Hostesses out, strippers still in.

by Greg Miller

 February 23, 2010 - With the release of Yakuza 3 just two weeks away (March 9th in the States and March 12th in the U.K.), fans are beginning to go off the deep end about the beat'em up/RPG-like/Grand Theft Auto-like game that has you wandering the streets of Japan and wailing on bad guys silly enough to get in your way. However, one of the biggest questions on the minds of readers like you is did everything that made the game a hit in Japan make it into the U.S./U.K. versions?

The short answer is "no," but it's not as bad as you might think, according to a SEGA representative.

"The content between Yakuza 3 US/UK and Yakuza JP is a little different in that we took out certain bits in order to bring the game to the west in the time alloted for us to do so. The parts we ended up taking out were parts that we felt wouldn't make sense (like a Japanese history quiz game) or wouldn't resonate as much (such as the concept of a hostess club)," the rep told IGN. "We didn't replace the parts we took out, but we made absolutely sure that the story continuity stayed intact so that the story experience was the same as the Japanese version and that it didn't take away the human drama so inherent to the Yakuza series."

The good news? Even though the hostess clubs are out, you can still go on dates with the girls. Better news? The strip clubs are still in Yakuza 3, so plan on dropping some Yen there. 

...:( 

as long as it wasn't cut to be later released as dlc that's ok with me
 
last thing i need is a slip in my yakuza 3 case with a code to download the hostess club ($5 on psn otherwise!)

Wasn't the hostess club aspect one of the major aspects of the Yakuza universe? I mean it was the show stopper at all of the Tokyo Game Shows. I feel conflicted in my purchasing decision now.

Oh, Sega. I just made a joke about you in another thread.
 
But you really try hard to make it a fact.

You know what's more weirder than what Sega is doing with the localization? The term "more weirder".
 
In all seriousness though, I can't believe they're taking out the Japanese history test, I was looking forward to that :(
 
Edit: Haha! Caught my grammatical error!

" @Symphony: I'm not going to fight you about grammar Symph. I'm not going to take that bait.   -_- "

Hmm so they took out that Japanese quiz show in the arcade and the hostess club...
 
I'm OK with this!

I'm a huge huge yakuza fan and upon hearing this news I have two things to say.
1. Fuck you sega 
2.I'm not buying it, well maybe when it's 20 bucks and used so sega does not get the money.

WTF?  Why would Hostess clubs be taken out?  We have strip bars in the west and it's not that much of stretch to write a blurb explaining what a hostess club is and how it works.
 
FUCK YOU SEGA.

I wasent too bothered about this when I read it since it seemed on the face of it to be content I didnt care about or need but I read the comments of the story I was reading and it said that in Yakuza 2 it was a large component with Club Managment and such. While it dosent really impact whether im going to buy the game or not, though im not fully decided either way, I do wish it could be in the game since it sounds like it could be a lot of fun.

This announcement honestly doesn't bother me.  The hostess bar mini games in the previous games were a tedious grind and felt like nothing more than a money sink.  While I like the aspects of the game that showed you more of Japanese culture, this is one part I'm not sad to lose.  
 
They're not in the 4th game either, instead replaced with the tournament fighters you have to train up..  So it seems even the Japanese got sick of them.

yeah. This is so dumb. On one hand you want to support series like this in the us. But cutting content is really inexcusable. IS there any way to more quickly destroy fan goodwill that cutting content for a region? I guess i hope noone buys it and sega loses significant money on it.  Business decisions like this need to be punished.

It looks like Sega fucked up again.

" yeah. This is so dumb. On one hand you want to support series like this in the us. But cutting content is really inexcusable. IS there any way to more quickly destroy fan goodwill that cutting content for a region? I guess i hope noone buys it and sega loses significant money on it.  Business decisions like this need to be punished. "

" This announcement honestly doesn't bother me.  The hostess bar mini games in the previous games were a tedious grind and felt like nothing more than a money sink.  While I like the aspects of the game that showed you more of Japanese culture, this is one part I'm not sad to lose.    They're not in the 4th game either, instead replaced with the tournament fighters you have to train up..  So it seems even the Japanese got sick of them. "

But that's just the thing. The hand is not feeding you like it should. The hand is feeding the japanese game just fine, but its giving you watered down adulterated sustenance. Do you want to be a second class gamer when it comes to imports, forever. It seems like a great series. By its own merits it deserves to do well. But Sega can't cut content. Cutting content is not okay. Sega and every other publisher needs to get this message. No gamer should feel obligated to buy bad ports. If you do, how can you ever hope for better. I really like sega but they have gotten worse over the years and one of the reasons is that people keep buying crap they put out. You gotta draw the line somewhere, even if it means no sequel in the us for this series.

