Sega Explains Cut Content In Yakuza 3

Yakuza 3 is only weeks away and while we maintain that it's a worthwhile title for those who enjoy the style, we've been hearing whispers about removed content...

As it turns out, this will not be quite the same game that launched in Japan last year. We Americans are getting a slightly edited version and although Sega's explanation as to why isn't entirely satisfactory, it's still important. According to IGN, Sega removed pieces of content they either didn't have time to include or those that wouldn't "resonate" with a Western audience. Said the Sega representative:

"The content between Yakuza 3 US/UK and Yakuza JP is a little different in that we took out certain bits in order to bring the game to the west in the time alloted for us to do so. The parts we ended up taking out were parts that we felt wouldn't make sense (like a Japanese history quiz game) or wouldn't resonate as much (such as the concept of a hostess club). We didn't replace the parts we took out, but we made absolutely sure that the story continuity stayed intact so that the story experience was the same as the Japanese version and that it didn't take away the human drama so inherent to the Yakuza series."

Not that we really care one way or the other - the hostess clubs are hardly a necessity and there will still be strip clubs in the game - but we're not 100% sold on this explanation. I just finished trying the playable demo, and I stood there with Kazuma in a karaoke club, singing in a special booth with my date (feeling a touch silly). Yeah, we got karaoke here but maybe not quite to this extent; I see no reason to remove the hostesses if you're gonna keep the freakin' karaoke. But that's just me. I think the point here is that Sega really didn't remove anything essential to the story or gameplay, which is good.

Related Game(s): Yakuza 3

2/24/2010 10:40:25 AM Ben Dutka

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Comments (41 posts)

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WolfCrimson
Wednesday, February 24, 2010 @ 10:54:11 AM
Reply

Karaoke was awesome. I am so gonna get this game.

2 up, 0 down

godsman
Wednesday, February 24, 2010 @ 11:48:58 AM

The karaoke and Hostess club was what got me looking at this game in the first place. All the minigames in this game is awesome. To much disappointments for me. I will wait for pricedrop and see what else they cut out at launch.

1 up, 0 down

chedison
Wednesday, February 24, 2010 @ 10:58:15 AM
Reply

How many games are going to do this now? "Insert-Developer-Here Explains Cut Content for Insert-Game-Here."

We are barely two months into the year and there are already three games trying to explain themselves.

3 up, 1 down

ace_boon_coon
Wednesday, February 24, 2010 @ 1:07:55 PM

yeah it's starting to get ridiculous. this content cutting has got to stop

2 up, 0 down

Silent_J
Wednesday, February 24, 2010 @ 11:00:55 AM
Reply

I downloaded the Demo for Yakuza 3,wasnt really feeling it.I know alot people will get into it,especially those who played the first two.
Atleast the stuff that are being cut out of the game are minor.

Unralated: there gonna be some new footage of god of war 3 on GTTV tomorrow where Geoff Keighly will be talking with Stig.but I bet some of you already knew.

1 up, 0 down

SmokeyPSD
Wednesday, February 24, 2010 @ 11:14:04 AM
Reply

I'm so SICK of this SHIT. Why can't people just get out of the way of how society ingests our media, and let us make our own choices ffs!@!!@@@#@#@@@@!!! (I'm australian)

The leona lewis song tacked on to FFXIII is just another example of this idiotic trend of "marketing" decisions going on for local territories. or another example, thinking americans dont know what a philosopher is so they call the first harry potter film the sorceror's stone.

3 up, 2 down

godsman
Wednesday, February 24, 2010 @ 11:47:04 AM

I know! I'm sure the song sounds fine, but it feels completely different with the japanese theme song. There's also the voices for the girl Vanille, her english voice sounds horrible. The very least, leave a japanese dub so we can enjoy it too.

