Operation Backlog Completion 2026

Yakuza 8 Plans, Judgment’s Future, Unannounced Titles Planned

 Video games  5 Responses »  Tagged with: , ,
Nov 172021
 

Back in October, an announcement from Ryu Ga Gotoku posted on the official website confirmed both that the company was being restructured and also that the next Yakuza game was in development.

Yakuza 8 (although who knows what they’ll title it in the west, since Yakuza 7 became Yakuza: Like a Dragon) has now been mentioned again in a new interview with director Masayoshi Yokoyama in this week’s Weekly Famitsu, translated by Gematsu.

In it, they first mention that the restructuring is normal for a company like this, and then confirm that Yakuza 8 will follow Ichiban as the main character again. It also will be “set several years after the story of Yakuza: Like a Dragon.”

(Yakuza games often take place in the year they’re released, so that makes sense.)

Since Yakuza 8 was already confirmed, of greater interest to me is the mention of Judgment. He says that Judgment is “very important” and goes on to say that they will “actively challenge [themselves] to create new titles, not only for Judgment, as circumstances permit.”

Now, I read that in an optimistic way. I interpreted “not only for Judgment” to mean a new Judgment title is all but confirmed to happen eventually, which made me happy that the rumors of the series ending were false.

…But most people online, it seems, interpret it in the exact opposite way and are upset that this interview confirms Lost Judgment is the last game in the Judgment series. This seems largely due to VGC reporting that Yokoyama said they would “cherish” the series and then recounting the earlier rumors. In my opinion, the lack of the “not only for Judgment” quote and the repetition of the rumor makes the outlook sound more negative.

Meanwhile, Twinfinite claims Yokoyama said he has high hopes for the Judgment series continuing, but there wasn’t a specific quote.

I guess we’ll just have to wait and see. In the meantime, you might be asking why I haven’t played my much-anticipated Lost Judgment yet, and that’s because I decided to finish the Yakuza series first due to Lost Judgment including a spoiler for Like a Dragon.

(It’s killing me; I want to play Lost Judgment now.)

One final interesting piece of information from the interview is that “unannounced titles outside of both series are also in the works.”

That could refer to more spin-offs, being outside the mainline Yakuza series, or another licensed spin-off like the Fist of the North Star game, or maybe even a whole new IP. Whatever it is, RGG Studio has proven to me that it’s something I’ll want to keep an eye on.

Here’s hoping we still have a chance of getting Kenzan and Ishin in the west…

How do you feel about the latest updates from RGG Studio?

Yakuza 4: A Mostly Great Adventure

 Reviews, Video games  No Responses »  Tagged with: ,
Sep 132021
 

In July, I wanted to play a game that would make me smile, so I turned once again to the Yakuza Remastered Collection and moved on to Yakuza 4.

While the past few games focused mostly on Kiryu, Yakuza 4 switches things up in a big way by having four playable characters.

Unlike Yakuza 0, which alternated between its two protagonists, Yakuza 4 has you play through each character’s story before it all comes together at the end.

This has the effect of feeling almost like four miniature Yakuza games, although each story follows the previous one instead of taking place at the same time like I originally thought they might.

Anyway, I liked all of the characters story-wise and enjoyed the change of pace.

(Gameplay-wise, each character has his own combat style, which means that as someone who prefers faster styles, Saejima’s combat was agony for me. But I still love him.)

I liked seeing how the different characters’ stories all came together, and there were definitely some exciting points in the plot as it unfolded. Unfortunately, there were also some goofy moments, and not necessarily in a comedic way. I can stretch my suspension of disbelief, but Yakuza 4 requires a bit more of that than any other entry in the series I’ve played so far.

Click for major Yakuza 4 spoilers
Rubber bullets. Everyone complains about the rubber bullets. And you know, I can accept this Layton-esque twist of all of Saejima’s bullets being secretly replaced with experimental rubber bullets that non-lethally knock everyone out so that the antagonist can regain consciousness and shoot everyone else to survive while placing the blame on Saejima, sure. It’s convoluted, but sure.

But how did Arai not notice that the man he shot in the head at point-blank range wasn’t actually SHOT?

Also, Akiyama keeps literally all of his money in a gigantic unlocked safe in his office. Unlocked. It’s protected by a button hidden behind a book. The bad guys find it by accident. Giant unlocked safe. Giant unlocked safe.

Still, the rest of the game is full of Yakuza goodness like entertaining substories and wacky Revelations to learn new moves. Several substories also follow up on substories from previous games, which I really liked. The Yakuza series might not exactly have an overarching story (although Yakuza 4 drew on knowledge of the previous games more than ever), but I love that side characters and even minor substory characters develop over time.

And why did the series ever drop Revelations? They’re great!

I probably spent less time on the mini-games than in the past, but that’s partly because none especially stood out to me and partly because Lost Judgment is practically knocking on the door.

Anyway, Yakuza 4 comes in at the lower end of my Yakuza rankings, but a weak Yakuza game is still a great game. I enjoyed my time with these four characters and their questionable plot, and I look forward to reaching the final part of the Yakuza Remastered Collection in the future!

Lost Judgment DLC Details

 Video games  3 Responses »  Tagged with: , , ,
Sep 032021
 

One mystery that has surrounded Lost Judgment ever since it became available for pre-order was that the Digital Deluxe and Digital Ultimate editions included some sort of DLC, but no one knew what.

Well, the DLC has now officially been revealed.

Everything is listed out here by Gematsu. All pre-orders include the Quick-Start Support Pack, basically some bonus items as a preorder bonus.

Then there are three main pieces of DLC: the Detective Essentials Pack, the School Stories Expansion Pack, and the Kaito Files Story Expansion.

The Detective Essentials Pack includes new colors for your dog, four new Master System games, a “Super Shin Amon” fight, and three additional girlfriend options, along with some other items and bonuses. This feels substantial for day-one DLC, and I’m not crazy about extra side content being available at launch as DLC.

(The Japanese website appears to list Tsukino as one of the three extra girlfriends, which makes me hope the twins are returning outside of DLC as well.)

On October 26, the School Stories Expansion Pack will be released with a lot of little extras, like new dance moves and motorcycle parts, and more notably a fourth combat style that lets you use the boxing mini-game’s moves in actual combat.

Making a combat style DLC doesn’t sit well with a lot of fans, and to me it feels strange to release content that would appear throughout the game a month after it comes out.

And finally, the big Kaito Files Story Expansion DLC will be out in Spring 2022, and it’s a side story starring Kaito as a playable character. According to the official details, it will be about 10 hours long.

Since all of these things are described only as being pre-order bonuses with the Digital Deluxe/Digital Ultimate, I got a little concerned that you might not be able to buy them on their own, but RGG Studio confirmed that the Lost Judgment DLC will be available to purchase separately.

I have mixed feelings about the DLC. The story DLC is fine; I’m completely okay with buying DLC for a good side story expansion. And I never care much about cosmetic DLC and minor things like that. But including small pieces of side content, mini-games, and a combat style as DLC feels like a step in the wrong direction.

How do you feel about Lost Judgment’s DLC? Will you be getting it?

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