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Go Kazuma! Higher than Star Ocean's sales but not so good when you consider how many more PS3s there are installed. There is a real hunger for familiar big name RPGs on the HD consoles which isn't being satisfied on the PS3. |
The Real Yakuza 3 - now confirmed for Western release! \o/ • Page 5
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Cappy 14,393 posts
Seen 13 hours ago
Registered 16 years ago -
Progguitarist 10,778 posts
Seen 4 years ago
Registered 15 years agoIts only first day I suppose though. Should be higher over the course of the week? -
Cappy 14,393 posts
Seen 13 hours ago
Registered 16 years agoIn comparison to Star Ocean's first day sales which we have already seen also. -
uiruki 5,975 posts
Seen 9 hours ago
Registered 18 years agoCopied from another forum I post in. I'm actually about 12 hours in now. Still haven't made it back to Kamurocho though - I spent two and a half hours last night making the number one hostess!
Grabbed this at midnight, played til 5am. It starts, like Kenzan, in the middle of things with a major incident happening to a character you don't know - and one happening to characters you do know - then the game takes you back to the end of the second game. You can then see what happened in the first two games in a short narrated plot recap accompanied by bizarrely not upscaled video clips from the PS2 games. You then head off to Okinawa and set up your new orphanage - Morning Glory (to correspond with the Sunflower orphanage you help in the second game).
The first few hours is very story heavy, a significant amount of which is delivered through text. The text conversation engine has been beefed up with characters not participating in the conversation nonetheless responding to what is said. The game really shines in the fully animated realtime or video cutscenes though. The animation is improved yet more, and this has some of the most subtle and well done facial animation I've seen, coupled up with some damn near faultless voice acting. The introduction to Morning Glory threatens to fall into schmaltz a few times, but it never quite gets there thanks to the badassedness of Kiryu, as well as the occasional fighting interlude.
The fighting and upgrading works like the first two games - you spend experience to upgrade one of three stats. The fighting is now improved by the fact that items you pick up are now physics objects so you can send people flying througha set of tables and chairs. Also impressive are the damage effects on enemy characters - shades get busted, noses broken, eyes blackened by your fist, foot and furniture-based assaults.
The only weaknesses are on a technical front - before you can play there is a lengthy install, the game hasn't quite managed to hide its loading times, it doesn't quite run at 720p or have antialiasing, and some of the textures are blurry. However, this doesn't server to put a dampener on the plot which is genuinely captivating, or the fighting which is stu\ill supremely violent fun, with the new Heat move animations resulting in winces and sharp intakes of breath all round. -
uiruki 5,975 posts
Seen 9 hours ago
Registered 18 years agoRight, I'm 12 hours in according to the game clock but due to loading saves and stuff I reckon it is closer to 14.
I finally got back to Kamurocho, and have just completed the part of the game you get in the demo. The fighting in Hard difficulty definitely seems a lot tougher - enemies block more, and you get comboed a lot more often. On the other hand, you do get loads of new Heat moves to even the odds, and I haven't run short of healing drinks yet from the amount you get by wandering around and fighting random battles.
There seem to be a lot more sidequests this time around. There are trophies which specifically mention up to 80 quests, then a further one for all of them. In addition, the array of minigames has been increased; although I have only tried one or two, they seem solid enough. One problem with the golf game (a problem shared with the version of Tiger Woods I played in 3 click mode) is that the bar animates at 30fps, not 60 like in Everybody's Golf, which arbitrarily makes it much harder to hit the ball well.
My overall feeling of the game so far is that, although it still doesn't offer what you could call a seamless experience, it has far fewer loading screens than it used to, and the cutscenes have been increasing in quality and drama as the game has gone on. I do miss the number of fully voiced (if not fully animated) scenes that were in Kenzan, but the sheer amount of extra content seems to make up for it. As I said above, i spent hours on the cabaret club subgame alone. Indeed, rather than a totally seamless experience, the game simply concentrates on provinding a totally engaging one. -
Cappy 14,393 posts
Seen 13 hours ago
Registered 16 years agoSounds excellent. .gif)
Have you got another character with you frequently in this game? I missed being pestered for meals and other stuff in Yakuza 2 since Haruka wasn't around much, and having somebody in the crowd cheering you on made the fights so much better.
It would be cool if you could have friendly and hostile onlookers, so you could push an opponent into a crowd that likes you and they would pin them while you duff them up. Or you could be unpopular and have the crowd booing and throwing stuff, even trying to help your opponent. -
uiruki 5,975 posts
Seen 9 hours ago
Registered 18 years agoNot so much. Haruka does go with you a couple of times, and you are escorted around a couple of times by another guy. Haruka still complains when you run ahead, and now takes your hand when you walk slowly enough for her to walk beside you .gif)
She also pegs it in an amusing fashion when you start a fight due to the new loading screen-less startup sequence. -
Everblue 462 posts
Seen 11 years ago
Registered 15 years agoAny word on an english version? -
380k sold in JP -
GeneralYas_90 wrote:
380k sold in JP
Is that good or bad? -
Psychotext 70,652 posts
Seen 23 hours ago
Registered 15 years agoVery good. -
Does the fact that it sold very well in Jp make a western version more or less likely? -
oldskool4572 394 posts
Seen 5 years ago
Registered 13 years agoI would think so, considering the previous ones for ps2 were released over here.
