- Pronouns
- he/him
Welcome to the Yakuza StarTopic™ ! Given that the franchise is pretty active, with nineteen games released in the span of sixteen years, I thought it’d be nice to have a community dedicated to it here. We’re here to share news, memes, speculate… But I’d also love if newcomers could come and discover the series, so please use the spoiler tag accordingly when discussing major events or twists. And always, of course, be respectful of other people’s opinions.
While we’re currently waiting for the next installment in the series (or, as they call it in Spanish, Kamur-ocho), welcome here, kyodais !
While we’re currently waiting for the next installment in the series (or, as they call it in Spanish, Kamur-ocho), welcome here, kyodais !
The Yakuza series (known in Japan as « Ryū ga Gotoku », which translates to « Like a Dragon ») is a collection of open world action-adventure games that mostly feature beat ‘em up style combats. While many compared the series to Grand Theft Auto when it first released, the environments in Yakuza are much smaller but much more detailed : there’s a lot of buildings in which you can actually enter and shop, eat, are play various activities. Each one of the playable environments in Yakuza is based of a real district of Japan, and therefore features various real-life brands to make it more realistic (by the way, if you’re visiting Japan, please remember to eat at a Ikinari Steak location). These are the various real life environments that were used in the Yakuza games :
The main stories of the Yakuza games are an hommage to yakuza movies, so expect long cutscenes with a lot of drama, betrayals and implausible twists, all perfectly voice acted by the « crème de la crème » japanese (voice) actors. To balance that and make the games more lifelike, the developers Ryū ga Gotoku Studio fill the games with a lot of side-stories, humorous or sad, in which your main character, a criminal, helps the various inhabitants of the city. Each entry also features short mini-games (card games, karaoke, bowling, arcade games, mahjong…) as well as more fleshed-out ones, which can take several hours to complete.
While the stories of the various games are obviously different, the Yakuza series is cohesive, and always features themes such as corruption in politics, the difficulties encountered by the left-out of the Japanese society (orphans, immigrants…), as well as putting an emphasis on the importance of friendship, loyalty and getting back up after being knocked-out. That’s why it is considered by a lot of fans as an uplifting, wholesome, and even helpful series.
- Kazuma Kiryu : Main protagonist of the series until the sixth episode, Kiryu is a member of the Tojo Clan (the largest yakuza organisation within the series) and is portrayed as a nice, loyal, smart and powerful man who sees the good in everyone. He wants nothing more than leaving a peaceful life but, due to his qualities and strength, is always pulled back in the shenanigans of the organisation.
- Haruka Sawamura : Introduced since the first episode of the series, in which she was a child in quest of her missing mother, Haruka will become linked to Kiryu and one of the most important character in the series, eventually becoming playable in Yakuza 5.
- Goro Majima : Appearing in every game in the series, and playable in Yakuza: Dead Souls, Yakuza 0 and Yakuza Kiwami 2, Goro Majima was first introduced as a clown character to balance the seriousness of Kiryu. At first the major rival to the protagonist, he became over time one of his most faithful allies and defenders.
- Shun Akiyama : Once a homeless person, Akiyama eventually became rich and some sort of an out of the box entrepeneur. Always trying to help those in need, he becomes after the events of Yakuza 4 one of the closest friends of Kiryu, and is probably, with the former cop Makoto Date, the person who understands him the most. Kiryu holds him in great respect. He is playable in Yakuza 4 and 5.
- Taiga Saejima : Sworn brother of Goro Majima and playable character in Yakuza 4 and 5, Saejima just got out of prison. Physically imposing, he is very good at combat. Very stubborn, nothing can stops him once he has an idea in mind. He is playable in Yakuza 4 and 5.
- Masayoshi Tanimura : Playable character in Yakuza 4, Tanimura appears at first to be nothing but a corrupt cop. In reality, he is a just guy who wants to helps immigrants in Kamurocho, a cause he is sensitive to for his mother is Thai. On top of japanese, he speaks Chinese and Korean, which helps him numerous times.
- Tatsuo Shinada : Former baseball player who was promised to become one of the major stars in the Japanese league, Shinada was banned after being involved in a game fixing scandal. After that, he becomes an adult entertainment writer for a while, before a mysterious man asks him to put his life back on tracks by searching for the real cause of his ban.
- Ichiban Kasuga : Ichiban is the new main protagonist of the series from episode 7. Asked by his patriarch to go to jail for a murder he didn’t commit, he comes out eighteen years later only to find out that everyone seems to have forgotten him. Sharing the same human values as Kiryu (which could come from the fact that they’re both orphans), he also appears to be more emotive and reckless. A fan of Dragon Quest, he sees himself and his group of friends as true heroes.
After SEGA restructured its development teams under small studios headed by its best designers, Toshihiro Nagoshi, who worked for SEGA since eleven years by now, was given the direction of Amusement Vision. The studio produced numerous efforts for the company, most notable ones being Super Monkey Ball and F-Zero GX. In 2004, after another restructuration, the Amusement Vision team got bigger and Nagoshi had an idea of a game based on the Japanese underworld. Convincing both SEGA and Sony on the game was tough, but Nagoshi persevered and work on the first Yakuza game began shortly after. In 2005, Amusement Vision was dissolved as part of New Entertainment R&D and the first Yakuza was released.
Much to the surprise and relief of SEGA, the game was a big success and development for a sequel was launched. Yakuza 2, 3 and 4, as well as the first three spin-offs (one of them being codeveloped by Syn Sophia) were released in tight schedules before the studio was renamed Ryū ga Gotoku Studio in 2011. Since then, the Tokyo-based studio grew to more than 300 employees and proved to be one of the major players in SEGA revival, as well as being praised for its development efficiency.
In October 2021, Nagoshi, who was at one point the main creative figure at SEGA, left the company with many other key members of the team. The main writer of the Yakuza series, Masayoshi Yokoyama, then took the lead of the studio.
(Before wrapping this post up, just wanted to give a shoutout to the fellow Yakuza fan @Derachi as well as @Brewster123 for his great Xenoblade ST which inspired me to make this one. And finally, since I'm not a native english speaker, don't hesitate to correct me on any grammar issue!)
Much to the surprise and relief of SEGA, the game was a big success and development for a sequel was launched. Yakuza 2, 3 and 4, as well as the first three spin-offs (one of them being codeveloped by Syn Sophia) were released in tight schedules before the studio was renamed Ryū ga Gotoku Studio in 2011. Since then, the Tokyo-based studio grew to more than 300 employees and proved to be one of the major players in SEGA revival, as well as being praised for its development efficiency.
In October 2021, Nagoshi, who was at one point the main creative figure at SEGA, left the company with many other key members of the team. The main writer of the Yakuza series, Masayoshi Yokoyama, then took the lead of the studio.
(Before wrapping this post up, just wanted to give a shoutout to the fellow Yakuza fan @Derachi as well as @Brewster123 for his great Xenoblade ST which inspired me to make this one. And finally, since I'm not a native english speaker, don't hesitate to correct me on any grammar issue!)
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I own an unplayed copy of Lost Judgment as well, so that's two games in a row I'll end up running through, later this year. Good times ahead.
