Yakuza Kenzan's Haruka Problem 

Some things I forgot to mention in the video: 1. I have to reiterate how Kenzan doesn't show anything or promote anything shown. When people talk about Haruka in Kenzan they talk about her and the plot point as if you see extremely graphic scenes or something. This is not the case. 2. A lot of people will echo the opinions of others without having knowledge on the topic. I can guarantee you most of the people who say "Isn't Haruka a prostitute in Kenzan?" haven't even done the slightest bit of research or watched any cutscenes. They just saw someone else say it so it must be true! 3. The Haruka plot point has actively harmed the legacy of the game. If you mention Kenzan to a Yakuza fan, 9/10 times the first thing they mention is the Haruka stuff. People actively don't want a remaster of it because of this. Kenzan is an amazing game with so much to offer that outclasses Yakuza 5 in some aspects. It doesn't deserve to be known for this anymore or to be remade and cut all of the things that make it great. Part of the reason it's so great is because so many aspects of it are ahead of it's time in the Yakuza series. 4. Some people might make it sound like I'm supporting the stuff shown in the game because I'm passionately explaining it. No. Obviously not. I'm just tired of people continuing to tarnish the legacy of this great game. EDIT: I neglected to mention it in the video, but Haruka and other Kamuros technically do more than 'clean floors'. Kamuros would dance and sing and run errands. They would practice becoming a proper Courtesan among other things. I didn't mean to come off like I was trying to make my case look better by hiding details or anything. For clarification, Kamuros would effectively be groomed into eventually becoming prostitutes when they reached 16, which was the age of consent at the time. It's my bad for leaving this out. My point was not to hide evidence against my case, it was more to just explain that Haruka is purely not a prostitute and that Kenzan barely focuses on any of the morally grey stuff. There's far more nuance going on with it. I just want to invite people to talk about it and to change the public's perception of Kenzan. One day the Yakuza community will be able to talk about Kenzan without bringing up the Haruka stuff (Hopefully).

You know these rumours have gotten too widespread when even RGG themselves are gaslit into believing Kenzan is controversial

1:20 Do these people you describe not ever tell their mom they love her? Do they instead go like "umm mom, I like you...but as a friend of course, it's totally aplatonic as you're my mom and I'm your child of course haha"

Do people not know that you can love someone platonically?

yakuza 5 but haruka works at 7/11 kinda rocks

Big ups for actually playing the story and explaining it to people who haven't played unlike most youtube comment sections who watched like the prologue cutscenes then just acting like they're the authority on Kenzan's storyline. Kenzan is a great game and I loved playing it but I'd love for others to get an official way to play it in English.

Thank you for the video. This has to be one of the MOST common misconceptions in the fanbase behind only Tanimura's departure from the series (and maybe arguably some more recent stuff that people talk more of due to the games in discussion being more popular). Really hope someday they remake and/or remaster this game, though I do have hesitation on whether they will change the combat (it has some issues you could definitely fix but I fear they'd change it completely). The only real change I'd make is maybe reorder the final bosses haha.

please RGG give us the Peakuza Kenzan we deserve here in the west!

These rumors about Kiryu falling in love with Haruka are obviously false, that would actually be Saejima.

People generally ignore the fine print with Kenzan. The Problem 3 stuff you referenced is something that bugs me with the whole series. People act like the games are personally offending them or handling topics offensively when the games have always tackled political and social issues. I think it's a lot of those RGG Twitter Never-Played-The-Games audience that latched onto this notion and ran with it.

lets also not forget that theyre teachin the girls until they're old enough around 16-19 of age according to middle age history most families engage lovers when they're 16 and they marry at around age 19, if the families are too poor they usually marry at 16 stuff but anyone who comes to the red light district usually guys with money meaning rich guys so im pretty sure they probably at most made 16 year olds dance and stuff idk spoilers other than sick perverts with high positions, if you know what I mean, I think haruka was completely safe and also I think no business with high prestige would let anything happen to a child because it will ruin their name or the child will be an enemy instead of someone you raised as time goes on, so we can really be sure even if Kiryu and the fire were not to interrupt, NOTHING would happen to Haruka LOGICALLY

This video will help get a remake!!!

