I’ve never played any of the game from the Ryu ga Gotoku (Yakuza in the US) series except the brief demo of Ryu ga Gotoku Kenzan!, of which creative director Toshihiro Nagoshi said is a spin-off of the series. I love the demo very much but am going to wait for the English version. And that good feel spread to Ryu ga Gotoku 3, the true sequel and confirmed to come out this spring in Japan, a year after Kenzan! was released. Amazing speed for Nagoshi and his team at Sega, who began works on the game almost immediately after Kenzan!

Weekly Famitsu recently has a 6-page scoop on the game with first ever screens and story details. Some of the screens made it online and I got the mag myself, so let’s take a look at what appears to be an amazing looking game in the making.

Source: Famitsu, Game Watch, Gpara �38; GNN.

Story

Ryu ga Gotoku 3 takes place in 2009, two years after events in Ryu ga Gotoku 2 (aka Yakuza 2, came out last week in the US). Kazuma Kiryu and 12-year-old Haruka, daughter of his love interest Yumi, begin to love the peaceful life of Okinawa managing a kindergarten. Okinawa was chosen despite plenty of other suggestions from fans of the series to provide contrast to the mostly city settings of the series.

Unfortunately for our hero, disputes over a piece of land, attacks on his love ones and a couple of shooting incidence by a mysterious man who looks his foster father Fuma Shintaro dragged Kiryu back into the Japanese underworld again.

The Famitsu editor noted the use of real world brand in the game and Nagoshi acknowledge the present of sponsors, plus there will be more shops than ever in the streets for the game. Day and night cycle will be implemented as well. To make the streets even more life-like, more people are being added with their actions increased and AI improved, cabs can be seen every where too. Camera will be adjustable now and there will be almost zero download time.

Nagoshi stressed that there are a lot more that these still images don’t show and they still have plenty of mysterious elements waiting to be revealed. He also asking everyone to expect a major announcement to the game at Tokyo Game Show 2008.

Screenshots

Posted in News on Thursday, September 25th, 2008 at 11:48 pm |
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