SEGA is Bringing More “Yakuza” to the West!

SEGA was all Yakuza’d out during this year’s PlayStation Experience. Not only did they share some info about Yakuza 0, they also announced that two “new” Yakuza titles were coming our way. Joy!

First up was Yakuza Kiwami (which basically translates to Yakuza Extreme), a remake of the first game. What’s interesting about this game is just how remade it is. Modern combat elements from more recent Yakuza games, 30 minutes of additional cutscenes, new threads linking the game to Yakuza 0, new distractions around Tokyo (like Pocket Circuit car racing) and more. They even had the original voice actors re-record their audio, allowing North American fans the first time to experience the game in its native Japanese. Oh…and they enhanced the graphics.

Yakuza Kiwami will be released exclusively for the PS4 next summer. Next up was the announcement that Yakuza 6 was also coming our way. Hitting sometime in 2018 (it has to be localized and such) on the PS4, there wasn’t much in the way of interesting details. It does have a nifty subtitle “The Song of Life” and a tagline about sacrifice and family. I just hope it explains some things; Yakuza 5’s ending was a bit anticlimactic for me.

What we do know is that Kazuma Kiryu and a ton of other franchise characters will make their return. They’ll be visiting Onomichi, a sleepy port town in Hiroshima Prefecture, this time around. And thanks to the new Dragon Engine, will be the most advanced Yakuza to date.

Even though I didn’t completely love Yakuza 5, I would be remiss if I didn’t say I wanted to check out Yakuza 6: The Song of Life. I want to know what happens to Kiryu and the rest!

Yakuza Kiwami and Yakuza 6: The Song of Life will be released in North America/Europe in 2017 and 2018 respectively.