An interesing tidbit about Shinseicho, despite the cozy atmosohere people get from it (myself included) the Japanese audience has some extra context for the area that completely changes that feeling. Like Sotenbori, Shinseicho has a direct real life analog that I unfortunately forget the name of. However, I do remember it has a seriously dangerous reputation among tourists and locals. Even native people clutch their purses closer and keep a vigilant eye out when they're visiting that part of town, and visiting foreigners are warned about how it puts the "trap" in tourist trap. For the part of the story where Kiryu and Sayama finally make a direct, aggressive search for any information about the Jingweon they can find, this district is a suitable lion's den for them to enter. It has secrets only locals and those in the know would be able to find, and seemingly multiple businesses in the town are in collusion with keeping Keima hidden. In-game, this is where a young man is able to steal the deed to his mother's business without repercussion (until Kiryu shows up), a mysterious gun modder wanders the streets apparently just pulling people aside to test his weapons on them, and a massive man regularly steals donations off a statue of Billiken without any resistance from anyone. Suffice it to say, Shinseicho might be even shadier than Kamurocho and Sotenbori just for how condensed all of its grime and corruption is. And considering it's the only place where a Jingweon survivor is able to hide for long enough to pass information to the heroes, I'm willing to bet even the Jingweon try to avoid it.
I think many fans don't quite look at how many projects were being developed between 2015-2018. I think this affects how Shinseicho was being left out. In those 3 years, RGG need to build a new engine, make Yakuza 0, Kiwami 1, 6, Kiwami 2, Fist of the North Star, Yakuza 3 Remastered, RGG Online and Judgment. Even Kamurocho in those games I mentioned have their differences, not to mention creating a fairly small area that has nearly zero chance to reuse again in later entries. Meanwhile, 2006 RGG was just focused on Yakuza 2. It took them 2 years of work to release Kenzan after that. They were not working with multiple projects at the same time. I like Shinseicho but I like it better if RGG employees are not worked to the death and still get criticized to death by angry fans
Honestly, I would much prefer if they scaled down with the multitude of projects nowadays, precisely because of what you've said. The last thing anyone should want is for them to get overworked, especially with the amount of talent and passion consistently on display. Art takes time, and what they do really is art.
@@gokudoni agree. from 2020-2024 it seems that they scale down the number of "big" projects. 2020 only had Yakuza 7, 2021 only had Lost Judgment (although there were Super Monkey Ball and Virtua Fighter & Judgment remastered), 2022 they released nothing which is good, and 2023 there are Ishin and Gaiden, both of them seem may be equal to or slightly larger than 1 full-on project. I hope 2024 only has Infinite Wealth since they stated it's their biggest game to date
I knew Yakuza had some rushed games but I didn't realize it was that bad damn that's an insane amount of work for 3 years. It's a miracle those games turned out as well we they did. Since they don't make that quantity of games these days it seems like RGG is getting more time to work on these games and it's been pretty good. I'd be surprised if we get another game in 2024 since we don't know what is after Infinite Wealth.
@@brogan294 yeah their workload was insane. I hope 2024 will just be Infinite Wealth, don't want to see the employees worked to the death. 2025 with no releases is good too but I doubt it, since it will be 20 years anniversary of the series, RGG will likely have something planned for that year
@@samuel.jpg.1080p 2022 actually had them releasing the Kaito Files DLC RGG Studios quantity of projects may be decreasing a bit, however, their scope of recent/upcoming games are being turned up. Hopefully they aren’t messy like Ishin Kiwami’s flawed bug ridden launch, although that was due to multiple factors atypical of presumably normal Dragon Engine releases like Gaiden and 8 should be But considering they started on Gaiden in the midst of Infinite Wealth and releasing almost 2 months back to back, this could be a similar “crunch” like over half a decade ago
my favorite mainline Yakuza game, i'm so glad you made a vid dedicated to this district because once the PS3 goes offline, Yakuza 1 and 2 are officially lost in time, and I still have a small bit of hope that RGG will one day decide to port AND localize the HD remasters of these two games
This video makes Kiwami 2 chapter 11 makes sooo much more sense, since this district was cut. Chapter 11 felt like a filler episode and it was a little too convenient how the Jingweon was hiding coincidently in Sotenbori. It would’ve been nice if they could’ve included it and the investigation leading up to the end of chapter 11 to have more of a satisfying payoff.
Both times I visited Osaka, I've stayed in Shinsekai. It's a pretty vibrant district with tons of restaurants, fairly close to a train, a Mega Donki close by and the hotel I stayed at both times is relatively premium yet still pretty cheap. Dotonbori is also a 30 minute walk from that district. By walking from Shinsekai to Dotonbori, you can also come across Den-Den Town halfway through, Osaka's answer to Akiba's Electric Town. It's pretty neat.
I just visited Shinsekai the other week (was debating comparing the game and irl one). It's interesting they moved that mall's location to run along the same side as the main road so you have two lanes to explore since in reality the mall is kinda the entrance and way further back (but also 3x as long).
