Yakuza (series)

Yakuza
Genres	Action-adventur; Beat 'em up; Open world;
Developers	Sega; Syn Sophia
Publishers	Sega; Deep Silver
Creators	Toshihiro Nagoshi
Platforms	PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Wii U, PlayStation 4
Platform o origin	PlayStation 2
First release	Yakuza; JP: December 8, 2005; NA: September 5, 2006; EU: September 15, 2006;
Latest release	Yakuza 6: The Song of Life; JP: December 8, 2016;

Yakuza, kent in Japan as Ryū ga Gotoku (龍が如く, Like a Dragon), is an open world action-adventur beat 'em up video gemme franchise creatit, awned an published bi Sega. The series oreeginatit frae Toshihiro Nagoshi's desire tae creaut a gemme that wad tell the wey o life of the yakuza. Nagoshi initially struggled tae fynd a platform for the project, till Sony shawed interest in the prospect.^[1]

The series primarily focus on the yakuza Kazuma Kiryu frae the Tojo clan. Whilk Kazuma aften assists the Tojo clan, the series haes featurt him searchin for anither wey o life in the form o raisin orphans an aw. The gameplay of Yakuza haes the player controllin Kazuma (or anither chairacter dependin on the title) in a open warld whaur he can encoonter a enemy or perform an activity in the ceety tae obtain experience.

The franchise haes acome a commercial an creetical success, an as o 2016, Sega Sammy Holdings haes reportit that the Yakuza franchise haes sauld a combined tot o 9.3 million units in pheesical an digital sales syne its debut in 2005.^[2] Strang sales o the gemmes in its oreeginal Japanese mercat haes led tae the franchise's expansion tae ither middlins, includin film adaptations.

Gemmes

The Yakuza series includes fower main gemmes; the gemmes wur released in chronological order, wi each new instalment follaein the events o the previous title. Thare are several spin-aff titles an aw. Ane relates Kazuma Kiryu's supposed ancestor, historic figur Miyamoto Musashi (a.k.a. Kazumanosuke Kiryu) frae the 16t an 17t centuries; anither follaes a zombie invasion o Kamurocho, the primary settin for the series; on the PSP, anither series is aboot a teenage street fechter frae Kamurocho that ends up in a fecht whaur he kills a Tojo Clan member.

On 31 August 2011, twa new Yakuza gemmes wur annooncit: Yakuza 5 (Ryū ga Gotoku 5) an a sequel tae the PSP gemme, Kurohyō 2.^[3]

Main series

Spin-affs

The success o the main Yakuza series haes spurred the creation o a spin-off, Ryū ga Gotoku Kenzan!, which wis released in Japan an Asie on 6 Mairch 2008.^[4]

Umwhile kent unner the wirkin title "Project K", Yakuza: Black Panther is a spin-aff on PlayStation Portable that wis released in Japan on 22 September 2010.^[5]

Of the End involves a zombie ootbreak in Kamurocho. This spin-aff entry is bein localisit in the Wast as Yakuza: Dead Souls, an is released in North Americae on 13 Mairch 2012.

Production

Legacy

The franchise's mixed gameplay is inheritit frae past Sega gemmes that series producer Toshihiro Nagoshi wirked on includin, the Shenmue series, the Virtua Fighter series, the Dynamite Deka series (ダイナマイト刑事 a.k.a. Dynamite Cop), the SpikeOut series an the Jet Set Radio series. Explicit tribute is peyed tae thir gemmes throu product placement o Virtua Fighter 4, Virtua Fighter 5, SpikeOut an Dynamite Deka EX arcade cabinets in Yakuza Club Sega gemme centers (the latters wur first introducit in Shenmue) an cameo appearances (lik Goji Rokkaku frae Jet Grind Radio).

The Yakuza gameplay resembles the ane introducit in Shenmue in mony respects includin Event Mode, Adventure Mode, Battle Mode, minigames an QTE.

Mercatin

The series is kent for its expandin video gemme tie-in an product placement mercatin policy. Sic strategy allous tae support the gemme's costly production an in the same gies a realistic aspect tae the environs which are based on real locations in Tokyo, Osaka an Naha.

