As you could already see in Sega’s recent Twitch Stream for Yakuza 5, there’s plenty of activties to do in the game aside from just following the main storyline. You can play darts, visit a Hostess Club, try your luck getting a prize from the UFO catcher, go bowling or play pool, take pictures at a photo booth, participate in idol handshake meetings as Haruka, play Virtua Fighter 2 in the arcades … You can even breed, race and bet on chickens. You’re bound to find something to enjoy! The game’s precise release date is still unknown, but it’s expected to be released somewhere mid-November on PS3 as a digital download. Take a look at the screenshots featuring the mini-games below, courtesy of Sega! We also included the official press release.
In Yakuza 5 you’re not acting like Yakuza 24/7.
Well, you are – Kiryu, Shinada, all the rest of the protagonists are embroiled in a story rife with the danger that only Japanese gangster life could bring about, but the only thing going 24/7 in this game is the fact that you’re in Japan.
And Yakuza does a perfect job of recreating that feel. It’s the middle of the afternoon, and Kiryu doesn’t have to be out doing gangster things. He can do whatever he wants – whatever the likes of Kamurocho can offer him.
See that screen-shot above? That’s a hardened criminal taking a picture in a photo booth that you can put sparkly hearts around. You can spend days and *hundreds* of thousands of yen trying to get a hostess to like you enough to meet up with you outside of the confines of a Hostess Club. You can breed, and race, and bet on chickens.
Yakuza 5 isn’t just a taste of the gangster lifestyle, with all the violence and intrigue that it brings; it’s a taste of the Japan lifestyle that just happens to be embroiled in the midst of an all-out Yakuza upheaval.
Is there any shame in spending hours perfecting the timing in Taiko no Tatsujin? No. Or spending thousands of Yen to win the ideal Hatsune Miku or NiGHTS statue from a UFO catcher? NO! Gamble! Drink! Cavort! Play! This is the essence of Yakuza, and Yakuza 5 has some of the best selections of diversions to date!