The Catchup on Yakuza 4 (Blurb and Australian Special Editions)

For the record, the editions section of this article will have things that are for Australian readers and may not represent what is available in your own country. Please contact your local games store for more information on special editions available in your area.

I wasn’t expecting Yakuza 4 to hit our shelves so soon, however when I walked into my local EB Games the other day, I noticed they were advertising special editions of the game. First of all, for those who are unfamiliar with the series, you should check out this website for the official blurb on the game, however for those who would rather hear it from my keyboard, it is a series about an on-off Yakuza named Kazuma who gets dragged into several events by his own family group, the police and even the government, and in his off-time, enjoys karaoke and arcade games with his underage adopted daughter and the other hordes of well endowed women that all flock to him. The series has its charms as whilst the game was originally dubbed in english, it now retains the full Japanese dub and mixes interesting storytelling with an open world environment and serious events with more light hearted quests. I have just finished playing Yakuza 1 and 2, whilst having finished Yakuza 3 a while ago, with a review I did on the game being found here.

The first bit of good news is that besides the quiz game which has been dropped, the game retains most, if not all of the other features found in the original Japanese version, therefore unlike Yakuza 3, you can go to a host club, play more games and so forth. The game does not follow Kazuma exclusively anymore, instead, three other characters join in on the action, these are the detective Masayoshi Tanimura, the mysterious moneylender Shun Akiyama and a former Tojo clan leader Taiga Saejima. I am very anxious to see how the gameplay will change, for better or for worse with the addition of the three other characters. Personally I quite liked it with just Kazuma as the main character as it allowed him to go from serious to the more relaxed environment of helping his children at Sunshine Orphanage. However, I am open to this multiple character concept.

Now, in Australia at least, there are a few different editions you can buy. I will need to double check some of this and if I am wrong, it will be edited out and fixed. First off, there is the normal edition of the game, which just comes as is and the cover art can be seen to the left of this text. Personally I do like the cover art of this game over the previous three games, as well as the box art for the Kuro edition.

On that note, the second edition is the Kuro edition which comes with four bonus pieces of DLC content such as costumes, special battle modes and a special metallic black container to contain them all in. If you order this version at EB Games (Not sure about any other store), you get the bonus Ichiban box with this, which includes a hostess poster (Not something I would hang up on my wall if I wanted to invite a girl over) and a rather nice looking bowl and chopsticks set branded with the Yakuza 4 logo.

The third edition is the Shiro edition, which comes with everything mentioned above except the Ichiban box and the box is white instead of metallic black. Apparently you can get it at JB Hi-fi with a bonus copy of Yakuza 3 included (Not a bad deal) or from GAME which apparently includes an exclusive Yakuza 4 T-Shirt.

You can get the Kuro Edition from EB Games for $119.95, and the Shiro Edition from JB Hi-fi and GAME for $109 and $109.95 (Web Price $99) respectively. Alternatively, you will most probably be able to buy just the game for a cheaper price depending on the store you purchase from. For those more inclined to order online, you are able to buy the normal (?) edition from many stores such as the Sega Store (Click Here – or the store for whatever country you are from) or sites like Play-Asia (Click Here). You have no excuse not to be able to get one of the more interesting action games coming out this year!

Either way, there are many decisions to be made, so get thinking before the games release on the 24th of March 2011!

Edit: Before I forget, there is a demo of the game coming to the PSN Store. For Playstation Plus subscribers, they will be able to download it on the 16th February whilst normal PSN users will have to wait until the 23rd. No news on if it is a time limited demo or if it will remain up indefinitely.

Finally, I leave you with a whole pile of trailers for the game from newest to oldest!

Hostess Trailer