Wed, Feb 24, 2010 | 16:50 GMT
Yakuza 3 western release to miss out on Hostess Club
Looks like when Yakuza 3′s release outside of Japan it will not have the Hostess Club bits or the Answer x Answer arcade quiz game.
Apparently, those segments are slightly too “Japanese” for western gamers.
“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 allotted for us to do so,” SEGA told IGN (via Joystiq).
“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).”
SEGA says the dating aspect of the game will not be affected, and “the story experience was the same as the Japanese version.”
So there ya go.
Yakuza 3′s out March 12. Check out the latest trailer through here.
10 comments
#1
Hunam
24/02/10, 5:19 pm
Apparently the hostess club got thrown out because it would have taken a few extra months to translate.
The hostess clubs and hostess club owning side missions were in Yakuza 2, though to be honest, they weren’t really my cup of tea.
#2
Gekidami
24/02/10, 6:32 pm
With the game coming out on the same day as FFXIII and the same month as GoW3 (about 10 days before i think), the news of content getting cut really isnt what it needs. SEGA’s signed its death warrant imo.
#3
Galactic_Barret
24/02/10, 7:29 pm
The japanese quiz minigames seems kinda take it or leave it — could be cool for the people interested, like myself — but the host and hostess minigames are an integral part of the Yakuza series. I was thinking while playing the demo how much I wanted to buy the full release, but taking out features is seriously making me second guess that.
#4
absolutezero
24/02/10, 9:38 pm
As long as I can continue to piss myself laughing at the Kareoke bits then everything will be fine.
#5
sickpuppysoftware
24/02/10, 10:05 pm
So they’ll drop the price to cover the dropping of features?
Hmmmmm
#6
c4rahab
25/02/10, 7:03 am
as long this game will be release after waiting a long time I can’t complain
#7
Blerk
25/02/10, 8:51 am
For shame, Sega! This isn’t what the fans wanted.
#8
Gekidami
25/02/10, 9:18 am
I predict that its being ‘sent out to die’. Pachter should do the same, he’ll probably be right with this game.
#9
Blerk
25/02/10, 9:22 am
If they were going to short-change the fans and ‘send it out to die’ I have to wonder why they bothered bringing it over here at all, though. It’s bizarre.
#10
Gekidami
25/02/10, 9:39 am
Pure stupidity i think.
The worst part is that most people would probably spend their money on FFXIII and GoW3 rather then this, these cuts will only put the people who were interested off. So the game will sell poorly, SEGA will blame it on the game not having a market in the west, and they wont bother releasing Yakuza 4 outside of Japan.