" But that's just the thing. The hand is not feeding you like it should. The hand is feeding the japanese game just fine, but its giving you watered down adulterated sustenance. Do you want to be a second class gamer when it comes to imports, forever. It seems like a great series. By its own merits it deserves to do well. But Sega can't cut content. Cutting content is not okay. Sega and every other publisher needs to get this message. No gamer should feel obligated to buy bad ports. If you do, how can you ever hope for better. I really like sega but they have gotten worse over the years and one of the reasons is that people keep buying crap they put out. You gotta draw the line somewhere, even if it means no sequel in the us for this series. "

Oh Sega...why must you constantly make stupid decisions that outshine your occasional not-stupid decisions.
Stupid decision #1: Waiting a whole year to release it outside Japan. 
Stupid decision #2: Releasing it on the same day as FFXIII
Stupid decision #3: Removing content that made it into the last game and offering bullshit excuses as to why.
 
I still want it, but I'm bummed about this for sure.  Does anyone know if the European release will have this content? If it does, I'm importing. If it doesn't, no Yakuza 3 for me until it hits the bargain bin. It'll probably hit the bargain bin sooner rather than later anyway, since Sega has basically set it up to fail. And for those keeping track, Yakuza 4 comes out in Japan next week. Maybe we'll get a shitty version of that by 2012.

Does this mean some of the boobs have been taken out? ..not cool.

" @Supermarius: For Yakuza as a franchise to not have cut content, there needs to be a possibility for the next installment to even get RELEASED.  The only way for that to happen is if people buy Yakuza 3. I'm not personally missing out on anything. OH NO MY WHOLE WORLD IS IMPLODING OVER FUCKING HOSTESSES. I mean, sheesh. No one can be happy with what they get. Gamers, how fucking self-entitled. There's a bottom-line at Sega, like any business.   Unless the cuts affect the story (the actual MAIN reason to play it), I'm not seeing the big deal. "

fuck this man, they are only cutting content because they have a lazy translation team. I'm a westerner and trust me, I understand the concept of a fucking hostess bar. I'm going to cancel my preorder in protest to this crap.

I don't care, I'll be getting my fix of hot hostess action in Yakuza 4 very soon.

I read this over on Kotaku. Sega always has to f something up, first PS3 Bayonetta and now this. Wonder what next, Sonic 4 being canceled and turned into another 3D shadow game? 
 
Edit: To all the people saying they're not going to buy the game you still should. If you don't what is Sega going to do with the series you love? Not release the 4th one. If you show your support maybe they will do a better localizing job on the 4th game.

" @Supermarius said:

" But that's just the thing. The hand is not feeding you like it should. The hand is feeding the japanese game just fine, but its giving you watered down adulterated sustenance. Do you want to be a second class gamer when it comes to imports, forever. It seems like a great series. By its own merits it deserves to do well. But Sega can't cut content. Cutting content is not okay. Sega and every other publisher needs to get this message. No gamer should feel obligated to buy bad ports. If you do, how can you ever hope for better. I really like sega but they have gotten worse over the years and one of the reasons is that people keep buying crap they put out. You gotta draw the line somewhere, even if it means no sequel in the us for this series. "

I'm not trying to defend the cuts, but like I've said..  the games have proved unpopular in the past, they were never going to spend a lot of money translating the game, and in order to get the hostess bars they'd have had to liscence the likenesses of many Japanese celberaties.  Combined with the fact the minigames was horrible, I really don't understand what the big deal is.  
 
