Yakuza Zero (2017, PS4) - Smooth Criminals

The release history of the Yakuza series outside of Japan has been a wild ride. Sega released the first two games on PS2 in 2006 and 2008 and I missed out on them, turned off by marketing which promoted them as Grand Theft Auto-style open world crime games, a genre I don't have much interest in. Two years later, a poorly-made demo for Yakuza 3, the first PS3 installment of the series, showed me a little more of what the game was about, but didn't sell me on it.

Yakuza 3 was largely doomed from the start: A bad demo, fan complaints over cut content in the English release, and a release date on the same day as the hugely anticipated Final Fantasy XIII. The series would struggle in the west for years, with an even worse, combat-only demo for Yakuza 4 and with Yakuza 5 coming out here a whole three years after its Japanese release, long after the PS3's lifecycle had waned, and without a physical release. I fell for the series after reading enough positive reviews of the third game, but there's no doubt it's been tough to be a western Yakuza fan, with long translation delays, questionable release strategies, and skipped spinoff titles.

Review - Yakuza: Dead Souls

Dead Souls is the latest spinoff of Sega's Yakuza series. Instead of fighting gangsters with your fists, you spend this game shooting at zombies. The series' sense of humor and its melodrama are still intact, but the core gameplay is quite different. And yet, in spite of a totally new combat system, this game feels like a rehash.

Review - Yakuza 4

Released in North America in March 2011, Yakuza 4 was, like its predecessor, hanging in limbo for almost a year before Sega finally confirmed that an English translation was to be released. There wasn't quite as much worry over whether or not this one would get released here as there was with Yakuza 3, but given Sega's lukewarm dedication to the series, there was still some anxiety. Thankfully, the American release happened, and unlike the third game, almost the entire product was left intact. No missions were removed, no dialogue cut, and best of all, Shogi and Mahjong were included this time. The Japanese Trivia game was still cut, but that's fine. Yakuza 4 is both a better game than 3 and a better localization.

Review - Yakuza 3

Yakuza 3 is the third main-series installment of Sega's open-world tough guy games. It follows 2008's Kenzan, a spinoff set in early 17th Japan. Yakuza 1 and 2 received Western releases (the first game is the only one to receive an English dub), but Kenzan never left Japan, leading some to worry that the series was dead internationally. Negative comments from Sega of America didn't help matters. Yakuza 3 was released in Japan in 2009, and it wasn't until a whole year later that a translated version was released in North America. There was alo some controversy from fans around its release, as Sega announced in advance that certain content would be cut from the North American release.

Initial Impressions - Yakuza: Dead Souls

Dead Souls is a spinoff of the Yakuza series starring series hero Kazuma Kiryu and three returning characters, two of which haven't been playable before. The game is a radical departure from previous installments; instead of punching gangsters to teach them to be polite, you're shooting zombies.