and see, it's stuff like that that makes sega even hesitate on bringing games that could possibly be big because people are whining and complaining over a small thing being taken out.

I'm with the crowd in wishing this was in the US version but it's not to the point I'd cancel my pre-order. There's other ways to get my 3d female pixelated fix.

Maybe they should consider putting the extra content as some DLC.

Then they could put the game out as is and if people want all that extra stuff they can buy it. Sure it screams of cash grab but atleast it would be an attempt to please those fans and put out the game the way they want.

Sega saw it fit to cut content to increase the odds of one of their most wanted games making it here? It's official. They are the worst publisher of all time and deserve to be destroyed by meteorites.

Craziness. That's what this is. Can't believe people are canceling pre-orders over 2 pieces of game content being cut. It's only 2 things right?

People really need to learn how to pick their battles.

If GTA4 contains /far/ worse stuff than any "hostess bar," I really don't see why Sega is fearing potential backlash if they leave the content in the game.

They're getting even more backlash by taking them out. I don't even care that much about the bars, and might not even have played them, but the idea of a neutered game with excised content doesn't make me feel like dropping full price on it.

Those people are idiots if they do not buy the game. I know people might not agree with me but if it does not take away from the story then who gives a shit. I bet you if yakuza 4 doesn't come here they guna bitch about that too, but guess what it was your fault in the first place. Ahhh can't stand people sometimes.

Sega should just cancel the game.

Almost nobody wants it anymore, so what's the point?

Even though I see the greater good in supporting the title, SEGA has shot themselves in the foot with this. Nobody wants an edited game, and especially if its going to be released at full price. And I do agree that even though alot of content was not left out (as far as I know)... one can't help but to feel like if SEGA didn't plan on releasing a 100% port..then why bother at all. It has became the norm when a game is released a year later it should have all of the orginal content and something extra for the time passed (eg. WKC voice-chat for online quest). Even though I will be buying this, cause all the dating mumbo-jumbo doesn't matter to me (I want to kick ass and take names in this game) I can see why many would be upset.

If people are so concerned with getting an authentic japanese cultural experience then they should just import the game and play it all in its original language

I can understand the feeling no one likes content cut from any game. However, a couple of good question to ask that I don't see a lot of people asking is how much exactly was cut from the game, did the cut content really add to the game or was it more of a side dish to the game, would it be worth getting negative PR and flak from the "Fox is a real News Channel" folk for the sake of digital boobies, and most importantly how will this negatively affect my gameplay experience.

Now obviously each person is going to have a different answer to these questions and for some people cutting anything from a game is sacrilegious but I like to think that there are still plenty of people that will get the game regardless. That or we can encourage Sega to make more shovelware by letting casual gamers continue to buy up there usual crap and miss the gems over a little bit of cut content. So I say take it in stride, it isn't anything worth getting upset over compared to the other atrocities Sega publishes.

If I rmember correctly, they said the hostess bar would not "resonate" with players here in the states. It certanly seems to be resonating now.

Honestly (speaking in the most general terms) what man does not like to chat up beautiful women, even if you don't want it to go anywere. That some Japanese pay for the privelage, well that is just more color to the culture and the game.

gimme the game I still want it... I just wanna kick peoples asses, screw the hottie bars

I have to say, having played this release recently, that I cannot believe that this has even a half of the following that it does. Terrible, terrible characters, script and story and what it tries to do, particularly with combat, left it feeling insanely clunky and severely outdated. Best of luck to fans of the series, hope you get the sequel but to me this really sounds the death-knell for the Japanese action genre.

I posted this on the blog:

"To those that say they “canceled pre-orders” or won’t be buying the game because of the sole omission of the cut features: I urge you to still buy the game.

I’m sure there are lots of folks at Sega that love this franchise more than many of you and they too would LOVE to see all features make it over for every game they work on and translate. By supporting the game, you can help Sega not make this cut for Yakuza 4.

This was probably a budget issue. I’m sure there is a massive volume of text involved in a project like this, and it could be possible that 25% of it or more is all dedicated to features like the host/hostess clubs. By cutting those features it may have made bringing Yakuza to us in English a possibility.

(to the point...)

I want to thank Sega for bringing us this game in English while encourage you as a company to consider a full-featured release for the next time. I really hope Yakuza 3 sells well. I’m looking forward to it."

Good thing i imported this!
/bragging

:)

* Censored cuts must be punished.

Hopefully they'll put it back in through free DLC. Though I'd rather they just pushed back the release, I've got too many games to buy in March as it is.

@shin

So we should just suck it up and take whatever they give us? I don't think so.

I still have my copy pre-ordered, but don't plan on me being too kind to it for the cuts. SEGA has done nothing in the last decade that impresses me as a US consumer short of releasing this game at all in the US. SEGA is a shell of a publisher now that won't let go of their well of good will they garnered in the 90's from the Genesis.

They're software only these days and lousy at it. Bad marketing, bad software, bad everything. I'm surprised Yakuza exists at all in the US.

I'm much more grateful to publishers like Atlus who don't treat their IP's as liabilities. 3D Dot Game Heroes is on my must buy list because of it.

