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アメリカ版を買った奴がかわいそうだ。セガＵＳＡが最低だね.(Translation: I feel sorry for the people who bought the American version. SEGA USA sucks.)

A friend showed this to me. I never played the game, not owning any next-gen/current-gen console, but hey, the idea of having real Yakuza review a videogame about Yakuza is just hilarious. Even if the article isn't true at all, it makes for good reading.

Having actually played the game, I'll say it's one of the best RPGs I've played in years. Some of their criticisms about realism are probably pretty spot on, but you pretty much have to make some sacrifices for games like this.

It's amusing to see an actual yakuza speculating that the main character ran out of money to get that tattoo past his back.

General Zod wrote:Having actually played the game, I'll say it's one of the best RPGs I've played in years. Some of their criticisms about realism are probably pretty spot on, but you pretty much have to make some sacrifices for games like this.

What are the problems with the US version they talk about?

In any case it's a good year when the two best RPGs aren't Bioware

Stark wrote:

General Zod wrote:Having actually played the game, I'll say it's one of the best RPGs I've played in years. Some of their criticisms about realism are probably pretty spot on, but you pretty much have to make some sacrifices for games like this.

What are the problems with the US version they talk about?

In any case it's a good year when the two best RPGs aren't Bioware

They left out some content. Mostly side games like mahjong rooms and some extra missions involving a hostess club. I'd have to do some more digging to find out exactly what was cut though. (The mahjong cut was rather strange considering it was apparently in Yakuza 2.)

One of the Yakuza Guys wrote:K: Kiryu is fighting all the time. He's gotta be a fucking idiot. No yakuza is going to run around getting into fistfights like that. Especially not an executive type. He'll wind up in jail or in the hospital or dead, maybe even whacked by his own people for being a troublemaker. These days, he'd probably get kicked out before even going to jail. Guys like that start gang wars and nobody wants that now. When a yakuza gets into a fight, it's serious business.

I like this quote. It's pretty interesting how organized crime generally tries to avoid violent confrontations when at all possible. I think that shakes up the image people have of them basically being Al Qeada in business suits. No mafia ever lasted constantly picking fights and antagonizing people after all.

This quote is out of context though. They were actually surprisingly positive to the game. Listening to their descriptions of Yakuza brought up a number of similarities I noticed to the Italian Mafia in history.

M: Kiryu is the way yakuza used to be. We kept the streets clean. People liked us. We didn't bother ordinary citizens. We respected our bosses. Now, guys like that only exist in video games.
S: I don't know any ex-yakuza running orphanages.
K: There was one a few years ago. A good guy.
M: You sure it wasn't just a tax shelter?
K: Sure it was a tax shelter but he ran it like a legitimate thing. You know.

This bit was my favourite part, I think, but the whole review is fairly entertaining. Sounds like a game worth playing.

CaptHawkeye wrote: I like this quote. It's pretty interesting how organized crime generally tries to avoid violent confrontations when at all possible. I think that shakes up the image people have of them basically being Al Qeada in business suits. No mafia ever lasted constantly picking fights and antagonizing people after all.

I think that sort of realism bleeds into Hollywood and popular perception to a certain extent, with fictional mob bosses always wary about a potential gang war, while their henchmen are running their largely sedate business interests with a quiet menace. Until Steven Seagal kicks down the door.

SilverWingedSeraph wrote:

M: Kiryu is the way yakuza used to be. We kept the streets clean. People liked us. We didn't bother ordinary citizens. We respected our bosses. Now, guys like that only exist in video games.
S: I don't know any ex-yakuza running orphanages.
K: There was one a few years ago. A good guy.
M: You sure it wasn't just a tax shelter?
K: Sure it was a tax shelter but he ran it like a legitimate thing. You know.

This bit was my favourite part, I think, but the whole review is fairly entertaining. Sounds like a game worth playing.

There's a demo for it out on the Playstation Network. At this point the only excuse you have for not trying it out is that you don't have a PS3.

You guys do realize the whole "review" is most likely a marketing stunt, right?

PeZook wrote:You guys do realize the whole "review" is most likely a marketing stunt, right?

More likely to be a fake article for generating hits, honestly. Doesn't really matter of course, entertainment is entertainment.

And your basis for claimign it's fake is ... what, exactly? Jake Adelstein is a real guy, and asking a bunch of yakuza mates of his to play a video game and talk about it is pretty low down on 'unlikely' compared to the stuff he actually did. Like exposing that the FBI was paying for Goto Tadamasa's liver transplant.

Ford Prefect wrote:And your basis for claimign it's fake is ... what, exactly? Jake Adelstein is a real guy, and asking a bunch of yakuza mates of his to play a video game and talk about it is pretty low down on 'unlikely' compared to the stuff he actually did. Like exposing that the FBI was paying for Goto Tadamasa's liver transplant.

I said it was more likely to be a fake article for generating hits than it was to be a marketing stunt. I have no idea who any of these people are, no idea about the Yakuza aside from them being underworld figures, and nothing on the site is anything resembling "proof" that it really happened. No photographs, no videos, etc. It reads like something you'd find on Old Man Murray or 27b/6.

If somebody penned a humorous article about how they sat down with Carl Williams last year and powered through S1 of Underbelly, I'd likewise be pretty skeptical about it being real. Maybe this is real, but it's very surreal and I could easily see it being a fabrication.

PeZook wrote:You guys do realize the whole "review" is most likely a marketing stunt, right?

A marketing stunt for a game that was released in Japan over a year ago?

adam_grif wrote:

Ford Prefect wrote:And your basis for claimign it's fake is ... what, exactly? Jake Adelstein is a real guy, and asking a bunch of yakuza mates of his to play a video game and talk about it is pretty low down on 'unlikely' compared to the stuff he actually did. Like exposing that the FBI was paying for Goto Tadamasa's liver transplant.

I said it was more likely to be a fake article for generating hits than it was to be a marketing stunt. I have no idea who any of these people are, no idea about the Yakuza aside from them being underworld figures, and nothing on the site is anything resembling "proof" that it really happened. No photographs, no videos, etc. It reads like something you'd find on Old Man Murray or 27b/6.

If somebody penned a humorous article about how they sat down with Carl Williams last year and powered through S1 of Underbelly, I'd likewise be pretty skeptical about it being real. Maybe this is real, but it's very surreal and I could easily see it being a fabrication.

So you're admitting you know nothing about the subject matter but somehow know enough to declare it fake? I'm not convinced you're not just trolling. But since you're obviously an idiot, there's somewhere around 80,000 members of the Yakuza associated with 3,200 gangs in Japan. The idea of finding a few of them that claim membership isn't exactly outlandish.

It being fake relies on either Jake Adelstein lying, which seems unlikely, or BoingBoing using his name without his permission, which would be so utterly retarded it isn't even worth contemplating.