Yakuza Designer: GTA Format Could Be "Dangerous"
See Full ImageYou may not be familiar if you live outside of Japan, but Sega's Yakuza franchise is one of the most well received and popular franchises in the industry. You might have heard about comparisons between this series and Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto, though.
While none of the Yakuza titles give you the huge range of freedom and immense size of the environments, there's still an underlying theme of almost unlimited exploration within the city in question. Even so, Sega designer Toshihiro Nagoshi doesn't really like the comparison; even though he sees the benefit of player choice, he does think it might be borderline dangerous. According to Kotaku, Nagoshi was talking in a recent forum in regards to GTA, and referred to the experiences as allowing the player to "kill people or do whatever." But there are deeper issues at hand:
"This game [referring to GTA]...I thought one day someone is going to have to make something like this. Personally, because I think you must think about the influence games have on people, I would never think about wanting to make a game like this. However, because of this moral issues in this game, I think we should have a healthy debate.
In gaming, if you make a decision, there is a reaction, and it's the most stimulating form of media, I think. And thus, it can asked if it's the most dangerous media... Depending on what you make, perhaps."
Oh, there's no question that something like GTA has always been controversial. The only reason this controversy hasn't touched Yakuza is because you really don't have the option of killing whoever you see, or doing whatever you want. You can still go just about anywhere you wish, but your actions are limited so technically, it's less "dangerous." But the debate is bound to continue for years to come as games become more advanced, and players find themselves in the virtual driver's seat more than ever before.
10/19/2009 12:30:38 PM Ben Dutka
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Comments
A2K78
Monday, October 19, 2009 @ 1:37:55 PM
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2 up, 10 down
Killsignal
Monday, October 19, 2009 @ 1:56:57 PM
11 up, 1 down
BTNwarrior
Monday, October 19, 2009 @ 1:58:35 PM
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3 up, 0 down
___________
Tuesday, October 20, 2009 @ 1:25:52 AM
im still extremely pissed sony dropped that.
8 days, the getaway 3 and DRIVER.
could of been the best titles of this gen, of all time.
i guess it was not meant to be.
0 up, 0 down
bOnEs
Monday, October 19, 2009 @ 2:21:56 PM
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1 up, 0 down
Kangasfwa
Monday, October 19, 2009 @ 4:01:36 PM
The Driver series created open-world mission based gameplay. The first two GTAs were actually top-down 2D. GTA3 brought the style to the masses.
2 up, 0 down
A2K78
Monday, October 19, 2009 @ 4:19:50 PM
The whole GTA concept isn't really new as several arcade games have long done it before GTA. Some of examples being Chase HQ and NARC among others.
0 up, 1 down
bOnEs
Monday, October 19, 2009 @ 5:11:40 PM
if your game is compared to GTA, it should considered as a compliment... saints row 2 was called a GTA ripoff yet, look how fun it was... just because someone else did it before doesn't mean you can't do it yourself...
my god, if you couldn't copy ideas there would be no game market to even talk about... nor would there be a movie market... we'd all be stuck talking about the classics lol...
4 up, 0 down
Lotusflow3r
Monday, October 19, 2009 @ 2:38:11 PM
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Yakuza has many issues being tackled and is about honor and respect. Gameplay wise, i never thought of gta when playing Yakuza. Yakuza's too intelligent to be boxed with GTA. That's not a dig on gta either...its just that it isn't the most thought provoking game ever made is it.
Yakuza is not a GTA clone nor same genre.
Its born from a different genre...one the makers of Yakuza created themselves, the Shenmue style genre.
And if you ask me, THAT is a 100x a bigger compliment. To be hailed a spiritual successor to or to call it the same kinda game as Shenmue.
4 up, 1 down
Alienange
Monday, October 19, 2009 @ 5:59:52 PM
4 up, 0 down
Banky A
Monday, October 19, 2009 @ 10:35:22 PM
Demo from PS2 was cool if I remember.
0 up, 0 down
Kangasfwa
Monday, October 19, 2009 @ 4:03:49 PM
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0 up, 0 down
goodgamer
Monday, October 19, 2009 @ 4:47:00 PM
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1 up, 0 down
goodgamer
Monday, October 19, 2009 @ 4:50:51 PM
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1 up, 0 down
Metal Head
Monday, October 19, 2009 @ 7:56:31 PM
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2 up, 2 down
LowKey
Monday, October 19, 2009 @ 8:54:45 PM
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1 up, 1 down
Banky A
Monday, October 19, 2009 @ 10:36:43 PM
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Well I think GTA (in general) and GTAIV still rock ^_^
1 up, 0 down
___________
Tuesday, October 20, 2009 @ 1:21:36 AM
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this comming from a guy that names his games yakuza last time i checked thats the name for the Japanese mafia.
yea, nah hes not a hypocrite at all.
GOD! like we need more of these "political sensitive" type people.
if you dont like a certain thing in games thats fine.
1 dont name your game after a Japanese mafia.
2 dont try to take charge of everything and control it like the whole world has to agree with you.
violence in movies is fine and dandy, same extent to video games?
OOOOOO NO NO NO NO NO !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i would love to see some one make a game of hostel or the hills have eyes.
and watch it get banned of the shelf faster than you can say shave and a hair cut.
i know couldent think of anything else.
point being, im sick to death of these political correct people who have to force everyone into liking and accepting what they do.
i dont like violence in my video games so im going to force the government to ban it.
he should go work for the OFLC, they would get along perfectly.
in fact michael aktinson has already paid for his flight down here ;)
2 up, 1 down
Naga
Reply
Monday, October 19, 2009 @ 1:36:13 PM
Shame it was a demo, great I seen loads in Gamestop Ireland though YAY!!