https://twitter.com/yakuzagame/status/959469419964653568

Yakuza 6: A Song of Life's North American release date has been delayed from March 20th to April 17th. A demo will be released February 27th and the save file from that can be imported into the full game.

Previously the game would have released alongside Sea of Thieves, A Way Out, Detective Pikachu, Ni no Kuni II and Valkyria Chronicles 4 (another Sega game).

Now it will release alongside LABO and God of War.

Personally, I'm kinda happy about this since it gives me more time to play through Yakuza 5, the only main entry in the series I haven't played yet.

As someone who isn't gonna play any of those games it was going to launch alongside of I'm bummed it's been delayed, but if it allows the game to not be buried it's for the best. Also the demo on my birthday is nice.

A little disappointing, but I'm OK with it if Sega feels that's what's best! I just finished Kiwami recently, anyway, so I could use a little bit of an extra break before diving into 6.

So, so many punks are gonna get heels to the face when I get my hands on that demo.

I didn't even know Y6 was coming as early as March. Now I'm retroactively bummed that it's been delayed.

Wasn’t big on the game all that much compared to previous games so I can’t say I care. I am more interested in a localization announcement for Hokuto Ga Gotoku.

Damn, I had a free week for its original release. Ah well.

I'd say it had better chances going up against those other releases than God of War, if sales came into the discussion for the delay.

God of War seems like more of a threat than any of those games. (I'm not saying it's better, it just has more in common) That sucks, it's easily the game i'm most excited for this year that has a solid release date. (unless they delay it again!) Oh well, it's only a month, I'll probably end up getting the game pass to play some Sea of Thieves or something.

@boozak: I don't think it really has almost anything in common, honestly. They are dramatically different games.

Will God of War eat into some of Yakuza 6's sales? Maybe, GoW is still a pretty big name. But anyone looking to play a quirky Japanese crime drama/comedy/"everything else that is Yakuza" certainly isn't going to get their fill from GoW.

@zeik: All I said it has more in common than the other ones mentioned coming out in march. Yes there are a lot of differences but it's still a third person melee power fantasy.

Although as you've said it is quirky and japanese so maybe theres more overlap with people who will buy Ni No Kuni II & Valkyria Chronicles 4 than God of War. Who knows.

@zeik: GoW and Yakuza both seem to be cornering that "badass dad simulator" niche so their could be some overlap. /joking

@boozak: Personally, and the feeling I always get from most other fans, is that the quirky Japanese part is the main draw. Curbstopping dudes is fun, but I feel like you could make a Yakuza game with no fighting that still felt like "Yakuza" easier than a Yakuza game that was only fighting and nothing else. (Although you'd still have to tear off your shirt at the top of Millennium Tower at some point.)

There are plenty of "power fantasy" games out there, but none of them are quite like Yakuza.

I was more disappointed about this than Red Dead 2.

@zeik: That’s not even remotely true, the flashy fighting in the game is one of the big draws among longtime fans, the quirky Japanese side stuff you can find in plenty of other Japanese games. Rain or shine, you can’t have one without the other.

This is actually good news for me. I still need to finish Yakuza 4 and 5 but going back to PS3 after playing Zero is hard on the eyes and hands so I have been putting it off.

@zeik: the common PS4 player will see them both as exclusive games.

One -thanks to the old gaming media- is GTA: "Japanese Clone Edition" and the other is a reboot of GoW.

@cybexx: I don't blame you man for missing Yakuza 5 because Sega have pushed it two years after its release in Japan and when they did people have already sold prev-gen consoles because it has been a year since this gen has begun.

But man, oh man you are missing the BEST Yakuza game and one of my all time favorites. There is a lot of work and passion in the game that will make you wonder how did they manage to pull it off considering that it is running on a new engine at that time.

@giant_gamer: The "common" PS4 player is unlikely to even go near Yakuza 6 at this point, being the 6th game in the series so heavily dependent on its predecessors. The majority of people jumping into the series for the first time would have done so with 0 or Kiwami and would know what to expect from Yakuza by now, and if not, would see every recommendation point them in that direction.

I strongly disagree, evidenced by the fact that the Haruka segment in 5 still somehow felt like some of the most Yakuza shit ever, or how so many people wanted a stand-alone Cabaret Club game after 0. Yakuza is more than just any old quirky Japanese stuff, it has a unique flavor of quirky Japanese stuff that you can't find anywhere else.

