Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio (Yakuza, Judgment, Binary Domain + more!) Discussion Thread

[Deflowerer]

They are not sure if the setting would appeal to the Western audience...

Pffff, that's just "howaito piggu and dancing monkey don't understand a shit about grorious country" bullshit.

Everybody loves the Bakumatsu period.

wtf is bakuhatsu, all i can see is samurai and ninja shit.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Bakumatsu (portmanteau of bakufu, meaning military government or more precisely shogunate, and matsu, meaning end) is the name given to the final years of the shogunate as an institution, covering roughly between Commodore Perry's expedition to force open Japan to US trade and the Boshin War to overthrow the Tokugawa shogunate.

 

[Reinhardt]

Got my first crash ever when tried to stuff another plate into stash.

 

[Deflowerer]

Bakumatsu (portmanteau of bakufu, meaning military government or more precisely shogunate, and matsu, meaning end) is the name given to the final years of the shogunate as an institution, covering roughly between Commodore Perry's expedition to force open Japan to US trade and the Boshin War to overthrow the Tokugawa shogunate.

I kid, I'm prolly one of the weebest weebs on RPGCodex, I know my shit. But I meant that in the eyes of your average schmuck in America, there is no real difference between Sengoku/Tokugawa period and Bakumatsu.

 

[mogwaimon]

Most average schmucks who would be in the demographic that Yakuza would appeal to, like serious gamers or weebs with a basic knowledge of anime and Japanese culture, have probably at least seen Rurouni Kenshin, that was set right in the aftermath of the Bakumatsu era. Even then, western gamers can play games with any sort of historical context as long as you give them something cool to do, no one knows what the Three Kingdoms era is and yet Dynasty Warriors is still popular enough here to get localized and memed. I guarantee half the people who play Assassin's Creed, myself included, don't know shit about half the historical periods they 'portray' and yet that still sells like hotcakes every year.

 

[Urthor]

The Dragon Engine combat is probably a step up, but the issue with the games really is that Yakuza 0 is the best story in the whole series and the reheated 2005 era stories don't really compare to the absolute best

 

[Aqualung]

*Bacchus' voice* Nyesss

 

[True Ukrainian]

Mmrmph.

Prodigious!

 

[Misco Jones]

 

[CarbonCarousel]

Can't enter the arcades or bowling alleys yet but I'm assuming this is something that needs to be unlocked somehow?

Please do yourself a favor, and keep playing. Everything fully opens up not long into the game.

I really kind of dread those interminable cut scenes but at least I can take breaks from them and do other things in the game for awhile.

The cutscenes were honestly one of my favorite parts of the game. I guarantee that you'll become hooked if you let the story blossom.

 

[Matador]

I'm a gameplay fag in every game but Yakuza. Such great characters and storytelling, I can easily forgive a little of bloat and pacing issues sometimes.

 

[Misco Jones]

Judgment western sales surpass expectations, team wants to make sequels

In an interview with SEGA's Daisuke Sato:

"From our point of view, Judgment's performance in the west has surpassed our expectations, they're very good"

"Us, as a team, would like to keep working in more games in the Judgment series"

https://www.reddit.com/r/yakuzagame...ment_western_sales_surpass_expectations_team/
https://twitter.com/SEGA_Europe/status/1166066649868513281


Now bring the game to PC.

 

[Readher]

For anyone in doubt on whether we'll see more Japanese games from Sega on PC

Nowadays, however, repeat sales tend to hold steady thanks to demand remaining firm for titles that have been out a few years since their original release, owing in part to successful measures to introduce series titles like the Sonic the Hedgehog series, in addition to the popularity of the Steam a game distribution platform, which has created a huge market especially in Europe. Needless to say, repeat sales after development costs are amortized are a boon for profitability.

Furthermore, the amortization method applied for content production expenses concerning the Packaged Games area has been changed from this quarter. The change applies for PC titles which main sales is download distribution. Content production expenses for PC titles are amortized in conjunction with the scale of sales for the first three months after the launch, and the remaining amount is amortized using the straight-line method. Roughly speaking, the amortization period for this remaining amount has been changed from 9 months to 21 months. The change is affected by prolonged sales periods in recent years.

Overseas sales of console and PC games and global sales of repeat titles have surpassed our expectations, leading to a significant improvement in our income margin in this area. The European, American, and Asian markets are all expanding, and with the growth of PC platforms such as Steam and the overseas sales ratio increasing for Japanese studios, games made in Japan are being carefully localized, leading to overseas sales performing well.

As I just discussed, in Asia, Europe, and North America, the console game and PC download game areas, including the likes of Steam, are still performing extremely well. We will therefore invest further in exporting Japanese games to these markets and ensuring steady sales of games made in Europe and North America in other regions.

Packaged games, including PC downloads, remain strong in Europe and America, while free‐to‐play online games for consoles and online games for PCs are also growing stronger in Europe and America, as well as Asia.

