Yakuza 3 – Premium Edition & Extras Coming Your Way!

i’ve been looking forward to this game for a long time, but my god that cover is awful. please could we have the japanese cover? that one was amazing!

sorry but the cover art looks really cheap . how much is the game gonna be ? if its over 29.99 sorry wouldnt buy it as its over a year old and no english voices and the tacky cover just reeks of a pass up game if it 40 pound . sorry

I had the JP Demo! Now i finaly get the game.. I loved the demo so I can’t wait….

Bring on the BIG gaming month of March

First time posting! Anyways, I think the cover art is not so good. But the pre-ordering incentives pretty much make up for it!

finally comes with texts in Spanish?

This game looks sick! Also I’m liking the cover art

The cover’s pretty bad but I’m just glad to finally get the game. This is probably my most anticipated game of the year, unless The Last Guardian actually makes it out.

Awful, just awful cover. What was wrong with the japanese one?

No English voice acting? This is kind of bad since this is PS3 we are talking about, not the Gameboy!

Anyway I missed Yakuza 1+2 on the PS2. I may try and track them down.

Don´t let the interns do the cover art

You naive fools think English voice acting would make this better? Give me a break. Japanese dialogue with subs is far superior. If you watch/play Japanese produced/developed shows/games with English languages over the original Japanese dialogue, youre missing out. More often than not, there is a lot lost in translation. Play/watch the way they are meant to be. Then again, Im old and experienced. Open your mind, close your mouths.

Sega made all the right decisions with the Yakuza series.

I was about to order from Shopto, but I’ll hang on for the pre-order incentives to be announced now. Any ideas when we’ll know, release date is just over a month away

I think the game should be 30 pound max, its a year old game and has no english voice acting. Played the demo which was fun but didnt understand the japanese

Why did you change the cover? The japanese was so good, this one looks really cheap. Btw thanks for the original audio, I hate English dubs.

I already bought the Japanese version, but I’ll still buy this version also for sure! Thanks for bringing it to Europe (with English text and Japanese voice – just how I like it).

Now get to work on bringing Yakuza 4! Chop chop. :p

Also:
Yo listen, I’m real happy for you European version cover art, but the Japanese version had one of the cover arts of all time!

@ 11

Not all of us like the jap language you know.

Even though I love jRPGs I don’t like the jap language. Playing a game that “speaks” english and understanding what I hear fells more natural to me.

Hopefully this is just the cardboard slipcase and underneath is the Japanese cover, right?

At the same time I am really happy it’s coming over here translated at all Does it come with all this as standard or do we have to buy it from a certain store?

Awesome, Yakuza 2 was 10/10 in my opinion.

I bought the Japanese version oh Yakuza 3 along time ago…a long shot, I know, but will there be any way to patch the English subs into the original version or will I have to buy a whole new copy?

Just to doubly confirm, there will be no English voice acting

Just to doubly confirm, there will be no purchase from me, which is a shame as I half enjoyed the demo off the Jap store, but pausing to read what is being said is not my idea of fun

I can only see two places to buy it – Amazon UK and HMV. It says nothing about it being a premium edition though. Where can I pre-order it and get the bonus?

Well done with this one, Sega, most well done indeed! Keeping the game as-is AND releasing it with bonus content to boot – just pure, plain, unadulterated brilliance! The cover is rather mediocre, yes, but who these days buys games based on their cover, anyway?

Bring on March 12th – this one’s a day one purchase for sure!

#23

When I was a kid, I used to buy games based on their cover art. Which meant I managed to get brilliant games like Comix Zone, but missed out on Fur Fighters

Kids aren’t old enough for this game, but you get the point.

There needs to be answer if we need to cancel and re-make any withstanding preorders, or retailers should update their Yakuza 3 listings..

Hmm… Yakuza 3… Interesting…

@zerolaff: Heh, I remember doing the same as a kid back in the 8-bit and 16-bit days but that was when covers used to look a whole lot better than the actual content

But yeah, I guess it can be a valid point even today. Still, no matter what kind of cover art the game would have, I’d wager it to do no better than reach a small scale cult classic status just like the previous titles did.

Whatever the case, a standing ovation to Sega for even giving it a chance – the small, fanatic fanbase not into mainstream bows in respect ^^; Atlus and NIS already cater for the “obscure” audience with apparent success, so perhaps Sega has realized that market segment as well? Here’s hoping!

I have to say….that cover is terrible…PLEASE give us an option, like an inverted cover or something. Ugh.

Anyone complaining that there ios no english voice acting…you are pathetic, the game is based in Japan, do you really think everyone in Japan speaks perfect english? You suckers need a lesson in life, most of the electronic gadgets we get over here are at least a couple of years old in Japan before they make it here, are you gonna stop buying electricals because they’re “over a year old” too? Idiots, you bunch of stupid idiots.

Finally we get some Yakuza! (even though I would’ve wanted Kenzan! also for Europe)

No pre-ordering for me though, too many great games in March, so I’ll have to wait ’til April before I pick up this awesome game.
And thank you Sega for the original voice-acting! Now at least we won’t be hearing “[DELETED]” in every sentence anymore, which ruined the previous games a bit for me.

Hopefully, Yakuza 3 will sell better than the previous games, so we can have Yakuza 4 eventually!

