Horray for the Clerks:TAS reference! Car full of midgets!!

"We're excited to get our hands on it, if only to try to make sense of the game's chronological relocation to feudal Japan in the three-quel"

When I saw this same sentiment on a story a day or two ago, I figured someone would comment and set the record straight. Either they didn't, or you guys didn't pay attention, but to clarify, the yakuza have been around a long time - one theory claims they were ronin. The yakuza themselves like to think they are descended from village police.

During the Edo period the yakuza were involved with entertainment (pleasure quarters and especially gambling) and other (semi-)illicit activities. The modern ideas of the yakuza, both their activities and style come from this period.

There are tons of movies set in the Edo period and just before it about yakuza - Yojimbo (where Mifune Toshiro's body guard character sets two rival yakuza gangs against each other) and nearly every Zatoichi movie are period flicks with yakuza.

I don't feel like looking up what year exactly the third game is set in, but if one of the major plot points is attempting to kill Miyamoto Musashi, that would put it right before the Edo period began, while the Tokugawa and Toyotomi clans were fighting, or later into the Edo period, which fits perfectly with the origins of the yakuza and the perception of them (by outsiders and themselves) today.

Who is driving? Oh no Bear is driving? How can that be?

I'll have to buy the first one now, A lot of stores have it on clearance for $10.

excellent Clerks reference, to bad that show isn't still on

Holy shit, a remake of Shiren the Wanderer is coming to the US? I've dreamed of this day since the original came out. Prepare to get your ass kicked, America... perma-death rules.

Mystery dungeon games have made it here before. Toruneko's Quest, Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon, etc...

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!! Excellent news, Joystiq!

The only bad news is I have to get a PS3 now. Ah, that's okay.. I'll just wait for the Christmas price drop. ^^

I played the first Yakuza on PS2 and it was kinda boring. Running around took forever unless you got a cab. I traded it in after having it for about a week or two. The second can't be that much better.

Man, I cannot *wait* to play a (commercial) Roguelike on my DS. I hear somebody has ported NetHack, but frankly I don't have the time to get _that_ involved. I've been excited about Shiren ever since I read an @play column about it.