1 up, 0 down

godsman
Wednesday, February 24, 2010 @ 11:44:12 AM
Reply

OMG... I was looking at this game in the first place, because the hostess club looks amusing. The way that GTA IV does it with the strip club is senseless nudity is disappointing. I actually just went to the strip club once, and never went back again.

But this hostess club, I see potential. It's just a waste of good product. I will cancel this preorder because of this. I'll wait a bit till the price drops. (sighs).

3 up, 4 down

sonic1899
Wednesday, February 24, 2010 @ 4:30:05 PM

That's a very petty reason not to buy this game. In general, a lot of media content from books, films, tv shows, games, etc,. have been edited to some degree when being sold in a foreign country. This is no different. It's better to get the game with one or two minor things taken out than the game being 100% complete and it's import only. If memory serves, Sega once said they didn't plan to release Yakuza 3 overseas at all. The removed content isn't even important; I can go without a hostess club or a quiz. They still have strip clubs in the game and I take plenty of quizzes on campus as it is :P

Why is it that when some people look forward to something and when small details like this emerge "I'm gonna wait till the price drops". Like they said, it won't interfere with the important content. It's nothing to get upset about.

btw hostess clubs are hardly anything to buy a game for.

Last edited by sonic1899 on 2/24/2010 4:30:49 PM

1 up, 3 down

WorldEndsWithMe
Wednesday, February 24, 2010 @ 5:39:01 PM

There is no nudity in GTAIV

2 up, 0 down

HeXeN
Wednesday, February 24, 2010 @ 5:48:57 PM

@sonic

Is not a petty reason for him though.This is an incomplete game compared to the Japanese version.Is not like is a new game and the content is being removed before it releases world wide; Japan already got the full and uncut version.It really doesn't matter if the content was a hostess club or a blond wig for his head, content was needlessly cut.

4 up, 0 down

sonic1899
Wednesday, February 24, 2010 @ 8:59:05 PM

@WorldEndsWithMe
You could blame America's intolerance for the female form for that

@HeXeN
I see you're point, but then again, like I said, this is common for almost all foreign media. They stated that the content was cut because they felt the western audience would find it weird. I can't call it 'censorship' per-say, but it almost falls in line with it. This is no different than switching NIER's protagonist to suit American taste, 4Kids severally butchering anime like One Piece, CMX manga censoring Tenjho Tenge so badly it gets a Teen rating (if it was uncut, it'd be an automatic Mature), and being able to decapitate humanoid enemies in Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 in the US version, but not in the Japanese version (which is ironic). I dislike removing or censoring anything, as it doesn't give the viewer the full experience, but that won't keep distributors from doing it, even if they know people like me don't like it.

0 up, 0 down

WorldEndsWithMe
Wednesday, February 24, 2010 @ 12:19:44 PM
Reply

Lemme guess... it'll come as DLC.

2 up, 1 down

Oxvial
Wednesday, February 24, 2010 @ 12:25:40 PM

I think that would be the first time we are 100% sure the dlc was inside the disk xD.

2 up, 0 down

chedison
Wednesday, February 24, 2010 @ 1:03:03 PM

Resident Evil 5

3 up, 0 down

ace_boon_coon
Wednesday, February 24, 2010 @ 1:10:26 PM

yeah it'll be dlc. let's see what their excuse is after the decided to bring that content to "the wester area"

2 up, 1 down

Zemus101
Wednesday, February 24, 2010 @ 12:33:21 PM
Reply

Yeah well, if they want $59.99 or $69.99 for Yakuza 3, despite it being an older game and having content cut out, I'll wait for a price drop. Starting early March (with FFXIII) I'll have plenty of games to play for awhile anyways, including the likes of Heavy Rain eventually.

2 up, 0 down

chedison
Wednesday, February 24, 2010 @ 1:02:45 PM

and Red Dead Redemption at the end of April. That game will be crazy good.

2 up, 0 down

Andysw
Wednesday, February 24, 2010 @ 1:14:23 PM
Reply

This isn't as bad as capcom cutting out content from lost planet 2 because of dvd.

