Sega has Cut Yakuza 3 content, Listings of entire Cuts now available.

"The content between Yakuza 3 US/UK and Yakuza JP is a little different in that we took out certain bits in order to bring the game to the west in the time alloted for us to do so," a Sega rep told IGN. "The parts we ended up taking out were parts that we felt wouldn't make sense (like a Japanese history quiz game) or wouldn't resonate as much (such as the concept of a hostess club)."

You may have gone on a karaoke date with Rina in the demo. In the original game, you meet her in a hostess club, and have to buy her gifts and learn about her in conversations. Now, we suppose, she'll just randomly call you like she did in the demo. Somehow, the dating won't be affected, as the Sega rep assured IGN that "the story experience was the same as the Japanese version."

(Updated) Kotaku is officially against it now.
http://kotaku.com/5478862/sega-you-are-once-again-making-a-giant-mistake

Hostess club is the hardest thing to get over. I was expecting this, many people are canceling there pre-orders over this. The things that get me in this statement are how the rep says "we feel it wouldn't make sense or won't resonate"
First off I am not a ing idiot, nor is the American public. We can understand hostess clubs plenty and it's basically paying a female money to talk to her sometimes leading to prostitution. Done, explained, although its a not-so-common case that sex may get involved, its definitely not in the game. The Japanese quiz game I can understand, duh however this was a important opportunity for many people to get the full experience of Japanese culture and learn something! This side of japan is Not often seen and is usually poorly depicted by things like anime, TV shows and people who think all Japanese can be or are still samurai. Not only am I pissed off, I find this somewhat racist in the fact that Sega is cutting the content for a stupid reason like we wouldn't understand. The Japanese are a 98% homogeneous culture and racism is very common naturally because of this majority (its practically impossible to become a citizen, I bet even cheapyd can vouch for that). This is more then just sega here and before I go off into a even bigger rant I leave you with this message below.

Send us comments to: Sega of America, 350 Rhode Island Street, Suite 400, San Francisco, CA 94103.

Please watch the below video and voice you opinion against this decision.



I just hope Mahjong is still in it.

Sega Yakuza 3 Forum link:

http://forums.sega.com/forumdisplay.php?f=114

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oGVFt8kG08

Also Check out Sega's forum if your too lazy to call or write, all the topics are about this subject.
http://forums.sega.com/forumdisplay.php?f=114

2/25/2010 Update!

http://blogs.sega.com/usa/2010/02/24...with-yakuza-3/

Sega has confirmed that our voices are being heard! While they still haven't decided to add the removed content, they are feeling the full effect of our pressure and we must not let off them until they give us what we want!. So far they have now pre-packed some DLC codes (I believe the same from gamestop but am not sure) with in the copies that will be available but I am sure they will fold and add the content. Keep up the Great work responding to them!

2/27/2010 Update!

Here are the confirmed cut trophies, there is still more stuff based on what I've been reading but these are confirmed

Firm Player Bronze
Won a game of shogi (Japanese chess) without ever moving the King.

Sunbathing Dragon Bronze
You called at Mahjohng whilst still waiting for the horse


Fat arm Bronze
You spent over 300,000 yen in a Cabaret in one go.

Good Coordinator Bronze
You coordinated the girls well in the Kabatsuku

Este-mania Bronze
Played the 2 Este modes.

This should be a confirmed 10% However there is more stuff based on what I saw in the trophies.

Update! 3/3/2010
we now know whats cut via wikipeda but everybody uses it as a referance nowadays
10 (all) Hostess/Cabaret Clubs Cut
4 Mini-Games cut
(Answer X Answer, Shogi, Mahjong, Massage Parlor)
2 Missions Cut (idk but one was a Transexual one so...)
and a few items/dlc stuff not worth mentioning

Update 3/3/2010!
Sega posted a new blog on Yakuza 3,

http://blogs.sega.com/usa/2010/03/03...ma17/#comments

And that’s that! In addition, we’d also like to spotlight another post that went up on our forums earlier this week, with regard to the many responses that continue to pour in from fans about the Hostess clubs and Answer X Answer. (To confirm as well, the Hostesses are in the game, and you can still go on dates, Karaoke, etc, with them.) Please know that while we aren’t able to respond to every comment, our community teams are reading and listening to all the comments, and we are passing those on internally for you guys. You can also add your comment to that discussion here

Click to expand...

Hmm seems sketchy to me, we will just have to find out when its released.

More Confirmed Mission cuts 3/13/2010

The following quests were cut because they were deemed unsuitable for the Western audience.

