As of late, Sega has made real strides towards localizing and releasing their Yakuza titles in a timely manner. Since 2017’s release of Yakuza 0 on the PS4, we have now seen several titles hit the west. These include the PS3 trilogy of Yakuza 3, 4, and 5. As well as remakes such as Kiwami and Kiwami 2, alongside the cap to Kiryu’s fabled journey with Yakuza 6.
However, with all of this support as of late, there still exists two glaring holes. Namely, the localization of historical spinoffs, Yakuza Kenzan, and Yakuza Ishin. Two titles, western fans have pleaded with Sega to bring over for years. Essentially, these two titles flip the established seedy, criminal underworld dramas the series is known for and repurposes it to a samurai setting.
Now, you’d assume with the recent success of the franchise, we would have seen these games come over already. Unfortunately, even with Yakuza slowly becoming a household name amongst hardcore gamers, the game is still stuck in Japan. Recently, however, Yakuza producer, Daisuke Sato, addressed these requests. Once stating he would like to bring them over as remakes if they were to ever come to the west. But now, in an interview with GameBlog, Sato has reignited fans’ hopes.
And he’s done so, by pointing to Ghost of Tsushima for possibly paving the way for these Yakuza spinoffs to have a second chance.
Ghost of Tsushima Success and What it Could Mean for Yakuza
In the interview Sato explains:
“Even long before Ghost of Tsushima, I did want to release “samurai” games like Kenzan and Ishin in the West. Unfortunately, after Yakuza 0, we were very busy with remastering the numbering Yakuza titles for the PS4, so we missed the opportunity to work on some of these other games. However, if anything, Ghost of Tsushima has helped Western gamers become more interested in samurai, so I should think of it as now is a more opportune time to release these titles.”
Just this week, Sony revealed Ghost of Tsushima had topped 6.5 million sales worldwide. A damn good number for a new IP releasing on a single platform. Couple this with Sony’s push into adapting the game into a live-action film and we can clearly see the merit within Sato’s statement.
As mentioned earlier, Sega has really stepped up its localization efforts within the last-gen. Even aside from Yakuza, games like Persona, Catherine and 13 Sentinels, have seen western releases not too far off their Japanese counterparts. Nonetheless, Sega does seem aware of the clamor and requests for these games to come over. So, maybe with Ghost of Tsushima‘s success, this will only make their decision to do so, that much easier.
