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In a recent article in Gamerthirst, Nagoshi is quoted as saying that he hopes to“lend Yakuza the air of a cinematic experience” furthermore he stated “[w]hen players in the west plays, they will not only see the difference, but feel it as well.”

The article is pitched to compare the Japanese title to Rockstar Game’s GTA series. I am not sure that the comparison is apt at all. The Yakuza series has more in common with straightforward action games like Streets of Rage (with a far more detailed world).

The team at SEGAbits however spotted a far more interesting point in the article where Nagoshi states: “We did minimize certain parts of the game that would be difficult to understand to people outside of Japan.”

Does that mean edits to the story? Or does it mean that mean they contextualized the conversations for a Western audience? Perhaps they just cut out dialogue that refer cultural knowledge of Japan.

After all, Yakuza 3  ”is the best reproduction of modern Japan in videogame form to date.” That is, until Yakuza 4, right?

_{[Source: SEGAbits]}