Yakuza 3 elements removed for us Westerns. Thanks Sega!

[the7k]

http://forums.sega.com/showthread.php?t=319876

Turns out a lot more was cut out of Yakuza 3 than Hostess Clubs and Trivia Games. The parlor games, as well as many missions(!), were cut out. Estimates say that around 13% of the content in the first six chapters have been sacrificed to the Censorship Gods.

As if that wasn't bad enough, many of these cut missions gave huge experience bonuses, meaning that the game is going to have a lot more grinding that it was meant to have. Good times.

http://blog.hardcoregaming101.net/2010/ ... idity.html

There's a theory floating around at HG101 that the reason for all these cuts is that if Sega didn't release it by the end of this fiscal year (end of this month), Sega of Japan would have given the entire series over to Atlus to publish in the West. So, after sitting on the game for a year, Sega rushed it out to prevent Atlus from doing anything with it.

Wouldn't that have been a shame - to see Atlus bring Yakuza over here? Just a conspiracy theory, but it still makes me angry - even if it's not true, Sega of America was still just sitting on the game until the last freaking minute.

[Niode]

bleh, why does Sega of America have to fuck everything up? Have they ever done anything right? Why doesn't SoJ just tell them to fuck off and shut the damn place down.

[Unleaded Logic]

There's always hope for DLC to put the features back in. Is it likely to happen? Most likey not, but it would still be cool.

[Mr.White555]

Is 13% really that big of a deal? Would you rather have 87% of a game that gets a Western release or would you rather have 0% of game that gets a Western release? So its the same old song of the west not getting the same content or games as in Japan. Hasn't this been going on for a while?

From everything I have read the parts they cut out aren't all that important. I think the guys at 1up seems to sum it up by describing it as a cake just without the icing on top. You still have all the necessary requirements for the cake just its not fully complete. Doesn't make the cake any worse.

Besides if you feel so strongly about it get the Japanese version and learn Japanese. Or if you don't feel like the North American game is justified by price then wait until the price cut by 13%.

P.S. Funny thing about all of this controversy is that this has actually made me hear about the series for the first time. I had never heard about it and I might now look to get this at some point. Maybe its some grand marketing strategy?

[the7k]

Is 13% really that big of a deal? Would you rather have 87% of a game that gets a Western release or would you rather have 0% of game that gets a Western release? So its the same old song of the west not getting the same content or games as in Japan. Hasn't this been going on for a while?

When I can import the game from Japan and have no regional lockout, there's no reason not to import the game and receive the full content. Yes, this is the same old song and dance - from 15 years ago. A really old song and dance that we were all glad to see go the hell away when companies like Atlus, NIS America, XSeed, Ignition and others taught the industry that if you going to localize something, you damn well better do it right.

From everything I have read the parts they cut out aren't all that important. I think the guys at 1up seems to sum it up by describing it as a cake just without the icing on top. You still have all the necessary requirements for the cake just its not fully complete. Doesn't make the cake any worse.

It's a lot of damn icing they cut. Considering running Hostess Bars can give a player about 10+ hours of gameplay if you get into it, I'd say that's a lot of icing. Considering cutting missions can leave the game feeling fragmented, I'd say that's some important icing. Considering cutting said missions also leaves the player with much less experience, making the game extremely grind heavy, I think that makes the cake as a whole harder to digest.

Besides if you feel so strongly about it get the Japanese version and learn Japanese. Or if you don't feel like the North American game is justified by price then wait until the price cut by 13%.

Which is exactly what I'll be doing. I sure as hell ain't giving Sega of America my money for their hack job.

P.S. Funny thing about all of this controversy is that this has actually made me hear about the series for the first time. I had never heard about it and I might now look to get this at some point. Maybe its some grand marketing strategy?

Considering this market strategy involves calling their long-time fans and other interested in the game idiots who need to be spoon-fed an easily digestible game devoid of foreign concepts, I'd say it's a pretty idiotic marketing strategy.

