Yakuza 5 announced in Japan

By Tom Bramwell Published 16 March, 2010

Nagoshi's crime epic gets more epic.

Yakuza 3 only came out in Europe on Friday, and Yakuza 4 isn't out in Japan until Thursday, but Yakuza 5 appears to have been unveiled already.

That's according to Andriasang's interpretation of a Famitsu piece (thanks VG247), which reports on a Yakuza 4 event in Japan where hacks were treated to a glimpse of "A new challenge for Ryu ga Gotoku" - the Japanese name for the series.

That new challenge will once again be handled by series director Toshihiro Nagoshi, and is being referred to by SEGA as "Project K". It was trailed briefly by an image of a young man in a familiar location.

Check out our Yakuza 3 European review and Yakuza 4 preview to find out why SEGA keeps at it. There's no word on formats for Yakuza 5, but PS3 only would fit in with the last two releases.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (11) Latest comment 2 years ago

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  • The_Inquisitor #1 2 years ago

    I doubt we'll ever see it over here ever, especially if SEGA continue to treat Yakuza's western releases as an afterthought.

  • doulema #2 2 years ago

    Well U'd expect that Sega sees it like I do. Games like that dont tend to appeal to most of us in Europe. I am buying my PS3 tomorrow and Yakuza 3 from what i have seen from it is a really bad Shenmue effort which fails ( for me , not talking for anyone else ) in both graphics and gameplay/fighting system. So this is by far something i would never ever purchase or play personally.

    Id pay double for those ShenMue good times though. Missed Dreamcast innovating IPs like that one.

  • mr_shoe_uk #3 2 years ago

    EU launch anticipation already.

    No cut.

  • strange_powers #4 2 years ago

    I'm about 12 hours into Yakuza 3 and it's brilliant - colourful, funny and interesting. I really hope we get a chance to play 4 and 5 over here with as few cuts as practicable.

  • Pac #5 2 years ago

    @strange_powers

    Completely agree. The attention to detail is great. And the mini games such as golf, pool, darts, Karaoke are all so well done.

    It is a pity the demo they put out didn't capture the essence of the game that well.

    I spent an hour trying to get a stuffed bear out of the UFO grabber!

  • varsas #6 2 years ago

    @doulema: You're looking at Shenmue through rose-tinted glasses if you're putting Yakuza down in the areas you mentioned because it's at least on par in the combat and clearly better graphically.

  • VibratingDonkey #7 2 years ago

    Stupid SEGA.

  • wanderingkid #8 2 years ago

    Awesome news ! This series grows & grows,
    absolutely loving Yakuza 3 right now, it looks & plays gloriously on ps3.
    Really hope we get 4 and that Sega is listening(I know the chances are slim though)

  • JahB #9 2 years ago

    @varsas

    problem with that is, shenmue is 11 years old, and yakuza's combat is only marginally better. i had great hopes when i picked up the third part yesterday, but i found it very much like the ps2 games. it seems they just took all the existing combat animations and used higher res models, and in the days of bayonetta and god of war 3, it's really no good anymore.

    here's hoping part 4 is better (and comes with english subs from the get go)

  • Beano #10 2 years ago

    @JahB : I agree in many of your points - Y3 looks slightly better than a PS2 game and looks far from a modern PS3 game - also a shame that it's not fully voice acted and many dialogs (even the main story scenes) are text only. But it's still a lot of fun though, and I'm glad we got a chance to play the game in the west. Hopefully we will see Yakaza 4 later this year or early 2011 :)
    I tried the Japanese Y4 demo (released last week) and it seems to be only very slightly better looking than Y3.

  • konnsky #11 2 years ago

    As few people mentioned I'm also about 10-12 hours in the game, currently on chapter 4. As with the previous installment I found myself spending way more time doing side quests, looking for locker keys or just plain wandering about drunk looking for fights to maybe find new HEAT moves, than the main quest story mission. I've even managed to catch the Big Tuna. In the essence those are the things that make a Yakuza game for me. Not the graphics or the sometimes clunky fighting system, it's the attention to detail, the quirks, the feeling of exploring a lively, vibrant city. After Yakuza 2 I fell in love with the series. After playing so far into the third one I'm loving it even more. I'm really grateful that SEGA has brought it over here, apart from maybe not including the cabaret clubs.

    For the record, I've not played any of the Shenmue games. I heard people saying it had terrible, cringeworthy dub.