/A Sonic & Sega Lover

“Just to doubly confirm, there will be no English voice acting.”

^Thank God.

And yeah the cover is awful but i’m not buying the game for its cover.

Anyone who played the original will be thankful for the lack of English voice acting. The atmosphere is distinctly Japanese so even a well done dub (a rarity) would feel awkward.

The cover is awful, clearly, but at least be thankful that it’s made it over here, unlike a certain game involving demons and souls…

While I’m extremely happy about this release (loved the first two games), I do find it annoying that one has to pre-order the game to get it all.

Challenge Pack, to play 2-player minigames, shouldn’t be pre-order only. But for everyone.

Thank you Sega for bringing this to us, I’m ready to pre order this but where should I place my order to get this challenge pack you mentioned?
Game? Play.com? HMV? Which retailer is it?

how about a printable cover with the original japanese cover art? with the localised logo of course.

Thank you Sega for the info on this great game. I am looking forward for this one for long time and I have prorder it.

Worst box art I’ve EVER seen.

My God.

That box art is absolutely disgusting.

Damn.

*shakes head*

First off I’d like to thank SEGA for listening to the fans. Seriously, the company has gained a stack of respect by releasing Yakuza 3 in Western territories. The announcement of Sonic 4 and Yakuza 3′s Western release has made SEGA’s fans realize that SEGA really does listen! If only other gaming companies would put in that little bit extra to give the same service to the fans that SEGA delivers….
*COUGH*Square-Enix [DELETED] excuse #12 – “We can’t put the Japanese DUB in FFXIII, because we don’t have enough space, because Blu-ray only holds 50gb of dat……wait I mean the lip syncing won’t match up! Yeah that’s the reason! Lip syncing won’t match up!”*COUGH*
One thing I will say though SEGA, and this is me just knit-picking. The cover really doesn’t look that great. I know there is a bit of issue with regards to giving us the Japanese cover as it has Kazuma smoking, but I really think that cover would help the game in sales as it does look a LOT more appealing.

Kevin, are you saying that there will be only one version of Yakuza 3 available at retail?

i.e. the Premium Edition

Just one month to go and I’ll be able to kick some sense into random thugs, educate some Yakuza with my iron fists and bring lost souls back onto the right path with a baseball bat

God bless you SEGA for this, but the cover really looks cheap, I guess I’ll print my own cover art for the first time since…forever actually. It’s almost as fugly as the US ICO cover.

The cover is a bit lackluster, I personally prefered the more stylish japanese one, but I guess you couldn’t use that because of the smoke in Kazumas mouth?

Anyway, it doesn’t really matter since I’ve already made a new cover featuring the art from the japanese cover. The white color just fits nicer together with the other Yakuza’s.

@2 I don’t understand your logic. It can’t cost more than 29.99 because it was released one year ago in japan? What?

And people should be thankful it’s even coming out here. And the lack of english vocieacting *fits* since you know, it takes place in japan where they happen to speak japanese.

A W E S O M E !!!

seriously this game is first on my list, before even Final Fantasy and… dare i say… God of War

plus all the bonuses, this is jsut too great,
cant wait.

great game enjoyed 1 and 2, can’t wait to play this one, but that is the worst game cover i have ever seen!

@FatTrousers

how does wanting to watch the story (reading subs makes me miss what is going off because my eyes are else where) even relate to electronics? what makes you think just because we want English VO’s that we think people walk around Japan speaking prober English?

if anything you are the idiot that needs a lesson in life if you think that

I am a huge fan of this series and would be very disappointed if the audio was English only. I am very glad it is in Japanese.

Does anybody know the best place to pre-order?

I can’t wait to get it and play it!!
But please re-design the cover, its horrible!! Used the Japanese cover.

Given that it seems it was a choice between not getting the game at all or getting it subtitled in it’s original language only, I think Sega made the best call for all of us. Especially given that the first Yakuza sounded godawful dubbed in English, but the second one genuinely felt like a Japanese gangster movie in a way that was lost in the first game because of the poor voice acting.

I have never in my life seen an instance of something dubbed into a different language ever being even on par with the source material, especially when it comes to Sega games, as anyone who can remember the pathetic dub job on the Xbox version of Shenmue 2 can attest to. I still have the Dreamcast version of S2 to this day because I simply can’t bear the idea of playing that game again in English, and I probably will try it out again some day. It has aged surprisingly well for a Dreamcast title.

Anyway, looking forward to Yakuza 3. My preorder is in already. Should make for a busy month with that and GoW3 in fairly rapid succession

Does anyone know where you can pre-order to get the “Challenge Pack” DLC?

People are complaining about the box-art a lot here and rightly so it does have a sense of ‘will this do’ about it. We won’t get the Japanese version though because he’s smoking a cigarette on the cover so get real.
I just would like to say a big THANK YOU Sony & Sega for listening to the fans and bringing this title to us in Europe, not USA who get everything from Japan anyway. And all you naysayers of course it has to keep the original Japanese language, english dubbing isn’t and will never be at all suitable for this game to feel authentic, think about it. It has to be like watching a Yakuza movie from Japan !

I’m kind of disappointed, I read that its going to have contents cut!!

“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),” the rep told IGN. “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.”