Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio have revealed that long time leads Toshihiro Nagoshi and Daisuke Sato have left the company and the studio has undergone a restructure as a result. Masayoshi Yokoyama will now take over from Nagoshi as the studio’s Director and Executive Producer.
Toshihiro Nagoshi has been a SEGA mainstay since 1989, starting as a designer and director on games like Virtua Racing, Daytona USA and Shenmue before finding fame as the lead director of the Super Monkey Ball and Yakuza franchises.
Daisuke Sato is also a long-tenured SEGA employee starting his career on field map production for 1995’s Magic Knight Rayearth on the Saturn and having designer credits on games like SEGA Super GT, Virtua Fighter 3tb and Shenmue. Sato’s career highlights also include directing duties Yakuza 3 and Binary Domain.
You can read the full story on RGG Studio’s restructure by clicking this link.
SEGA has very kindly let us check out Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown, the latest entry in the beloved fighting game series. We’ll have a full review coming in due time, but to whet your appetite we’ve captured some fresh footage of the game in action.
Enjoy a run-through of the game’s Arcade Mode as Eileen, and try not to judge my own fighting game skills too hard. I tried my best, honest!
When Tracker isn’t playing SEGA games, he’s talking about SEGA games. Or drawing about SEGA games. Or all of the above. You can also catch him over on Twitter.
UPDATE: Romain Mahut of GameBlog has reported confirmation that owners of the physical version of Yakuza: Like a Dragon on Playstation 4 will also be eligible for the free upgrade. Original article continues below.
Yakuza: Like a Dragon will come to the Playstation 5 on March 2nd 2021. Alongside this announcement, the first footage of the game running on PS5 has been released, and it certainly looks quite nice!
In addition, owners of Yakuza: Like a Dragon’s digital PS4 version will be able to get the PS5 version for free once it releases. This is similar to the situation on Microsoft’s platforms, where Like a Dragon will support Xbox Smart Delivery.
Also announced is that Yakuza: Like a Dragon will now launch on November 10th across all platforms, via Gematsu. Previously the game was slated for November 10th on Xbox Series X/S and November 13th on other platforms.
When Tracker isn’t playing SEGA games, he’s talking about SEGA games. Or drawing about SEGA games. Or all of the above. You can also catch him over on Twitter.
There’s not much longer to wait for Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz HD’s Steam release – because it’s actually out next week!
The game’s Steam page now confirms a launch date of December 10th. And to sweeten the deal, there’ll be a 20% off deal on the game until December 17th, putting the price at £19.99 (down from £24.99). For those unaware, Banana Blitz is a remake of the first Nintendo Wii outing for the series, but with 100% less motion controls. Party games have also been slimmed down to a more curated selection, level design has been tweaked to suit the new controls better, and perhaps most notably there’s a new unlockable character in the form of Sonic the Hedgehog. The Steam version will also seemingly add features, such as a Photo Mode.
When Tracker isn’t playing SEGA games, he’s talking about SEGA games. Or drawing about SEGA games. Or all of the above. You can also catch him over on Twitter.
A lot has been said about Yakuza: Like a Dragon’s move to turn-based combat, but now you get to see it all in action thanks to the latest Japanese trailer to come from the Tokyo Game Show. Check it out below:
Not only to we get to see Ichiban and pals team up to wreck fools, we also get a look at the character customisation options and an extended tour around Yokohama that even includes a litter picking mini-game. Yakuza: Like a Dragon is due to launch everywhere on PS4 next year.
On the 29th of August, Yakuza 7 was officially revealed and while an English-translated trailer was shortly available, it was taken down by SEGA Europe very quickly. However, we now have official confirmation that the game is headed West and a new English version of the announcement trailer is available to view.
Called Yakuza: Like a Dragon in the West, this new entry in the series features a re-imagined combat system that features a heavy emphasis on turn-based RPG mechanics. It also features a new protagonist, Ichiban Kasuga. Yakuza: Like a Dragon will launch sometime in 2020 exclusively for PS4.
On the 30th of May 2019, SEGA Europe held a preview event for the upcoming Judgment game, aptly named Judgment Day. At this event we got a chance to play the game and in this video we share our thoughts on both the game and the event itself:
UPDATE 22/03/19: SEGA have confirmed that the character of Kyohei Hamura will be “adjusted” for the final Western release of Judgment, but the game will not suffer a delay. All official trailers and screenshots featuring the character have been removed. The Kyohei Hamura character is likely being re-cast and will now be represented by a different actor in the Western version of the game.
Sales of Judgment have been halted in Japan after the arrest of actor Pierre Taki for cocaine possession. Known as Judge Eyes in Japan, Pierre Taki plays the character of Kyohei Hamura in the PS4 exclusive. This halt on shipments has been done voluntarily by SEGA Japan.
Judge Eyes has been on sale in Japan since December 13th 2018 and is due for a Western release on the 25th of June 2019 under the name Judgment. Presumably, this will now be delayed as the game will likely re-cast Taki’s role with another actor and then re-enter development. There is currently no word on when Judge Eyes will resume shipping or if Taki’s arrest will affect the June 2019 release of the game in the West.
The whiteands rehabs have a habit of dealing with celebrity drug and opiod rehabs in quite extreme ways. It is not uncommon for actors to be entirely stripped of all association to any companies and products they publicise or work with after an arrest involving drugs.
The latest from SEGA’s RGG Studio, Judgement (known as Judge Eyes in Japan) finally has a Western release date, along with further details on its digital and physical releases.
First of all, the game will be out June 25th, and includes dual audio. Something particularly impressive is the game has effectively been localised twice, as there’s subtitles for the English audio track and a separate translation for the original Japanese dialogue – and there are also subtitles for multiple European languages as well. In addition, the physical version will include reversible cover art, allowing you to display the original Japanese cover art of the game. Finally, it’ll also come with an RGG Studio sticker, to slap wherever you see fit.
All good then, but slightly more questionable is SEGA hopping on the recent ‘early access’ trend. Some publishers have started offering early access for those who pre-order the game, and Judgement is the latest game to do that – digital pre-orders will get access to the game a whole 4 days ahead of physical buyers. It’s a bit of an odd move, but perhaps inevitable as the latest industry trend.
When Tracker isn’t playing SEGA games, he’s talking about SEGA games. Or drawing about SEGA games. Or all of the above. You can also catch him over on Twitter.
We’ve known that Yakuza spin-off Judge Eyes is coming to the West next year since the game was announced, but the game’s title was previously up for debate as it was using the temporary title of ‘Project Judge’ in previous promotional material. Well now the game has an official title and that title is ‘Judgment’.
Judgment will also feature an English voice cast for the first time in a Yakuza game since the original Yakuza back in 2006. It has also been confirmed that even though there is English voice work, the game will also ship with dual English/Japanese voice work. The subtitles are also different for the English script and the Japanese script with the subtitles for the Japanese script being more faithful to the original.
You can check out a brand new trailer below to hear the English voice work for yourself:
Judgment will launch exclusively for PS4 in Summer 2009. The game is being developed by Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio.
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