Recently the Yakuza saga turned 15 years old and we wanted to review its entire history, its evolution and how it has been overcome over the years.
In Japan, in December 2005, the release of Ryu Ga Gotoku, known more internationally as Yakuza, began, a first installment of what would be one of the most iconic sagas up to now. The conception of Yakuza dates back to 2003, when its own creator, Toshihiro Nagoshi, had a very clear idea of what his game would be: a human drama, but very focused on the Japanese country. Despite different discrepancies and many discussions, it got underway and Yakuza hit the market. Its debut was a huge success in Japan, since it was released during the internet boom, even western fans, especially those fans of Shenmue, were anticipating that this game would see it as a possible successor to that respective cult franchise. A year later Yakuza finally made its international debut.
Starting in 2020 with its latest installment, Yakuza: Like a Dragon, the Yakuza saga has a total of 7 main installments, a prequel, an online game, two Japan-exclusive PSP spin-offs, two historically-inspired spin-offs Also exclusive to Japan, a zombie apocalypse spin-off and another known as “Judgment”, which takes place in the same universe, but is not directly part of the main saga. In addition to various remasters for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 consoles and later for Xbox One. The saga is also known for its cinematic connection and the creation of various adaptations such as books, radio soap operas and even television programs. However, they have always relied on the demand of the fans and have adapted to every criticism, despite the fact that when it has been about international releases they have preferred to pause it or even not do it. And now for its 15th anniversary it has been glimpsed what will be new plans for the future.
Its story and setting: a crime drama with lots of action
When Sega wanted to withdraw from the console market towards the end of 2001 and completely discontinued the Dreamcast around 2002, the company began to focus on its new role: video game development. That’s when great games began to come out that undoubtedly made Sega continue to be a great video game developer and publisher. And of course, one of its main sagas would be Yakuza. The genre of this series is primarily beat ‘em up, but elements from the action-adventure, open-world, and action role-playing games genres are also incorporated. The story of the saga is primarily a crime drama with various plots inspired by Yakuza movies. The main character that appears most frequently is Kazuma Kiryu, a reformed gangster associated with the Tojo Clan based in Kanto, Japan. While Kiryu often finds himself working with the leaders of the Tojo Clan to thwart conspiracies directed against them, the main theme of the saga is his desire to leave the yakuza for good and start over, raising orphans and trying to assimilate to the civil life. However, in the latest installment, Yakuza: Like a Dragon, will focus on a new protagonist named Ichiban Kasuga, even Sega has described him as a much more frank and emotional character than Kiryu.
In Yakuza we can control Kiryu (or another character, depending on the title) in an open world where he can fight against random groups of punks and gangsters, make weapons, perform missions and secondary activities to gain experience and money, as well as learn new movements of the NPCs, eat and drink in various restaurants and participate in a variety of mini-games such as golf, bowling or even karaoke.
The Yakuza game series is mainly set in the fictional Kamurochō district, based on a real Tokyo red light district. The appearances of districts and towns in the game are based on their current locations from the year each game came out, and are often renewed and remodeled in newer games. As Dotonbori and Shinsekai (Osaka) have been in Yakuza 2, 5 and 0, and also other places such as Naha (Okinawa) in Yakuza 3, Susukino (Hokkaido) in Yakuza 5 or Onomichi (Hiroshima) in Yakuza 6. Its setting has been a clear example of critical praise due to the great detail that its different districts have, including the “trivial and incidental things” that allow virtual exploration of real life locations. However, Yakuza does not explicitly market “virtual tourism”, but it has provided a great experience to involve us in a country and its people, as well as inspiring fans to visit small corners in the real world.