Yes, at the end of the day you need both, I'm not saying the combat is not part of the draw at all, but I am positive you could make a no combat Yakuza spin-off that would appeal to the fanbase far sooner than you could make one that was pure combat.

@zeik: Then you haven’t played enough Japanese games.

The game is a beat ‘em up by heart, while the combat isn’t complex by standards like character action games it is fast, skillfull, with a bit of depth, not to say flashy. One of the biggest complaints importers like myself has had with Yakuza 6 and Kiwami 2 is the dull combat. I realize that it is more than its quirky stuff, which is exactly my point. You remove the combat from the equation, and you’re left with your average Japanese sandbox game.

In retrospect, the wackyness wasn’t quite as bloated as it is with Yakuza 0, looking back at the first game I remember there being more sub content with less comedy and more gritty drama, with only the occasional men-dressing-up as babies substory. This is one of my issues with modern Yakuza, embracing its sillyness a bit too much. Majima turning into a meme with the likes of Majima Anywhere etc. The wackyness is not what attracts the fanbase, it is what attracts newcomers to the series.

And I’ll counter the argument regarding Haruka’s minigame with Ishin, a game largely centered around its combat. You remove the combat from Yakuza and you don’t have a Yakuza game anymore, you got pretty much your average Japanese sandbox game.

@thechris: You have no idea how many Japanese games I've played.

We'll just have to agree to disagree. While I do get my enjoyment out of combat in the series, I can spend hours and hours doing side-content in yakuza and never get bored, but there's always a point in every Yakuza where I am actively avoiding every optional fight and start to feel like the long combat gauntlets are a bit of a chore.

I think you're projecting far too much of your own personal feelings when you say the wackiness only attracts newcomers. That is something that I'm absolutely positive appeals to both long time fans and newcomers alike. Majima is the number 1 most popular character in the series for a reason, and it's not because of a lack of wackiness in Yakuza 1. (Because he was already pretty meme worthy.)

@zeik: That wasn’t the point I was making though, people who are already fans don’t stay with Yakuza solely because of the wackyness, you can get plenty of that with western games like Saints Row. The wackyness is the talking point of Yakuza 0, every screencap is of one bloke saying something wacky, or a picture of the chicken you can hire as a manager. It’s what attracts the newcomers, once they play the game they see there is more to it but the wackyness is the selling point. At that point we can agree that plenty of people will find enjoyment in what else the games has to offer. But it only leads back to my original point that the Yakuza games are more than just their mini-games. They are by their very nature very Japanese-based sandbox games like Shenmue, Deadly Premonition or Way of the Samurai. In the original Yakuza, Majima was just a punk who messed with Kiryu, in later games, especially in Kiwami, they are cashing in on his crazyness and turning it up to a 11. It’s gotten a bit overboard to a point where the substories generally only consists of absurd characters in absurd scenarios, there was more balance in the earlier games. That last thing I admit is just my viewpoint

And I feel the opposite, the long fights, including boss fights like the Final confrontation with Ryuji in Yakuza 2, or the Final bosses in 4 is the best part about the Yakuza games for me. The mini-games are salad dressing, that I only occassional play a bit before moving unto something else. They exist to create the immersion of a virtual Japan, which is another priming factor of the series popularity

@giant_gamer: I'm looking forward to 5. I'll start it this week. I picked it up a while back when it was one of the PS Plus free games but had been putting it off because I had not played 4. I had not played 4 because 3 took me forever to finish because I played through over half of it back when it came out and then lost my save when my old PS3 died.

Yakuza 3 is not a long game but still kind of a slog due to really poor story pacing early on. I had tried to replay it a couple times and get back to where I was but it wasn't til Yakuza 0's release that I actually got the motivation to play through and finish it. Then I played Yakuza 0 and immensely enjoyed that. I played through 4 last month.

I know 5 is extra long which is why I'm totally okay with this delay of 6.

@cybexx: Playing 4 first is a good idea, if nothing else than for you to get to know Saejima and Akiyama character respectively.

@thechris: I feel like we're talking in circles, because "people play Yakuza solely for the wackiness" was never my point either. Yakuza is absolutely a sum of all its parts, I'm only saying it's not even split with the combat. I'd argue Yakuza is like 30/70 ratio of combat to "everything else", maybe 40/60, in terms of what makes Yakuza "Yakuza".

