While the 2019 Tokyo Game Show has yet to properly get underway, that hasn’t stopped Sega from revealing new Yakuza 7 details. The company revealed some new features coming to the turn-based Japanese underworld simulator, including a full-on kart racing mini game.
This weeks issue of Japanese magazine Famitsu (as translated by Gematsu) revealed the Yakuza 7 kart racing mini game, called Dragon Kart, among a myriad of other features. The mini game looks to play just like most other kart racers, right down the being able to pick up weapons such as a rocket launcher or Gatling gun. The main thing that sets it apart is that the races now occur within the real world city of Yokosuka instead of some fictional video game location.
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Of course, the Yakuza franchise is no stranger to mini games. Previous games in the series features mini games as mundane as bowling or mahjong, to more unique ones such as running a cabaret club, or going disco dancing. In addition to these, the series has also featured playable versions of Sega arcade games, ranging from classics, such as Space Harrier, to more modern ones like Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown.
Yakuza 7‘s Dragon Kart racing mini game does feel unique in that the premise for it seems like something that can be used for a standalone game. Could this be a tease for an actual standalone Yakuza kart racer in the future? Of course, fans will need to actually see if it the racing does measure up the likes of Mario Kart, Crash Team Racing, as well as Sega’s own Sonic Team Racing. That said, being able to zip around Yokosuka on a go kart while shooting people with rockets might be enough for hardcore Yakuza fans.
In addition to Dragon Kart, Sega also revealed a few other mini games. One of these has lead character Ichiban Kasuga trying to not fall asleep while watching a movie. Players will then have to press buttons in order to keep him awake during the film. The other mini game that was revealed was PachiSlot. A mix of pachinko and slot machines, Yakuza will feature actual PachiSlot games Million God: Kamigami no Gaisen Another God Hades: Ubowareta ZEUS Ver., PachiSlot Fist of the Blue Sky: Houyuu, and PachiSlot Moujuuou: Ouja no Houkou. The article then proclaimed that these make Yakuza 7 the only PachiSlot simulator on PlayStation 4.
Of course, the Sega revealed more than just Yakuza 7‘s mini games. The Famitsu article also goes into one of the new combat features being added into the game: Summons. With the move to RPG-style turn-based combat, the game looks to be copying a feature found in these RPGs. In this case however, main character Ichiban Kasuga can use his smartphone to summon and pay for other characters to help him and his buddies in combat. The people that Ichiban can summon include other characters such as Gary Buster Holmes and Gonda Wara. Additionally, players can also apparently summon a crawfish to help them.
Finally, the article also gave details on two more characters in the game. The first is Kouchi Adachi, voiced by veteran voice actor Akio Ootsuka. This former detective who was demoted for going against the Superintendent General of the Metropolitan Police. Adachi will be working with Ichiban Kasuga to get closer to the latter’s former boss Minato Arakawa. The second character that was revealed was cabaret hostess Saeko Mukouda, voiced by Sumire Uesaka.
All these new details seem to confirm that despite the many changes to the series, Yakuza 7 still contains the same crazy spirit as its predecessors. Of course, whether or not the game does fully live up to them is a question that will only be answered when Yakuza 7 arrives on PlayStation 4 next year.