Maps like Shinseicho are severly underrated and underrepresented in games nowadays imo. I find that small condensed places like this really help to switch up the vibe from the games main area and often end up being quite memorable. They can provide a cozy atmosphere in contrast to a larger, more busy open world. A breather inbetween bigger adventures, or a subplot of sorts.
@@gokudoni Honestly Gion isn't even the best part about Kenzan's map. Kenzan is very unique as it has quite a big selection of smaller maps, even outside of Kyo
It's a shame they didn't bring it back for Shinada's part in yakuza 5, since it features the same tower and the two locations are in close proximity from one another. It would've been fun to see in the HD yakuza universe.
If you want to see a modern video game version of Shinsekai, it does show up at the end of Persona 5 Strikers/Scramble. :P In fact, you'll run into some familiar locations if you've played Yakuza 2, 3, and 5, you'll see plenty of familiar cities in that game since, like Yakuza 5, it feels like a sort of whirlwind tour of major cities in Japan.
Thank you for the recommendation! The Persona series has been on my "to-play" list for quite a while, so I'm glad there's one more thing about it to look forward to present 👍
Having started with Zero and then played Kiwamis 1-2, going back and researching how the originals played and learning how much was CUT and/or RUINED in the remakes made me kinda sad.
Kiwamis are good, but they're clearly super low budget remakes made between several other projects, RGG Studio is too small for that, so they had to cut corners.
Not sure if this was noted but remember that also during Yakuza 6 the kamurocho hill district wouldn't see the light of day till yakuza 7. With Kiwami 2 being the construction version of it. Since it just started.
Literally mentioned after that it's bought up in Kiwami cut content discussions, and that's what people bring up. Haven't seen an in-depth look at the district video my self but do correct me if I'm wrong
An interesing tidbit about Shinseicho, despite the cozy atmosohere people get from it (myself included) the Japanese audience has some extra context for the area that completely changes that feeling. Like Sotenbori, Shinseicho has a direct real life analog that I unfortunately forget the name of. However, I do remember it has a seriously dangerous reputation among tourists and locals. Even native people clutch their purses closer and keep a vigilant eye out when they're visiting that part of town, and visiting foreigners are warned about how it puts the "trap" in tourist trap. For the part of the story where Kiryu and Sayama finally make a direct, aggressive search for any information about the Jingweon they can find, this district is a suitable lion's den for them to enter. It has secrets only locals and those in the know would be able to find, and seemingly multiple businesses in the town are in collusion with keeping Keima hidden. In-game, this is where a young man is able to steal the deed to his mother's business without repercussion (until Kiryu shows up), a mysterious gun modder wanders the streets apparently just pulling people aside to test his weapons on them, and a massive man regularly steals donations off a statue of Billiken without any resistance from anyone. Suffice it to say, Shinseicho might be even shadier than Kamurocho and Sotenbori just for how condensed all of its grime and corruption is. And considering it's the only place where a Jingweon survivor is able to hide for long enough to pass information to the heroes, I'm willing to bet even the Jingweon try to avoid it.
Brilliant write up! Loved reading it.
I remember finding a substory where you get robbed around that area while I was playing, likely a reference to it's real life location
I think many fans don't quite look at how many projects were being developed between 2015-2018. I think this affects how Shinseicho was being left out. In those 3 years, RGG need to build a new engine, make Yakuza 0, Kiwami 1, 6, Kiwami 2, Fist of the North Star, Yakuza 3 Remastered, RGG Online and Judgment. Even Kamurocho in those games I mentioned have their differences, not to mention creating a fairly small area that has nearly zero chance to reuse again in later entries.
Meanwhile, 2006 RGG was just focused on Yakuza 2. It took them 2 years of work to release Kenzan after that. They were not working with multiple projects at the same time.
I like Shinseicho but I like it better if RGG employees are not worked to the death and still get criticized to death by angry fans
Honestly, I would much prefer if they scaled down with the multitude of projects nowadays, precisely because of what you've said. The last thing anyone should want is for them to get overworked, especially with the amount of talent and passion consistently on display. Art takes time, and what they do really is art.
@@gokudoni agree. from 2020-2024 it seems that they scale down the number of "big" projects. 2020 only had Yakuza 7, 2021 only had Lost Judgment (although there were Super Monkey Ball and Virtua Fighter & Judgment remastered), 2022 they released nothing which is good, and 2023 there are Ishin and Gaiden, both of them seem may be equal to or slightly larger than 1 full-on project. I hope 2024 only has Infinite Wealth since they stated it's their biggest game to date
I knew Yakuza had some rushed games but I didn't realize it was that bad damn that's an insane amount of work for 3 years. It's a miracle those games turned out as well we they did. Since they don't make that quantity of games these days it seems like RGG is getting more time to work on these games and it's been pretty good.
I'd be surprised if we get another game in 2024 since we don't know what is after Infinite Wealth.
