7 Awesome Video Games You Weren't Ready For

2. Yakuza

It may be a household name today, but Yakuza had been trying to break into the west since way back in 2006. Marketed as a more brawler-focused GTA clone, the reality was far closer to something like Shenmue, albeit with better stories, bigger revelations and far better combat.

It would take a full decade of Yakuza fans like myself telling everyone within earshot that the franchise was worth playing, seeing sales numbers slowly creep up enough, for Sega to take more notice. Still, Japan was many years ahead on numbered sequels, and Sega were half-heartedly serving western fans with things like a digital-only release of Yakuza 5 on the Playstation *3* in 2015.

Finally, with Yakuza 6 and 0 narrowing those yearly releases closer and closer, the global fanbase finally synched up with Yakuza 7: Like A Dragon dropping in the East and West in 2020 (still some months apart, but we've still come so far).

Today, with remakes of the originals and the full Yakuza collection available, tons of people are realising they've been missing out, and that the Yakuza franchise was always gaming royalty.