Exceeded the initial plan with extension of overseas sales and repeat sales
External Factors:

• Expansion of EU, NA, Asia market
• Growth of new platformers such as Steam, etc.

With regard to the packaged game software market, in the market for hardware of home video game consoles, expectations are rising, mainly in North America and Europe, for the expansion of the game software sales market due to the growing penetration of current-generation video game console hardware. In addition, game distribution platforms such as Steam are expanding in the PC games market.

It's all only a matter of time, though I admit I wish it was all faster.

Sources:

• https://www.segasammy.co.jp/english/ir/library/pdf/printing_annual/2018/ssh_ar18e_web_1025.pdf
• https://www.segasammy.co.jp/english...1q_presentation_20190730_final_e_scenario.pdf
• https://www.segasammy.co.jp/english/ir/library/pdf/settlement/2019/201903_4q_scenario_e_final.pdf
• https://www.segasammy.co.jp/english...t/2019/201903_4q_tanshin_20190426_final_e.pdf

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

From what I understand, it's primarily been slow because Japan doesn't really have a PC gaming market. There was an interview with the Dark Souls translation team IIRC a while back where they talked about this, and how it was only very recently that localization teams or distributors abroad DIDN'T have to give the Japanese corporate decisionmakers presentations on what the fuck Steam was to justify PC porting for the Western release.

 

[Reinhardt]

Replaying Yakuza 0 without substories and minigames is just as good as completionist playthrough. Pacing is just perfect.

 

[gerey]

It's all only a matter of time, though I admit I wish it was all faster.

I'm rather puzzled why SEGA hasn't yet announced PC ports for Yakuza 3, 4 and 5, considering they've already decided upon the release dates for the PS4 version, and from what I gather porting the games over from the PS4 is trivial (relatively speaking).

Japan doesn't really have a PC gaming market

PC gaming in Japan used to be all about hardcore otaku pandering during the past 20 years, which translates to 18+ visual novels and other games with an emphasis on the porn content. I remember reading about a Western tourist walking into a Japanese video game shop, asking for the PC section and then quickly making an exit when he discovered it was all adult VNs.

Then again, there used to be a big hobbyist scene surrounding the PC-88, its derivatives and successors, though even that started with amateurs making adult games, and only later did more professionally made games come to the market. The PC-88 and PC-98 library of games numbers in the thousands, and most are completely unknown to Western audiences. Falcom, as an example, started as a developer for the PC-88.

Hell, the PC-98 was alive and kicking up to the mid-nineties, until Windows 95 siphoned support away from it.

As an interesting side note, and as a prime example of shameless corporate greed, Japanese Steam users usually have to buy a gore DLC that can cost upwards of $20 dollars on top of the base game if they want to enjoy the "full experience", mostly because the Japanese rating board is the retarded cousin of the Western ones, only that they get butthurt over "excessive" violence, but aren't much phased by lewd content (or what would be considered lewd in the West).

 

[Endemic]

The PC-98 was alive and kicking up to the mid-nineties, until Windows 95 siphoned support away from it.

There have been good PC games since then in Japan (eg Gendai Daisenraiku, or Romance of the Three Kingdoms). It's just a niche market in general, adult VNs or otherwise. The economy and the average living situation there mean that PCs are more of a work tool now than a gaming one.

That aside, I look forward to being able to play the whole of the Yakuza series on PC.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

The Japanese rating board is in general fucking nuts.

 

[True Ukrainian]

Wasn't there a scandal some years back when it was discovered that some members of the rating board rating hentai VNs were also part of the hentai industry as well?

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

No idea. All I know about are the bizarre times they had let's say EXTREME reactions to vague similarities to topical serial killers, or the various superstitious censoring things they do.

 

[Reinhardt]

Replaying Yakuza 0 without substories and minigames is just as good as completionist playthrough. Pacing is just perfect.

It was all cool until car chase. Had to replay it 3 times.

 

[LESS T_T]

Yakuza 7 announced, set in Yokohama. Release on January 16th, 2020 in Japan, sometime in 2020 in West.



Turn-based battle is the real deal, not April Fools.



The protagonist is a fan of Dragon Quest and actually refers it in the game. Possibly thematic relation to the turn-based combat?

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

Did they say this is the new main combat system, or is it just a mini game type thing like the series is full of?



It doesn't look bad, but it suck they aren't doing a beat 'em up River City Ransom style game anymore if that's the main combat system. Especially since the series was basically the last of both those things.

 

[LESS T_T]

I guess they wanted to do party-based combat, and thought action combat with (usually stupid) AI buddies can't cut it?

edit:

 

[Lyre Mors]

I am totally on board with this. Can't wait to play it. Love the action combat in the Yakuza series, but welcome such an interesting and unexpected change.