Taiwanese gaming outlet GNN Gamer managed to nab an interview with Yakuza series producer, Daisuke Sato. The outlet published the interview on May 22nd, 2018, which featured a number of questions about the specifications and performance of the remastered version of Yakuza 3, 4 and 5. Talking about Yakuza 3: Remastered in particular, GNN asked Sato-san if there were any other changes being made to the game other than a bump up in resolution, frame-rate and general performance.

According to Sato, most of the content stayed the same save for some of the voice actor contracts being up (meaning the voices will be different), and he also mentioned that some of the content had to be modified to fit today’s “moral values” compared to what they were able to do in 2009, saying…

“In addition to the resignation of some of the voice actors and the performance contract of the actors, there are no changes in the game’s storyline, system, and battles, which brings an authentic experience. “However, ‘Yakuza 3’ was a work that was launched in 2009. Some of the content was OK at the time when taken from a certain point of view, but that content may not be very good with today’s view on what’s moral and ethical. You know, Japan’s general social atmosphere has also changed a lot in recent years, so there have been very slight changes in the game’s [depiction] of performances to match the change in today’s current moral values ​​and judgment standards.”

Some of these changes were rather apparent in the modification of the game’s box art, which was recently covered in a report by Sankaku Complex.

They noted that in the original 2009 box art Kazuma Kiryu is on the box with a cigarette in his mouth, where-as in the remastered version of the box art for the Chinese version of the game, the cigarette is removed.





This minor bit of censorship has actually made gamers worried quite a bit, especially regarding what other kind of content might also be censored in the remastered version of the game.

However, Sankaku Complex did note that in the actual game, Kiryu still smokes, so that hasn’t been removed, as depicted in the promotional trailer for Yakuza 3: Remastered, which you can check out below.

However, there are still concerns about what Sato references regarding content that had to be altered to fit today’s current moral and ethical standards. As many of you know, many feminists and SJWs have been attempting to force developers to censor content that they don’t like (i.e., mainly sexy women, cleavage, big boobs, and depictions of femininity).

Although, back in May of 2016, series director Toshihiro Nagoshi explained in a Famitsu interview that while they do have a small female demographic who enjoy the Yakuza series, he wouldn’t be feminizing the series specifically to suit those gamers.

In this particular case we actually don’t know what will be censored in the game. The trailer still depicts hostesses and hostess customization as being a part of the experience, along with the ability to view strippers at the strip club, so it appears most of what men enjoy will still make an appearance in the remastered version of Yakuza 3. But still, the lack of details regarding the changes leaves everyone questioning what exactly was censored to meet today’s “ethical” standards in Japan?

On the upside, at least the PS4 version of the Yakuza 3: Remastered edition due out on August 9th, 2018, according to Gematsu, will run at 60 frames per second and at 1080p. The PS4 Pro version will also support checkerboarded 4K support.