@@brogan294 yeah their workload was insane. I hope 2024 will just be Infinite Wealth, don't want to see the employees worked to the death. 2025 with no releases is good too but I doubt it, since it will be 20 years anniversary of the series, RGG will likely have something planned for that year
@@samuel.jpg.1080p 2022 actually had them releasing the Kaito Files DLC
RGG Studios quantity of projects may be decreasing a bit, however, their scope of recent/upcoming games are being turned up. Hopefully they aren’t messy like Ishin Kiwami’s flawed bug ridden launch, although that was due to multiple factors atypical of presumably normal Dragon Engine releases like Gaiden and 8 should be
But considering they started on Gaiden in the midst of Infinite Wealth and releasing almost 2 months back to back, this could be a similar “crunch” like over half a decade ago
Imagine this map in the Dragon Engine.
W video.
I didn't even know that Shinseicho even existed, thanks for enlightening me.
my favorite mainline Yakuza game, i'm so glad you made a vid dedicated to this district because once the PS3 goes offline, Yakuza 1 and 2 are officially lost in time, and I still have a small bit of hope that RGG will one day decide to port AND localize the HD remasters of these two games
This video makes Kiwami 2 chapter 11 makes sooo much more sense, since this district was cut. Chapter 11 felt like a filler episode and it was a little too convenient how the Jingweon was hiding coincidently in Sotenbori. It would’ve been nice if they could’ve included it and the investigation leading up to the end of chapter 11 to have more of a satisfying payoff.
Never played the PS2 Yakuza 2 but something about Shinsheicho feels pretty cozy. Especially the tower.
Both times I visited Osaka, I've stayed in Shinsekai. It's a pretty vibrant district with tons of restaurants, fairly close to a train, a Mega Donki close by and the hotel I stayed at both times is relatively premium yet still pretty cheap. Dotonbori is also a 30 minute walk from that district. By walking from Shinsekai to Dotonbori, you can also come across Den-Den Town halfway through, Osaka's answer to Akiba's Electric Town. It's pretty neat.
I just visited Shinsekai the other week (was debating comparing the game and irl one). It's interesting they moved that mall's location to run along the same side as the main road so you have two lanes to explore since in reality the mall is kinda the entrance and way further back (but also 3x as long).
Or maybe things were just different during yakuza 2 development compared to today
Maps like Shinseicho are severly underrated and underrepresented in games nowadays imo.
I find that small condensed places like this really help to switch up the vibe from the games main area and often end up being quite memorable.
They can provide a cozy atmosphere in contrast to a larger, more busy open world. A breather inbetween bigger adventures, or a subplot of sorts.
The real forgotten district is Gion from Kenzan, but that's pretty much true for everything about Kenzan. Poor Kenzan....
Another great choice! I've only recently tried out Kenzan, but the liveliness of Gion immediately took centre stage.
@@gokudoni Honestly Gion isn't even the best part about Kenzan's map. Kenzan is very unique as it has quite a big selection of smaller maps, even outside of Kyo
@@marleonka. Does Kenzan! and Ishin! have the same maps?
@@ak-t7d6f Nope. They are very different
@@ak-t7d6f Kenzan and Ishin are not related to one another besides the samurai setting concept.
I adore a video like this about a specific district. These places absolutely give the most life to these games.
We all know why it isn't in Kiwami 2...Yokoyama kept loosing his shogi matches in the district and banished to stay in the PS2 version
😂 Keima's ranked matches are no joke!
This is a really neat little video here. No massive topic or long video, just appreciation for a unique map and I love that.
It's a shame they didn't bring it back for Shinada's part in yakuza 5, since it features the same tower and the two locations are in close proximity from one another. It would've been fun to see in the HD yakuza universe.
"HD Universe" lol this ain't GTA but I get ya
If you want to see a modern video game version of Shinsekai, it does show up at the end of Persona 5 Strikers/Scramble. :P In fact, you'll run into some familiar locations if you've played Yakuza 2, 3, and 5, you'll see plenty of familiar cities in that game since, like Yakuza 5, it feels like a sort of whirlwind tour of major cities in Japan.
Thank you for the recommendation! The Persona series has been on my "to-play" list for quite a while, so I'm glad there's one more thing about it to look forward to present 👍
Having started with Zero and then played Kiwamis 1-2,
going back and researching how the originals played and learning how much was CUT and/or RUINED in the remakes made me kinda sad.
What do you feel was ruined? I really liked the remake even if I didn't actually play it myself (I don't have a PS that can play any Yakuza game).
Kiwamis are good, but they're clearly super low budget remakes made between several other projects, RGG Studio is too small for that, so they had to cut corners.
@@Mari_Izuthey added more to those games tho than the original. They just took out things that weren’t beneficial to future game references
i love sontenbori and shinseicho places, cuz i love golden rod city in pokemon games
Shinseicho should have been on the remake. No excuses.
Time to port it to Gmod!!
You can visit the place in Persona 5 Strikers, at least
Not sure if this was noted but remember that also during Yakuza 6 the kamurocho hill district wouldn't see the light of day till yakuza 7. With Kiwami 2 being the construction version of it. Since it just started.
Blame Kiwami 2 for that one.
"You will rarely see brought up in modern fan discourse."
Not really, someone will always bring it up.
I was hoping for idk Y5 cities.
Literally mentioned after that it's bought up in Kiwami cut content discussions, and that's what people bring up. Haven't seen an in-depth look at the district video my self but do correct me if I'm wrong