Hostess Bars And Quiz Game Cut From Yakuza 3

On the plus side, Yakuza 3 is being localized, but not all of it. Sega removed hostess bars and a quiz mini-game.

Strip bars are still in so the hostess bars weren’t cut due to sexual content. It sounds like Sega was expediting localization and didn’t have time to localize text heavy hostess chats and Answer X Answer.

“The content between Yakuza 3 US/UK and Yakuza JP is a little different in that we took out certain bits in order to bring the game to the west in the time alloted for us to do so. The parts we ended up taking out were parts that we felt wouldn’t make sense (like a Japanese history quiz game) or wouldn’t resonate as much (such as the concept of a hostess club),” a Sega representative explained to IGN.

The rep swears these changes won’t alter the story and you can still date hostesses, just not at hostess bars. Yakuza 2, if I remember correctly, had the hostess bars called “cabaret clubs” in the North American version. You could manage them and even become a host. Sega felt the content “resonated” and was worth localizing then, but now, perhaps under a tight deadline, these bits got the axe.