It’s happening! Yakuza 5 will finally be available to buy digitally on PlayStation 3 mid-November, confirmed Sega in a recent blog post.
In the post, Sega explained why there’s been such a delay between the release of Yakuza 5 in Japan, which launched back in December 2012, and the U.S. and European versions.
"Unfortunately, it’s a little later than we would’ve liked, and a few weird development bugs that popped up in localization caused the delay,” wrote Sega.
"Without getting too technical, there were just certain parts that didn’t like switching the Japanese text out for English, and we had to actually search through the source code to find a fix, taking more time than we expected. But! Everything is more or less back on track. Once we have details beyond just ‘mid-November,’ we’ll make sure to share them!"
Yakuza 5 is an open-world action adventure that focuses on the Japanese underworld. Taking place across five real-life locations, it includes a recreation of Shinjuku’s red-light district, Kabukichō. The game received a perfect review score on Famitsu and, following its launch, demand from fans in the west convinced Sega to release it in the U.S. and Europe.
Check out the Yakuza 5 announcement trailer.
The story of Yakuza 5 continues from Yakuza 4 where the death of the chairman of the Omi Alliance leads to a new war between the Tojo clan. The game features five playable protagonists, including Kazuma Kiryu, Shun Akiyama and Taiga Saejima, as well as two new characters, Haruka Sawamura and Tatsuo Shinada. Yakuza 5 will feature a female playable character for the first time in the series.
Yakuza 5 features two different ways to play, Adventure Mode and Combat Mode. While Adventure Mode allows players to explore the cities and partake in mini-games, Combat Mode focuses on the notoriously hard-hitting fight scenes and QTE sequences that fans have become accustomed to.
The disappointment of Yakuza 5 not being ported to PS4 is somewhat dampened by the fact that Yakuza 6 is currently in the works for Sony’s latest console, alongside a HD remake of the original Yakuza.
You can now preorder Yakuza 5 directly from the PlayStation Store. The western release will feature all the DLC from the Japanese version.