Sega's press files have sometimes funny names. Infinite Wealth's packshots, for example, are named "Elvis": Project name, I suppose.
The Toyko game shown preview looked so awesome . So happy to see the Model 3 version of Spikeout came home at last and the game is on Gamepass too, what a bruice bonus
cool to see Gaiden on Game Pass. Was gonna buy it, and now I guess I don't have to. wish we had 8 on gamepass too, but i'll buy it day one anyway.
I'm also excited to see Gaiden coming out on Game Pass. I can play through the English version with my wife and then order a JP PlayStation copy for the collection, and not waste money on a digital-only game.
I know this will come off as nitpicking to some people, but I gotta rant about this: I can't stand the new name. I realize it's the Japanese name, but "Ryu Ga Gotoku" sounds cool. "Like A Dragon" doesn't. It simply doesn't translate to English. The title was changed for a reason. Which sounds better? "The Yakuza series" or "The Like A Dragon series"? I think the localization team is making a huge mistake. Even the weebs who hate that the series got popular and hate all the various localization changes made even by the new team never had an issue with the Yakuza title. I realize the series technically doesn't have much to do with the Yakuza at its core, especially now, but you don't just change the name of a big AAA franchise just like that. I can't think of any other franchise that's done that. Literally nobody isn't going to still call it Yakuza. I hope that the next time they remaster or re-release the old games, they don't retroactively change the title there too.
The only example I can think of is Harvest Moon (now Story of Seasons even with retroactive remakes), but that's due to some rights fuckery with the name "Harvest Moon". There hasn't been any raiding of tombs in Tomb Raider for decades but they haven't changed the name of the franchise to "Lara Croft Gets Kidnapped Again". Prince of Persia kept its name even when the games didn't feature a prince of Persia. I think Yakuza can survive not being directly about the Yakuza without changing its name.
Here comes the CEO COO of the pedantic society: IIRC every "Tomb Raider" has tombs, but in one of them (Rise?) the tombs were optional and not part of the main plot (aka "girl gets muddy"). They've released "Lara Croft" games where I guess(?) raiding tombs isn't the main purpose - I haven't played those. I also don't know what Shadow of the Tomb Raider did - I'd had enough of its version of Lara Croft at that point. ... But yes I also prefer Yakuza as a name, because "Like a Dragon" was only ever a rough translation, it doesn't read well in English, and there's still enough yakuza stuff in there for the old title to make sense. But hey, maybe in ten years time they'll have fully switched to "Ryu ga Gotoku" - we've already had "Kiwami" and "Ishin" show up in the English titles - they're not hiding the Japanese-ness as much anymore.
The graphics look really good in the new games. I hope the team have gone back to the Dragon engine and dropped Unreal
Sega also has "Shin Megami Tensei" with no problem. Ryu Ga Gotoku would be fine for me...it's harder to pronounce but there is also the abbreviation "RGG" which is common (moreso for the studio) 8 shows Dragon Engine weakness during daytime I feel. Gaiden focuses on nighttime and therefore looks great.
8 shows Dragon Engine weakness during daytime I feel. Gaiden focuses on nighttime and therefore looks great.[/QUOTE] I felt Lika a Dragon Ishin looked the worst of the lot, even the remakes of Yakuza 1 and 2 and why I hope the team don't look to use Unreal 4 again
I think that Ishin's remake didn't necessarily have the budget it needed to make it work, so I'd be more interested in a full on brand new UE game in the series before judging Ishin which iirc is still using a lot of the original PS3/PS4 assets in the first place. I'd agree though that it looks uglier than the Dragon Engine games.
While I'm glad to see the Dragon Engine stick around at least a bit longer, I can't help but wonder how close to it LAD: Ishin could have felt if they'd made the attempt, especially if UE could've been better-optimized than a couple of the most recent games. ...I also wish Ishin had been given more of a Kiwami treatment in general. I may have survived the jump from Kiwami 2 to 3 Remastered, but I just couldn't get through Ishin.
I really not sure if the remake budget was any less than the remake budgets for Yakuza 1 and 2, but the game didn't look as good and was a little disappointing in the gfx dept. Maybe Ishin was a quick turnout game too
This is going to be lost on most of the English speaking world, but there was a new trailer for Yakuza 8: It features the characters Gachapin (the green one) and Mukku (the red one) from the 1970s television series, Hirake! Ponkikki. And this isn't the first Sega game to feature them, because Hirake! Ponkikki Party o Hirakou! exists. This obviously means this 1993 Pico game is canon with Yakuza. Yep.
I finished through LaD 7 Gaiden and also really enjoyed the demo for LaD 8. Having actually been to Hawaii and Honolulu specifically the environment really feels realistic. Obviously not a 1:1 recreation but it satisfies my memories of being there quite well.
Even knowing 8 takes place in Hawaii, I wasn't mentally prepared to see shop prices in USD when I booted up the demo. The combat changes are fantastic, though. I had a couple of gripes with 7's RPG systems (and one or two rather frustrating difficulty spikes), but I'm looking forward to seeing how things evolve. LADG was a fun lesser-sized adventure. The brawling isn't quite on Lost Judgment's godly level, and it leans on busywork at times, but at the end of the day it's hard to go wrong with RGG-fueled fisticuffs and the wild stories they're a part of. Between it and the Kaito Files, it's nice to get a more bite-sized campaign to plow through every now and then. Or... y'know, a normal-sized one, compared to the proper entries' family size.
A mod to give Yakuza 7/LAD brawler-style combat is finally out. ...although I wasn't aware Nexus Mods requires an account to download files. That's honestly really annoying.
Holy Crap, Loving the new Like a dragon; IW The scrip is nuts and the music is some of the best SEGA made in years, its pure SEGA madness
