I love Sega’s Yakuza games.
Japanophiles should share a similar admiration. Most Japanese-developed videogames feature otherworldly, highly stylized art direction not often present its their Western counterparts. That’s fantastic for fantasy environments, but doesn’t often (aside from something like Okami) offer insight into the minutia of Japanese culture. Yakuza games take the road less traveled, opting for a slightly stylized aesthetic threaded with a realistic take on modern urban Japanese society. Hyperviolence aside, Yakuza is the closest approximation available for what it’s like to actually walk around Tokyo all night. Having played the original Yakuza before I went to Japan in 2008, I found myself strolling through nocturnal Tokyo and thinking “jesus christ this is just like in Yakuza!” People running up and down the street and handing you shit, neon lights in every place you look, jingle music inside the minimarts, UFO catchers everywhere, thematically different pockets of the city, and the general commotion associated with urban Japanese culture were as visible in real life Tokyo as they were in videogame Yakuza. Sega nailed the atmosphere (further evident by playing Yakuza 2 after I got back, and then finding a place in Osaka in the game that was nearly identical to a picture I took in Osaka in real life). Yakuza isn’t just a franchise for people who love Japanese game development; it’s a game for people who love Japanese culture.
As a healthy subscriber to both, this is why the arrival of Yakuza 3 comes with a bit of sadness; as best as I can guess,* it’s probably the last English-translated Yakuza that I am going to be able to play. Yakuza 3, over a year after its Japanese release, is finally coming to Europe and North American on or around March 9th. It’s a dream come true for those of us who nearly imported it and printed a huge translation FAQ in order to play it, but a pure nightmare for the same group who is deathly afraid of having to do that for the already-announced Yakuza 4. You see, March 9th is also the day the 2010’s biggest** Japanese developed game, Final Fantasy XIII, arrives on shelves. If that wasn’t threatening enough, God of War III (a PS3 exclusive like Yakuza 3) looks to hammer the last nail in Yakuza 3’s coffin just a week later. The game, for all intents and purposes, is being sent to die.
I’ll concede that Yakuza games (what I’ve played of 3 included) definitely aren’t for everyone. Shenmue + Streets of Rage + Awesome isn’t enough to sell everyone on premise alone, and the lack of evolution, at least in terms of gameplay mechanics, isn’t going to help its cause. Yakuza plays well, but it isn’t stellar; it looks terrific in a screen grab, yet kind of unwieldy in motion, and its control is precise in certain aspects and cumbersome in others. It is, however, more than the sum of its parts, and it succeeds in offering the videogame holy grail; an experience that is not only wildly fun, but also objectively different than most else you’re used to playing. It’s kind of a hard sell, which is why casting it off alongside two other heavy hitters isn’t going to do it any favors. It’s still going to hit with people like me who are going to buy it anyway, but it seems like Sega isn’t giving it a shot at mainstream success. Yakuza 3 needs all of the attention it can get, which isn’t going to be as much as it could have been in its current release window.
After watching Sega mis-market the original Yakuza as Japan’s answer to Grand Theft Auto, and then feeling fortunate with a small run of Yakuza 2 in late 2008, I’m afraid Yakuza 3 will not make a profit for my favorite publisher. Typically I couldn’t care less about a game’s financial success, but as someone who is deeply involved in Kazuma Kiryu’s world and the ongoing narrative of the franchise, I will probably really want to play Yakuza 4. I’ll do it with a translation FAQ if I have to, but I know that glancing back and forth at my laptop would kill immersion and sour the entire experience. But hey, maybe Sega only needs to sell to Yakuza’s audience in order satisfy a small, yet incredibly vocal minority. The huge petitions and fan campaigns to get Yakuza 3 localized assure a total success for its fan base. It’s a gamer’s game, for sure, and maybe that’s all it needs to be for the western market. I hope, anyway.
* This is, at best, an uninformed guess. My B.A. is not in marketing.
**Assuming Zelda’s latest Legend doesn’t make it out the door.
