The Yakuza universe spans several decades across different generations, starting in the 1980s with Yakuza 0 and ending in the year 2019 with Yakuza: Like A Dragon. Each game in the series features various mini-games for the protagonists to participate in their free time, ranging from bowling, batting cages, and the arcade.
One of the titles featured in Club Sega is the arcade version of Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown, currently the latest in the Virtua Fighter series. While the games featured in Kamurocho's Club Sega alternates depending on the Yakuza title, both Yakuza 6 and Yakuza: Like A Dragon, set in the 2010s, feature modern arcade titles to reflect the time period. According to a very recent discovery, Virtua Fighter fans can now play Final Showdown in its entirety as a simple edit unlocks the full console version.
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A modder by the name of Silent, who has worked on various games including several Rockstar Games titles, Mass Effect, and the Yakuza series had made the discovery while messing through the game's code. Silent knew that the default commands would boot Final Showdown in either Arcade or VS mode, but upon coming across a peculiar line, Silent wondered what would happen if a single integer was changed within the line.
As it turned out, the simple change unlocked the full console version of Final Showdown, allowing players to access modes that the player otherwise wouldn't be able to access normally. Shortly after the discovery, Silent had updated his blog, providing information of his discovery in full while offering a download link, allowing curious players to play the console version in Club Sega.
The game is based on the Xbox 360 port of Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown with references to Xbox Live although network capabilities are disabled for obvious reasons. This version of Virtua Fighter doesn't allow access to DLC and attempting to do so will softlock the game. Players can exit the game with ease, resuming Kiryu's and Ichiban's adventures just as if it was the arcade version.
Coincidentally, this discovery comes a week after reports of the full version of TimeSplitters 2 was found within Homefront: The Revolution. The main difference lies in TimeSplitters 2 already confirmed as an Easter egg by developer Dambuster Studios, while this was a discovery that Sega didn't expect anyone to unearth more than likely. In the past, players had expressed interest in Yakuza 6 and Yakuza: Like a Dragon on Steam for the sole purpose of playing a modern Virtua Fighter game on the PC.
The emulation isn't perfect, as basic functions including pausing the game are buggy, but PC players wishing to have a hands-on experience with the series will have a lot to indulge in. For a series that is likely to remain on console following the announcement of Virtua Fighter 5: Ultimate Showdown, this discovery should be enough to keep die-hard fans satisfied.
Yakuza: Like a Dragon is available on PS4, PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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Source: Silent's Blog