I do think we should simply be thankfull we're seeing the game in any form, they could just have easily have said it's not going to sell (and it likely won't, with or without this content) and not bothered at all.  If you want to 'punish' Sega by not buying this, it just means they wasted $20 on the two man translation team and that we have no hope of ever seeing Kenzan, Yakuza 4, or any future game in the series in English, ever. "

Man, from the quick look it looks great. Why does sega allways have to do at least one messed up thing in all it major releases in the past few years. :(

Sorry but what is a hostess club and why wouldn't it make sense in a US/EU release?

" Sorry but what is a hostess club and why wouldn't it make sense in a US/EU release? "

The cuts suck but by no means is it a dealbreaker.  
 
Sega is working with a limited budget and very small time window for finishing this project and they probably realize that they will be losing money on this game regardless.  
 
So cut Sega some slack. People saying they are canceling their pre-orders are overreacting.

" @Venatio said:

" Sorry but what is a hostess club and why wouldn't it make sense in a US/EU release? "

It's a type of bar in Japan where you pay girls to have drinks with you. In terms of gameplay.. imagine the GTA IV man dates, but you have to pay for super expensive items that require a lot of grinding in order to afford. "

If I buy this game, it won't be for the gameplay or story. It'll be for the cultural experience. They shouldn't be cutting out content that (I feel) is one of their biggest selling points.

Also for your information not only is the hostess thing gone together with the quiz, but also Shogo, Mahjong and a few ohter Mini games are said to have gotten removed.  
Of course all the Mini-Quests and NPC that had any thing to do with these are of course also gone.
 
Oh and Massage Parlours also seem to be gone.

I'm not getting all up in arms about this but this went from a day 1 purchase for me, to a wait and see if this gets put back in via DLC.

" I'm not getting all up in arms about this but this went from a day 1 purchase for me, to a wait and see if this gets put back in via DLC. "

" What will we be missing from no Hostess bar mini games? 
 
@bretthancock said:

" I'm not getting all up in arms about this but this went from a day 1 purchase for me, to a wait and see if this gets put back in via DLC. "

If they release this it for free DLC that will be fine. If we have to pay, best believe every gaming website and editors will rip Sega and Sony apart. "

Sega: A proverbial man with a gun, pointed at his foot, and he just keeps on pulling the trigger.

" @Supermarius: For Yakuza as a franchise to not have cut content, there needs to be a possibility for the next installment to even get RELEASED.  The only way for that to happen is if people buy Yakuza 3. I'm not personally missing out on anything. OH NO MY WHOLE WORLD IS IMPLODING OVER FUCKING HOSTESSES. I mean, sheesh. No one can be happy with what they get. Gamers, how fucking self-entitled. There's a bottom-line at Sega, like any business.   Unless the cuts affect the story (the actual MAIN reason to play it), I'm not seeing the big deal. "

" @WinterSnowblind said:

" @Venatio said:

" Sorry but what is a hostess club and why wouldn't it make sense in a US/EU release? "

It's a type of bar in Japan where you pay girls to have drinks with you. In terms of gameplay.. imagine the GTA IV man dates, but you have to pay for super expensive items that require a lot of grinding in order to afford. "

That's it? I thought it would be something much bigger then that "

I read that Sega said that this had to happen. It was either this or actually not releasing the game in the West at all because they had a very very strict deadline. They had to be done with the localization until March. If they missed that window Sega would not have released it at all. I'm no Yakuza expert but if I understand things right the hostess bar thing is some kind of dating simulator thing? That would mean that is involves a lot of text and therefore a lot of text to be translated. This was the part Sega thought they could cut because of time contraints. Yeah... it's kind of sad but would you prefer this or no game at all? I personally thinks it's rather cool that sega even tries to release this game in the west again. 
 
I'm no apoligist. I'm only trying to see this as level headed as possible. It's not the end of the world. Yakazu 3 seems to be fat on content even without these cut out parts.

How much did they cut?  I got a signed Japanese copy that I never opened when I met the director guy for a meeting thing.  I never played it yet, and I figure I try it with the English copy...but if they cut a lot, I'd just crack open the JP version or end up selling it.

" How much did they cut?  I got a signed Japanese copy that I never opened when I met the director guy for a meeting thing.  I never played it yet, and I figure I try it with the English copy...but if they cut a lot, I'd just crack open the JP version or end up selling it. "