While I’ve been lucky enough to have had a problem-free time with Japanese street-crime adventure Yakuza 0 on PC, I admit that I’m not too far into the game. There have been reports of some nasty crash bugs lurking around Kamurocho, and Sega have been trying to figure out how to banish them. Unfortunately the time-tested Yakuza approach of ‘punching things until they apologise’ doesn’t seem to be working, as they’ve had to roll back their first patch mere hours after it went live, as it apparently introduced more issues than it solved.
Welcome to the Award Winning Steam Charts! Yes, you heard that right! I wrote “Award Winning”! It hasn’t technically won any awards, but since everyone can agree it should have, it seems like it would almost be lying not> to write it. But enough about how bloody brilliant I am, here are the top grossing games on your Steams this week. (more…)
While our patch showed no issues in testing, it appears that Patch 1 is causing issues for some users who had no issues previously. Therefore, we are rolling back the patch while we continue to investigate.
Our apologies to all who are experiencing difficulties. We are investigating all issues raised here and will be back with more information soon.
For those who have been experiencing technical difficulties, we appreciate your patience while we work on fixes. Our first patch is live:
• Fix for crashes on boot and in cutscenes/gameplay. • Fix for crash when using Staminans to gain consecutive Heat abilities during Chapter 10 Fight. • Fix for crash in Pocket Circuit mini-game after selecting a rematch with an opponent.
If after patching the game, you are still experiencing crashes, please email your dxdialog and graphics.ini files to help@sega.com.
If you’ve been bashing faces and fathering full-grown men in Yakuza 0 but had the game wonk out at certain points, take solace: it’s not just you. While Sega’s brawl-o-RPG does seem in sound shape for many after yesterday’s launch, a few problems are coming to light. The biggest problem recognised so far is the game outright crashing at launch for some. And I myself experience a crash with a certain (thankfully avoidable) sidequest. Read on for… possible solutions? At the very least, read on to see children mock an adult’s sex life.
SEGA’s legendary Japanese series finally comes to PC. Fight like hell through Tokyo and Osaka as junior yakuza Kiryu and Majima. Take a front row seat to 1980s life in Japan in an experience unlike anything else in video gaming, with uncapped framerates and 4K resolutions. A legend is born.
Sega’s fab brawl-o-RPG series Yakuza today finally makes its official debut on PC, after over a decade exclusive to PlayStations, with the launch of Yakuza 0. It’s the story of two soon-to-be-legendary gangsters in 1988’s Tokyo and Osaka, who talk in serious tones and have mastered the art of whipping off their shirt and jacket in one movement when it’s time to rumble. Also they’re huge goofballs who sing karaoke, bodyslam bicycles onto punks, have dance-offs, win toys for children, race Scalextric, and get real into telephone dating. Good times. Edwin Evans-Thirlwell give it a big thumbs-up in our Yakuza 0 review last week, and now the game’s actually out. Watch the launch trailer below.
Sega’s fab brawl-o-RPG series Yakuza today finally makes its official debut on PC, after over a decade exclusive to PlayStations, with the launch of Yakuza 0. It’s the story of two soon-to-be-legendary gangsters in 1988’s Tokyo and Osaka, who talk in serious tones and have mastered the art of whipping off their shirt and jacket in one movement when it’s time to rumble. Also they’re huge goofballs who sing karaoke, bodyslam bicycles onto punks, have dance-offs, win toys for children, race Scalextric, and get real into telephone dating. Good times. Edwin Evans-Thirlwell give it a big thumbs-up in our Yakuza 0 review last week, and now the game’s actually out. Watch the launch trailer below.
As we learned at the PC Gaming Show at E3 2018, Yakuza 0 lands on PC today. As we learned from Phil's review last week, it's pretty good. And as you'll learn in a few seconds, its launch trailer is filled with handsome men in sharp suits kicking the shit out of each other.
There's also bowling, karaoke singing, dancing minigames, semi-clad women wrestling, and a pensive showering man in there for good measure. If you hadn't worked it out by now, Yakuza is pretty out there.
Publisher Sega bills all of that as the "glitz, glamour, and unbridled decadence" of the '80s. I'd say it looks brilliantly weird. And Phil says it's "comfortably the best, funniest and most heartwarming game about a desperate battle over real estate." When it comes to Yakuza, our Phil knows his stuff. Check out his 90-scored review in full over here.
Here's Sega's official run-down:
A prequel to the long-running series, Yakuza 0 is the perfect entry point to the Yakuza series. With the legendary Dragon of Dojima, Kazuma Kiryu, and series regular Goro Majima, embark on a rich saga, experiencing their gripping origin stories of moral dilemmas as young yakuza.
Explore the neon-lit streets of Kamurocho (Tokyo) and Sotenbori (Osaka), beating piles of cash out of street thugs (literally) whilst using three different fighting styles. Help civilians in over 100 substories, run your own business and immerse yourself in 1980s Japan with SEGA’s arcade classics, telephone clubs, discos, pocket circuit car races and more.
Yakuza 0 is "comfortably the best, funniest and most heartwarming game about a desperate battle over real estate", so says Phil in his 90-scored review. That sentence alone offers insight into the action adventure's quirkiness—which is what Sega Europe's John Clark suggests makes it work in the west.
"From my experience of Japan as a market, what we see is something that to us is very traditional publishing and development: Single player, story-led, sequel, sequel, sequel," Clark tells GI.biz. "And it's something that works in Japan. What's happening here is that the Yakuza franchise is being brought to the West and it's not being changed for the Western market, in terms of the gameplay.
"We're not turning every Yakuza title into an open-world Yakuza game. That's not what's happening. We're representing the Japanese IP, the Japanese road map, the Japanese content to the relevant audience within the West. And whether there's a need to change that or not, I don't know. But it seems to be successful and it seems to be working."
When we spoke to John Clark at E3 2017, he told us "we don't feel anything is off the table" in reference to growing Sega's PC catalogue. With zero now launched on PC, here's hoping more Yakuza games make the same dedicated jump down the line.
