Yakuza 5's Haruka Won't Engage in Fights

We must admit, we did a double-take when SEGA announced orphan Haruka would be a playable character in Yakuza 5. The youngster is a world away from the angry men that typically populate the cast of SEGA’s niche adventure series. How is she going to fight?

Many speculated that Haruka might have been trained by protagonist Kazuma Kiryu during her time in care at the Sunshine Orphanage, but series head Toshihiro Nagoshi has said that the character won’t engage in battles (or fights) at all. Instead she’ll have a different kind of battle element. We’re speculating here, but given Haruka’s ambition to become an idol, we’re guessing she’ll be singing or dancing her way through the game.

Similarly, Haruka won’t engage in adult side-activities such as the hostess clubs. Instead she’ll have her own unique activities to take part in, that the adult characters won’t be able to access.

Nagoshi concluded that Yakuza 5 is roughly two times the “volume” of Yakuza 4. Seeing as the previous title took us around 20 hours to complete (minus side-activities), we’re looking forward to lapping up every minute of Yakuza 5’s even bigger campaign.

Please localise the game, SEGA. Please.