I love the series so much, that I feel like I need to say something about it. It's sink or swim time with Yakuza. Let's get behind one of the best series of recent times.
Yakuza 0 will finally release in the west on January 24th 2017 approximately 2 years after it made its Japan debut. It's a wait that western Yakuza fans have become familiar with and almost embrace as part of their love for it. Good things come for those who wait, I suppose and perhaps the longer the wait, the greater the enjoyment?
It's a curious series, its one that in equal parts have a lot to offer western gamers, but in other areas are unbashedly Japanese that might not click with others. One minute you could be bashing a goon over the head with a bike, the next you could be going to a hostess bar to try and chat up a girl by answering her questions correctly. It might just be these cultural hurdles that have ultimately stopped it from becoming a roaring success, but I'm here to tell you that, if you haven't tried the series, that there is a lot to like here asa whole even if some of the Japanese gameplay and story don't quite jive with you, Yakuza 0 is a perfect chance to try the series and show Sega that there is interest in the west.
Ultimately I'm hoping that people who are curious about Yakuza will take the leap, because let's face it, its sink or swim time for Yakuza and since the digital release of Yakuza 5 which was absolutely dead and buried at one stage, Sega have done everything they possibly could to get more games over to the west. After Yakuza 0, Yakuza Kiwami (translation – Yakuza 1: Extreme) will release in Summer 2017, and Yakuza 6: A Song of Life which just released in December 2016 in Japan, will release Early 2018. If you're counting, that's 9 Yakuza titles Sega have brought to the west and to be quite honest, the series hasn't exactly had mind boggling sales.. At 9.2 million sales worldwide for the series, most of these sales have been from Japan. Now that Sega have announced 3 (THREE) new Yakuza titles, its time for western gamers to tell Sega with their wallets what they really should do Yakuza. If you want more Yakuza games, go preorder Yakuza 0, preferably the physical edition if that's what you'd like Sega to release, considering Yakuza 5 was digital only.
If you're undecided on the series, please read on.
What is Yakuza?
Yakuza is a basically a 3D Streets of Rage with a deep crime story and contains lengthy cutscenes. The series has mainly been set in Tokyo's red light district Kabuki-cho, named in the game as Kamurocho. Each of the mainline Yakuza games have had a section of the game in Kamurocho, and some of the games have also had other areas, for example in Yakuza 2 and Yakuza 5, an area of Dotenbori in Osaka (Sotenbori in the game) is also featured. Yakuza 5 actually had 5 areas in Japan!
While you could say its an open-world game, the area of Kamurocho is quite small. There are no cars and you don't drive to get anywhere. Travel is always on foot, so you'll be running around quite a bit. Fear not though, because there's something around every corner.
The first thing you'll notice is that the recreation of Kabuki-cho is quite beautiful in all its neon light glory and over the series has improved game on game. As you move on with each game, the recurrence of the Kabuki-cho setting makes so much sense. For one, it feels like home, everything is familiar but in a good way, you know where to go to find anything you need. But the main reason the reuse of the area is great, is because the area is part of the lore, character and memories of the series. For example, over here is Serena, the bar that was the hideout in the first game where Kazuma Kiryu looked after Haruka when she was only a child. Over there is Sky Finance, Akiyama's office and one of my favourite characters who was introduced in Yakuza 4. The millenium tower as fans know has so many memories.
Between the story cutscenes, you beat gangs and thugs up, which hopefully lead to a mini-boss or boss character usually with a huge health bar. You have a variety of moves at your disposal. Most moves are a combination of square (reg. Attack) and triangle (strong attack). Circle is to grab/throw. You can side step, block and dodge your opponents. Most fights, particularly the random fights on the street are around 4-5 guys, though the fights that are part of the story missions, have a lot more enemies and can range from anywhere between 10-100 enemies on screen (in Yakuza 5 anyway, the earlier Yakuzas have less). On normal the game is pretty easy and you can make the game as easy or as hard as you like by carrying a stack of energy (health) drinks or convenience store food (also health).
The stories are deep crime sagas and to get the most out of the game, they're not something to be skipped. You need to keep track of the characters because there can be quite a number of them and as they have Japanese names, they can also be quite close in sound. Without going into the stories of each game, every game pretty much has a standalone story, though because there are returning characters and continued motivations, the best starting points in the series are Yakuza 1 (the first game), Yakuza 4 (the first time the main character is not just Kazuma Kiryu (the first three games feature only Kaz), and possibly Yakuza 0 though I have not played it, but its the first PS4 Yakuza game and ultimately the first chronologically. The story has mainly featured the Tojo Clan (which Kazuma is a part of), and the Omi Alliance which has mainly been antagonistic throughout the series.
When you're not watching the cutscenes or wading knee deep through bad guys, then the other big feature of the game is the numerous mini games on offer throughout the game world. Over the series the game has featured Pool, Bowling, Darts, managing Hostess clubs, Hostess dating, Shogi, Mahjong, fishing, Karaoke and Dancing, Golf, Batting Cage, Sega Arcade games and more. They are in general pretty polished mini games.
