Sega bringing Yakuza to PC, starting with Yakuza 0
The absolute best E3 news possible
Alright, pack it up, no need for E3 now, we can all go home as the best news possible has been announced: Sega are bringing their Yakuza games from PlayStation to PC. Prequel Yakuza 0 is coming first, then Yakuza Kiwami. This is the best news. Yakuza is... so it's an open-world action-RPG about mobsters in a Tokyo district (based on Kabukicho), with much crimechat. Also, you play arcade UFO games to win prizes for a child, sing karaoke, dramatically whip your shirt and jacket off in one motion, hit people with bicycles, fight using breakdancing, beat up rich men in gold lamé suits, and eat so many dinners. Yakuza is weird, funny, and deeply charming. Best news.
I cannot over-stress that, beneath the serious crimechat, Yakuza is warm and goofy. Main protagonist Kazuma Kiryu has a heart of gold, running an orphanage. Every non-main quest is daft as heck. Everyone is weird as hell. Tokyo is loud and colourful and full of minigames from bowling to full-on vintage Sega arcade games. It feels a bit like Deadly Premonition at heart, only the body around that heart isn't a shuddering crap pile.
Anyway! Yakuza 0, the 2015 prequel, will hit Steam on August 1st, priced at £15/€20/$20.
Yakuza Kiwami, the recent remake of the first Yakuza from 2005, will come to Steam after that.
I do hope Sega continue to bring Yakuza games over. I recently played Yakuza 6, the latest, and had a wonderful time smashing men with bicycles, feeding stray cats to befriend them, soothing a baby through motion controls, recruiting people for my baseball team, and getting a job as a city's mascot performing for children.
The good news came today during the PC Gaming Show, the event hosted by cheery RPS fanzine PC Gamer.
Check out our E3 2018 tag for more announcements, trailers, news, and goodness knows what else.