It was recently announced that Yakuza Kiwami will be released in the West next year, between the releases of Yakuza 0 and Yakuza 6. You may have imagined that SEGA and its localization partners at Atlus could reuse much of the original script from Yakuza, released in 2006, to translate the game faster and spend less money. But that will not happen!
Sam Mullen, producer at Atlus USA/SEGA of America, recently answered a fan's question on Twitter about the western version of Yakuza Kiwami and shared surprising news.
Are we going to translate Yakuza Kiwami, the Y1 remake, from scratch? Of course, we are translating it again from scratch.
— Sam Mullen (@sam_mullen) December 5, 2016
“Are we going to translate Yakuza Kiwami, the Y1 remake, from scratch? Of course, we are translating it again from scratch.”
With SEGA committing to release three Yakuza games in the West over a period of approximately one year, things have been great for fans of the franchise. Yakuza Kiwami goes far beyond a simple remake, giving the game not only new visuals at 1080p/60 FPS but also using the Yakuza 0 engine as a foundation for a much-improved gameplay experience. All original Japanese voices were recorded again, there are new additional missions, extra activities, 30 minutes of new cutscenes that connect with Yakuza 0, and a system called “Majima Everywhere” that is ridiculously silly and fun.
Yakuza Kiwami is scheduled for summer 2017 (Brazilian winter) on PlayStation 4 in the Americas and Europe. Remember that Yakuza 0 will also be released in the West on January 24, 2017. Be sure to buy the games to show SEGA how grateful you are for this wonderful commitment to the series' western fans!
