Uh-oh. Yakuza 3 seems to be getting a bit of content cut in the West, specifically some of its mini-games. Even more specifically, the Japanese hostess bar — basically bars or clubs in Japan where males can go for drinks and conversation with females working for the club. There are some hostess bars for females where it works the other way around, too.
However, SEGA thinks that Westerner’s wouldn’t understand the concept.
“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. 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),” a SEGA representative told IGN. “We didn’t replace the parts we took out, but we made absolutely sure that the story continuity stayed intact so that the story experience was the same as the Japanese version and that it didn’t take away the human drama so inherent to the Yakuza series.”
I’m already hearing rioting in the background of this post. It’s funny since this game involves a lot of Japanese culture, so why take out features that make that culture stand out so much?
I think I remember reading that SEGA wanted to make the game more moulded into Western tastes etc for its release over here; but it strikes me as pretty odd. As you say, the game is very much based around Japanese culture and surely that is one of it’s main selling points?
Perhaps there is something else at the heart of this removal?
I would like to incite a riot in the backround. That is a disappointment. But, since the decision has been made already, put them back in with hot new CULTURAL-DLC-pac then its only those that want it will get it. Can I say WIN-WIN?