Yakuza: Of the End has been announced and it’s a zombie-shooting Resident Evil-style revamp of the Japanese open-world series that fans adore.
So as the obvious questions of “Wha?!?!” followed by “How could they!?” followed by “This could actually be cool!” play in your head, here are some details.
In this revamp of the series, players will control various characters taken from past Yakuza games, equip them with firearms and different weapons, and traverse Kamurocho which has been overrun by flesh-eating zombies! Of course, the Japanese Defense Force has failed to contain them, so it is your job to help by shooting some skulls.
Outside of the action though, the game will still contain Yakuza elements of exploration, combat, mission-taking and story that players expect. Returning characters include Kazuma Kiryu, Ryuji Gouda, Goro Majima and Shun Akiyama.
And despite all of the chaos, the game will still include several mini-games that players have come to expect. Inside of Cabaret Clubs, which still need your business, naturally. And why would the zombies want to attack them and their hot women?
Yes I know it sounds like everything Yakuza is not. I think that may be the point.
“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.”
While the traditional Yakuza isn’t dead yet (har har har), producer Toshihiro Nagoshi did tell Famitsu that this will not be the last game in the series, and they will apparently change course if this one doesn’t sell well . . .
Time will tell. The game will be released exclusively for PS3.
