TheYakuza/Like a Dragon series is firmly rooted in Japanese culture. From the setting to the characters to everything in between, it pays tribute to myriad customs and traditions throughout its narrative, gameplay, and worldbuilding. It’s a celebration of everything that makes Japan unique.
For localisers adapting the games for Western audiences, this can prove to be a challenge. Not only do they have to ensure they do the source material justice, they must also make it relatable for players less familiar with Japan and its many distinct qualities.
We recently spoke with lead editor Josh Malone and senior translator Dan Sunstrum about their work localising Like a Dragon at Sega. “The big challenge is, as always, helping these stories come across as organically and endearingly as the original writers intended,” Malone tells us. He explains that the Japanese feel of the game is a “central part of the experience,” and so it requires an experienced localiser’s touch to find the character voice, render Japanese dialects faithfully, and handle the terminology and cultural references.
“There are no one-size-fits-all solutions, and just about every rule has its exceptions,” Malone says. “Ultimately, every decision we make has to serve the scene and make sense to the player while still being entertaining. This requires a custom-tailored approach to each new challenge we come across, and that’s part of what keeps the job—and the localisation itself—fresh and fun.”
One challenging aspect is adapting humour, as jokes still have to fit the scene in questionandland with the local audience. Malone points to Kasuga’s viral video in Infinite Wealth as a good example of this. This scene was an homage to Tora-san, the protagonist of a long-running Japanese movie series called Otoko wa Tsurai yo, something that would have been missed by Western audiences as Tora-san’s name isn’t even mentioned. Nor would they catch such a reference if it was.
“We could at least tell Ichiban was hamming it up for the camera in a charming, unexpected way. We simply rendered the dialogue with ‘old-school theatrics’ in mind—which turned out almost like a modern version of kabuki, seeing Ichiban’s exaggerated movements and hearing the shamisen in the background. And of course, Kaiji Tang, Ichiban’s English voice actor, took that to the next level, breathing new life into the performance like always.”
Malone’s favourite comedic moment that he localised was the ‘Shinada’s Interview’ substory in Yakuza 5, where “the perennially penniless Tatsuo Shinada” goes through a lengthy interview process only to find out the whole thing and job offer was simply a means for his boss to get him into bed.
“It’s a touchy scene that’s very weird, very Yakuza, and very much played for laughs—the trick was to find a good comedy angle for it,” Malone says. “One thing the boss says during the interview was, ‘Can you obey me like you would your father?’, making Shinada suspect the company was some kind of yakuza front. But for me, that father angle seemed to explain why, in the very next scene, the president was standing in front of Shinada wearing nothing but a loincloth, ready to get his freak on. The guy had a daddy kink, plain and simple, and that’s the angle I used to finesse the scene without fundamentally changing any jokes. I thought it turned out great.”
What’s In A Name?
The series recently changed its name from Yakuza to Like a Dragon, and Sunstrum explains there were three main reasons for this.
Firstly, the series was never titled this way in Japan, so changing the title to bring it in line with its original name, Ryu Ga Gotoku, “reflects the developer’s renewed commitment to bringing their games to a global audience”. Additionally, the series is not solely about playing as a member of the yakuza anymore, with much of the recent entries portraying Kiryu and Kasugaafterthey leave their respective yakuza families, while spin-offs such as Ishin are entirely unrelated to the Japanese criminal underworld.
Lastly, Sunstrum explains the original name gave players the wrong idea about what kind of games the series offered. “The name Yakuza caused a lot of Western gamers to mistakenly assume the series was like ‘Grand Theft Auto in Japan’, despite the fact that LAD delivers a very different experience to GTA.”
The series has grown in popularity in the West over the years, and over that time the team has found that the “proliferation of Japanese media” enabled them to leave far more things in Japanese rather than “Americanising them wholesale”. Malone explains that certain things, like yakuza ranks, are changed because it’s hard to keep track of foreign hierarchical terms across so many characters and organisations, but other elements, such as honorifics, they keep intact as “there’s a lot of precedent for leaving unique elements of Japanese culture intact”.
“One substory I constantly refer to is Stadium Jumper Strut in Yakuza 0,” Malone explains. “What sticks out to me is that ‘sutajans’—the central item of the substory—were not only explained as stadium jumpers but also compared to American varsity jackets. To me, that’s a good way of introducing a foreign term—making use of a clear definition, visual representation, or point of comparison to aid the player’s understanding. What we don’t want is people stopping to whip out their phones and start searching online because we left in an indecipherable reference or decided on ‘keikaku’ when ‘plan’ would’ve done the job. So there’s a balancing aspect to it as well.”
Infinite Wealth takes the series’ setting West for the first time, yet despite the big change, the localisation team felt “right at home” as Malone tells us that Hawaii is a “nexus between Japan and the United States, making it a perfect place for Ichiban and crew to venture into foreign territory while still having some semblances of familiarity. As if to highlight that connection between our two countries, the dev reached out to us often to collaborate on names for characters, organizations, stores, and signage, supplementing their on-site location research to deliver a Hawaii that looks, feels, and sounds just like the real place but with way more random encounters.”
There is often confusion from fans about the differences between translation and localisation. Malone explains that translation is a “core skill of what the broader act of localisation actually is” as localising games also involves translating and editing games to ensure they are “naturally decipherable and enjoyable in the target audience, mirroring the experience of the original audience”.
“Translation is fundamental, focusing on accurately conveying the source language into the target language while addressing any nuances or challenges through translator notes. Editing refines the translation, considering factors like tone, characterisation, setting, and intent. In years past, it often involved altering cultural references to suit Western audiences, but now, with Japanese culture’s global reach, localisers can immerse international players in fictional Japanese worlds deeper than ever before.”
The word ‘censorship’ is thrown around often in regards to localisation and translation, and as a result, has begun to lose its proper meaning for many. Where it once referred to governments curtailing free speech to further its own agenda, Sunstrum says we now have “people throwing around the word in situations where a creator is voluntarily making a choice about how to express their work, or in more extreme cases, when a localiser dares to breathe some life into an otherwise dry translation.”
“There is nothing wrong with wanting an authentic translation, and certainly nothing wrong with having a discerning eye when it comes to localisation, but translation is inherently transformative and at a certain point the only way to get more authentic is to simply read the work in its original language,” he says. “I feel strongly that the video game censorship crowd would be better served learning Japanese and playing games in the language they were written in than railing against people who pour tons of love into localising these titles for everyone else.”
The next time you dive into the world of Like a Dragon with Kiryu or Kasuga, it’s worth taking a moment to appreciate the hard work and dedication that the localisation team puts in to ensure that we can appreciate every heartwrenching scene, moreishly good minigame, and silly substory.
