Yakuza 2 remake leaked on Taiwanese PlayStation Store
Like a dragon!
The original Yakuza is receiving a PS4 remake next week and it looks like Yakuza 2 will receive a similar treatment.
Yakuza Zero
Bruising, bonkers and frequently brilliant, Yakuza 0 is Sega's cult favourite at its very best.
Key events
2nd August 2017
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8th December 2015
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26th August 2014
Yakuza Kiwami reveals free post-launch DLC
Adds new skins for Kiryu and Majima.
Yakuza Kiwami, the PS4 remake of the original Yakuza, is slated for release on 29th August and publisher Sega is offering a host of free post-launch DLC to follow on a weekly basis in September.
The new content, detailed below, can be obtained through Bob Utsunomiya, the clown located underneath the Tenkaichi Street Gate.
So, without further ado, here's what free goodies you'll get:
In praise of video game rest.
Few video game protagonists keep to strict working hours, and how could they? When there's a war to win, a world to save, a lover's heart to ensnare and all the other grand and arduous problems that a game designer asks us to solve, it would be practically irresponsible to clock off a five for a pint of lager, a packet of crisps and a prestige TV box set. Even if they did have time to unwind then, just as we rarely see Tony Soprano bobbing away at the urinal, or Donald Draper questingly exploring a nostril, surely these parts of the game would be first for the editor's chop. What Lara Croft does to relax (eating caviar off her butler's extended arm while listening to Brahms, I like to imagine) is rarely relevant to the story at hand. Aside from the indulgently barmy Final Fantasy XV, what your character eats for dinner rarely has a place in the core gameplay loop.
Dragon age: origins.
Yakuza and the 1980s: it always looked an ideal fit, and so it proves. The series that never does anything by halves enters the decade of excess in a pulverising bombardment of bone-shuddering violence, overwrought melodrama, sentimentality and silliness, where just about everything is dialled up to 11. The bonkers and frequently brilliant result is the best Yakuza to date and one of the finest Sega games in years.
Yakuza 0
Publisher: Sega
The myth goes, you've doubtless heard before, that Sega doesn't make games like it used to. Not its Japanese arm, anyway, where the style and strut of its 90s and early 00s output can feel like a distant memory, as can all that grand ambition that was once fuelled by naked madness. The truth, however, is known by too few in the west. Sega is still capable of greatness. It still possesses an unhinged genius. It just pours all of it into one series.
Yakuza 0 release date set for January
Smooth criminal.
Yakuza 0 will launch on 24th January in Europe and the Americas, Sega has announced.
It will be available both physically and digitally, exclusively on PS4.
Set in 1988, Yakuza 0 will let players assume the role of two different protagonists. There's series stalwart Kazuma Kiryu and everyone's favourite fashionable one-eyed mobster Goro Majima, before he became known as the Mad Dog of Shimano. This will be the first numbered game in the series where Majima is playable, as he was previously only a controllable character in the zombie spin-off Yakuza: Dead Souls.
Yakuza 0's E3 trailer shows more mobster madness
Teases Telephone Club gameplay.
Yakuza 0 has received a new E3 trailer showing us more of the game's English version ahead of its "early 2017" release on PS4.
Set in 1988, this prequel serves as an origin story for series stalwart Kazuma Kiryu and fan-fave mob boss Goro Majima. Both will be playable. This will be the first time Majima, the Mad Dog of Shimano, will be playable in a numbered Yakuza title. He was previously only playable in the goofy zombie spin-off Yakuza: Dead Souls.
This latest trailer shows us some more of Yakuza 0's distinctly Japanese pastimes, like talking to a sex worker at one of those "Telephone Clubs" where all you do is talk to women on a phone who you observe behind glass (like visiting someone in prison), because that's a thing over there. Look carefully at the 1.07 mark of the trailer and see a flustered Kiryu ponder if he should ask this woman about baby ferrets, your blue feathers, your bath faucet, or your best feature. No one said being a gangster was going to be easy.
Yakuza 0 headed to Europe early next year
The wait is just criminal.
Sega has finally confirmed Yakuza 0 for a European release, coming "early 2017".
Yakuza 5 launches on PlayStation 3 next week
UPDATE: Yakuza 0 confirmed for North America, but not Europe.
UPDATE 07/12/2015 8.03pm: Sega has clarified that Yakuza 0 is only confirmed for a North American release in the west.
"Right now, we're only confirming for NA," a Sega representative told Eurogamer. "The 'NA&EU' endslate was from an incorrect version of the trailer."
Of course this doesn't mean Yakuza 0 won't come to Europe, but rather it's just not confirmed yet. So keep those fingers crossed!
VideoVideo: Sony conference roundup - Tokyo Games Show 2015
Aoife and Martin bring you the latest from Japan.
After dodging the limelight at this year's Gamescom, Sony finally gave us the press conference we were expecting back in August. Whether it was the conference we were hoping for, of course, is another matter entirely. Thankfully, in case you missed it, Aoife and Martin have gone over the biggest announcements and are ready to bring you up to speed.
See an hour of Yakuza Zero PS4 gameplay in 1080p/60fps
Like a dragon.
If you're still lamenting the fact that the Shenmue series never made it to next-gen platforms, here's the next best thing: Yakuza Zero, an 80s gangster epic set in a slightly fictionalised version of Tokyo's red light district, Kabukichō.
Set in December 1988, we get to see series stalwart Kazuma Kiryu and the world's most stylish mobster Majima Goro as young upstarts making their way in the honour-bound world of organised crime.
A demo for Yakuza Zero recently arrived in Japan and YouTuber Japanese Entertainment has a full hour of PS4 gameplay in glorious 1080p/60fps.
Yakuza 0 gets a 15 minute trailer
But will it makes its way west?
Yakuza 0, the upcoming prequel to Sega's popular gangster series, has a new 15 minute story trailer.
Unfortunately it's all in Japanese as the game hasn't yet been confirmed for a western release.
Yakuza 0 will follow two player characters: series stalwart Kazuma Kiryu and fan-favourite gangster pirate Goro Majima - this time sporting a pony tail in 1988.
Yakuza 0 debut trailer reveals 1988 Kamurocho, new haircuts
See how Yakuza looks on PS4, with ponytails.
Yakuza 0, the PS4 and PS3 prequel to the first Yakuza game, debuted its in-game footage at Tokyo Games Show earlier today.
As reported by Gematsu, the plot will center around a then 20 year-old Kiryu competing in a real-estate market against billionaires, while fan-favourite character Goro Majima runs a hostess club. As with previous entries in the series, you'll have to manage a hostess club by recruiting women off the streets and altering their appearance.
Players will assume the role of both characters as they build up their business and expand their turf. Money will play an increased role in this 1988-based prequel and cash will fly out of enemies' pockets as you wail on them. You can then spend this money on buying new fighting techniques and upgrading your stats.
Sega announces Yakuza 0 for PS4 and PS3
Probably not heading west.
While we westerners wait for Sega to release crime action game Yakuza 5 on these shores, the company has gone and announced the next game in the series.
Yakuza 0 is set in December 1988 Kamurocho, Tokyo, and Soutenbori, Osaka, according to Japanese magazine Famitsu (via Gematsu).
It stars 20-year-old Kazuma Kiryu and 24-year-old Majima Goro. Kiryu is a bill collector who works for the Tojo Clan's Dojima Family. Goro is a cabaret club manager.