Cast

The gemme's oreeginal vyce actors are Japanese celebrities which can be seiyū, sangsters, tarento, film or TV series actors, radio or telly celebrities. Cabaret girls an alike characters hae featurt models, gravure idols an adult actresses as vyce actresses an likenesses. Syne the 2008 spin-aff, the gemme series' main chairacters hae thair face modeled in 3D efter thair vyce actors. As in the Virtua Fighter series, Wastren main an minor characters daena speak (an course) in Japanese but rather in Inglis.

The PlayStation 3 instawments' realistic character design is based on Cyberware 3D scanner, Softimage XSI 6.5 3D models^[6] an Sega's Magical V-Engine.

Wastren localization chynges

When the series wis internaitionalizit an localizit tae fit the wastren mercat several chynges occurred. Thir include chyngin the title o the gemme (Like a Dragon 龍が如く, ryū ga gotoku became Yakuza) an the names o several characters (Shintaro Kazama is Shintaro Fuma, Akira Nishikiyama is Akira Nishiki, Futoshi Shimano is Futo Shimano, Sai no Hanaya is Kage).

Yakuza 4 adjustit several of thir localisation changes, follaein creeticism o the previous gemmes, an in pairticular the content excisit frae the Wastren release o Yakuza 3. Producer Noguchi notit that thare wis an attempt tae "bring a mair complete localization that wis mair faithful to the source material". This included reversin several name chynges. In addition, some conventions wur chyngit; in previous Wastren localisations, protagonist Kazuma Kiryu haed been referred tae primarily bi his first name. In Yakuza 4, he is referred tae primarily bi his surname, Kiryu, which mair closely reflects the oreeginal dialogue.^[7]

Music

The three Yakuza oreeginal soondtrack albums are componed bi Hidenori Shoji, Hideki Sakamoto et alii an are published bi Wave Master. Additional soondtrack featurs sangs frae Japanese airtists Crazy Ken Band, Zeebra, Ketsumeishi an Eikichi Yazawa.

Notes an references

↑ Martin Robinson (24 August 2011). "Yakuza unlikely on Xbox 360". Eurogamer. Retrieved 1 Februar 2017.
↑ "Sega Intellectual Properties - Annual Report 2016". Sega Sammy Holdings. 2016. Retrieved 14 Februar 2017.
↑ "Ryū ga Gotoku 5 and Kurohyō 2 Announcement Coverage" (in Japanese). 4Gamer.net. 31 August 2011. Retrieved 17 November 2011.
↑ "Ryu ga Gotoku 3 [Yakuza 3]". Sega. Retrieved 14 September 2007.
↑ https://archive.today/20120718091750/www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2010/06/30/ps3_yakuza_game/
↑ Hewlett-Packard Japan (2009). "HP Workstation 導入事例紹介株式会社セガ「龍が如く3」". Hewlett-Packard. Archived frae the original on 27 Mey 2009. Retrieved 17 Januar 2010.
↑ "Yakuza 4 Producer on Re-Localising the Series". Joystiq. 13/03/2011. Retrieved 17 November 2011. Check date values in: |date= (help)

Freemit airtins

Ryu Ga Gotoku series Portal Steid (in Japanese)
Yakuza series Portal Steid Archived 2004-05-26 at the Wayback Machine (in Inglis)
Ryu Ga Gotoku series Twitter Accoont (in Japanese)
Ryu Ga Gotoku series Offeecial Blog (in Japanese)

Template:Yakuza series Template:Franchises bi Sega

[1] Martin Robinson (24 August 2011). "Yakuza unlikely on Xbox 360". Eurogamer. Retrieved 1 Februar 2017.

[2] "Sega Intellectual Properties - Annual Report 2016". Sega Sammy Holdings. 2016. Retrieved 14 Februar 2017.

[3] "Ryū ga Gotoku 5 and Kurohyō 2 Announcement Coverage" (in Japanese). 4Gamer.net. 31 August 2011. Retrieved 17 November 2011.

[4] "Ryu ga Gotoku 3 [Yakuza 3]". Sega. Retrieved 14 September 2007.

[andriasang.com-5] ttps://archive.today/20120718091750/www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2010/06/30/ps3_yakuza_game/

[HPworkstation-6] Hewlett-Packard Japan (2009). "HP Workstation 導入事例紹介株式会社セガ「龍が如く3」". Hewlett-Packard. Archived frae the original on 27 Mey 2009. Retrieved 17 Januar 2010.

[7] "Yakuza 4 Producer on Re-Localising the Series". Joystiq. 13/03/2011. Retrieved 17 November 2011. Check date values in: |date= (help)

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