Kinda funny that Yakuza is such a niche franchise that they have to shit on Shenmue to feel like a bigger franchise.
It's also ironic that those fans bash Shenmue games as failures while Yakuza 1 and 2 were also failures.(They sold so horribly that made SEGA not localizing those games for some years)
That latter sentence isnt true. Yakuza 1 while costing 20 million to make, did in fact do well overall, its just the English dub proved to be a waste of money for them as it was looked down upon in reviews despite having well known actors like Mark Hamill, Rachel Leigh Cook, Eliza Dukshu and Michael Madsen. The problem is they butchered the script too much in an effort for 'Western sensibilities'.
However, both Yakuza 1 and 2 were localized. And they both did very well sales wise overall.
After that, came Yakuza Kenzan! which was a historical what-if spinoff and the PS3's first Yakuza game.
That game however, had some rather controversial story points such as child concubines which I gather SEGA of America probably felt would have been too possibly problematic for the West.
So that one was skipped.
But then came Yakuza 3, Yakuza 4 and Yakuza Dead Souls spin off which were not skipped.
Yakuza 3 while localized, had some content cut which angered some fans.
Anyways, a lot of non Yakuza playing mainstream gamers gave the Yakuza series shit as well as some reviewers. Some calling it a poor man's Grand Theft Auto which couldn't be any further from the truth.
But anyways yeah, the Western public's perception of the series was mostly indifferent.
The PSP at this time wasnt doing well in the West so both Yakuza Black Panther spin off games on the PSP were not localized.
Then by 2012, the key person in charge for pushing Yakuza over to the West resigned from Sega of America.
He was crucial in getting the games localized so Yakuza 5 stayed in Japan for 3 years.
Then in late 2013, the PS4 launched and in 2014, Yakuza Ishin came out as a cross gen launch title for Japan's delayed PS4 launch in early 2014, but it had no signs for localization.
Years later we'd learn from Nagoshi that he felt Westerners would not adopt the period piece Samurai type settings since he thought they couldnt culturally relate.
Not sure why he he ever thought that since we've gotten Samurai Shodown, Soul Calibur, Bushido Blade, Soul of the Samurai, Blood Will Tell, Samurai Warriors, Seven Samurai 20XX, Afro Samurai, Rising Zan: Samurai Gunman, Kengo, Kabuki Warriors, Onimusha, Way of the Samurai, Total War: Shogun, Kessen, Samurai Western, Samurai Champloo, Sengoku Basara, and now, Sekiro and the upcoming Ghost of Tsushima, which the latter is made by a Western developer
It wasn't until after the PS4 launched, that the combined team of Adam Boyes and Gio Corsi of Sony, created a wish list of games to localize called "Building the List" as a sort of good will campaign to get consumers back in Sony's good graces as the PS4 was gaining ground in that field while Xbox 1 suffered a horrible PR launch with Don Mattrick telling people if they want a console that doesnt force you to be online, you can just continue to play your 360.
So yeah, anyways, Yakuza 5 was one of the top requested games on that list, so Gio Corsi flew to Japan and spoke with Nagoshi, did some interviews and Yakuza 5 was announced for localization sometime around E3 2015.
Then in turn this sparked interest in localizing Yakuza Zero, a prequel of the series which was also cross gen.
This came out and got very positive reviews, even some by some previously uninterested Youtube reviewers (Angry Joe comes to mind. Probably Jim Sterling too). So this pushed the series into the mainlight and garnered newer fans.
This elevated center of attention embolded some veteran Yakuza fans and then Shenmue 3 was announced in addition to Shenmue HD.
This then sparked a 'why' since for many years, Shenmue has been bashed by the public for its development cost, failure to continue the series, slow paced gameplay, English voice acting, and the fact it debuted on a dying console.
So near 20 years of negative memes and what not soaked into many gamers psyche including many Yakuza fans.
Now we had some Yakuza fans saying why do we need Shenmue when Yakuza is the evolution of it which simply isnt true.
Anyways thats that and here we are and Yakuza 7 will be turn based.
Your welcome