Chapter 3 and 4 listed cuts (confirmed by players of both games)

I Wanna Go to Tokyo pt. 1
The Brewer's Treasure
Make the No. 1 Cabaret Club Girl!
English Conversation Solicitor step 1
English Conversation Solicitor step 2
Love's Cupid
Love's Cupid Continues
Love's Cupid Continues Again
A Trip Before Marriage

Chapter 5
Manga Artist Debut (Mangaka Debut)
The Runaway Phone Chat Girl (Terekura Iede Musume)
I Wanna Go to Tokyo pt. 2
Great Genius Showdown
Is she talking about me...?
Ayukawa Rina***

Chapter 6
A Satisfying Yakuza (Iyashiikei Yakuza)

Chapter 9
The Mars Fighter Invades Tokyo (Toukyou Shinryaku Kasei Fighter)

Chapter 10
Love's Cupid - The Finale (Koi no Cupid Kanketsuhen)
I Wanna Go to Tokyo pt. 3 (Toukyou ni Ikitai Dai 3 Hanashi)
English Conversation Solicitor step 3 (Eikaiwa no Kan'yuu step.3)
English Conversation Solicitor step 4 (Eikaiwa no Kan'yuu step.4)

Thats all 22 cut side missions, That's WAY more then the 1% Sega only claims to have cut. Including the mini games this adds up to 15-20% of cut time that could have been played in the game. This should be my last update unless we get better news, Please continue to Shout out and voice your opinion on this Directly to sega by sending them a letter or Calling them up. Thanks for all your support on this.
Quoted from GFAQs, this dude has an account there and made a post about it:

Final Update (unless they actually put stuff back in the game) 3/23/2010

"I thought you guys may want to know. I'm Nick Pantazis, I'm a writer and senior editor for VGChartz.com. I visited Sega's offices at GDC last week, and talked to them about the game directly. Two things were confirmed to me, which you'll probably be interested in:

One: Sega knows you're ****ed, but this was the only way the bigwigs would let them localize it at all, was if they limited the budget costs of the localization. Yakuza 1 and 2 were bombs for them in the west. They will consider doing things differently in the future. They actually read message boards like this. No, seriously. They check the internet for reactions. That said, if you just forgo buying it entirely, you're not getting anything else again.

Two: Sega will not be localizing Yakuza 4 at all if Yakuza 3 doesn't see solid sales. It's expensive, and time-consuming, and they have many much more successful franchises they can devote time to. For them to devote any time at all to giving us these games at this point is pure fanservice. Getting it used isn't going to help either. If you actually care about the franchise, I suggest you buy it. Also, there is a misconception that the removal of the hostess club meant the removal of the hostesses themselves. This is not the case. They are still in the game, and dateable.

As a side note, as someone playing the game it's excellent. I have a review copy I've been working on the past few days, and yes, some stuff has been removed, but there are still countless hours of content, a great story, great combat, tons of new locations around Japan to explore, and the Yakuza feeling is absolutely in tact. Skip if if you wish, but understand you yourself are signing the death of this franchise. A boycott of this game doesn't stop Sega from localizing differently next time. It stops them from localizing at all, ever again."

"They aren't threatening people. It's a business reality. The fact of gaming is that things that make money get made. I really enjoy this franchise. I'm posting this because I want people to make a mature and educated purchase decision, rather than the consumer equivalent of "holding your own breath till you pass out like a silly child." What you post will effect Sega's decisions about how they handle localization in the future, but what you buy will not. That will only effect whether you get it or not at all.

Your suggestion that Atlas should localize instead is extremely unlikely, for many reasons, not the least of which is that it costs a lot of money to buy localization rights off a company, especially for a late game in a franchise. In fact I've never seen it done. Do you have any examples of a 3rd or 4th game in a franchise being sold to a new publisher for localization? Especially a small publisher like Atlus. Perhaps you didn't notice, but their finances are deep in the toilet right now. They just reported a $24 million loss..."

I disagree with what he said about Atlus a little, considering Sakura Wars is being brought over by NIS, but then it's not the 4th game released in the US either....>.>

EDIT: Here's his prediction for sales needed for 4:

"I can't say for sure. I know it takes a long time to translate as much text as you find in a lengthy RPG, and the amount you pay staff for a year or so of localization work isn't cheap. However, Yakuza 3 has already sold almost as much as Yakuza 2 did lifetime in North America, in its first week. Almost 50K. That's a pretty damn good start. My guess is 150K-200K would probably cover localization costs, and constitute enough growth to consider future localization worth it, but don't hold that as absolute."

Click to expand...

