While theYakuzaseries has seen worldwide acclaim in recent years, thanks to titles likeYakuza 0andLike a Dragonshowcasing the longrunning franchise across several genres, there are still some games that haven’t made it out of Japan. However, a group of fans have taken it upon themselves to bring an obscure PSP title that took a side view of the series, similar to the recentJudgementand its sequel, back into the modern games.
The PSP titles, originally known asKurohyou, but commonly referred to as theBlack Pantherseries, were only ever released in Japan and never recieved localizations the way the rest of theYakuzagames have. There are some other spinoffs from the original series that some fans continue to ask for, but as far as fan projects like this go, it’s up to what those specific fans have as their desired project.
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Announced via an impressively produced trailer, a group of fans going by the name TeamK4L have revealed a complete localization ofKurohyou 2the second game in theYakuza Black Pantherseries for the PSP. Being that this is a fan project, this is an unofficial localization, which does mean that there won’t be fully english voiced lines or an official patch coming from Sega to finally bring the game outside of Japan. However, this does include translated subtitles and menu items for both theYakuzaspinoff’s side contentand main story, giving english speakers access to the whole game from start to finish.
TeamK4L intends to release the localization update to the game on January 7th, 2022, putting the release a little ways away, though apparently closer than any plans Sega might have to bringBlack Pantherworldwide. Most impressive about this particularYakuzamodis that it doesn’t simply add subtitles or overlay a translation over the game, instead keeping consistent with the style of the game for all of the translations. Even the brightly colored and stylized completion and fail screens for minigames and combat have all been translated while keeping the essential flair that fans recognize from the series.
At the end of the day, this localization is still a mod, and might only be able to help the game reach an audience in english speaking contries. However, support for this fan project andKurohyou 2from international players may be able to show Sega that there is a market for a translated release orKiwami-style remasterto modern console. Considering how theBlack Pantherseries had already been stripped down to fit on the PSP, both games released as a collection could help bring more players to the history of theYakuzaseries and its spinoffs.
