14 DAY TRIAL // A spokesman for SEGA of America has stated that the team working on the localization of Yakuza 4 is working hard to bring the video game to Western gamers with minimal changes done to the version which was already launched in Japan.
Aaron Weber, a representative from SEGA, has talked to gaming blog Kotaku at a demo event for the game and confirmed the presence of such Japanese oriented details as hostess clubs, which have previously been cut from Yakuza 3 in the West, mahjong games, dress up mini games.
He went on to say that the side quests “will pretty much be in there” and then hedged a little by saying that if any elements of the game are eliminated the process will be “nothing like Yakuza 3.”
Weber has confirmed that one piece of content which will be cut from the Western version of Yakuza 4 is the Answer X Answer quiz mini game.
Bizarrely the content was eliminated not because the questions were too Japan centric and inaccessible to gamers from other parts of the world but the fact that the custom animated fonts used in the Answer X Answer quiz are too time consuming to be created before the planned launch date for spring 2011.
Yakuza is one of the most interesting gaming franchises created in Japan, mixing a variety of genres in its efforts to immerse gamers in the life style and the atmosphere of the Japanese crime families.
Despite selling millions of copies in Japan the series has only had a small following in the West.
Despite its size the community is very vocal and has reacted when Yakuza 3 had quite a lot of content eliminated before release.
With Yakuza 4 coming to the West in the spring of 2011 Japanese fans are already preparing to play Yakuza 5: The End, which will see Tokyon invaded by zombies.