In what feels like the most Sega move ever, the publisher plans on charging money for Yakuza: Like a Dragon‘s New Game+ mode. The hotly anticipated turn-based RPG iteration of the beloved Yakuza franchise released in January of this year in Japan and Sega laid out the game’s extensive DLC plans for 2020 on the Like a Dragon website. Anyone familiar with other Japanese developer’s DLC practices already knows that the publisher isn’t shy about charging an arm, leg, and more for its DLC. So, the news that the Like a Dragon “Premium Master” New Game+ mode will cost players money comes as no shock.
The DLC pack will cost a special price of 7 yen, (or about 6 cents USD) from when it releases on April 6th through May 6th. After that point, the cost of the New Game+ DLC will rise to 980 yen, or roughly about $9 USD. Sega employed similar price tactics with DLC for Persona 4 Arena: Ultimax, Valkyria Chronicles 4, and other recent titles, yet it still feels brazen to see a company charge money for a mode that is a standard in the JRPG genre (not to mention gaming in general) dating back to Chrono Trigger.
In fairness to Sega, the Premium Masters pack is more than just the addition of a chance to play through the game again with the statistics and items of your cleared game data. The pack also includes additional difficulty levels, a new trophy, increased job level cap, items, costumes, and more. That said, Sega is up to their old tricks with the rest of the Like a Dragon DLC, which includes DLC packs for sponsored costumes and a soundtrack pack that will cost around $22 USD that lets players listen to past Yakuza soundtracks in-game.
Sure, it’s no “Dead or Alive 6 charging almost $100 for new costumes and hair,” but all the same: Sega is still Sega.
Yakuza: Like a Dragon is out now in Japan and currently has no set release date for the United States, but the publisher states that it will be sometime in 2020.
[Source: Sega]
