RyoHazuki84
俺が益荒男
So, lets go back to 2005/2006 when Yakuza was released in Japan and internationally. A good fraction of us assumed that Yakuza could’ve been Shenmue’s successor, when yes and no that came to be the case. However, lets turn the clock back and change the conditions. What if Yakuza was made using Shenmue’s original FREE engine instead? Could the PS2 hardware at the time handle it? No way it going to be released on X-Box considering Nagoshi wasn’t even sure if it was going to get an international release, and all X-Box consoles have been a collosal failure in Japan. Obviously, the course of history would be different. Would the series still be a success in Japan only to slowly build an international fan base? Would more Shenmue fans be on board with it? Could it have helped paved way for more Shenmue games a decade earlier? Of course we can never know, but I do feel it’s worth discussing.
Considering Nagoshi’s work with Shenmue, he could have used the engine to simulate Kabukicho in the same way that it did for Yokosuka and China. FREE allows more exploration and more interaction while in Yakuza, it has always been more restrictive in that respective game.
Maybe the engine at the time they were using was much cheaper and that the Virtua Fighter fighting engine certainly wouldn’t have worked, but I do think in some ways Yakuza could have benefited.
Considering Nagoshi’s work with Shenmue, he could have used the engine to simulate Kabukicho in the same way that it did for Yokosuka and China. FREE allows more exploration and more interaction while in Yakuza, it has always been more restrictive in that respective game.
Maybe the engine at the time they were using was much cheaper and that the Virtua Fighter fighting engine certainly wouldn’t have worked, but I do think in some ways Yakuza could have benefited.