This was all cut and paste by this guy from the Gamefaqs forums, it sounds legit to me so take from it what you will. The Sega Reps never actually cut any content from the game, They are just the PR department not the translators or actual deciders. They are Jackasses, Yes but they didn't actually make the cuts from how they portrayed it. It makes sense if you really did have a limited amount of budget and had to make a tough decision on what to get rid of. While everyone hates this its always is better then nothing so I retract part of my previous statement above because it was a different time and we had less information on what really was going on. You can still think its a conspiracy theory if you like however at this moment I can understand the reasoning behind it. Still though Fight Sega on this, send a letter a voice mail anything to let them know that this isn't a acceptable product and that next time we will not stand for it at all, and we still need closure on the missing content. Thats all I have left to say on this issue, I am looking to make a youtube video of the missing content. If you know how to make video on a ps3 game and/or know how to translate Japanese into subtitles get in contact with me and we can try to at the very least give back what sega took, in video format because its sure better then nothing.

It is still unknown what they removed, I can confirm that 5 trophies worth of content have been cut.

Does the JP version have English subtitles by chance? No way I'll be getting the US version with the content now missing. I was looking forward to seeing how th hostess club portion of the game played out.

[quote name='SynGamer']Does the JP version have English subtitles by chance? No way I'll be getting the US version with the content now missing. I was looking forward to seeing how th hostess club portion of the game played out.[/QUOTE]
there are translation guides you can read online, otherwise its slim pickings. I cant believe they are charging full price. This is too sneak as well 2 weeks before its released and now they mention it.

I've been playing Yakuza since Yakuza 1 and this is what Sega decided to do to their loyal fans? Thanks a lot

While I didn't care for that part of the gameplay in 1 & 2, I think it's really shitty of them to cut content from the US release. I swear, it's almost as if Sega ENJOYS ing up.

Seriously? If you vote no Please explain yourself in this forum at the very least! I want to know why you'd let sega cut content from your game then charge you full price.

I for one, wasn't too interested since I didn' tplay the first two, but now I'm less interested. And mahjong is in the game? Like a mini-game? If it's still in the game, I might pick this one up just for that!

[quote name='elessar123']I for one, wasn't too interested since I didn' tplay the first two, but now I'm less interested. And mahjong is in the game? Like a mini-game? If it's still in the game, I might pick this one up just for that![/QUOTE]
lol thats what I said, funny how that was my main interest to begin with, Has anyone even seen kung fu Mahjong?

I was interested in getting this (and playing the 2 predecessors), and now another quick kick in the balls delivered by a US publisher. This is really ed up. I feel like this is the same crap NISA pulled on the Prinny PSP game.

I was really impressed with sega for taking a chance and bringing this game over. I had planned to buy this on day one to show my support but that. Sega proves time and time again that its head is stuck firmly up its ass.

I'm cancelling my preorder right now. I intended to buy this game day one at full price to support them bringing it over (especially w/o dubbing).

Now they are cutting content (Hostess clubs) that were part of what made yakuza 2 foreign and interesting. Lame............ Cutting the quiz game is understandable though



nuff said.

Still picking up the game when it gets cheaper, but not supporting day 1 with this kind of crap. I'd rather them delay the release date and release it as intended.

Between God of war III and final fantasy XIII I think gamers have plenty of alternatives in march.

[quote name='phantasyx']lol thats what I said, funny how that was my main interest to begin with, Has anyone even seen kung fu Mahjong?[/QUOTE]

No, but I love Shaolin Soccer, and I saw that it's the same actors. But I guess the director went to work on Kung-Fu Hustle and the Dragonball movie instead =P

For much of the time, my avatar was from Saki, which is a mahjong anime. Although, I'll admit, it's not very good. If you're not interested in mahjong at all, I'd rate it at a 3/10. If you do, maybe a 6.5/10 =P

You guys are reading into this the opposite way you should. You are taking their explanation of removing content "it wouldn't make sense" when they already told you it was removed so it can ship the day they planned on having it ship. If they didn't remove those portions of the game, they would have removed other portions of the game so they could make the deadline, otherwise the game would have been pushed.

For some reason, everyone bitches when they push a game

[quote name='elessar123']No, but I love Shaolin Soccer, and I saw that it's the same actors. But I guess the director went to work on Kung-Fu Hustle and the Dragonball movie instead =P

For much of the time, my avatar was from Saki, which is a mahjong anime. Although, I'll admit, it's not very good. If you're not interested in mahjong at all, I'd rate it at a 3/10. If you do, maybe a 6.5/10 =P[/QUOTE]
Please do yourself a favor and enjoy kung fu mahjong and its sequel. Actually everyone should, its just like kungfu hustle only..with mahjong.

