Sega’s organized crime epic blends high-stakes drama with goofy humor and absurdly in-depth minigames. The latest installment, Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth, launched in January 2024.
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Ever wonder why thugs turn to a life of crime? Maybe it’s because their threads cost so damn much. This outfit, based on the tracksuit protagonist Tatsuya Ukyo wears in PSP game Yakuza: New Chapter Black Panther and its spin-off television drama. The outfit is from Japanese designer DressCamp and will set you back ¥42,000…
The developers behind the Yakuza crime series are working on a sci-fi title called Binary Domain. It’s a pre-rendered trailer with robots, shooting and bad dialogue. But, hey, robots. Much of the trailer is filled either with stock third-person character design or characters nicked from movies or TV. While the game is supposed to appeal…
Toshihiro Nagoshi, the producer behind the Yakuza franchise, is moving from the gritty urban streets of Japan to somewhere more celestial: space. In the latest issue of Famitsu, Nagoshi talks about his upcoming project, Binary Domain. The game differs from his previous titles in that not only it is multi-platform and sci-fi themed, but it…
Long a tough sell to Western gamers, Sega may actually have found a way to market the Yakuza series of crime games outside Japan: package its trailers like the hammy movies the games so dearly want to be. Yakuza 4, the latest game in the series, was released in Japan in March, but won’t be…
Toshihiro Nagoshi is known for two things: Being very brown and making video games. He looks even browner on television. The Yakuza franchise, which has already seen a movie adaptation, is currently getting a television adaptation in Japan. The program is based on the new PSP game, Yakuza: New Chapter Black Panther Nagoshi has undergone…
To: Crecente From: Bashcraft RE: …A Day Without An Owen Last Christmas on the flight back to Japan, I read about half of Tokyo Vice. It’s a non-fiction crime book by Jake Adelstein, a writer we’ve featured here on Kotaku a couple of times. But! I didn’t finish the book on the plane. I accidentally…
Real honest-to-goodness yakuza have already made their thoughts known on Sega’s crime opus Yakuza 3. Now a Tokyo police officer and a yakuza lawyer weigh in on the game and suss out what’s realistic and what’s not. Jake Adelstein, author of the non-fiction Tokyo Vice, interviewed a handful of Japanese gangster about Yakuza 3 and…
Jake Adelstein, author of the non-fiction underworld yarn Tokyo Vice, got several gangsters to review Sega’s crime game Yakuza 3. But how? According to the original story, Adelstein appeared at “a shady real estate office in Tokyo” with cigarettes and whiskey “to teach these gangsters how to handle a PlayStation controller”. That wasn’t the only…
Sega’s ultra-popular (in Japan) Yakuza series is going completely bananas with its next console-based entry, Yakuza: Of The End. Sega is taking the crime-culture Japanese gangster series and throwing a zombie invasion into the mix. Huh? According to Masayoshi Kikuchi, producer of the Yakuza games, it was his inspired idea to introduce the hordes of…
As seen at the Sega booth at this year’s Tokyo Game Show.
Yakuza is Sega’s crime saga. The upcoming entry will have zombies in it. Yeah. The first image Sega showed of upcoming Yakuza game, Yakuza: Of The End, depicted the in-game Kamurocho, the in-game version of Shinjuku’s Kabukicho, in ruins. The game’s designer said that the theme for Of The End was “destruction”. A more apt…
Chiaki Kuriyama, best known in the West for her role as Gogo Yubari, is joining the cast of the next Yakuza game, Yakuza: To The End. Kuriyama will be playing the role of Misuzu Asagi. “Because I’ve long loved Yakuza,” the actress said, “I was really happy when I got the part.” She says that…
Sega is releasing a new Yakuza crime game this month in Japan. This game already has a title — Yakuza: New Chapter Black Panther. The Japanese company has another new Yakuza game. This game doesn’t have a title. Rather, it did not, because it has one now. The game is called “Ryu Ga Gotoku: To…
The upcoming Yakuza spin-off for the PSP, Yakuza: New Chapter Black Panther, doesn’t just have bar hostesses. It has bar hostesses that smooch the screen. Pucker up, buttercup. In a mode called “Cabaret Heat”, players can get all kissy face with hostesses that like them by pressing corresponding buttons that appear on screen under the…
Busting up a noodle house never looked so fun. Despite having been out in Japan for a while now, Yakuza 4 won’t be out in the West until 2011. If you’ve never seen a Yakuza game before, know that this is exactly the kind of explosive action you can expect when you sit down to…
Sega is making yet another Yakuza game. Not to be confused with the upcoming PSP spin-off, this new Yakuza title is headed towards the piece. Know what that means? More Yakuza hostesses! Sega has auditioned a slew of girls and selected a handful of hopefuls. From that lot, the in-game hostesses have been selected. At…
A Japanese nail saloon has decorated a handful of PSPs covers in the image of in-game hostesses. Thrilling! Here is curvy Yuu Tejima. The design done in her image is called “colorful leopard print”. This is Aya Hoshi. The design is called “Black Love”, because the PSP-3000 is covered with black rhinestone-type thingies and has…
I bet it’s been tearing you up inside to find out who the Japanese game industry’s biggest drinker is, so here’s a hint: think brown. Yes, according to Goichi Suda, the man behind games like Killer 7 and No More Heroes, the biggest booze hound of the Japanese scene is not Dead or Alive creator…
“Yakuza: New Chapter Black Panther”, the upcoming Yakuza spin-off for the PSP, is getting a television program. That’s not all. Starting on September 18, a manga version from Yukai Asada will appear in Shukan Young Magazine. The manga will be based off the game, but feature an original story.
This fall, a spin-off installment of the popular “Yakuza” crime franchise will hit the PSP. That’s not all, though. The game is also getting turned into a Japanese television show. Dubbed “Ryu Ga Gotoku Shinshou Kurohyou” or “Yakuza: New Chapter Black Panther”, the game follows the adventures of young ruffian Tatsuya and his crazy hair.…
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