By GOD RGG port this game I'm begging you.

just saying there is a scene in this game where one of the characters in the game says to Haruka "Be my woman"

jfc the aliasing in Kenzan is abysmal Yakuza 6 levels of abysmal where basically half the screen in shimmering I get that they need to save hardware resources on console so they render some stuff at 1/4 resolution, but then why does it happen on PC releases lol Also they're always too bright during the day for some reason even if you darken screen/gamma everything is just overexposed I know it helps hide the sky in some Yakuza games but that can't be it

problematic for OF generation

I had no idea there were people out there who thought Kiryu falls in love with Haruka in this game, lol. That's news to me. There is nothing romantic in the relationship between them.

The Ryu Ga Gotoku community needed this one 💪 🐉

I disagree that the game don't show strong stuff (it isn't graphic at least and it 100% works for the purpose) but is funny how people try to pitch Kenzan as a pedo game when is the only game where you kill a pedo slaping his face.

Even though you're a smaller channel, I am so glad you're dispelling this bullshit. It's so fucking annoying that this misconstrued interpretation is why people don't give an actual answer, while also saying how this game shouldn't be remastered, ported, remade. In the words of Snowiest Angeman "Anyways some shit happens with human sex trafficking and then Kiryu and Haruka get married or some fucking bullshit. I don't know the story of this game because no one ever talks about it and when someone does talk about it you get people all over the place saying 'no that's not what happens'. And then you ask what does happen AND THEY DON'T GIVE YOU AN ANSWER." Nobody online, in the international Yakuza community understands what the fuck happens in this game.

As someone who doesn't care for the samurai spin offs.... _What_ , people thought this? Thats what was spread? That just sounds stupid... Did...did nobody fact check this? They just went along with it? Jeez..

The double standards is hilarious when you think about it. The original Yakuza 3 in the west was heavily changed and the localization basically ruined the game. People clamored that Yakuza 3 shouldn't have been "censored" not knowing that a good chunk of Yakuza 3 was not easy to translate to the west. Now we got Kenzan and its controversial child slavery and people are saying to "Change" it so it can be brought over to the west with a cleaner image?! HAHAHHAAAAA!!!

This is why it was never localized, cause there are too many idiots. It won't be remade either mainly because of it. Not to mention this game flopped in terms of sales so most Japanese fans haven't even played it either. I think a lot of people are living in fantasy land and can't fathom that child slavery actually existed in history, and still does to this day. A lot of people still eat chocolate not knowing that child slavery probably harvested the cocoa for it and I don't think these idiots would stop eating it if they did know, just like if this game was remade they'd still buy it and still complain about the depictions in the game even though the devs are just trying to be historically accurate.

I wish the effort put into the Kurohyou and Ishin(ps3) translations was put in Kenzan.

This whole thing reminded me of an old saying my grandma used to tell me “ a word to the wise is sufficient”, not entirely related, but it's surprising how many people become so fixated on an issue without fully understanding it. I don't know where they get so much energy to jump to conclusions, assume things and create even more problems. Good to see you here again! I wish the rest of the videos that talk about similar issues were this concise, instead of getting sidetracked and aggravating the problem.

I feel like many of the yakuza/lad fanbase nowadays rarely understand the context in the world of these games, so much so that misinformation is spread so badly in the fanbase itself. Thanks for speaking about this

I mean, this game takes place during a time in Japan when all this stuff was a thing. It's just accurately depicting these historical events. They can't just remove them in a potential remake.

"uhm, yakooza shouldn't cover topics so heavy" damn, i guess makoto makimura doesn't have a backstory anymore

Kenzan was my first game via a Lets Play on Something Awful and I am floored that people somehow got these wrong ideas into their heads. But I guess that's what happens when you don't actually watch or play the game, and you just hear opinions from people who haven't done the same either, It's like an Ouroboros.

