Since Yakuza 4, Sega has told the series’ story through the eyes of multiple protagonists. In the last game, people followed Kazuma Kiryu, a former member of the Yakuza who keeps being pulled back into that world, as well as a loan shark named Shun Akiyama, a police officer named Masayoshi Tanimura, and Taiga Saejima, another former Yakuza facing execution who breaks out of prison. Yakuza 5 brings Kazuma, Shun, and Taiga back, as well as making Kazuma’s surrogate daughter, Haruka Sawamura, and series newcomer and former baseball player, Tatsuo Shinada.


As with all Yakuza games, Kazuma finds himself involved in the underworld’s business in Yakuza 5, despite having moved to Nagasugai, Fukuoka to get away from it all. He’s driving a cab when the Sixth Chairman of the Tojo Clan, Daigo Dojima, disappears.




This is all while his “daughter,” Haruka, is trying to become a singer. She’s participating in the Princess League in Osaka, an American Idol sort of show, in hopes of winning the competition will launch her career.




Shun is still lending people money, and still requiring people perform a certain act before he provides any funds. He’s opening a new brand of Sky Finance in Sotenbori. That’s when he learns an old client has died and begins to investigate.



Meanwhile, Taiga’s sentence was commuted at the end of Yakuza 4. Instead of death, he only faces two more years in prison in Yakuza 5. He wants to serve his time and be done with it, but he’ll find himself on the streets of Hokkaido instead.




Finally, there’s Tatsuo. He was banned from major league baseball for life due to allegedly fixing and gambling on games. He’s pressed to investigate his dismissal and determine who set him up in Nagoya’s Kineicho as Yakuza 5 begins.


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Sega has yet to announce a release date for Yakuza 5, which will only be available through the PlayStation Store for the PlayStation 3. However, the company hopes to release it in the middle of November of this year.

Jenni Lada

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