If there's one franchise American gamers should be upset over missing this generation, it's Sega's Yakuza . We never got the third installment (the first for the PlayStation 3), and now, they're already talking about the fourth.
The teaser website for Yakuza 4 has opened and while it's light on details and information, we know Sega will officially unveil this new entry in only ten days time. Of course, that revealing would be on the first day of the Tokyo Game Show so it's not exactly surprising. However, we seriously doubt we'll hear any news of a North American or European release, considering that Sega didn't see fit to launch Yakuza 3 in any region outside of Japan. We can only conclude that the first two titles for the PS2, which did release here, didn't sell very well, thereby making Sega leery of going through the localization processes again. And they were reluctant even with the first two games; US gamers had to wait over a year after the initial launch of either title in Japan. It's just too bad that Sega abandoned us as soon as Yakuza entered the new generation…we so want to see one of these bad boys on the PS3! Maybe if there's enough of a fan outcry, we'll finally see Yakuza 3 at least, but you may as well forget about the fourth installment (for now, anyway).
Still, it's great for Japanese gamers, and yes, this series is exclusive to the PS3. If you want to import it, go right ahead; the first two games featured all Japanese voiceovers, anyway (with English subtitles, of course).
Cannot Fu**in Wait!
I hope Kiryu is Coming Back!
In the Teaser Site they show 4 poeple,i think one with the grey suit is kiryu.
I hope they Focus more on Kiryu's Childhood.
I have Imported all 4 of them!
Japanese Voice Actors are the Best!!!
Last edited by Ben Dutka PSXE on 9/14/2009 12:11:05 PM
Guess you're our resident Yakuza fan. 😉
I'll drink a Sapporo to that.
I'm with you all the way man!
Uh, never heard of these games.
You didn't just write that…
Well I take it they weren't that popular since there only 15 comments on this article.
You forgot the side story Kenzan!
I imported both for the PS3. Fun games.
Just translate all the text to English. I'm sure most people that buy it prefer the Japanese voices anyway.
I was thinking this as well.
It doesn't have a huge non-Japanese-speaking fan base, but those it does have are likely interested enough in the culture that they won't have a problem with the absence of out-of-place voice actors.
Anyway, I love this series (the two full games and demo I've been able to enjoy, at least), and I'm going to continue holding out hope that every installment gets localized.
Screw this game if they are not going to bring the 3rd over here.Why care about the 4th? Sometimes I think that Bernie Stolar is still working at Sega.
Last edited by DarthNemesis on 9/14/2009 11:39:22 AM
🙁 localization of kenzan,3, and every other that will be released please
Great news, I really enjoyed the first Yakuza. I never gotta chance to play the second but I'm sure its great. God speed for this unveiling!
It won't cost too much to just add English [and possibly other] Subtitles.
Do that, and leave us foreigners who are interested with this game to import it [which they should SO do already with Ryū ga Gotoku 3 and Kenzan].
Why would they do this to us?? Is this some kind of payback for the poor Valkyria Chronicles sales?
so i guess its a japan exclusive then
I'd be another to check this series out if they included english subtitles. Wasn't all that impressed with what I saw of the ps2 entries but with today's gen it could be a lot less limited.
Seems pretty dumb to isolate an exclusive that has crossover potential.
So sad that these games don't do better in the US and Europe
come on.
the localization process cant cost that much.
can it?
i mean all they do is translate the language to english and release it.
well thats all they need to do
i dont see any games not releasing in japan because the costs would be to high.
i mean japan HATES FPS and even KZ2 released there.
Yes!
If stuff like Uncharted 2 and Killzone 2 can release EASILY in Japan
Why can't Samurai/Japanese niche games be released at the same time, here? Or at least not after 1 or 2 years -_-