Kenzan doed have a dark and heavy story but the game doesnt treat it like whats happening its a good thing like you said. Its meant to make you feel awful and thats just how things were back in that time, as bad as it is. All yakuza games try to depict theyre time periods very accuretly and kenzan shouldnt be an exception because slavery and sex trafficking were common place. Games like assassins creed has similar stuff (like child labor and abuse) and never got flak for it so idk why people dunk on kenzan. Anyway, kenzan would be so fucking beautiful on DE please

this is a prime of example of someone with a decent reach saying some dumb and incorrect stuff, and all their followers parroting those words without checking it out for themselves hoping that more people watch this video and realize that a lot of these parroted "reviews" about this game are filled with misinformation, and I hope that if RGG ever re release this game don't do it like they did Ishin

Good video man, glad you cleared things up. I figured there was something people were missing, as with most things in un-wide released Yakuza media. Good to see you're back!

The same logic people have for suggesting why they shouldn't remake or remaster Kenzan should be used for the rest of the series. It's like people forget that this is a series that focuses heavily on the criminal underworld of Japan and that the main protagonists are affiliated with organized crime.

Thank you for this, I'm so sick of having to argue with people and explain over and over again that there is no child prostitution in Kenzan. This game is truly great, and it is a shame that if it gets re-released in any capacity they will probably change this plot point because of this stupid controversy.

Wait I'm pretty sure the letter G when writing romaji always denotes a [g] sound and not a [d͡ʒ] So Gion would be with a [g] but you probably already know that because you played the game..

At this point, SEGA needs to have its own QnA session only for this game before remaking it

Yakuza is inherently a series about cultural critique Removing that would be criminal Yakuza is not only a silly fun game, not only a great action series, but also a game of cultural critique

yea ur right samurai were more into boys than girls anyways

I agree with the general sentiment of the video. Haruka is NOT a prostitute in Kenzan. However, Kenzan includes a lot more controversial content beyond what's already been mentioned, especially where the kamuro are concerned. Content which can't be addressed by just "the kamuro don't engage in prostitution". First of all, there's the fact that the young girls (kamuro and shinzo) in the brothel are still training to be courtesans someday. The youngest courtesan Kiryu can date ingame looks uncomfortably like a teenager, and it's even commented on by an NPC. As slaves to the brothel, the kamuro are doing more than just cleaning floors. Their day-to-day tasks put them in close proximity to sex work and the sex industry in Gion. This includes soliciting clients on behalf of the courtesans by writing or delivering letters. Just the simple fact they live and work in the brothels puts the kamuro in situations that are totally inappropriate situations for minors to be in. Case in point, in Gion Touji's first scene he basically tries to groom Haruka. I also agree with you that topics that might make some people uncomfortable, like slavery, should be valid to explore in a video game. But I'm not comfortable with that applying to absolutely everything. That one scene you refer to in writing at 3:48 crosses the line for me. Another horrific detail from that scene is how the brothel staff first try to politely stop what's going on, but once that method fails they let the old guy do whatever he wants. This really calls into question what will happen if someone requests a kamuro in Gion, a pleasure district where "anything can be bought for the right price". In one of the first sidequests you fight a man who has fallen in love with a kamuro. The Madam of the Tsuruya mistakes Haruka for a kamuro (before she sells herself) and says something to the effect of "you don't discriminate, do you?" to Kiryu. When Shishido Baiken first hears about Haruka he thinks she's Kiryu's favorite at the brothel. These last two are probably just jokes, but these jokes are in very bad taste for western audiences. Thank you for making this video. It's thanks to the dedication and hard work of people like you that we can have conversations about what future re-releases would look like, without falling into the misconceptions "Kiryu romantically loves Haruka" or "Haruka is a prostitute" that get repeated over and over. But if the game as it is now was translated into English, then I think it would be given the most severe age rating possible (AO in the U.S.) if not outright banned. Edit: All the new comments I post get flagged 🤔 Oh well. Kenzan contains more than just allusions to child slavery and grooming, my point was there needed to be some sort of disclaimer (or unique rating) alerting players of this and any other controversial content.

Thanks for the video King

oh thank god

Stand by this information, dispel any other.

just look at what the west interpretation of japanese culture in the next game, AC shadow and i quite sure the yakuza tv series is just gonna make a mockery of this franchise.

Wow...shit happens when your game didn't get translated in 17 years... Like could any of you think about this logically? Why would Sega allow child prostetution in one of their games??? It would ruin their reputation beyond repair. And the fact that that hasn't happened yet proofs you guys are wrong.

AN FSR SONG???? I RECOGNIZED IT IMMEDIATELY