1 up, 0 down

Lotusflow3r
Wednesday, February 24, 2010 @ 1:30:04 PM
Reply

This is something i just have to criticise regardless of my support for this title.

Removing the hilarious and addictive Hostess Bar is weird...if anything, the west would love that!

Anyway, this excuse aint as ridiculous as Enix trying to explain FF13s many drawbacks like linear gameplay and deleted content or towns....not to mention their funny excuses on the FF7 remake. Having said that, i'm 100% against the latter being made so, whatever.

4 up, 1 down

Mr Bitey
Wednesday, February 24, 2010 @ 1:53:49 PM
Reply

I think the important question here is, can you have er um "relations" with the girls at the hostess clubs?

4 up, 0 down

Oyashiro
Thursday, February 25, 2010 @ 4:48:31 AM

Nope, All you do is spend money to listen to them talk.

1 up, 0 down

Origami_Killer
Wednesday, February 24, 2010 @ 3:26:19 PM
Reply

Well that's a deal breaker. I wanted to get this game but not now. I don't buy games that have content cut or have been censored.

3 up, 0 down

Naztycuts
Wednesday, February 24, 2010 @ 3:29:10 PM
Reply

I wonder why cutting content goes on more this generation than it did the last? Xbox360! Also why are Japanese companies "westernizing" their games all of a sudden? If it's good we'll buy it, dont try to adapt something that's great already into something else in an attempt to pique interest in people it might not otherwise appeal to, because chances are it isn't going to appeal to them anyway and tweaking it will probably just piss off the loyal diehards.

I'll probably pick up Yakuza 3 to hold me over the post GoW3/FF13 - pre Red Dead Redemption period.

1 up, 0 down

BikerSaint
Wednesday, February 24, 2010 @ 8:16:39 PM

@Naztycuts,

Only one reason....
MS and their four "imaginary" manuals.
1 Good business ethics,
2 Civil morality,
3 Guidelines for friendly competition,
4 How to share.

BTW, I hear that a 5th one supposed to be a "real" manual....
5 "Can't we all just get along"
(but only if their Brinks truck can find Rodney King's current crib).

Last edited by BikerSaint on 2/24/2010 8:17:20 PM

0 up, 0 down

Jawknee
Wednesday, February 24, 2010 @ 3:31:23 PM
Reply

Later Update:

"Sega just announced Yakuza 3 will also be available for the Xbox in NA."

;)

Last edited by Jawknee on 2/24/2010 3:31:35 PM

1 up, 1 down

Snaaaake
Wednesday, February 24, 2010 @ 5:05:37 PM

Slow!!

5 minutes ago Sega announced that Yakuza 4 will be 360 exclusives.

0 up, 0 down

Jawknee
Wednesday, February 24, 2010 @ 5:48:43 PM

seriously?

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah you got me!

Last edited by Jawknee on 2/24/2010 5:49:03 PM

1 up, 0 down

Oxvial
Wednesday, February 24, 2010 @ 6:56:16 PM

SEGA representative.

"The content between Yakuza 4 US/UK and Yakuza JP is a little different in that we took out certain bits in order to bring the game to the west in the time alloted for us to do so. The parts we ended up taking out were parts that we felt wouldn't make sense like the entire story or wouldn't resonate as much such as the city, mini games, stores, items,
The US/UK version of Yakuza 4 will feature Kazuma Kiryu as the ONLY playable character. The other 3 playable characters have been cut because SEGA believes the new characters will not resonate with the western audiences.
the rep told IGN. "We didn't replace the parts we took out, but we made absolutely sure that the character you control can continuity stayed intact and walk around the streets so that the experience was the same as the Japanese version and that it didn't take away the human drama so inherent to the Yakuza series."

In another words, We don't have time to translate the game. it's already a year already. So, you can still walk around the street with no stores, items, mini games.. etc.