Its gameplay: secondary stories that complement the main one
All Yakuza games have three different modes, but connected to each other. These are: events, adventure and battle. The main character will randomly encounter enemies in his path, triggering an encounter battle. In fights, the player character uses hand-to-hand combat, using skills such as combos, throws, and finishing moves. Weapons and objects can also be handled. Winning some of these battles can be satisfactory to get money or items to sell and buy better equipment or even play those mini-games that we mentioned earlier. As the character fights, he will gain experience and can be used to increase stats and become a stronger fighter. Notably, in the most recent installment, Yakuza: Like a Dragon, includes a new battle system, where the character recruits gang members to fight alongside them in turn-based RPG battles against enemies, a great novelty.
Most of the installments are characterized by a long duration to achieve 100% completion, as the saga has a large number of entertaining side stories that often complement the main story. There are even many mini-games and activities that can take several hours to complete, such as the Coliseum Fights, it is a place where the player fights in mini-championships of three rounds against various opponents in different challenges to earn points and get unique items. ; or there is also the Pocket Circuit, a minigame in which the Pocket Circuit cars compete with each other, in fact, in Yakuza 0 and Yakuza Kiwami, there are several races that include a series of parallel stories related to this minigame.
Main saga: releases, development and achievements
Since its launch, the Yakuza saga includes seven main games, released in chronological order (except for the Yakuza 0 prequel), and each new installment follows the events of the previous title. The main saga is based on:
Yakuza
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The first game in the history of Kazuma Kiryu. It was released in 2005 in Japan and in September 2006 elsewhere such as Europe for the PlayStation 2 and was subsequently reissued in HD for the PlayStation 3 and Wii U. The story follows Kiryu as a promising member of the yakuza who spent ten years in prison. for a crime he did not commit. The game was highly acclaimed in Japan for combining groundbreaking gameplay with cinematic storytelling and character development geared towards a criminal underground in Japan. Yakuza received generally positive reviews from Western critics, with praise for its combat system and style, but criticism for its tedious and clunky gameplay. It came to be considered an adult-themed spiritual successor to the Dreamcast Shenmue saga, as it was also found that the fighting system would interest many players. The game sold 232,650 units in Japan during its first month of release and became a commercial success with a total of one million sales. In 2016 a remake titled Yakuza: Kiwami was made for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4. Here resolution, frame rate, textures and loading times were improved, in addition to adding additional content.
Yakuza 2
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Yakuza 2 is the sequel to the first installment. It was released for the PlayStation 2 on December 7, 2006 in Japan and in September 2008 in North America and Europe. Like the previous installment, it was reissued in HD for PlayStation 3 and Wii U. The plot is based a year after restoring order within the Tojo Clan and Kazuma Kiryu resigns his position as Fourth President, in addition to trying to keep the relations with the western group, the Omi Alliance. Yakuza 2 has several features over its predecessor, as Sega wanted to improve the fighting engine based on feedback from fans to provide a better experience. The reviews for Yakuza 2 were positive, praising the presentation and the fighting system. In addition, it was the 98th best-selling game in Japan in 2008 selling 136,809 copies that year, while it was the third best-selling PlayStation 2 game in its launch year in Japan with more than 800,000 copies. A remake titled Yakuza: Kiwami 2 was released in Japan in 2017 for PlayStation 4, and was subsequently released internationally in 2018. The remake adds new elements not seen in the previous release, including a new playable story campaign that weaves together other stories such as the by Yakuza 0.
Yakuza 3
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It is the third installment of the main saga, released for the PlayStation 3 in 2009 in Japan and in North America and Europe in 2010. The story continues with Kazuma Kiryu and his great struggle to try that the orphanage he cares for is not demolished, this will cause may he return to a life he thought he had left behind. The Japanese industry awarded him the “Award of Excellence” at the 2009 Japan Game Awards for his dramatic story development, the freedom of the story, the elaborate graphics and the fun found in every part of the game. game. Additionally, it was also well received in the west with good ratings, however it was criticized for removing content that included various side stories. Yakuza 3 was ranked as the second best seller for PlayStation 3 in Japan and by March 2010 it had managed to sell more than 680,000 copies.
