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In the original Yakuza, Kazuma Kiryu is released from prison after serving ten years for a murder that his best friend Nishiki had committed while defending Yumi, his fiancé. Getting back into the world, he's no longer the Dragon of the Dojima Family, but a man approaching middle age, with few allies and a faded reputation. Over the course of the game, the streets of Kamurocho are once again littered with bodies, broken bikes, and revenge.But Kazuma isn't all about his fists. He's a man seeking an escape from his past and redemption. He becomes a surrogate father to Haruka, a young girl who may hold the key to finding the Tojo Clan's ten billion stolen yen. Haruka's father is a corrupt politician who wants to wield his influence over the yakuza and politics in Tokyo to gain more power. He'll stop at nothing to gain it, even attempting to kill his own daughter if it leads him to his goal.Read on MUNCHIES: Two Insane Fruit Robots Are Going to Duke It Out at the Tokyo Marathon
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The Yakuza series has had a hard time making an impact in the West, which is why half the games have never made it here. Yakuza 5's imminent release in English-language regions is a miracle given how little known the games are beyond their homeland. It's a real shame, because the combination of free-roaming gameplay, hilariously violent combat and brilliantly written characters really deserves a bigger following. But together, we can fix that.If our synopsis has piqued your interest in the series, then now's the perfect time to jump on board with it. The episodic-style plot and growing universe over the games' chronology makes playing from the first Yakuza onwards a great prospect for those with enough time and curiosity, but Yakuza 3 or 4 are both perfect starting points if you don't want to fully commit yourself. Both benefit from smoother combat and hundreds more moves that the upgrade from PlayStation 2 to PS3 brought to the series, as well as a fully 3D camera to view the incredibly detailed locations.Read on Noisey: Meet the Japanese MCs Who Do Insane Covers of UK Grime
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Yakuza 5 is released for PlayStation 3 in "quarter four" of 2015, which we'll take to mean in a few weeks, please SEGA.Follow Bit Socket on Twitter.