It may have taken many years and lots of wasted money on celebrity English voices no one listens to, but Yakuza is now A Thing in America, dammit. Depending on how you look at it, Sega’s Yakuza series is either the Japanese answer to Grand Theft Auto, the actual successor to the Shenmue series, or something in-between. But regardless, recent entries in the franchise like Yakuza 6, Yakuza 0, and Yakuza Kiwami have seen worldwide success.
So with the series in a better place than ever, Yakuza 7 is seriously changing things up. Check out this first trailer.
Two constants in the Yakuza series have been protagonist Kazuma Kiryu and the Kamurocho setting. But that story is finished. Yakuza 7: Whereabouts of Light and Darkness ditches them both for a new hero and a new backdrop. The game follows recently released prisoner Ichiban Kasuga in Yokohama. Kamurocho was a dense environment but not exactly sprawling. Yokohama promises to be three times bigger.
Even more shocking is the revamped combat system. Yakuza 7 replaces the 3D beat ‘em up fighting with a turn-based combat like something from a JRPG. Even the detective-themed Yakuza spin-off Judgment didn’t do anything this radical. The change is so huge Sega initially teased it with an April Fool’s Day Joke. But it’s real.
Yakuza 7 launches in Japan in January 2020 and worldwide later that year. For all of its changes, we’re still holding out hope Majima makes some kind of an cameo. For more on Yakuza watch us play Yakuza 6 and check out the latest with Shenmue III.
