Zombies in Kamurocho (Yakuza of the end)

1up wrote:

What do you think the next game in the Yakuza series is going to be like? If you guessed "A Resident Evil-y romp through the streets of Kamurocho," you're right!

After teasing the game a bit last week, Sega formally took the wraps off Ryu ga Gotoku: Of The End in this week's issue of Famitsu magazine, and to say the least, it's shaking up the formula a bit. Instead of taking on mob bosses and trying to up your street cred in Tokyo's red-light district, you're instead teaming up with your yakuza rivals to rid the gritty alleys of the bloodthirsty zombies that have taken over. Really.

"We've been releasing Yakuza games at the rate of one per year," series producer Toshihiro Nagoshi told Famitsu. "The engine's been gradually improved down to the lowest of levels, and technologically it's gotten a lot better, but we still need to evolve -- and in order to evolve, we have to tear things down first. We need to find the right timing for that, but we don't want to disappoint gamers by putting an 'under construction' sign in front of Yakuza. So with this game, I'd like to simultaneously tear things down and unfold some new developments in the series."

The new Yakuza's plot begins in April 2011, when the seedy Kamurocho district of Tokyo is suddenly overrun by zombies. Japan's Self-Defense Force cordons off the entire neighborhood, leaving those who failed to escape in time to fend for themselves. This includes four characters that should be familiar to series veterans: Kazuma Kiryu, hero in most of the Yakuza games; Ryuji Gouda, the main villain in Yakuza 2; crazed career mobster Goro Majima; and Shun Akiyama, a moneylender who'd been involved in some particularly shady business just as the zombies struck.

You'll control all four of these characters in Of The End, and judging by the screenshots, they're about to kick some serious arse. Basic gameplay isn't much different -- you're still going around the city, carrying out missions, beating up dudes -- but with no police around and no yakuza machismo to uphold, everyone's instead carrying machine guns and other weapons as they blow the snot out of the undead hordes. (The Yakuza series' penchant for goofy minigames is still around, too -- despite the chaos, the cabaret clubs are still open for business, so your evenings spent drinking with hot chicks won't need to be disturbed.)

When asked why zombies, of all things, Nagoshi brought up Ryu ga Gotoku Kenzan!, the 2008 game that took the Yakuza formula to the Japan of several centuries ago. "Kenzan blew away the classic formula by setting it in old Japan," he said. "With this game, I want to blow it away again in a different way. I think Yakuza is the sort of game you can play constructively in lots of different ways, and that's exactly why I wanted to try something like this. This isn't some kind of experimental work, though -- it's a fun, full game, and we're very confident as we continue work on it."

No release date was announced for Of The End, but the game will almost certainly have a large presence in the Tokyo Game Show this week, so stick around for more coverage.

Weird.

LMFAO

oh well i'm getting it without question anyway i love the series too much in general

If they're bringing back to life dead people, I want Mine.

Minigun arm? This is too great.

wtf... why ryuji got a gatling gun arm?? >.>