The Yakuza games are the closest thing Japan has to GTA. They're crime epics set in huge, fastidiously detailed cities, defined by their lengthily-elucidated TV-style plots and impressive selection of random, optional things to do in their worlds, from karaoke to UFO catchers, restaurants, golf and incredibly creepy hostess minigames. They're more rigid than GTA in both structure and style, and the brawling combat is a long way from the Rockstar's trademark driving and shooting, but Yakuza's Japanese cities are the closest thing to Rockstar's American ones in size, detail, and perceptiveness. Both, too, hold up a mirror - however warped - to their settings' culture.
It's heartbreaking that Yakuza 5, the series' current-generation epitome, seems to have no chance of being translated into English and released abroad. It features 5 Japanese cities - Nagoya, Osaka, Fukuoka, Tokyo and Sapporo - and 120 (!) different optional minigames, which makes even GTA 5 look a little less gigantic. The next in the series, Yakuza Ishin, is a spin-off set in late Edo period Japan, right at the time of the Meiji Restoration. It's a fascinating time in the country's history, and instead of the skeezy streets and neon lights of Kamurocho in Tokyo it transports us to late-1800s market towns, riverside farms and nascent cities and pagoda-style castles. If Yakuza 5 has little chance of ever seeing a Western release, Ishin surely has even poorer prospects, but anyone with an interest in this series will be tempted by an import.
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