Last edited by Oxvial on 2/24/2010 7:01:10 PM

1 up, 0 down

Imagi
Wednesday, February 24, 2010 @ 6:13:08 PM
Reply

Sometimes it is the little things that make some games so special.

2 up, 0 down

Ricochet
Wednesday, February 24, 2010 @ 6:31:48 PM
Reply

I don't get these guys, for starters:

A. They're releasing the game on March which includedes the biggest heavy hitters of "FFXIII", "GOWIII" & "BFBC2".

B. They screwed up the BOX-ART!

C. NOW THEY CUT CONTENT? Wasn't the essence of this game is to do mindless mini-games aside from the main story-line? For crying out loud this is a sandbox type of game. Imagine Japan removing content out of GTAIV because some content MADE NO SENSE TO THEM?

Disappointing SEGA, the only reason I'm buying this game is because I want YAKUZA 4 to come out in western shores.

1 up, 0 down

BikerSaint
Wednesday, February 24, 2010 @ 8:24:28 PM
Reply

Damn, suddenly off-radar.
$10 used bargain bin now.

Thanks once again, now it's you Sega that's cuddling the MS scumbags.

I've been keeping a special "sh!t-list" for all company's that cut up games for MS money,
& you can believe you're going on it too.
Yes, that's right, you....Sega!

1 up, 1 down

piratedrunk
Wednesday, February 24, 2010 @ 8:59:52 PM

what does this have to do with MS?

1 up, 0 down

Oyashiro
Thursday, February 25, 2010 @ 4:38:15 AM

Before you say that your now disinterested in the game think about what is more important.

A awesome gangster story, bad ass battle system, and all the other funner mini games.

Or...

A history test, and listing to what woman did in there day and if there hair is nice?

1 up, 0 down

BikerSaint
Wednesday, February 24, 2010 @ 9:36:18 PM
Reply

@Pirate, re-read all the comments,
It's already been mentioned in 2 different posts about MS.

Y3's going to MS & and that Y4 will be a MS exclusive(though probably just a timed thing).

Last edited by BikerSaint on 2/24/2010 9:40:38 PM

0 up, 0 down

Origami_Killer
Wednesday, February 24, 2010 @ 9:57:57 PM

I'm 99% sure they were joking.

2 up, 0 down

piratedrunk
Wednesday, February 24, 2010 @ 10:00:55 PM

Ahhh yeah I feel quite confident they were joking but at least now your post makes sense

0 up, 0 down

BikerSaint
Wednesday, February 24, 2010 @ 9:54:12 PM
Reply

Sega must have had some angry website visitors, cause their site has suddenly gone screwy.

0 up, 0 down

SayWord
Wednesday, February 24, 2010 @ 10:27:31 PM
Reply

okay dont buy the game, but dont bi*** when you hear yakuza 4 aint coming to north america

0 up, 4 down

___________
Thursday, February 25, 2010 @ 12:49:15 AM
Reply

have they even given this a release day yet?
i asked EB today when i picked up heavy rain and she said TBC march.
ok so were 3 days away from march and we STILL dont have a release date?
i really want to give this a shot because i love open world games, and have herd nothing but good things about it.
but sega sure are not making it easy for me!
starting to think they dont want us to buy it!

0 up, 2 down

Oyashiro
Thursday, February 25, 2010 @ 4:33:47 AM
Reply

Well this sucks, Not a deal breaker whatsoever for me but it still sucks.

I understand cutting the Japanese History quiz, as putting a American quiz would make no sense.

The hostess club is the real loss. Although admittedly one of my least favorite things to do in the Yakuza games. For those that don't know what it was, its a mini game where you spend money to guess what a girl wants to hear and you really get no rewards.

To those people thinking that the game should lose sales because of this let me tell you this. This content has nothing to do with the story and only accounts for probably .5% or less of the things you can do in Yakuza.

1 up, 1 down

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Sega Explains Cut Content In Yakuza 3

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