More content cut than originally expected
If you’ve been following the Yakuza game series, you get the impression that Sega of America isn’t quite sure what to do with it. Known as “Ryu Ga Gotoku” (Translating to “Like A Dragon”) in its home country, the Yakuza series has been a massive success for Sega of Japan, garnering many awards and even a feature film adaptation. Despite faring well in reviews in the United States, the game was nowhere near as successful in the west – some would argue that this was due to Sega of America incorrectly pitching the game as “Japan’s Grand Theft Auto“. In truth, the Yakuza games are more akin to something like River City Ransom, featuring brawler elements with an RPG-style upgrade system. Bad marketing or not, Yakuza and its sequel completely failed to sell in a Western market.
When Sega announced Yakuza 3 would actually make it state-side, it came with a catch: “Hostess Clubs”, a feature of one of the game’s many side quests, would have to be cut. Sega assured fans, however, that Yakuza 3 would release in the West “99% uncut”. As we’re learning today, the removal of Hostess Clubs are the least of a Yakuza fan’s worries. Thanks to a news tip sent in to us by Deven Gallo, we have learned that as many as 21 side quests have been removed, spanning the game’s 10 chapters. Numerous game features and locations have also been trimmed, such as the ability to romance certain in-game characters. Speaking to a friend who bought the game today, I was relayed a story regarding that, in the Japanese release of Yakuza 3, you would often see people on the street handing out various flyers advertising stores and shops located around the game world. Some of these shops have apparently been removed for the North American release. However, the people giving out the flyers for these removed shops still follow you around, offering instead only a quiet stare. The removal of such content can have a profound impact on how the game is played. Fewer side quests means less experience points to upgrade your character with, and less money to spend, for example.
According to a statement made to Kotaku back in February, cutting some content from Yakuza 3 was necessary for its North American release:
“We had a tight schedule to abide by for localizing and releasing Yakuza 3 in the west. Due to the limited time we were given we had to leave certain bits of the game out and we chose portions we felt didn’t resonate with western culture.“
Though this initially only applied to the matter of Hostess Clubs being removed from the game, it’s clear that this applies to a much broader spectrum of censorship. In particular, many fans are taking issue with the comment regarding what elements of Yakuza resonate with western culture, as some of the removed quests feature apparently harmless mission objectives like helping an aspiring Japanese artist get his comic book published.
As of yet, Sega of America has not made any comments regarding why so much content in Yakuza 3 was removed in the face of their initial claims. We’ll keep tabs on this story as it develops.
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wait is this the early later 80s\early 90s all over again?
oh my fetch quest OH NO MY FETCH QUESTS I DEMAND TO BE BORED TO TEARS WITH FETCH QUESTS!
Well now they can charge you 3 bucks a mission as DLC. Easy as pie.
Well, different cultures, different moral standards. That ,and despite the ‘MA’ rating or whatever it is we wouldn’t want our governments getting prissy and cutting even more out of the game.
How is this Sonic related?
Different cultural and moral standards concerning getting your comic book published.
I assume it involved children and tentacle rape.
Some of the DLC for the Japanese release is already included free in the Western release. I can’t understand everyone’s problem to be fair. Still an awesome game.
Fuck censorship.
@Barry the Nomad:
There’s more to Sega then just Sonic.
What are these clubs you speak of?
TSSZ rarely makes postings on non-Sonic Sega games. Before this Yakuza one there was the “nudity in Phantasy Star Portable” December story. Both that and this have one thing in common: they can be given a negative spin or are “scandalous”.
Meanwhile a LOAD of positive Sega news goes unmentioned here: Bayonetta, Alpha Protocol, Vanquish, Aliens vs. Predator, SMB: Step & Roll. None of those mentioned have had a single news story at TSSZ this year. Any of those mentioned that DID sneak into a story last year was a quick trailer link or the E3/TGS line-up.
If I was a fan of the series, I’d be put off buying this game because of this crap. There’s really no excuse for giving them such a short time to work on it, especially since they just released the game up against FFXIII and God of War 3. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
As it is, I really know next to nothing about the series, other than that it hasn’t done well out West and is always facing high odds that sequels won’t make it here at all, which dissuades me to try getting into it at all. Which is a shame, since the comparison to River City Ransom intrigues me.