What is Yakuza 0?
Yakuza 0 is the prequel to the entire series and takes us back to Japan in the 80s. It features Kazuma Kiryu and Goro Majima and as Wikipedia have put it -
Yakuza 0 gameplay also features new fighting mechanics for Kazuma and Majima, both have three different styles that they can switch between. For Kazuma he has Brawler (similar to previous games), Beast (powerful but slow) and Rush (a fast boxing style). For Majima he has Thug (balanced style), Slugger (utilises weapons like a baseball bat) and Breaker (utilizes dance moves).
History of Yakuza in the west.
The franchise in my opinion has a bit of a troubled past and hopefully with the release of Yakuza 0, Sega can finally put all the wrongs of the past behind them. With Yakuza 1, Sega believed that for Yakuza to be successful, it had to release with an English dub and though I may be in the minority, I thought it was a really good effort, with good performances from Michael Madsen, Mark Hamill, Eliza Dushku. Yakuza 1 did reasonable sales though probably not anywhere Sega had hoped given it went out after those voice talents. The problem then really started with Yakuza 2, when the western release came almost a full 2 years after the Japanese release in 2008. I doubt anyone had their PS2 still plugged in at that stage, considering the PS3 released in 2006. When unsuprisingly Yakuza 2 bombed, that was pretty much one nail in the coffin for Yakuza and Kaz.
Out of nowhere, Sega announced Yakuza 3 for a 2010 release (1 year after Japan) for the west, but drew huge ire from fans of the series, when they announced that they would cut certain aspects such as hostess clubs and a japanese quiz Answer x Answer from the game citing that these weren't aspects western audiences would be able interested in and possibly complete. That backlash possibly carried over to Yakuza 4 despite Sega learning its lesson and keeping the entire game in tact. Though it received generally favourable reviews and enjoyed by many of its fans, its sales were again I believe not good. Despite this, Yakuza: Dead Souls the series Zombie spin off came over to the west one year later. It got panned by critics and sales were bad. That might have been it for any other series. For a long time after that series creator Toshihiro Nagoshi had no news for western fans regarding a Yakuza 5 release, a game that fans were desperate for as it was a content heavy game (45 hour story, 5 cities). It finally came on PS3 as a digital download on PSN much to the disappointment of many physical copy collectors and at a time when much of the western audience had moved onto the PS4. There's been no word on sales except that they have been within expectations.
Future of the series.
During the Playstation Experience in December 2016, it was announced that Yakuza: Kiwami (Summer 2017) and Yakuza 6 (early 2018) were both coming over to the west. For Yakuza fans, this was pretty much hitting the Jackpot.
The fate of the series in the west now rests with the gamers. Yakuza 6 will be the ninth game they bring across and if it tanks, the series's future really hangs in the air. Yakuza needs a breakout hit to convince Sega executives that this is a series that has interest here and that the series misfortune so far has been one mismanagement after another.
By all accounts from import owners – Yakuza Zero is a good game.
Yakuza 0 Media
E3 2016 Yakuza 0 Trailer – Here you can get a taste of what the game is like.
Yakuza 0 Nightlife Trailer – This gives a good idea of the mini games in the game.
Ryu Ga Gotoku Demo Gameplay 28 min
Ryu Ga Gotoku Walkthrough Part 1
Preorder
Show Yakuza some love and preorder it. Yakuza needs some traction to ensure the games keep coming over. None of these are afflilate links by the way.
Play-Asia US (US$60)
Play-Asia Europe (US$60)
Amazon (US$51)
Ozgameshop (Europe) (Approx US$47, AU$65)
Other Neogaf Yakuza Threads
Yakuza Community OT
Yakuza Kamurocho Starter Guide – Excellent primer on the series from Irishninja
TL;DR – Preorder Yakuza
Receipts
EDIT:
Playstation Network Europe/Australia January SALE
Yakuza 4 (AU$10.45 / €6.99 - German Store)
Yakuza 5 (AU$20.45 / €13.49 - German Store)
Yakuza: Dead Souls (AU$10.45 / €6.99 - German Store)
Yakuza Zero Japanese Import Impressions from the OT Thread
Resident Yakuza Expert Shadowman16 who plats every Yakuza game.
EDIT 2:
Find out more about the developmental history of Yakuza and the developers who made it, in this excellent ongoing Youtube series from YakuzaFan - Forging The Dragon: The Making of Yakuza (shamelessly stolen from Redx508). Link to his thread here.
Forging The Dragon [Part 1] - Yakuza Fan
Forging The Dragon [Part 2] - Yakuza Fan
Forging The Dragon [Part 3] - Yakuza Fan
Forging The Dragon [Part 4] - Yakuza Fan
Forging The Dragon [Part 5] - Yakuza Fan
Dead Souls is quite seperate to the mainline series (I also need to play it myself).