Yakuza Studios announced a “legal suspense action” game titled Project Judge, which will launch in Japan this December for PlayStation 4. Luckily western fans won’t have to beg for a release, because SEGA simultaneously announced a 2019 release date us too!

Here’s SEGA’s official press release, which you can check out below

■ About

Sega is proud to announce that the new courtroom thriller from Ryu Ga Gotoku Studios, Project Judge (working title), will release in 2019 on the PlayStation 4. Project Judge will feature the voice acting talents of Japanese actor / artist Takuya Kimura as the game’s main protagonist, Takayuki Yagami.

Project Judge takes place in modern day Tokyo, following a serial murder case. The main protagonist, private detective Takayuki Yagami (played by Takuya Kimura), is a man of conviction who fights for his beliefs, despite the overwhelming despair surrounding him. Kimura has met extensively with the game’s development team to craft this protagonist, dedicating more than 1,000 minutes of voice recording time for his lines. By putting forth so much effort in developing this role, Project Judge aims to redefine what it means to truly bring a character to life.

Other talented actors, including Akira Nakao, Kenichi Takito, Shosuke Tanihara, and Pierre Taki were brought in to play the game’s supporting roles. Additionally, the rock band Alexandros enhances the drama to its peak with the original theme song Arpeggio and feature song, Your Song. This game is developed by Ryu Ga Gotoku Studios headed by Sega Chief Product Officer Toshihiro Nagoshi. The studio is known primarily for their work on the Yakuza series, which has sold over 11 million copies worldwide. To create an experience in line with the studio’s core belief to “Create enjoyable games that address mature themes” the team spent more than 3 years developing Project Judge‘s story and characters.

Enhancing the game’s position as a courtroom thriller and embodying the feeling of playing a detective, players will need to utilize key investigative skills in conjunction with unique gameplay features to unveil the truths hidden at the core of Project Judge‘s plot.

What lies beyond the suffering and failures of the man trapped within his past; is it a divine revelation, or something more sinister? Stay tuned for more information on Project Judge, the courtroom thriller action game brought to you by the prolific tag team of Takuya Kimura and Ryu Ga Gotoku Studios.

■ Characters

Takayuki Yagami (cast: Takuya Kimura)

The main protagonist of Project Judge.

A fiercely idealistic ex-defense lawyer turned private detective. After facing a devastating betrayal by one of his former clients, he became known as a fraud who lets murderers run free, effectively destroying his reputation.

Now he’s caught up in an enigmatic serial murder case and will need to push his investigative skills to their limit to solve it.

Takashi Genda (cast: Akira Nakao)

A gritty lawyer who has taken on the role of overseeing Yagami’s growth since the start of his career as a lawyer.

Even after Yagami’s incident that forced him out of the legal world, Genda still looks after him and helps him find work from time to time.

Kazuya Ayabe (cast: Kenichi Takito)

A detective with Tokyo PD’s Organized Crime Division.

Ayabe is a crooked cop who withholds information on investigations for his own benefit, but often helps Yagami with his cases – for a price.

Mitsuru Kuroiwa(cast: Shosuke Tanihara)

A detective with the Tokyo PD’s Organized Crime Division, famous for his leadership skills and high successful arrest rate in Kamurocho.

A talented officer who plays by the rules, Kuroiwa sees unknown elements like Yagami as a dangerous nuisance.

Kyohei Hamura (cast: Pierre Taki)

Captain of the Matsugane family, a subsidiary of the Tojo Clan based in Kamurocho.

Hamura is self-centered, but he’s also a mastermind skilled in taking others down for his own benefit. He’s heavily involved with Yagami throughout the serial murder case.

■ Comment from Alexandros

“We are very honored to be part of such a wonderful production.

The demo video that Director Nagoshi showed us was so cool, we were able to envision a song very quickly.

From there, we had multiple meetings and the lyrics kept flowing until it was a complete piece that we feel very strongly about.

We are very excited to play the game ASAP (laughs).”

Gameplay Trailer 

Via Gematsu 

Titled Space Channel 5 VR: Arakata Dancing Show, this VR game will allow players to “dance with Ulala to save the world from the invasion of mysterious dancing aliens known as “Morolians.” Players will take on the role of a newbie reporter at a future universe television station, decide on poses with senior reporter Ulala, and eventually dance.”

Space Channel 5 VR: Arakata Dancing Show will be released sometime in 2019.

Via Gematsu 

It’s been well over 15 years since we have left Shenhua and Ryo in that cave, and various advancements in technology have taken the concept of what it means to be an open world game to a whole other level. I do, however, believe it is unfair to compare these titles with games like Grand Theft Auto V or Red Dead Redemption, as Shenmue I & II is an entirely different beast. As the Shenmue fanbase and SEGA have said in their recent marketing campaigns, this is the game that helped shape open world games as we know it.

In 1999, Shenmue was indeed one-of-a-kind and revolutionary for its time. You inhabited a living, breathing world where day turned to night, snow turned to rain, and NPCs went along their day with schedules designed just for them. You could knock on any door, examine every object, and talk with anyone you encounter. When I popped in the first disc into my Dreamcast, my little mind exploded at the sheer concept of such a game existing.

But enough of my reminiscing; Let’s take a look and see how well SEGA preserved and polished these games for the modern gamer.

Lucky Hits

The first thing you’ll notice is that Shenmue I & II  is playable in full 1080p. Despite being originally designed for your retro, square televisions, playing Shenmue on an HDTV feels quite natural. When it comes to cutscenes, however, the game is set back to its original resolution. If you would like to play the entire game in its original resolution, you have that option to do so.

