Sega and RGG Studio announced that Yakuza 0 Director’s Cut, alongside Yakuza Kiwami and Yakuza Kiwami 2, will be coming to PS5, PC (Steam) and Xbox Series, as part of the 20th anniversary celebration of the Like A Dragon/Yakuza series.
Previously released on Nintendo Switch 2, Yakuza 0 Director’s Cut adds some new cutscenes, a new online co-op brawling mode Red Light Raid and has added the theme song Bubble, which was only available in the Japanese release of Yakuza 0. The game also adds English dub plus text localised in in French, Italian, German, Spanish, Latin American Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, and Russian.
It’s cool to see the Director’s Cut available on more platforms, but here’s the catch. The current version of Yakuza 0 available on PS4, PC (Steam) and Xbox One will be delisted on December 8, 8.30 AM PST (December 9, 12.30 AM Malaysia Time).
Owners of the digital edition of this Yakuza 0 version can get a discount to upgrade to Yakuza 0 Director’s Cut. No free next-gen upgrade.
Save file from Yakuza 0 are not transferable to Yakuza 0 Director’s Cut.
Yakuza 0 Director’s Cut is not offered on PS4 and Xbox One, so when the current Yakuza 0 version gets delisted, players still on last-gen platforms won’t be able to purchase Yakuza 0 in any form unless they get a PS5 or Xbox Series X|S.
The same long post on the app most people still call Twitter also announced PS5 and Xbox Series versions of Yakuza Kiwami and Yakuza Kiwami 2. These new versions also feature localised text in French, Italian, German, Spanish, Latin American Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, and Russian. Yakuza Kiwami will have the songs Receive You [Reborn] and Bleed, missing in the non-Japanese releases previously, but there’s not much if any new content added here.
Still, players who want the native versions of these games on current consoles have to pay for a next-gen upgrade, albeit at a discount rather than being charged full-price.
Sega and Atlus (which is under Sega) previously delisted the base game after a new enhanced release was made available. The original Shin Megami Tensei V exclusive to Nintendo Switch has been delisted from the Nintendo eShop, replaced by the enhanced, multi-platform release Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance. Early adopters of the RPG had to double dip to get the best version of the game—no paid upgrade or DLC option was available for the title, given it’s still released on the same console generation.
This is a lot of mess just to get all the mainline games of the Like A Dragon/Yakuza series to be available on the same console generation and avoid unsuspecting new players from purchasing the older version of the same game.
For Yakuza Kiwami and Yakuza Kiwami 2, these could’ve been just an update. In fact, that seems to be the case on PC.
Yakuza 0 Director’s Cut is a little more complicated as it’s a full new game (with minimal new content, sure, but still) so cutting the new content up to be repackaged as DLC takes more work when it was never designed to be as such.
If you want the original Yakuza 0, you better get them now.