TOKYO – A PSP version of Sega's popular Yakuza series, titled Kurohyou ("Black Panther"), was on display at Tokyo Game Show this weekend.
Series producer Toshihiro Nagoshi appeared on stage at Sega's booth on Thursday to discuss the game, which will be released September 22 in Japan. Nagoshi explained that he designed this game specifically for a younger audience – to teach Japan's young men about things like true honor, love, and other moralistic goodness.
While there is much violence in the game, he said, these extreme scenes are important to show how the main character evolves from a fight-loving beast to a compassionate human.
Black Panther is the story of Tatsuya Ukyo, a young man who just can't get a break. Driven to violence by the troubles and misunderstanding he encounters in daily life, he enters an underground fighting circuit. There, as is par for the course for any Japanese story crafted for young men and boys, he strives to become the "strongest."
In typical Yakuza series fashion, an event happens afterwards that mixes Tatsuya up in a dark conspiracy, and so his path to maturation begins.
After the event, I was able to play a demo of the game. Running around Kamurocho beating up thugs is just as fun as it's always been, but the fighting has been tweaked some. First of all, there is no life gauge in Black Panther. There is a green "stamina" gauge, but it goes down very slowly, and most importantly, it does not appear on screen at any point in the game, including during battles. This was a choice implemented by Nagoshi in order to try and make the fights seem more realistic.
At any point in the non-tournament battles, however, you can pause and access the menu to access your items and view your stamina. That put a damper on the experience for me – I'm all for making things harder and more realistic, but the way this strange cosmetic decision was implemented just seems more like an inconvenience than anything.
Because of the way the stamina system works, however, fights last much longer than they do in previous games. I've never personally been in a street fight myself, so I have no idea whether that's realistic or not. Characters don't fly across to the other screen like when original Yakuza protagonist Kiryu kicks them, but there still is a bit of exaggerated violence, and Heat actions can be executed by pressing X and Circle together. Items can also be picked up by pressing R and Circle. I'm not sure why they entered that second button into the item grabbing – maybe because pinching your fingers together makes it more realistic?
In Black Panther, there are ten different fighting styles that Tatsuya can utilize and master, ranging from boxing to karate. After defeating opponents, he can either try to extort them, beat them up even more, or ask them to join him as an ally. Characters who join as allies can be used in tag team matches that can be executed with up to four human players. I took a chance to play multiplayer with one of the attendants – he must have been going easy on me, because I was able to knock him out with the aid of a blue trash can.
I was surprised to find out, however, that Heat actions – the cinematic special moves that freeze the opponent and allow the player to deliver heavy damage – are completely usable during multiplayer modes. In Yakuza 4, I was able to spam Heat attacks at least three or four times before running out of steam with a max-level character, so it will be interesting to see how this affects the balance of player-vs-player battles.
Of course, the game is also packed to the brim with recreational opportunities like hostess clubs. But this time, the player is allowed to take a break from his frolicking and actually work part-time somewhere. Is this Nagoshi's way of telling Japan's youth to get off their butts and find jobs?
There are also over one-hundred side stories, ensuring that the city will be filled with things to do.
Overall, I enjoyed playing Black Panther at TGS. The fighting was fluid and fun, and there is much more character growth possible, which is always a plus. The multiplayer also has me very intrigued, so hopefully we'll see a Stateside release. That said, I wouldn't bet on it given PSP's lack of popularity in the West. Either way, Black Panther will sell like violence-flavored hotcakes when it hits Japan later this month.
Images courtesy Sega
