Yakuza (series)

***Yakuza***, kent in Japan as , is an open world action-adventur beat 'em up video gemme franchise creatit, awned an published bi Sega. The series oreeginatit frae Toshihiro Nagoshi's desire tae creaut a gemme that wad tell the wey o life of the *[[yakuza]]*. Nagoshi initially struggled tae fynd a platform for the project, till Sony shawed interest in the prospect.

The series primarily focus on the *[[yakuza]]* Kazuma Kiryu frae the Tojo clan. Whilk Kazuma aften assists the Tojo clan, the series haes featurt him searchin for anither wey o life in the form o raisin orphans an aw. The gameplay of *Yakuza* haes the player controllin Kazuma (or anither chairacter dependin on the title) in a open warld whaur he can encoonter a enemy or perform an activity in the ceety tae obtain experience.

The franchise haes acome a commercial an creetical success, an as o 2016, Sega Sammy Holdings haes reportit that the *Yakuza* franchise haes sauld a combined tot o 9.3 million units in pheesical an digital sales syne its debut in 2005. Strang sales o the gemmes in its oreeginal Japanese mercat haes led tae the franchise's expansion tae ither middlins, includin film adaptations.

## Gemmes
The *Yakuza* series includes fower main gemmes; the gemmes wur released in chronological order, wi each new instalment follaein the events o the previous title. Thare are several spin-aff titles an aw. Ane relates Kazuma Kiryu's supposed ancestor, historic figur Miyamoto Musashi (a.k.a. Kazumanosuke Kiryu) frae the 16t an 17t centuries; anither follaes a zombie invasion o Kamurocho, the primary settin for the series; on the PSP, anither series is aboot a teenage street fechter frae Kamurocho that ends up in a fecht whaur he kills a Tojo Clan member.

On 31 August 2011, twa new *Yakuza* gemmes wur annooncit: Yakuza 5 (Ryū ga Gotoku 5) an a sequel tae the PSP gemme, Kurohyō 2.

### Main series

### Spin-affs

The success o the main *Yakuza* series haes spurred the creation o a spin-off, *[[Ryū ga Gotoku Kenzan!]]*, which wis released in Japan an Asie on 6 Mairch 2008.

Umwhile kent unner the wirkin title "Project K", Yakuza: Black Panther is a spin-aff on PlayStation Portable that wis released in Japan on 22 September 2010.

*Of the End* involves a zombie ootbreak in Kamurocho. This spin-aff entry is bein localisit in the Wast as *Yakuza: Dead Souls*, an is released in North Americae on 13 Mairch 2012.

## Production
### Legacy
The franchise's mixed gameplay is inheritit frae past Sega gemmes that series producer Toshihiro Nagoshi wirked on includin, the *[[Shenmue]]* series, the *[[Virtua Fighter (series)|Virtua Fighter]]* series, the *[[Die Hard Arcade|Dynamite Deka]]* series (ダイナマイト刑事 a.k.a. *[[Dynamite Cop]]*), the *[[SpikeOut]]* series an the *[[Jet Set Radio]]* series. Explicit tribute is peyed tae thir gemmes throu product placement o *[[Virtua Fighter 4]]*, *[[Virtua Fighter 5]]*, *[[SpikeOut]]* an *Dynamite Deka EX* arcade cabinets in *Yakuza* Club Sega gemme centers (the latters wur first introducit in *Shenmue*) an cameo appearances (lik Goji Rokkaku frae ''Jet Grind Radio'').

The *Yakuza* gameplay resembles the ane introducit in *Shenmue* in mony respects includin Event Mode, Adventure Mode, Battle Mode, minigames an QTE.

### Mercatin
The series is kent for its expandin video gemme tie-in an product placement mercatin policy. Sic strategy allous tae support the gemme's costly production an in the same gies a realistic aspect tae the environs which are based on real locations in Tokyo, Osaka an Naha.

### Cast
The gemme's oreeginal vyce actors are Japanese celebrities which can be *[[seiyū]]*, sangsters, *[[tarento]]*, film or TV series actors, radio or telly celebrities. Cabaret girls an alike characters hae featurt models, gravure idols an adult actresses as vyce actresses an likenesses. Syne the 2008 spin-aff, the gemme series' main chairacters hae thair face modeled in 3D efter thair vyce actors. As in the ''Virtua Fighter'' series, Wastren main an minor characters daena speak (an course) in Japanese but rather in Inglis.

The PlayStation 3 instawments' realistic character design is based on Cyberware 3D scanner, Softimage XSI 6.5 3D models an Sega's Magical V-Engine.

### Wastren localization chynges
When the series wis internaitionalizit an localizit tae fit the wastren mercat several chynges occurred. Thir include chyngin the title o the gemme (*Like a Dragon* 龍が如く, *ryū ga gotoku* became *Yakuza*) an the names o several characters (Shintaro Kazama is Shintaro Fuma, Akira Nishikiyama is Akira Nishiki, Futoshi Shimano is Futo Shimano, Sai no Hanaya is Kage).

*Yakuza 4* adjustit several of thir localisation changes, follaein creeticism o the previous gemmes, an in pairticular the content excisit frae the Wastren release o *Yakuza 3*. Producer Noguchi notit that thare wis an attempt tae "bring a mair complete localization that wis mair faithful to the source material". This included reversin several name chynges. In addition, some conventions wur chyngit; in previous Wastren localisations, protagonist Kazuma Kiryu haed been referred tae primarily bi his first name. In *Yakuza 4*, he is referred tae primarily bi his surname, Kiryu, which mair closely reflects the oreeginal dialogue.

## Music
The three *Yakuza* oreeginal soondtrack albums are componed bi Hidenori Shoji, Hideki Sakamoto *et alii* an are published bi Wave Master. Additional soondtrack featurs sangs frae Japanese airtists Crazy Ken Band, Zeebra, Ketsumeishi an Eikichi Yazawa.

## Notes an references

## Freemit airtins
*Ryu Ga Gotoku series Portal Steid 
*Yakuza series Portal Steid  
*Ryu Ga Gotoku series Twitter Accoont 
*Ryu Ga Gotoku series Offeecial Blog