Loved them...what I expected from the creator of Shenmue.
Very Sega. -
Hmm, doesn't the fact they've probably made their cash mean that there is no point giving it a western release that'll probably flop (why waste the cash). I hope they do decide to waste their cash though; its what segas good at. -
deathdealer619 751 posts
Seen 7 years ago
Registered 15 years agothis needs a eu release a lot of interest already -
deathdealer619 751 posts
Seen 7 years ago
Registered 15 years agois the text or dialogue in english? -
deathdealer619 751 posts
Seen 7 years ago
Registered 15 years agoi have and al l shenmues -
...That's it. I'm learning japanese. -
Cappy 14,393 posts
Seen 13 hours ago
Registered 16 years agoI'm still hoping that we get them all.
It would be some small measure of correction for the injustices of previous generations to see them only reach Europe, poor US sales have held back the series outside Japan. -
HarryPalmer 6,357 posts
Seen 16 hours ago
Registered 15 years agoIs the demo still up on the jap psn store? -
varsas 2,493 posts
Seen 3 months ago
Registered 17 years agoI just read the review of Yakuza 3 and was wondering, can anyone suggest another open world game with a better combat system? -
sargulesh 3,281 posts
Seen 12 years ago
Registered 12 years agoI'd love for both Yakuza games and Kenzan to come West but I can understand Sega's decision not to localise given how little Yakuza 2, e.g., sold in the US. I know we take it for granted these days that we'll have everything localised eventually but I guess some things just aren't to be. Sega are hardly doing all that well are they? -
sargulesh 3,281 posts
Seen 12 years ago
Registered 12 years agoYakuza 3 & 4 -
What is the samurai spin off like, anygood? I'd have thought its more obvious look in a videogame would make it appeal while Yakuza is something that people don't know much about, but the appeal of mobs etc is there if they work on the promotion side of things and explain what its all about.
I didn't get along with Yakuza in part because of the crap dub spoilt the whole setting (wish I still had my copy, might have to pick it up and give it another try) but at the end of the day Sega didn't give the series a real chance of success.
Maybe the Japanese locations put off dim witted yanks and narrow minded limeys, but so what! If rpgs and other cultish nerd wankfests can do well, Yakuza certainly can, but they need to market it, get the devs over here talking about it more and create that following.
But for the love of zeus no dubbing! -
sargulesh 3,281 posts
Seen 12 years ago
Registered 12 years agoDid you play Yakuza 2, VS? It didn't have any dubbing, iirc. Great game.
I never played Yakuza. I'm sure if it's worth looking out if you've played two? -
Same as with Shenmue 2 then? Thats good to hear, never got around to the sequel cause I was put off by the original, I really do need to find the time to give the series another go. -
sargulesh 3,281 posts
Seen 12 years ago
Registered 12 years agoThe Neogaf announcement thread is funny: it's full of the kind of dudes who have nerdgasms (that's me too btw) over Yakuza bitching that it's a stupid business decision by Sega because all they want is to give them their money. Yeah, maybe it is, but... all the people who'll buy the game in the US are all the people on that thread. If you get what I'm saying.
Yakuza 2: 820k lifetime sales in Japan compared to 40k in the US. -
sargulesh 3,281 posts
Seen 12 years ago
Registered 12 years agoAnyway, having read the Neogaf thread (they should have put a "bitch about Westernisation= ban" in that thread imo), my official and contrary policy on this is: why should Sega have to do the work here when the costs outweigh the potential benefits? It should be YOU the gamer who should have to do that work, since the cost-benefit analysis for you is much more weighted to the beneficial: LEARN JAPANESE, BITCH.
(Of course, Sega could just put fkn English subs in the Japanese version and solve this problem quite easily.) -
deathdealer619 751 posts
Seen 7 years ago
Registered 15 years agoVertical Stand wrote:
Same as with Shenmue 2 then? Thats good to hear, never got around to the sequel cause I was put off by the original, I really do need to find the time to give the series another go.
Now Shenmue 1+2 imho were two of the best games ever released amazing character design and a real sense of emotional attachment, Where is 3?!!! -
deathdealer619 wrote:
Vertical Stand wrote:
Same as with Shenmue 2 then? Thats good to hear, never got around to the sequel cause I was put off by the original, I really do need to find the time to give the series another go.
Now Shenmue 1+2 imho were two of the best games ever released amazing character design and a real sense of emotional attachment, Where is 3?!!!
Shenmue games are great, but its like expensive late 80s anime, an end of an era - in case there was any confusion I was talking about getting back into Yakuza having missed the sequel.
@sargulesh did America get Yakuza 2 late in the day for PS2 as the Pal version or did it come out much sooner, as that may be part of the reason it failed, but still I think the damage was done with the failure to push the original and Sega haven't the willpower to correct that.
Pity, one novel idea, too novel for conservative publishers would be to put up a DLC for an english translation patch to the game, £10 or so to cover the localisation and recoding costs - so that importers can update the game with a translation without Sega needing to press up copies not knowing if there is a market for the game.
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She also pegs it in an amusing fashion when you start a fight due to the new loading screen-less startup sequence. 
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