Yakuza 3 loses stuff that's too Japanese for you: IT'S A RETRO HOMAGE TO 1993

Man, I'm a videogame blog instead of an anime blog again. I'm only watching Dullalala and Kimi ni Todoke and LOGH Gaiden, okay? I have zines to write for, here! I'll get back on the horse, I swear!

Anyway, here's what's up: Sega is screwing up a release of a major videogame. Again. It's kind of their thing. Here's the scoop (from IGN, of all places!): according to Sega reps, content that "wouldn't resonate" was removed. "Wouldn't resonate" is code for "is a little too Japanese", as the elements confirmed removed are a Japanese history quiz and hostess clubs. Mahjong and shogi games are also speculated to have been removed, as they are absent from the trophy list that's come out.

Yakuza is a free-roaming action/RPG game with a lot of side dishes: it is by no means required, but you can walk into bars, restaurants, all kinds of establishments, and they will have something for you to do. You can go to the batting range! You can play crane games! You can get drunk and learn something about your booze! It's a fun break from beating up an endless stream of people who have it in for you. While none of this has a direct impact on the main plot, removing some of these side dishes also removes a lot of the game's unique character and much of the reason people enjoy it. The game is not destroyed, but it is hurt. This is a bad thing.

What's the excuse here? Sega's official line is weak, to say the least:

Ultimately, the choice that had to be made was either no Yakuza 3 in the west, or a version of the game that was almost exactly the same, but with a little less trivia.

Not only is this a bald-faced lie and a poor attempt to downplay the loss, it tells us nothing about the reasoning behind the decision. Let's go back to the IGN article.

The content between Yakuza 3 US/UK and Yakuza JP is a little different in that we took out certain bits in order to bring the game to the west in the time alloted for us to do so.

Now this is something, and it leads us to something even dumber. Content is being cut from Yakuza 3 to get the game out on time. Guess what day Yakuza 3 drops? It's March 9th: the same day as Final Fantasy God Damn XIII. They rushed to remove content from a game so that they could deliberately put it in the worst imaginable spot in the schedule short of releasing next to Modern Warfare.

It's not news, but Sega are idiots. When the release date came out we already knew they'd sent their game out to die, but it's even more ridiculous to see that they actually made sacrifices in order to make their deadline for failure. Those of us who follow Sega are used to the company making the worst possible decision in any situation, but this apparent superpower has not lost its ability to shock crowds of onlookers in the least. This is why I don't even bother thinking about whether or not Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown is coming out here.

(Poor Patrick Macias is going to have to field a bunch of questions he doesn't know anything about from angry fans at the launch party, huh?)

Comments

[TOLLMASTER]

Maybe they could appeal to Jappophiles and furries at the same time, and remake the hostess bar ladies as Rouge the Bat and Amy the Hedgehog. I bet there's even a place just like that somewhere in Real Japan, too.

[Steve Harrison]

I have a theory I call 'planning to fail', and I'm still trying to find a better, more pithy, more 'bizspeak' catchphrase for that.

the concept is simple. For whatever reason a company decides that they don't want to do something, or they have a mindset that goes against what someone (the head of the company, the customers, someone) and in order to 'prove' that doing what is wanted can't work, they sabotage while making public efforts, and the result is what is desired, failure, which gives the cover to say in the future "but we tried that and it flopped!"

(this then goes to the trend of Japanese companies using outdated playbooks when trying to get some of that huge American money they want see also Bandai)

So what do we see in planned failure here? Sega says "we don't want to bring games like this to America/ the outside western world, but we have to feed the pipeline with something" so they cut and trim and reduce the experience, and as you say, put it out at the WORST POSSIBLE time.

Results? "Sales were far below projections, so clearly there is no market for this kind of thing, we won't release Yakuza 4 in the west, and anything else with a Japan-centric theme"

Now, mind, I'm not a gamer, so this doesn't affect me, but it bothers me on general principles. I can understand the history trivia being cut, but I'd think the hostess clubs would be a SELLING POINT, ya know?

I'll make a little side bet, altho it's probably no bet at all. The transliteration, the dubbing will be insane horrible.

Bottom line: Sega doesn't WANT to sell this outside of Japan, they feel forced to do so and are doing all they can to have the release fail so they can say 'told you so'. Idiots.

[David Cabrera]

Yakuza 1 was planned as a big release a few years back: it was dubbed Manga Video UK "FUCK AND PISS" style and, because both games are gangster stories set in big, open worlds, sold to the Grand Theft Auto demographic. The American games mainstream didn't really care, so Yakuza was doomed to be a niche product from there on in. From 2 on, the games have been left undubbed for cash reasons.

So that's one kinda-good thing that comes from failure.

[melly]

I agree that the cuts would not have outright destroyed the game by themselves, contrary to many angry fanboys' opinion. But the suicide release date seems to be the final nail in the Yakuza series coffin, with the whole content-cutting debacle serving as a redundant coup de grace. It's like it's Ryu ga gotoku's destiny/doom to not do well in NA, which is one of the biggest shames in recent gaming history because it's just a great series, even without taking into account its Japanophile appeal.

Completely uncut and not dubbed (likely an unintentionally merciful choice, as you mentioned), Yakuza 2's release was done "right" in almost every respect and the game itself was lauded as being improved over its predecessor, which was still a decent game. Yet it didn't sell well IIRC. It might have been the timing, as it came out in the stretched-out twilight years of the PS2 (before the PS3 "got games"). But it makes me wonder if, even if Sega did everything "right," the Ryu ga gotoku series could ever do well in America. It's the story of a badass guy doing badass things in a badass way, so I'm not sure why it hasn't "resonated" with American gamers who thrive on that stuff. Maybe Kiryuu needs a bazooka and Haruka needs to be the moe poster girl or something. Or maybe it is indeed "too Japanese" aka the "bad" kind of foreign; no moe magic girls, but lots of Japanese-looking Japanese guys, weird Japanese humor, and mahjong.

On the bright side, I hear it's more popular in Europe for whatever reason, and Y3's release in the West may add some reinforcement to the oft-disputed fact that the PS3 indeed does have (some) games.

And yeah, I don't think even VF5R will ever be released here. With the encouragement of some inside guy the guys at vf.com have a petition for a console release, but I have a sinking feeling it's in vain, especially when Sega has not even planned on releasing it in Japan as far as I know.