Does anyone have a ballpark figure of how much translation costs usually are? Judging by the English dialogue in the demo, it wouldn't be a difficult job because the text is far from eloquent. My biggest question is exactly how much is cut? Sega said "a little trivia" but then also said "like trivia and hostess clubs." As in those are just TWO examples with more to come. I may be reading too much into it but I don't trust Sega one bit. They didn't even come clean until pressured and the Internet started nerd raging.

I get the idea of buying no matter what to get Yakuza 4 over here but what's to stop Sega from cutting content from that game? If they are able to sell a cheap localization, why not go a little cheaper next time. I get that they don't want to throw a lot of money at it, who in their right mind would after the first two Western bombs, but look at how Atlus localizes games, they add content. It's a shame this series isn't in another publisher's hands and just a disappointing situation all around.

Oh yeah, pre-order cancelled.

meh...I'm still waiting on my Virtua Fighter 5R/Final Showdown to come as DLC.

This outrage over keeping the History Quiz show is rediculous. Japanese history isn't common knowledge to Americans. Thus I don't understand why the fuss over it. Lousy complainers always complaining lousily.

Also, haven't the mobs been complaining about the localization of each Yakuza? Shouldn't this just be common place?

Heck maybe they'll produce it as DLC that's on the disc. At least that's how I remember Sega doing it with the game I mentioned before Yakuza.

There is also speculation that they cut out several other things too based on the trophy lists. For instance in the Japanese version you could get trophies for playing Shogi, Mahjong, and the Love in Heart massage parlor games. But in the American version those trophies are do not exist leading people to believe those have been cut as well. So if they really were cut along with the Hostess stuff and the Ans X Ans trivia quiz game, who knows how much else they might have cut but just didn't tell us?

I also believe that the majority of anger from the fans come from how sneaky Sega was about it, they weren't planning on telling anyone that they had cut content but were forced to when people started catching on leading IGN to confront them about it. That's the only reason they even told anyone about the cuts most likely, not to mention they did it like two weeks away from the game's release day making it even more of a surprised and harder to digest since we're paying $60 for an incomplete game. On top of that the excuses they made were insulting as well, such as claiming that some content was cut because it wouldn't resonate well with Western audiences even though fans were already accustom to these things from past games.

Also, cutting the hostess thing will really screw the game up in a way. What happens to a lot of the items that were useful in wooing the hostesses? They're essentially made useless, meaning you'll have no need of buying them or using them. Not to mention you'll have less options for advancing your character's stats, if Yakuza 3 (Japan) is anything like the previous versions successfully wooing the hostesses would also net you extra experience. You money will be piling up with less reason to spend it, essentially making the game easier.

A lot of the anger comes from Sega's horrible way of doing things and how poorly they've handled everything. Honestly, it just seems like Sega of America wants this game to fail. Putting it up against the likes of Final Fantasy XIII and God of War III, cutting content with one of reasons claiming to be because some of us Western folk might not understand the cut content (which is insulting, especially to people already fans of the series), making DLC that’s free and available to the public in Japan a pre-order bonus, and then charging full price for it. It’s just doesn’t look good and seems to make Sega look like they just don’t care about the fans. When things like this are done and people don’t buy the game, the fans are always to blame despite the mistake being on Sega’s part, especially when they fail to properly advertise some of their most overlooked games (i.e. Yakuza, Yakuza 2, Valkyria Chronicles, etc.).

The frustrations with Sega have been growing long before the news of the cuts were even reported, and it culminated into this.

Haha, the release date is completely baffling. Sega suits: "This game hasn't done well in the past over there but we've got a plan. Let's put it out within a week of a new Final Fantasy and a new God of War game. Nothing can go wrong!"

But hey, at least it's only coming out a year late and not over two years late...like Yakuza 2.

please tell me we're at least getting strip clubs to replace them. that would at least justify their removal.

@Trevor "Honestly, it just seems like Sega of America wants this game to fail"

Fanboy melodrama perhaps? What company says "Lets loose money!"?

What they have is bad decisions because they do not know enough about their customers. They need to really understand the game and the intended audience before they release stuff, or bring on a consultancy to do it for them, then structure marketing and localization decisions like this around that audience.

What Sega is is hamfisted and inelegant, not some kind of corporate equitant of a suicide.

Hot damn, did any of these people even play Yakuza 2? The Hostess clubs were by far the most uninteresting “select correct answer from pre scripted questions” mini-games I’ve ever played. Only made worse by the fact the girls only had 20 or so questions and would even repeat the same questions three times in one session!

You don’t play Yakuza for the terrible hostess money sinks, you play it for the thrill of grabbing a guy, throwing him into another guy and then turning on the last guy with your hands glowing blue with rage ready to deliver a beat down even gods would fear.

But hey what do I know; clearly people play Yakuza for the authentic Japanese experience. An experience were the world never ages and Kazuma can solve the problems of people at his leisure between fighting an army of ninja inside a castle made out of gold and fighting crazy Koreans on the backs of moving trucks.

I’m still going to get the game; I won’t miss the Hostess bars or Shogi. I’m happy we even get the game. But hey you can’t please everyone. Sure the game has cut content and is being sold at max price when it’s a year old but Europe has been getting this treatment for years.

I feel sorry for Sega really. They actually publish something different and genuinely fun that never sells and everyone is just getting incredibly uptight about not being able to play the worst part even though the dates with the hostess girls are still in the game.