A new compilation version titled The Yakuza Remastered Collection, was announced and released digitally in English-speaking territories in 2019 for PlayStation 4. The collection contains the remastered versions of Yakuza 3, Yakuza 4, and Yakuza 5, which were released in Japan individually between 2018 and 2019. At the time of the collection’s release, only Yakuza 3 Remastered was available; Yakuza 4 Remastered was released in October 2019 and Yakuza 5 Remastered in February 2020. The Yakuza Remastered collection is scheduled to release for Xbox One and Microsoft Windows on January 28, 2021.
Yakuza 4
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This installment was presented in 2009 in a promotional video at the Tokyo Game Show, but it was not until 2010 that it could be played in Japan and would finally be released in 2011 in North America and Europe for PlayStation 3. It should be noted that it was the first Yakuza game that did not have the participation of the producer of the current series and one of the members involved from the first game, Daisuke Sato. With regards to the story, Kazuma Kiryu finds himself again caught up in events beyond his control and will begin to fight to free himself from all the evil around him with the focus of four different heroes. Like the previous games, it also received mostly positive reviews and also received the Award of Excellence in 2010 at the Japan Game Awards. In just seven days it reached 384,000 copies in Japan and managed to be the best-selling PlayStation 3 game in Japan in 2010. As we mentioned in the previous paragraph, its remastering is included in the pack of The Yakuza Remastered Collection released in 2019.
Yakuza 5
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It is the fifth installment in the main Yakuza saga. The game was released in December 2012 in Japan, and in North America, Europe and Australia as a download from the PlayStation Network in December 2015 for the PlayStation3. Their argument is that the seventh president of the Omi Alliance is on his deathbed. His death would end the hard-won truce between the Tojo Clan and the Omi Alliance, opening the door to a new conflict. The game had twice the development time of previous games in the series and ultimately received generally positive reviews and in Japan they were only high praise. It is considered as “one of the best games of the last generation”, even several portals described it as “an authentic game, with absolutely masterful writing and a fine line between satirical humor and gangster drama”. A remastering with improved resolution and frame rate has also been released for PlayStation 4 in 2019 in Japan and worldwide in February 2020 in the aforementioned The Yakuza Remastered Collection pack.
Yakuza 0
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Yakuza 0 becomes the prequel to the original game. It was released for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 in Japan in 2015, and in North America and Europe for PlayStation 4 in 2017. A year later it was released for PC and will be released for Xbox One on February 26, 2021. The plot is based on a young Kazuma Kiryu who has been accused of murdering a civilian, being forced to rebuild his reputation from scratch. Yakuza 0 is considered one of the best games in the series for perfecting it, in addition to being nominated for the best PlayStation game of the year in 2017. Its sales were quite large, managing to sell more than 500,000 copies in Japan in three months, and even managing to exhaust sales stocks in some parts of the world such as the United Kingdom.
Yakuza 6: The Song of Life
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It becomes the penultimate installment of the Yakuza saga. It was released in December 2016 in Japan and the rest of the world in 2018 for PlayStation 4. The PC and Xbox One version will be released in March 2021. This title is based after Kazuma Kiryu’s three years in prison, this is freed after discovering that his adopted daughter has disappeared, he hopefully wants to find the truth behind what happened. The game was nominated for “Best Storytelling” and “PlayStation Game of the Year” at the 2018 Golden Joystick Awards. In its first week of release in Japan, it sold 218,168 copies, and by June 2018 it had already reached almost one million units. all over the world.
Yakuza: Like a Dragon
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It is currently the seventh and final release in the main Yakuza saga. It was released in Japan for the PlayStation 4 in January 2020, and had a worldwide release in November 2020 for PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X | S. However, it also has a PlayStation 5 version that will be released in Japan on March 2, 2021. Unlike previous installments, Yakuza: Like a Dragon focuses on a new protagonist named Ichiban Kasuga. After being imprisoned for eighteen years and then being betrayed by his former boss, Ichiban sets out on a personal quest to become a hero and discover the motive for his betrayal. It brings more news such as the change of the battle system, since it presents a turn-based RPG type combat, with a battle team of four people. As for its reception, in its first 4 days of launch in Japan it managed to sell more than 300,000 copies and currently there is no concrete data, but you only have to see the good reviews that it began to obtain on professional portals. It has been described as a perfect starting point to start the saga and even also as one of the funniest games of the Yakuza. Yakuza: Like a Dragon received an award at the Japan Game Awards for excellence and was also nominated at The Game Awards 2020 in the category of Best Role Playing Game.
