GRcade

Already bought before the sale price, but this is next up on my list to play. Can't wait! Need to get started before Kiwami comes out.

This is my current game if the year. You can spend as little or as much time as you want to complete it and it's quirky as hell. My first Yakuza experience and absolutely will not be my last.

Bought this in the digital sale and have just finished the first chapter. Enjoying it so far, sort of flittering between the plot and the side activities.

The only Yakuza game I've played before is Dead Souls. I tried Yakuza 3 a while back on the PS3 but never really got too far into it.
The lack of a dub has always put me off the series in general really, but at least if it's only £20 I suppose I can justify the half-job of localising it. It just annoys me when companies do a half localisation then have the strawberry floating cheek to charge full RRP.

Not fussed about lack of localised voice acting as it'd just mean those of us waiting on the western release would have an even longer wait. (And you just know there's a very good chance they'd half ass that as well and then you'd really suffer!) And anyway, it's kind of difficult to complain about when the performances are so good.

A lack of English voices is hardly a half-finished job though, is it?

How many foreign movies only have subtitles? Would you avoid one just because it wasn't dubbed?

I think when it comes to movies at least, the vast majority prefer subtitles.

When you have something as heavily Japanese as this, does it make much of a difference if characters speak in Japanese as opposed to with a natural American accent?

I don't think RRP is determined by the language of the voice acting either.

It is a half finished job when they're charging the same price as games like Persona 5 (Again a heavily Japanese game) that has dual audio options available. If you're going to do less work, charge less money.

I get that the reason they don't dub Yakuza games is because it doesn't actually sell that much in the west, not enough to be worth paying royalties to multiple sets of voice actors, and that's fine, but I don't think it's unreasonable to expect to pay a good £5-10 less as standard when that's the case.

Gameplay is king and Yakuza has freaking tens of hours of it and it's varied, too.

The reasons may be financial but it also makes sense from a creative point of view because the game is steeped in Japanese culture - it just feels right to hear Japanese mafia talking in Japanese in Japan.

If there's any game that doesn't need an English dub this is it. The Japanese VO is excellent and the text localisation is one of the best I've ever seen. If Persona 5 had got half as good a localisation as this did I would've happily lost the English VO there too.

But then, to use a movie analogy, does a movie with subtitles carry a ticket price cheaper than one which has been dubbed? Is it less finished?

Is how many languages a game has indicative of the amount of "effort" or "work" that has been put in? Should a game with French, German and Italian dubs carry a £70 price tag?

Basically sounds like you've stuck a personal value on an English voice over. You set that value on English dubs as it's all you want to listen to.

As Crimson says, how is a game featuring Japanese characters, set in Japan and leaning pretty heavily on Japanese culture, "half-finished by having its characters speak in Japanese?

The fact Persona 5 has dual audio is irrelevant, as is it's price tag.

I don't think a comparison to Persona 5 is irrelevant at all. Both are fairly niche games, both are heavily into Japanese culture. I'm not saying the game is half finished, I'm saying the localisation is half finished, which to me it is when you're seemingly charging for work that others have done and you haven't.
Since you're bringing up French, German, etc, then look at Witcher 3. It managed to have 7 different audio dubs, including English and Japanese, without adding extra to the price tag.


We'll probably just need to agree to disagree, but I don't think it's at all unreasonable to expect a game that limits itself to a single language voice to cost less than a game that has multiple audio options, rather than trying to charge full RRP like games that have done more work and spent more money on their localisation efforts.

You're comparing it to P5 and yet P5, in parts, had a nonsensical written translation.

I've never heard someone argue for a lower RRP because of a lack of English VA, as though that's the be all and end all. It's just a bizarre argument to me. Anyway, just keep doing as you are and buy Yakuza games in a sale. Boom! You get what you want!

Played this and it's my first Yakuza game.

Miracle Johnson.

Played 14 hours in total and I'm only on chapter 4. The amount of content is insane.

The dance off substory is bloody tough. The opponent put in a high number of steps before the button indication flares up and I get panicky and cock it all up every time. Don't think I'll manage that substory.

Wedgie wrote:Played 14 hours in total and I'm only on chapter 4. The amount of content is insane.

The dance off substory is bloody tough. The opponent put in a high number of steps before the button indication flares up and I get panicky and cock it all up every time. Don't think I'll manage that substory.

Aye, I gave up on that too.

Just met Mr Shakedown for the first time. Crapping myself already for the next time I meet him!

Also, tried the dance off, but the karaoke in chapter 1 scared me more. Didn't seem a particularly easy introduction with a string of buttons flying up in rapid succession. Need more rhythm game skills!

I can never get the hang of the "Hold" sections of the Karaoke minigame. It always registers as me letting go too soon.

Opened up the real estate business!

The fortune teller lady charged too much! Bitch.

The dominatrix substory

at them ending up at the park.

Clearly missing the option to tell the children to go home to bed!