Platform: PS3
Release date in Japan: December 6, 2012
Release date in the US and Europe: 2015
The five playable protagonists in Yakuza 5. Kazuma’s sporting a new white collared shirt in place of his usual wine-colored one.
Background
Yakuza 5 is the latest mainline entry into the action-adventure RPG franchise. The franchise is wholly owned by Sega and developed internally, and saw its first release on the Playstation 2 (the Western release of this game having the distinction of being the only game with English voicework.) It is one of Sega’s more prolific franchises, the mainline console titles being notable for their consistently solid sales performance in Japan. This has led to spinoffs, and a two live-action movie productions. The Yakuza franchise is also notable for its continued staying power at Sega: many prominent and influential Sega franchises have come and gone or exist in a state of indefinite hiatus, while the Yakuza franchise is set to be a part of its third generation of consoles.
The Yakuza franchise primarily follows Kazuma Kiryu, a stoic but fiercely moral man whose desire for peace in his personal life conflicts with his desire to do good. Due to his past involvement with the Tojo Clan of the yakuza and his own desire be upright, Kazuma finds that circumstances often push him back into the underworld that he would rather escape. The development team worked on the game with high aspirations. Yakuza 5 was built on a graphics engine not shared amongst the third, fourth, and Dead Souls games. It features exploration in five cities, and a script even larger than that which the series is known for. Like Yakuza 4, players will assume the role of characters other than Kazuma, including recurring companion and “surrogate daughter” Haruka Sawamura and the slick fan favorite Shun Akiyama from Yakuza 4. The structure of assuming certain roles is similar to the fourth game, where chapter and game progression are guided; the player does not split their time amongst character campaigns at will a la Sonic Adventure 1.
Localization Status
It will soon be one year since the release of Yakuza 5 in Japan. Fans of the series are familiar with longer waiting times (often around the range of six months, or a little longer) for localization due to the games being text heavy. Sega’s Chief Creative Officer Toshihiro Nagoshi, creator of the series and producer for each title, has revealed in an interview with Edge Online that he is aware of the strong Western demand for localization. However, he has stated that the Yakuza team’s resources are fully invested in development of Yakuza: Ishin, leaving no available resources for internal localization of Yakuza 5. The recently formed Third Party Relations team at Sony Computer Entertainment was created in part to assist with distribution of games on Sony platforms or onto Sony platforms–be it in the form of ports, or localization. They have twice taken note of fan demand for Yakuza titles–once for Yakuza 5, and another for the Yakuza series, recognizing them as leading requests.
UPDATE: At the PlayStation Experience conference, Sony announced they’ll be working with Sega to bring the game to the western market in 2015! It appears the game will be available as a digital download only.
How can you help?
It is perfectly acceptable to continue to tweet @giocorsi or create trending hashtags on Twitter relevant to the Yakuza series in order to maintain awareness and fan demand. They have likely already mobilized their own staff to initiate discussions with relevant parties, but there is no harm in continuing to build awareness for the franchise. It is also worth asking for PSN re-releases of the mainline entries, especially Yakuza 1 and 2 (originally PS2 titles) which received an HD re-release for the Playstation 3 and a 1+2 bundle for the Wii U in Japan. Continued production of awareness videos may be helpful too. Consider also posting on the Yakuza section of the official Sega forums!
Links
Yakuza Fan, a Yakuza fan blog. See also its Twitter and Facebook pages!