Has anyone seen the yakuza 3 ps3? They need to bring that over instead, forget the game I want that playstation!

http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=A0geu7f2e4VLOMUAVlFXNyoA?ei=UTF-8&p=yakuza%203%20ps3%20system&fr2=tab-web&fr=yfp-t-701-s

[quote name='kurrptsenate']You guys are reading into this the opposite way you should. You are taking their explanation of removing content "it wouldn't make sense" when they already told you it was removed so it can ship the day they planned on having it ship. If they didn't remove those portions of the game, they would have removed other portions of the game so they could make the deadline, otherwise the game would have been pushed.

For some reason, everyone bitches when they push a game[/QUOTE]

Truth. TO quote Grandpa SIMPSON. Let us say OH BITCH BITCH BITCH.

If mass effect 2 cut the planet scanning mini game no one would be complaining. But this hostess mini game gets all this attention. Don't worry it'll end up being dlc in a month.

[quote name='Paco']Truth. TO quote Grandpa SIMPSON. Let us say OH BITCH BITCH BITCH.[/QUOTE]


lol, i know that episode.

case in point, this thread will probably die in less than 3 pages, where as, if the game was pushed back 2 months, you'd see a thread that was about 10 pages long, if not longer

[quote name='kurrptsenate']You guys are reading into this the opposite way you should. You are taking their explanation of removing content "it wouldn't make sense" when they already told you it was removed so it can ship the day they planned on having it ship. If they didn't remove those portions of the game, they would have removed other portions of the game so they could make the deadline, otherwise the game would have been pushed.

For some reason, everyone bitches when they push a game[/QUOTE]
It takes time and money to edit code and that same time they tinkered with the game could have been used to subtitle or even to pay for the a english dub. Sega is retart... well they are mentally challeged to say the least.

I've been waiting over a year, seriously whats another 1 month? Also its being released alongside soo many AAA games, Final Fantasy 13, God of War 3 and more.

[quote name='Xdeath452x']If mass effect 2 cut the planet scanning mini game no one would be complaining. But this hostess mini game gets all this attention. Don't worry it'll end up being dlc in a month.[/QUOTE]
lol thats totally different, planet scanning in ME2 is boring, trying to get a girl to go on a date with you and testing your cunning, priceless.

^ Agreed. A delay would probably help this game. Releasing alongside FFXIII and God of War 3 is suicide for this game.

Edit: Well, agreed to your first post at least.

exactly, time and money they didn't have which is why they were forced to remove parts. they decided the best course of action was to remove parts of the game that were not necessary to the main plot points of the story in the game.

im not sure what is so hard to follow here

Funny no one made a complain when Atlus removed the mahjong game from Devil Summoner (although the code is still in the game and can be unlock with codebreaker)

They should've took their sweet time (raise more money from other games) rather than releasing a half-assed game. And yeah, releasing it alongside FFXIII and GOWIII is indeed suicide like Sega literally wants this game to tank.

[quote name='62t']Funny no one made a complain when Atlus removed the mahjong game from Devil Summoner (although the code is still in the game and can be unlock with codebreaker)[/QUOTE]

They took it out?!/angryrant

yakuza 3 is my only chance at learning! How am I suppose to gamble in a smokey basement in asia if I don't know how to play there games.

[quote name='phantasyx']lol thats totally different, planet scanning in ME2 is boring, trying to get a girl to go on a date with you and testing your cunning, priceless.[/QUOTE]

I reference you to the banana picture

btw everyone,

vote with your wallet. (and mine says God of War III and Final Fantasy XIII is enough for march)

Sega at its best.

Damn... I was looking forward to this game for months... Oh well, I guess I can wait for the bargain bin prices >.

Well, one less game to buy.

I swear, Sega is making more dumb decisions than any company with the possible exception of Sony.

Give me a break. You're all upset because the "dating simulator" mini-game has been removed? Who cares? Go buy Sprung for the DS if you want to play one.

There's still plenty of stuff to do and maybe the "dating simulator" will be DLC.

Hum, people seem to care, if they made this topic and they are all posting about it.

I'm voting for "It doesn't change my opinion one way or the other."

Sega's been trying to make it as hard as possible to care about the game with the awful release date and now this that it doesn't change the fact that I probably wouldn't get it anywhere close to launch, especially now that a billion other games are coming in March, April, May, and June now.

Wow, people will complain about anything these days. While removing the hostess parts from the game does kind of suck, I can't believe people are canceling their preorders over it. I've played both Yakuza games and can honestly say that if they never included it to begin with, I wouldn't have cared.