Although we may just be fundamentally at odds, because I've long considered the boss fights by far the weakest element of the combat. The game's combat is at its peak when you're curbstomping random thugs. Once you get to a boss fight and most of your moves are disabled it's a lot less fun, beyond the spectacle and the occasional dope QTE. It's usually just about abusing your most abuseable available skill. (Komaki Tiger Drop OP.) Also not fun? When they throw half a dozen (or more) guys with guns at you.

@zeik: @zeik: The bosses you are referring to are the ones from Kiwami, which admittedly haven’t aged well. If nothing else because some of them are poor reused bosses from other games, Shimano notably being Mr Shakedown. It is absolutely not true that your skills are disabled, you can use any heat actions you want provided you’ve unlocked them. On top of that there are plenty of different counters and other skills you can use to dispatch enemies. I remember using said counters on the likes Kuze, or Lao Gui in 0.

Having said that the boss fight with Nishiki is still one of the best bosses in the series, even in Kiwami.

“I feel like we're talking in circles, because "people play Yakuza solely for the wackiness" was never my point either. Yakuza is absolutely a sum of all its parts, I'm only saying it's not even split with the combat. I'd argue Yakuza is like 30/70 ratio of combat to "everything else", maybe 40/60, in terms of what makes Yakuza "Yakuza"”

And that’s where I disagree, taking quite a few of the spin-offs into consideration like the PSP games or Ishin, the combat is the aspect of Yakuza you’ll be doing the most and ‘curbstomping a bloke with motorcycle’ as opposed to riding one like in GTA is what makes Yakuza, Yakuza, the way I see it anyway. So I guess we will have to disagree there.

@thechris: Not just Kiwami, Yakuza 4 threw a bunch of gun dudes in place of a real boss for Tanimura and it was not a very good fight. Also while abilities are not "technically" disabled, they basically are in most situations. Bosses being highly resistent to grabs locks you out of a huge part of your arsenal, and a lot of other abilities just don't function effectively against bosses. Either boss fights feel like a long and tedious affair of dodging and getting in some jabs, or they're a joke because you're OP by that point and can Komaki Tiger Drop them or counter stun lock everything they do (like I did to 5's final boss) or just bring a shotgun in 0.

I will grant you that Nishiki fight though. That fight was legitimately fun and epic. I don't really know why that fight worked when so many don't, but more bosses should feel like that.

@zeik: Gun fight bosses are generally never fun because of the staggering that guns do, in the old games, but the counters can be used on bosses. Maybe I’ll upload a video of my Legend run in 0 to show it in the future but that doesn’t help the discussion now. Munakata is basically another Jingu, not sure why they felt like they had to add him in after the fun fight with Daigo and the others. The Nishikiyama Lieutenant in the first game was much easier to fight with the inclusion of the Rush style in Kiwami though. Easier to avoid his fast paced Gun attacks. Dodging and getting in some jabs is how I feel it should be, not like Dynasty Warriors where you run through guys like you are mowing the lawn. The fight with So Amon in 0 was particularly thrilling to me because of how much I had to dodge, and unlike previous games where he was generally cheese, I could actually win through conventional means. Jo Amon, however, in 0 is bullshit. But I feel they really nailed the bosses in 0 and 5, in Ishin it was perfect, the right amount of skill and having to land your attacks, build up heat and take ‘em to town.

Anyway, I asked the question whether Yakuza’s draw is in its minigames or combat on Yakuzafan.com Discord Channel. The answers seem to be either an equal measure of both, just a beat em up game etc. Evidently they don’t represent everyone playing the game but I thought I might as well throw that one out there, since we are having this discussion.

@thechris: I don't think they should feel like Dynasty Warriors, but I definitely wish they would do something else with the boss fights someday, so they don't just feel like a long normal fight with less options. It would be great if stuff like counters and throws were an intended purposeful part of a boss strategy. Bring out some of that latent Virtua Fighter gameplay.

Also that poll sounds extremely misleading. When you just say "mini-games" I think of darts and shit, not all the story driven side-quests, or the story itself, or Kamurocho as a whole, etc. When I say "everything else" I mean literally everything that's not combat. If I saw that poll I'd probably vote combat too.

@zeik: Everything that isn’t the combat is pretty much mini-games, or side activities, one person did bring up the substories being pretty essential. So I don’t think I was misleading anyone, I can screencap the answers if you want?