Basically, SoA has in so many words said this is what they think of us:

Ironically, it is now how we view SoA as well.

[Mr.White555]

P.S. Funny thing about all of this controversy is that this has actually made me hear about the series for the first time. I had never heard about it and I might now look to get this at some point. Maybe its some grand marketing strategy?

Considering this market strategy involves calling their long-time fans and other interested in the game idiots who need to be spoon-fed an easily digestible game devoid of foreign concepts, I'd say it's a pretty idiotic marketing strategy.

Well they say any publicity is good publicity. But in all seriousness it is a marketing conundrum. They are seemingly trying to make the game more mainstream by eliminating the uniquely Japanese elements which in theory will help sales, but this also disenfranchises their base which hurts their sales. This concept of mainstreaming is somewhat common. Same thing happened with Infinity Ward selling out/insulting PC owners by eliminating support of dedicated servers. Mainstreaming a niche game is probably a horrible idea but as history shows gamers tend to not follow their protests and buy the games anyway. I wouldn't be surprised if this becomes the best selling game in the Yakuza series.

[the7k]

Well they say any publicity is good publicity. But in all seriousness it is a marketing conundrum. They are seemingly trying to make the game more mainstream by eliminating the uniquely Japanese elements which in theory will help sales, but this also disenfranchises their base which hurts their sales. This concept of mainstreaming is somewhat common. Same thing happened with Infinity Ward selling out/insulting PC owners by eliminating support of dedicated servers. Mainstreaming a niche game is probably a horrible idea but as history shows gamers tend to not follow their protests and buy the games anyway. I wouldn't be surprised if this becomes the best selling game in the Yakuza series.

"Mainstreaming" it would only work if they advertised it. At all.

I haven't seen any advertising for this game. I do expect it'll sell better than Yakuza 2, only because Yakuza 2 came out in September 2008 for the PS2 with no advertising. That's like releasing an Atari 7800 game two years after the NES has been out.

All this bad publicity is good for Sega of America, though. It's a known fact that they have been actively trying to sabotage the Yakuza series in the west ever since it first came out. First, Yakuza with its mediocre voice acting. Then, Yakuza 2 being released two years late on a dead system. Now, Yakuza 3 being released half-assed, a year late, with tons of cuts, locked-off portions of the game that will be sold to us as DLC, and all for full price. Mission accomplished.

[Mr.White555]

All this bad publicity is good for Sega of America, though. It's a known fact that they have been actively trying to sabotage the Yakuza series in the west ever since it first came out. First, Yakuza with its mediocre voice acting. Then, Yakuza 2 being released two years late on a dead system. Now, Yakuza 3 being released half-assed, a year late, with tons of cuts, locked-off portions of the game that will be sold to us as DLC, and all for full price. Mission accomplished.

That is funny. I just imagined a bunch of guys at Sega of America being all like "GODDAMN we gotta localize another Yakuza game... Fuck! Lets make it really bad so we don't have to do this again. We have to focus on Sonic so there isn't time this shit."

[Anubis]

All this bad publicity is good for Sega of America, though. It's a known fact that they have been actively trying to sabotage the Yakuza series in the west ever since it first came out. First, Yakuza with its mediocre voice acting. Then, Yakuza 2 being released two years late on a dead system. Now, Yakuza 3 being released half-assed, a year late, with tons of cuts, locked-off portions of the game that will be sold to us as DLC, and all for full price. Mission accomplished.

That is funny. I just imagined a bunch of guys at Sega of America being all like "GODDAMN we gotta localize another Yakuza game... Fuck! Lets make it really bad so we don't have to do this again. We have to focus on Sonic so there isn't time this shit."

Sega already has years of practices sabotaging the Sonic series. Yakuza shouldn't be a problem.

[MrPopo]

bleh, why does Sega of America have to fuck everything up? Have they ever done anything right?

No, they have not.