One thing that Japan will be getting for
its PS4 launch that other countries didn’t/won’t is the latest Yakuza game, Yakuza Ishin!. And for those who can’t wait for the game, there’s a
new free PS Vita app to let them experience some of the Yakuza Ishin! world, if not the story.
Yakuza
Ishin! Free App for PlayStation Vita is currently
available on the Japanese PlayStation Store. The game contains three areas of
play: The Another Life section, the Gambling Minigame, and the Battle Dungeon.
Another
Life
Basically it’s a home-building simulator, a
la Harvest Moon – You gather crops
from your garden and catch fish in the nearby watering holes. Foodstuffs can be
cooked into items that can be used in battle or be used to fulfill orders.
Cooking involves a fairly simplistic
minigame involving the chopping of vegetables, controlling the fire under the
stove and flipping fried fish. The better you do in the minigames, the better
the quality of item that is completed.
There is also a list of orders from
customers requesting various ingredients or meals. Fulfilling orders earns you
money as well as friendship points with the game’s heroine, Haruka.
Aside from money, there are also Toku points that are obtained through
various actions, be it harvesting, or cooking, or just a moment of prayer. Toku
points can be used to upgrade your garden or earn you new types of crops and
other various bonuses.
From your home, you can go to the local
blacksmith shop to improve your weapons and armor, forge new weapons, or merge
weapons. There is also a small minigame that determines the outcome of
equipment upgrades.
Gambling
Minigame
At the gambling house, there is a selection
of five games you can play, each with a high or low betting pool. There is Mahjong,
Koi Koi (A Japanese card game that anyone who played the original Sakura Wars should be very familiar
with), Oichokabu (another Japanese card game somewhat similar to Blackjack),
Poker, and Shogi (Japanese Chess).
Players gamble with points instead of the
in-game currency. Points can be traded in for items or said in-game currency.
You can opt to play online against other
players or play offline in single player.
Battle
Dungeon
The action part of the game. As the leader
of the Shinsen-gumi Troop Number 3, Hajime Saito, you get to take a team of
your troops and fight baddies in a cave. Well, you don’t actually get to
“take a team” – you can select up to three members who assist you in
battle with various abilities and bonuses, but all the exploring and fighting
is done solo.
https://kotaku.com/be-two-historical-figures-for-the-price-of-one-in-the-n-1181954406
You can experience the full battle system
of Yakuza Ishin! from the different
combat styles and all the various moves. Fighting in the dungeon increases your
level as well as the level of your troops, unlocking new moves and increasing
stats and stat bonuses. (Note to Ruroni Kenshin
fans: There is a move that, intentional or not, does seem similar to that move…)
Completing missions in the Battle Dungeon
also brings in new recruits to your troop. Defeat will cause troop loyalty to
drop. If a troop member’s loyalty drops to zero, they will leave.
Carry
Over
Sega has stated that experience, items,
money, and troops obtained in Yakuza
Ishin! Free App for PlayStation Vita can be transferred to your Yakuza Ishin! save game (PS3 or PS4) when the full
game is released via the cross-save function.
Overall, Yakuza Ishin! Free App for PlayStation Vita is a sample of some of
the game elements in the full game. Be warned that a lot of the explanations
and tutorials are pretty wordy, so you’ll want to have a least an intermediate
knowledge of the Japanese language before attempting to try it out.
Yakuza
Ishin! Free App for PlayStation Vita is currently
available for free on the Japanese PlayStation Store.
Yakuza
Ishin! is scheduled for release on the 22nd.
No word on an international release for
either.
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To contact the author of this post, write to cogitoergonihilATgmail.com or find him on Twitter @tnakamura8
