Yakuza Medium

Spin-Offs: So with the main Yakuza series completed, people have now recommended to me to turn my attention to the other games of the series. There is only one problem. They are not available for PC. Let's take for example the "samurai" version Ryu ga Gotoku. In 2008, the first game was released on the PS3 only in Japan. It's second game in the series, despite it being set two centuries in the future, was released on the PS3 and PS4 in 2014. Both of these games did not have an English release. Kurohyo: Ryu ga Gotoku Shinsho and its sequel tells another story in the same setting as the Yakuza series. Same situation - No English version and only available for the PSP. Yakuza: Dead Souls is a cross-over game where they take popular characters from the Yakuza games and introduce zombies gun-wielding gameplay. There is an English version of this release, but it is only available on the PS3.

Judgment: No, that isn't a typo. For someone British, you can actually spell it with or without an "e" in the middle. In 2019, SEGA came out with a new Yakuza series set in the same city with the same fun activities but now with a detective as the leading protagonist. On top of fighting thugs in the city, you will also be tailing people and identifying certain objects that will help prove someone is guilty of a crime. It must be popular if they are coming out with a sequel later this year. The problem that it is only available on the PS4 and it looks like Sega has no plans to put it on the PC any time soon.

Yakuza: Like a Dragon: Only just released here recently in 2020, this game tells a story about another oddball who is involved with the clans Kiryu left behind. Because of the familiar setting, I thought long and hard to play this game after Yakuza 6. However, there is one major thing that sets it apart. It's battle system has been redesigned as a turn-based RPG... which is hilarious when you realize they teased people about it as an early April Fools Joke in 2019. The system seems well-liked if they are going to continue with it into the sequel. There will come a day I will have a chance to play this game. For the time being, I'll wait until more of its story is released.

Ryu Ga Gotoku Movie: There is one more thing I must mention. There is a Yakuza movie that came out way back in 2007 loosely based upon the first video game. I say "loosely" because the movie might have key characters, events, and elements from the game, but it most certainly does not parallel any sort of coherent one-to-one following. It is almost as if they made it a parody of a parody. You'll see all the famous characters like Date, Kiryu, Haruka, and Nishikiyama. You'll have famous scenes of the protagonists feeding a dog some food or the building blowing up at the end. The problem is that about half of the movie revolves around some silly gags involving two bank robbers and an inherent look of the underworld from two kids who decide to be thieves. These scenes can be funny, but they detract from the main story. The only redeeming parts of the movie has to be every time Majima is on the screen. Despite the fact that the actor wanted to wear the eye patch over his bad right eye, he played that character perfectly. You can watch it here on Youtube if you want. Just be prepared to watch something as if an intern sent out an outline of the video game to the producers without ever playing it. We will have to wait and see how their remake fairs in the near future.

 

5-19-2021