Yakuza Fan are celebrating their 1st year anniversary with a massive competition that includes a whole heap of Yakuza merch. We are also one of the websites helping Yakuza Fan pull this off.
What does that entail? Well you’ll just have to click here for the full competition details and then come back to us when you know what to do 😉
The competition closes tomorrow night so if you want to be in with a chance of winning some swag you better be quick about it!
Yakuza director and chief creative officer of SEGA Toshihiro Nagoshi has sat down for a fascinating interview with Famitsu to discuss SEGA’s future, the success of Phantasy Star Online 2’s Japanese launch and the company’s purchase of Relic Entertainment.
Key points include:
– Regarding SEGA’s future; “To be honest, we still need to solidify our footing and our performance as a company, but given the frenetic cycles we deal with nowadays, if we worried solely about that right now, we wouldn’t have a stable future in three or five years.”
– Regarding the success of PSO2’s Japanese launch; “I think it comes down to the talents of the PSO2 team, and how they convinced the company to go that way. I see possibilities with F2P across the industry; it all depends on what you do with it, but it took this team to show us what we could accomplish with this property.”
– Regarding the purchase of Relic Entertainment; “Sega already has The Creative Assembly, which is great at making RTS’, and so we’re becoming one of the best in the world at this genre now. So this purchase was part of our strategy for tackling this genre as well.”
Toshihiro Nagoshi has revealed some details about the next Yakuza title in an interview with Dengeki PlayStation.
According to the big boss there will be significant improvements to the battle system with the overall feel of the game becoming more of a “physical experience”.
It has also been revealed that Yakuza 5 was the last title to be released on PS3. This means the series could now be coming to next generation consoles.
Yakuza 5 gameplay ahoy! SEGA of Japan are hyping the hell out of the new Yakuza game and it’s certainly looking good. Check out a new gameplay trailer below:
Yakuza 5 launches in Japan on December 6th 2012. Still no word on a Western release.
Siliconera have unearthed a whole heap of comparison shots from Yakuza 1 & 2 HD Edition. The screens show the PS2 originals and then the HD versions to show up the graphical upgrade.
According to Siliconera, the upcoming Yakuza 1 & 2 HD collection will include an “Easy + Heat Up Mode”. This mode makes the enemies easier to defeat and also helps you fill your heat gauge faster. Apparently the games’ original easy modes weren’t easy enough.
Yakuza 1&2 HD Edition comes out in Japan on November 15th. There is still no word on a Western release at this time.
Now excuse me if this is a little old but I just discovered it and found it a fascinating read. Jake Adelstein author of Tokyo Vice has asked several yakuza to play Yakuza 3 for their opinion on how accurate it is.
Highlights include:
“I like the fact that you power up by eating real food. Shio ramen gives you a lot of power – CC Lemon, not as much. It all makes sense.”
“No yakuza is going to run around getting into fistfights like that. Especially not an executive type. He’ll wind up in jail or in the hospital or dead, maybe even whacked by his own people for being a troublemaker.”
On Kazuma’s red shirt: “He’s supposed to be a former boss of the Inagawakai and he dresses like a chinpira (low level yakuza punk). He’s a yakuza, not a host.”
Regarding the cuts made in the Western version: “I feel sorry for the people who bought the American version. SEGA USA sucks.”
One of the yakuza using the pseudonym Kuroishi knew a yakuza who ran an orphanage like Kazuma. “Sure it was a tax shelter but he ran it like a legitimate thing, you know.”
A trailer has been unveiled for Yakuza 1 & 2 HD Edition on SEGA of Japan’s YouTube channel. Check it out below:
There are also some slight graphical changes over the PS2 originals:
– The high definition display allows for more detailed character models
– The “haze” that appears on far-away objects to help improve running speeds and loading times has been removed allowing for a more detailed draw distance
– It appears that this version allows for more pedestrians in the playfield at any time
Yakuza 1 & 2 HD Edition launches in Japan on November 1st. No word on a Western release at this time.
Weekly Famitsu have revealed that Japan are getting a HD collection of Yakuza 1 & 2 for PS3. The package will launch on November 1st but is Japan exclusive at this time.
According to Eurogamer, SEGA Europe have declined to comment on a Western version at this time.
The official unveiling of the game by SEGA of Japan is expected tomorrow so we should get a trailer as well as plenty of artwork and screenshots (fingers crossed).
In a recent interview with Eurogamer, Toshihiro Nagoshi has stated that the Yakuza series will likely never get ported to the X-Box 360.
Nagoshi explains, “At the beginning of the project we spoke to all the platform holders including Sony and Microsoft. 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 added, “The basic style and mechanics is really an old game that started on PS2 and continued on PS3. 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.”
End of an era, eh? Can we expect more from the Yakuza series on different platforms? Only time will tell!
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