A story that goes further: spin-offs and adaptations
In between the main saga, the Yakuza saga has undergone various spin-offs where its history has gone further and they have wanted to extend their content by introducing new features that never made it out in main deliveries. The first spin-off of the franchise is called Ryū ga Gotoku Kenzan !, released only in Japan and Asia in 2008, this is set in Kyoto in 1605 and follows the life of the legendary swordsman Miyamoto Musashi. In 2010 another spin-off titled Kurohyō: Ryū ga Gotoku Shinshō or better known as Yakuza: Black Panther was launched for PSP and, in 2012, it received a sequel also for the same platform. They follow Tatsuya Ukyo, a street punk who accidentally gets into trouble with the Red Clan. Also as exclusive content in Japan was the spin-off Ryū ga Gotoku Ishin !, for PlayStation 3 and also set in the samurai era, but it is not related to the previous spin-offs.
They continued with more spinoffs from the main saga with Yakuza: Dead Souls, a non-canonical story set during a zombie outbreak in Kamurocho, released in 2011 in Japan and in North America and Europe in 2012 for PlayStation 3. In 2018 they released Fist of the North. Star: Lost Paradise is a spin-off for PlayStation 4 and that its plot is based on a story set in an alternate post-apocalyptic timeline. And without a doubt, one of the spin-offs with the greatest reception was the most recent: Judgment. Released in 2018 in Japan and in the West in 2019 for PlayStation 4. It is based on a legal thriller set in the same world as Yakuza and that follows private detective Takayuki Yagami, who is investigating a murder case.
The Yakuza franchise includes several types of adaptations. Among these we highlight the Kamutai Magazine, an article created exclusively by Sega in which the new games of the Yakuza saga with the cover of Japanese porn stars have been included. It had a total of five issues and the last date from March 2010. There was also a film adaptation that was released in Japan in 2007 and is titled Like a Dragon: The Movie, based on the first installment of the saga. Even since 2008, they created a radio soap opera with Japanese voice actors who voiced protagonists of the Yakuza saga such as Kazuma Kiryu himself, but the last episodes date from 2009.
A saga with a success from start to finish
After reviewing the entire history of this spectacular saga, it is only worth noting the good reception it has obtained over the years. The first game in the saga was highly acclaimed in Japan, which caused great anticipation and laid the foundations of what would become years of enjoyment among the cities of Japan, based on a deep story with a large cast of characters. Each and every one of the seven installments of the main saga, including the prequel, have obtained a score of between 7.5 and 8.5 in the different platforms of the industry, becoming one of the sagas with the best scores after the development of games for more 15 years. Each installment has won an award for excellence at the Japan Game Awards, they have had re-releases and much recognition worldwide, especially for the quality and astonishing volume of entertainment. The series sold 3.2 million games worldwide in 2009 and 4 million copies in September 2010, making the first two games the best sellers. As of June 2015, the Yakuza saga had managed to sell more than 7 million units worldwide and, as of 2020, had managed to sell more than 14 million copies.
It is here when Sega realized that he had made one of the best decisions in his career, they had managed to carry out a saga that has continued to evolve since its inception and betting on turning it into an annual saga. In celebration of its 60th anniversary, it made a side-scrolling beat ’em up minigame called Streets of Kamurocho available for free for just two days on Steam, a way to commemorate both the Streets of Rage and Yakuza saga. . A possible game in development was recently published, although no details have been revealed and it is very possible that it is the continuation of the main saga. Now we just have to wait, be faithful to the franchise and find out what is to come.
