The Real Yakuza 3 On The Way

Geoff Haugan — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 20:26:11 +0000

It appears that the recently released (in Japan) Ryu ga Gotoku Kenzan! is a side story to the Ryu ga Gotoku series, known as Yakuza in North America. The true third part in the series is on its way— and sooner than you’d think.

Ryu ga Gotoku was a gamble. It was expensive and attempted to recreate a real-life locale authentically. It was a decent hit in Japan, but when it came to North America touting an expensive voice cast it failed to capture much attention from gamers.

In Japan the series saw a sequel on the PS2 and then another game on the PS3 called Kenzan!, just released in March of 2008. Kenzan! unexpectedly moves the action from modern day Tokyo to Japan’s Edo period, complete with sword fighting, while still largely retaining the same cast of characters.

It turns out this is a fun but temporary departure for the series, and that the real third installment is well underway and will appear on the PS3 in Japan in Spring of 2009.

While exciting for those of us who enjoyed the first game, this is kind of funny considering we’re still waiting for not only Yakuza Kenzan!, but also Yakuza 2 here in North America. Thankfully it appears Sega has not given up on releasing these titles outside Japan.

While nothing has been said about Kenzan! specifically as far as a date, 2008 doesn’t seem out of the question, and Yakuza 2 looks slated to appear on the PS2 this September—this time lacking the costly English voice cast in favor of subtitles and the authentic Japanese voice work, which is reportedly quite excellent. That is a very smart choice.

It’s been quite a delay getting Yakuza and Yakuza 2 here, but there are heavy dialog and localization issues with these titles. Hopefully PS3 owners will be seeing Kenzan! a little closer to its Japanese release than we have with the first two games, and that Yakuza 3 follows suit.

The first Yakuza was visceral, atmospheric and enjoyable. Hopefully Yakuza 2 and Kenzan! will see more success here and not give Sega any excuses to leave the series Japan-only.

I’ll be keeping a close eye on these games as the year progresses. I urge anyone out there remotely interested to check out the first game.

Source: Neogaf via Famitsu

Two Yakuza 3 Demos Now On Japanese Playstation Store

Cavin Smith — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 05:21:57 +0000

We knew it was coming soon, but not this soon. If you already have a Japanese Playstation Network account, Japanese gangland fun is only a few button presses away.

And if you don’t already have one, they’re free and easy to create (just Google it).

Sega’s actually supplied two demos for Yakuza 3 (known as Ryu ga Gotoku 3 in Japan). This serves two purposes: to keep the overall download size down (together they’d weigh in around a whopping 1.8 gigs) and to accurately represent different aspects of the game.

One demo focuses on story and contains the prologue chapter of the game while the other emphasizes the free-roaming, NPC-interacting, mini-gaming bits that make the Yakuza series so much fun.

It should be noted that if you’re not fluent in Japanese, you’ll probably have little to no clue what’s actually going on (it’s heavy on the text and dialogue), but if you’re at all familiar with how Ryu ga Gotoku plays, it shouldn’t take long to figure things out.

For everyone else, well, you can stare at the pretty graphics as you stumble your way through 17th century Japan. You’re guaranteed to do some head-knocking along the way and, really, isn’t that what being a gangster is all about?

RipTen Videogame Blog » ryu-ga-gotoku

The Real Yakuza 3 On The Way

Two Yakuza 3 Demos Now On Japanese Playstation Store