Western Yakuza 3 Loses Out on Japanese Content
Only a few weeks remain until the release of PlayStation 3′s exclusive brawler from Sega, Yakuza 3. The open world gangster game features an intriguing fighting system as well as a detailed environments and a compelling story. But will everything which made Yakuza 3 a success in Japan make it through in to the Western release?
Unfortunately for US and European PlayStation 3 owners, the Hostess Club scenes will not be featured in the Western release of the third game in the series. A Japanese quiz game segment has also been removed. A Sega representative told IGN that some content from the Japanese version of the fighter will be cut out from the western version.
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. The parts we ended up taking out were parts that we felt wouldn’t make sense (like a Japanese history quiz game) or wouldn’t resonate as much (such as the concept of a hostess club).
We didn’t replace the parts we took out, but we made absolutely sure that the story continuity stayed intact so that the story experience was the same as the Japanese version and that it didn’t take away the human drama so inherent to the Yakuza series.
Look on the bright side: Yakuza 3 is a great game, and this shouldn’t deter you from the experience which Yakuza 3 will deliver. Check out the latest screenshots and trailer for the game here.
Yakuza 3 releases in North America on March 9th and March 12th for the UK. Expect PlayStation LifeStyle’s review of the brawler soon.
12 Responses to “Western Yakuza 3 Loses Out on Japanese Content”
makese sense to cut out this content. For one does anyone here originating from Europe or America know any japanese history apart from “and then hiroshima was nucked by the FATTY FATTY HATEFULL SCUM AMERICANS because england and france were totall pussies and needed help becasue they both suck!” as it’s put in japanese history books
and the club scene? The Japanese have a whole section called Rape, I don’t like the sound of this club scene to be honest knowing what their games are like. So persernally we’re better off without this content.
@Timewarp: dumbass troll.
As most of Yakuza fans, I’m fed up with Sega and cancelled my preorder.
Good job Sega. You’ve been downhill since the death of the DC.
I’ll buy it when it’s $39 now, thanks.
Being a big fan of everything Japanese, I am sad to hear they took out the hostess club mini game. They are a integral part of eastern culture. Big business, politians, and the yakuza use them frequently for business dealings. Yes there is a seedy side to them, but I will miss them in game. Hopefully we can get some DLC to compensate for it.
don’t really care, I thought the demo was absolutely horrible…I don’t really care much for games that make me scroll through dialogue instead of having the characters actually speaking. It would be different if I could make dialogue choices, but the way they did it just seems like they were too cheap to pay the voice actors to say every line. Not to mention the fighting system seemed like something from about 20 years ago…
Guys I’m sure you know what a hostess club is right?
In case you didn’t it’s a club where you pay to talk to a girl and if you impress her you can take her out on dates and stuff. Seriously, you’re mad because that’s been taken out? Seriously? They still have strip clubs in the game. C’mon guys let’s not be loser virgins and bash this game because they took out one insinificant part, and the japanese history mini game, I could care less about that too, if I want to learn about Japan I will take a class on it, or watch some anime. All I’m waiting on is reviews for this game. The first two Yakuza’s got decent scores.
I had planned on getting this on release day when I had heard it had english voice acting and supposedly no cut content. The no english acting and the content cut doesn’t bother me that much. What bothers me is other then translation they didn’t really put much work into putting it out for the rest of the world, and then we are expected to pay $59.99 for a game that’s like 2(?) years old. Like someone else said I decided to wait until it goes down before I pick this up. I would of paid the extra if they put in the extra effort…
If they take out the Karaoke games and anything else that is equally gay … I’ll try again. I played the demo and it was like Hanna Montana meets The Godfather 2 (both of which sucked). I hope they make it better if they intend on selling any copies in the US, either that or make the trophies easy as hell so at least the hunters will bother playing it.
Translation Fail.
I guess there will be less Trophies in the US version.
I wanted this game because it immerses you in the Japanese culture and now they have decided to remove parts of that culture for us dumb westerners. Thanks Sega.
Why keep the Japanese language then? That was part of the appeal to me (I watch all my foreign flicks subtitled so I’m use to it).
It looks like there have been a few lazy decisions around the western release of this title. Now I’m going to wait for this title instead of buying it day1 to see what everyone says.
@Timewarp: dumbass troll.
oh boo hoo we’re not getting two pieces of DLC get over yourself you little baby.
[...] release of a critically acclaimed, yet niche title. All was not well however, when Sega decided to cut a majority of the content. Will it happen [...]