For the longest time, Shenmue’s English voice dub has been viewed as campy and pretty hilarious. With the exception of Corey Marshall’s Ryo Hazuki and a select few main characters, the voices of the various NPCs are pretty hilarious. Although in my opinion, that’s what gave Shenmue its charm. If you’re not a fan of the English dub, however, you can play Shenmue I & II entirely in Japanese for the very first time! Fans of the Yakuza series and Japanese dub purists will surely be excited to take advantage of that option.

The iconic loading screens and UI have been completely overhauled to work with every port. Speaking of loading screens, load times have been completely obliterated. Staring at that black and white screen waiting for the next area to load is a thing of the past and makes for a much smoother experience. You can even save anywhere at any point in the game!

A feature that many fans in North America had missed out on was the ability to transfer your save file from Shenmue I to Shenmue II. While some may consider this to be a miniscule addition to the game, it really makes every decision you make in Shenmue I have more gravitas. All the training and capsule toy collection you do in the first game definitely pays off when Ryo steps off that boat in Shenmue II.

I (Can’t) See…

Although SEGA did deliver on a number of improvements in Shenmue I & II, the game isn’t without its hiccups. There are a couple of sound issues and graphical glitches that occur in the game, even after the day one patch. Certain cutscenes such as an interaction with Fuku-san would cut to the dojo floor and I would be left staring at some wood while I get asked if I would like to spar. The music in both Shenmue I and II would occasionally get a bit off tempo or I would get one sound effect playing repeatedly during gameplay. SEGA is aware of the issues and they are slowly but surely addressing them, so at least there’s that.

Summary

Although Shenmue I and II  were released over 15 years ago, I believe it was important for SEGA to re-release Yu Suzuki’s games to the modern audience and expose them to what is considered to be the pioneer of open world games. The games are not without their faults and another patch is necessary to alleviate some of those sound and glitch issues, but that shouldn’t take away the experience of exploring Yu Suzuki’s living, breathing, and detailed world.

A number of improvements had been made to these classics, and although it would have been nice (and wishful thinking) to get a complete remake of Shenmue I  and II, it feels great to play these classics on modern consoles.

PROS

+ New UI

+ Long loading times eliminated!

+ Dual voice audio

+ Transferring save files from Shenmue I to Shenmue II

CONS

– Minor audio issues

– Certain graphical glitches need to be addressed in a patch

In the latest Kickstarter update, Yu Suzuki announced the official release date for Shenmue III, along with a new trailer to feast your eyes on. I’ve also screen-capped a couple of images from the trailer, which you can take a look at below.

August 27th, 2019. Get ready!

Via Kickstarter

“Unfortunately, Guilty Gear general director Daisuke Ishiwatari couldn’t be here today, but he is hard at work on a new Guilty Gear  title, and while we can’t show it to you today, please wait a little longer.”

It wasn’t that long ago that Guilty Gear Xrd was released, but it’s exciting to hear nonetheless.

Via Gematsu 

While “Manager Man” will no longer be in new Football Manager game, we might see him pop up in other digital entertainment,  like sports betting. When Eurogamer editor Wesley Yin-Poole asked the studio about the decision to retire the mascot, they said:

“It’s a big year of change for us as a studio – we’ve taken the opportunity with moving to our fantastic new office in the Olympic Park to make many changes, such as bringing in our first COO, putting a better structure in place, changing some of our practises as part of what we call SI 3.0 – and a release in Germany for the first time too.

“So with all that going on, it seemed the perfect opportunity for us to have a think about our branding and try and be as fresh with that as we are being with the other changes in the studio, hence the new logo and a point of view perspective for the key art and pack shot.

“Fans of Manager Man shouldn’t be worried though. He’s currently sitting on a beach in Santorini, sipping on a delicious cocktail, deciding what his next career move will be. He’s likely waiting til Xmas to get a new job – the bonuses for keeping clubs up for experienced managers will likely tempt him back in.”

Football Manager 2019 is scheduled to be released on November 2nd. You can pre-order the game by clicking here. 

Via Eurogamer 

池袋にあるセガのたい焼き屋さんでチョコミントのたい焼きがあると聞いたので買ってきました。
チョコミントー！#チョコミン党 pic.twitter.com/ay1IT4wwTb

— 町田裕 (@hiro_matida) August 2, 2018

SEGA promised to create other shapes for this popular dish in the future, and their next shape is SEGA’s own logo!

According to SEGA’s Japanese Twitter account, it took around 6 months to perfect the shape of the SEGA logo for their taiyaki. on the back of this special taiyaki is SEGA’s logo, which translates to “Creation is life.”

You can expect more awesome designs such as this one in the near future. Have you ever tried taiyaki before? What other designs would you want to see SEGA make? Discuss in the comments!

Via Kotaku 

Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise hits store shelves October 2nd. You can pre-order your own copy of the game by clicking here. 

You can take a look at the shenanigans by clicking the video above!

Don’t forget to take a look at Shenmue III‘s latest Kickstarter update, or the awesome Shenmue documentary while you’re at it.

Here’s an official description of the game mechanic, along with a brand new in-game screenshot, which you can check out below.

This control system lets you automatically unleash the perfect technique in response to the opponent’s positioning and distance. R&D for this system is based on Yu Suzuki’s concept for players who are not used to fighting games or for those who want a full immersion battle experience. This battle system is highly compatible with, and will be an extension to the current battle system.

If you would still like to contribute to Shenmue III‘s development, you can pre-order the game by clicking here. 

Don’t forget to also check out the Shenmue documentary, which is currently on Kickstarter.