None of the boss fights ever felt the same to me. In Yakuza 2, fighting Ryuji at the top of the Millennium, A Scattered Moment playing, the dark murky atmosphere, the snow falling, knowing they are gonna lose their lives. That’s Yakuza to me, boss fights with a lot of tension. In Yakuza 6, the lack of heat actions, the tanky controls for Kiryu with some pretty redundant kicks and punches, that made every fight feel the same. That wasn’t the case in the old games. I don’t know, maybe you’ll like how it plays there since we don’t ever seem to agree ;)

You said ‘side content’ in your original post, hightlighting things like Haruka’s Dancing aspect and the Cabaret Management, that’s what were arguing. Putting the combat up against litterally anything else in the game seems like a moot point, when it’s just as big an aspect anything else in the game. Cause then we can start talking about “does the gam even need a story” etc. But I think we are past that. Again, I doubt we’ll agree on this whatsoever :P

@thechris: Then maybe that's my fault for not being clear enough. When I say you could make an enjoyable Yakuza experience with no combat I don't mean just slap a bunch of mini-games together and call it Yakuza. I mean ALL the hallmarks of a Yakuza game. A game where you run around Kamurocho as Haruka or something, doing side-quests and mini-games and all that shit, and has a Yakuza-ish storyline tying it all together, but no actual fighting, would still feel way more like Yakuza than the opposite.

No, it's not a fair comparison, which is why I've been saying it's not even split. The combat is absolutely part of its appeal, but of all the elements that come together to make Yakuza the combat is only a small-ish part of the whole. It feels like a long time ago now, but remember this started as a comparison with GoW and why that game would overshadow this one, because they're both 3rd person melee action games. But Yakuza is so much more.

@zeik: I will just say that Yakuza isn’t the only Japanese game with mini-games, and a tight designed hub to explore. It pretty much fill outs the blanks for how Japanese ‘open world’ games play. The beauty is in its attention to detail with its hub, Kamurocho, being based on an actual location in Japan. Shinjuku’s former red light district, naturally. It’s spawned fan video Tour guide series for the place. That is a big unique aspect, which also the Persona games do.

Anyway, now that you’ve clarified I think I can agree with what you’re saying,

I heard this has something called "food combos." I may have to look into this.

Demo is out and oops, Sega US accidentally uploaded the full version so some people didn't get the demo, they got the full game, for free.

I am one those people, yikes.

Just the US version I think. I got it earlier and it was the trial version.

As for the demo itself, man the performance can be pretty rough. Too used to Zero and Kiwami I guess.

I'm on a base PS4 and haven't noticed anything bad, but I don't have a good eye for it.

I am playing 5 now and i hear the performance is on par, which means it dips at times but not too bad for me to get through it. It is noticeable though.

Would the demo spoil 5?

@oursin_360: Very much. The game basically opens with the ending of 5.

@zeik: figures thanks, so far 5 is a step up from 4 so hopefully 6 is even better.

I think I would have preferred a vertical slice demo rather than a trial (congrats to those who got the full game though) I would imagine recapping the events of 5 and the slow start really wouldnt work to sell people on the game/series who arent already on board. (It kind of reminded me of 3 but thankfully i'd already played the first two) Anyway it seems alright but the combat is a lot less snappy. Hopefully it gets more fluid when you get better moves/stats. It is nice not to have to load in and out of combat though.

I'm playing it on a PS4 Pro and have had only one noticable frame drop.

As for the demo, I had the digital pre order and it's allowing me to play the full game. Wonder if that's the case for others who can play it.

This just opens up that can of worms again - if the game is fully ready and complete, why delay it in the first place? If it was a business decision for the release window, screw that.

@cannonballbam: no, it's only those in NA. Isn't tied to having purchased it at all. Even though it doesn't affect people outside America they have taken down the demo in the UK too.

@omgfather: well they are running a business... they probably needed some more time on translation and maybe(hopefully) some fixes for performance though

@omgfather: I am wondering the same thing; it feels similar to Super Mario Odyssey. They moved it to compete against another PS4 exclusive, God of War. Which doesn't make sense considering it got out of the way of nothing. So my guess it might be a technical or localization issue.

@alistercat: That is unfortunate. Hopefully it inspires those who haven't bought it but got the demo, to do so.

Wonder how long before the demo is back up...? Last check it still wasn't up yet. Granted, it was early morning, but I hope this isn't a multi day fix.

@oursin_360: Doubtful, as a fully English translated version of the game is releasing in Singapore in March.

https://www.play-asia.com/yakuza-6-the-song-of-life-english/13/70bvp7