Thanks for this, now canceling my preorder. Thanks sony, you dicks.
BTW I'm pissed for the missing trophies. Lol What I really wanted was an opportunity to call Sony/Sega or whatever the hell they are dicks.

[quote name='xsouthparkx']Thanks for this, now canceling my preorder. Thanks sony, you dicks.
BTW I'm pissed for the missing trophies. Lol What I really wanted was an opportunity to call Sony/Sega or whatever the hell they are dicks.[/QUOTE]

This has nothing to do with Sony. It's not 1995 anymore.

*cough* DLC

[quote name='xsouthparkx']Thanks for this, now canceling my preorder. Thanks sony, you dicks.
BTW I'm pissed for the missing trophies. Lol What I really wanted was an opportunity to call Sony/Sega or whatever the hell they are dicks.[/QUOTE]

What does Sony have to do with this? SEGA is the one publishing the game over here.

Its not just the hostess bars, they haven't mentioned everything they cut plus its at the last second this is brought up. The way they are handling this entire situation is upsetting.

[quote name='xsouthparkx']Thanks for this, now canceling my preorder. Thanks sony, you dicks.
BTW I'm pissed for the missing trophies. Lol What I really wanted was an opportunity to call Sony/Sega or whatever the hell they are dicks.[/QUOTE]
Sega is the one your after, watch the video and it will tell you a address and a phone number.

Also no one should have to play for the DLC most likely the content is still on the disc.

honestly, if someone was canceling their preorder over something like this, I could only think they REALLY didn't want the game that much

I'm still getting it. Should be alot of fun.

[quote name='kurrptsenate']honestly, if someone was canceling their preorder over something like this, I could only think they REALLY didn't want the game that much[/QUOTE]

I want a complete game...pretty simple to understand.

but it doesn't contradict my previous statement.

If you want a game bad enough, you would get any iteration of the game regardless what the decision was as far as content, adding or removing there in

[quote name='kurrptsenate']but it doesn't contradict my previous statement.

If you want a game bad enough, you would get any iteration of the game regardless what the decision was as far as content, adding or removing there in[/QUOTE]
If you're a moron with more money than sense then yeah thats true. If capcom said "Hey guys, adding all these new characters to SSF4 turned out to be a real bitch. So we're gonna go ahead and release it with the new stages and modes but we really just can't be ed to add in the new characters. Enjoy!"

Does that sound awesome to you? Would you still buy it? What if they said the reasoning for taking out the characters was because the western audience is too stupid to understand them so it wasnt worth the effort? Would you still want to support capcom? What if capcom had been making the same types of decisions for 10 years? Get serious, Sega as a company is ridiculous.

but thats not an accurate comparison, by any means. If they promised, say 10 characters, but were only able to add 6 by the PREVIOUS release date, which was supposed to be this month, then yes, I still would have purchased the game and be very happy with it.

But in this case, the game was pushed back so they could add what they wanted to

Seems like you failed at SAT analogies lol

[quote name='kurrptsenate']but thats not an accurate comparison, by any means. If they promised, say 10 characters, but were only able to add 6 by the PREVIOUS release date, which was supposed to be this month, then yes, I still would have purchased the game and be very happy with it.

But in this case, the game was pushed back so they could add what they wanted to

Seems like you failed at SAT analogies lol[/QUOTE]

So lets say you are going to buy a car. You ordered your car 3 months ago, the complete package, all of the features are included. But wait, the manufacturer turns around and omits features 2 weeks before release because you, the buyer, wouldn't understand said features. Would you still be happy with your purchase? For that matter would you still buy the car knowing that what you paid far (or are going to pay for) isn't what you ordered?

well, if it were features that were standard for a car, then the manufacturer went and made them not-standard, that would be one thing.

but when ordering cars, you pay for the features in the cars and are contractually locked in to a car with those features at that price.

it was a decent attempt (much better than genfuyungs) but it doesn't translate. It would be more similar to, for example, say your car was supposed to come with a bose system complimentary but instead was changed to an infinity system. obviously this would bum out a lot of buyers, based on bose's reputation, but to base your entire purchase on this, to me, seems a little ridiculous. I might say "damn", but thats about it

Um, no. going from Bose to Infinity isn't the same as having features and then not having features. Nice try though. The point is, I paid for the product based on the manufacturers listed features.

Solution: Play movies of the boring parts of Persona 3 - which is all of Persona 3 - while playing this game.

Here, I'll even link one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNxtGeOdI8o

Problem solved, babies.