Prepare To Yakuza In 2012 With Dead Souls

You’ve survived the perils of Demon’s Souls. You’re fighting your way through Dark Souls hell. And next year? Next year you’ll likely breeze through Yakuza: Dead Souls, the newly-renamed North American version of Yakuza of the End, as it is a completely unrelated product.

Sega picked an oddly appropriate time to announce a North American PlayStation 3 release for its new zombie-filled Yakuza game, along with an oddly familiar name. If I were the head of Dark and Demon’s Souls developer From Software I’d definitely be sitting at my desk right now, stroking my beard (I’d have a beard) thoughtfully and pondering calling in someone from legal.

Then I’d probably chuckle to myself and dismiss the notion, as Yakuza: Dead Souls has absolutely nothing in common with either of those games, aside from a host of undead creatures that need killing. The undead have invaded the streets of Japan’s famous red light district, and the well-dressed street gangs don’t take kindly to the intrusion. It’s the first Yakuza game to employ firearms (sometimes literally, as you can see in the screenshots), because kicking a zombie in the face is like asking for your foot to get bitten off.

Zombies and guns aside, Dead Souls still features that good old Yakuza gameplay, complete with mini-games and all of the downloadable content from the Japanese version.

I just wish they had come up with a name that didn’t sound so similar to an existing series, like Yakuza: The Elder Souls.