 1 – CONTEST! Retweet to win Yakuza prizes. info: http://www.segabits.com/?p=11634”
We’ll pick a winner at random!
If you don’t win, don’t fret, we’re here all week!
Fumito Ueda is one of my favorite people in the industry and runs one of the best teams at Sony, Team ICO. They are working on the upcoming (and excellent looking) title, The Last Guardian.
Fumito Ueda talked on twitter about how he has been a massive SEGA fan since they released the Mark III in Japan. I have actually heard about him being a big SEGA fan and actually being friends with Ryuta Ueda (who worked on Jet Set Radio, Panzer Dragoon series and Yakuza series). They even have the same last name… weird?
Something about Team ICO’s games always reminded me of Panzer Dragoon… I could never put my finger on it.
[Source: AndriaSang]
Today is the first day of a very special week, (My week starts on a Thursday, deal with it!) The next 7 days will from this point on, officially be known as Yakuza Week! I’ve informed the Queen of England, the President of America and Colonel Gaddafi.
Each day this week I’ll write an article about my favorite things Yakuza 4 has to offer and why (if you haven’t already) you should go out and pick this game up right away!
Why? Well, because the Yakuza series is one of my favorite videogame series of all time, is criminally underrated (lol pun) and it should be one of yours too.
Not to mention Sega have generously donated us all these awesome prizes to give away! To win all you have to do is follow SEGAbits on twitter and we’ll pick winners at random! (Prize details coming up shortly!)
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!
Well, this is an improvement over Yakuza 3’s DLC. You get this pack for free. It raises the limits of your character’s strength and stamina, and also picks up your relationship with Haruka to a higher point. Oh, and two new karaoke songs.
There are also four new themes (not so free, except to PS+ users), each highlighting a different character of the game. They include Kazuma, Akiyama, Tanimura and Saejima. For normal PSN members, these will run you $2.99 each (£1.99, €2.49).
Pictured below is Akiyama’s theme. The rest of them are pictured at the SEGA Europe’s Blog, linked below.
[Source: SEGA]