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Please Enjoy This Very Brief Look At Yakuza 8
20.7.2022
Because we get new Yakuza games all the time, and because they’re so often set in the same places starring the same people using the same engine, the series has never needed big, staged reveals before. Take the next game, for example, of which we’re getting our first look...over a developer’s...
Yakuza Fan Is Fixing The PS2 Original's Mistakes
23.6.2022
It’s easy to forget in 2022, now that it feels like we get a new or remastered Yakuza game every six months, that for a very long time the series was MIA from Western shores, in large part down to the disastrous decisions made by Sega for the original game’s release back in 2006.Read more
Yakuza Creator Toshihiro Nagoshi Won't Be Making Smartphone Games
15.2.2022
After leaving Sega, Toshihiro Nagoshi set up a new studio called Nagoshi Studio in Tokyo. Earlier this year, NetEase Games described the wholly-owned subsidiary’s M.O., stating it “develops high-end titles for worldwide release, with a primary focus on the console software business.”Read more
Sega's Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio Is Making Yakuza 8
19.11.2021
In October 2021, Yakuza creator Toshihiro Nagoshi confirmed he was leaving the studio he helped found. Joining him in the departure was long-time series director and producer Daisuke Sato. In a new interview with Weekly Famitsu, the studio’s new boss Masayoshi Yokoyama talks about how these...
Lost Judgment: The Kotaku Review
28.10.2021
I loved Judgment, Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio’s 2018 spinoff from the Yakuza series. Arriving just as the main games were getting ready to go through the biggest changes in their long-running history, along came a lawyer and his himbo best friend to keep some beloved old Yakuza fundamentals alive.Read more
Yakuza Creator Confirms He's Leaving Sega, Former Series Producer Joins Him
8.10.2021
Having first been rumoured back in August, it’s now been confirmed: Yakuza series creator Toshihiro Nagoshi is leaving both Sega and his own Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio. Also joining him out the door is long-time series director and producer Daisuke Sato.Read more
Obscure 2012 Yakuza Game Is Getting A Fan Translation
8.10.2021
While we are now spoiled for choice when it comes to major Yakuza games, from the mainline series to its more recent Judgment spinoffs, there are still a number of older Yakuza games that remain unplayable to fans in the West, since they never received a localisation.Read more
Lost Judgment Producer Says Worldwide Release Tripled His Team’s ‘Struggles’
8.6.2021
When Lost Judgment, the latest entry in Sega’s Yakuza spin-off series, launches later this year, it will be available on the same day worldwide, a feat no game in the overall franchise has managed up to this point. But achieving a simultaneous global release comes with a cost.Read more
Future Yakuza Games Will Stick With Turn-Based Battles
7.5.2021
Sega confirmed today that the Yakuza series will continue on as a turn-based RPG. This comes after the success of the last entry, Yakuza: Like A Dragon, which left behind the fast-paced brawling the series once featured for more tactical, turn-based combat. Read more
Sega Lawyers Threaten Wrong Website Over Yakuza Piracy
30.3.2021
There are lawyers somewhere out there working for Sega HQ in Japan who have been tasked with hunting down the people responsible for pirating Yakuza: Like a Dragon. And they are not doing a good job.Read more
If Sega Won't Make A New Monkey Ball, These Guys Will
25.3.2021
Monkey Ball creator Toshihiro Nagoshi is busy doing Yakuza stuff right now, and in his absence Sega has spent the last decade neglecting the series. Not to worry! Rolled Out is here, looking exactly like Monkey Ball only for the fact that there’s a rodent in there.Read more
Incredible Yakuza: Like A Dragon Cosplay Is Punching Me In The Face
24.3.2021
The last time we saw Enyen dabbling in Yakuza cosplay, it was as a solitary star of the gangster saga. This time, he’s back, and just like Ichiban in Like a Dragon, he’s brought some friends.Read more
Yakuza Fan Is Out Here Fixing The Series' PC Versions Again
1.3.2021
Like I’ve said, it’s a little rough going back and playing older Yakuza games in 2021, and not just because of the stiffer animation and lack of first-person perspective. The PC versions of Yakuzas 3, 4 & 5 also have (or had) a few technical hiccups as well.Read more
The Week In Games: Yakuza: Like A Dragon Comes To PS5
28.2.2021
If you like the Yakuza series but also only own a PS5, then you seem like a strange person. Also, some good news: Yakuza: Like A Dragon releases on PS5 later this week.Read more
Yakuza's Producer Would Like To Bring Its 17th & 19th Century Spinoffs To The West
24.2.2021
While Sega has eventually managed to bring all the main Yakuza games to the West, we’ve still never gotten the series’ two historical spinoffs, Ryū ga Gotoku Kenzan! and Ryū ga Gotoku Ishin!.Read more
Celebrate Presidents' Day With a Huge Video Game Sale at Best Buy
12.2.2021
Presidents’ Day Video Game Sale | Best BuyRead more
Let's See How Judgment On PS5 Looks Compared To The PS4 Version
5.2.2021
Judgment originally debuted as a PlayStation 4 exclusive in 2018. It looked great! As announced this week, the game is going multiplatform and bound for the PlayStation 5.Read more
Yakuza Spin-Off Judgment Heading To Next-Gen Consoles On April 23
2.2.2021
Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio’s Judgment is getting the next-gen treatment on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S on April 23, Sega announced today. It will come bundled with all previously released DLC for $39.99.Read more
Yakuza: Like A Dragon Is Really Into Peking Duck
1.2.2021
Yakuza: Like A Dragon is many things: a satire, a melodrama, a business/real estate simulator, and a dungeon-based RPG. It is also a 60-hour public service announcement for Peking duck.Read more
Yakuza: Like A Dragon’s Best Boss Theme Makes Me Wanna Break Stuff (In A Good Way)
9.12.2020
Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s daily hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. Today, we’re looking at what I think is the best boss battle theme in modern history.Read more