{"id":16156,"date":"2022-10-13T22:01:50","date_gmt":"2022-10-13T13:01:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=16156"},"modified":"2022-10-14T21:34:36","modified_gmt":"2022-10-14T12:34:36","slug":"20221013-16156","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20221013-16156\/","title":{"rendered":"Why did Sega change Yakuza to Like a Dragon? We asked the devs and learned that the title &#8220;Like a Dragon 8&#8221; isn\u2019t finalized yet"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><br><br>In September, Sega announced three new titles in its <em>Yakuza<\/em> series: <em>Like a Dragon 8<\/em>, <em>Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name<\/em>, and <em>Like a Dragon: Ishin!<\/em>, <strong>although <em>Like a Dragon 8<\/em> isn\u2019t a finalized title yet as we\u2019ll explain later in this article.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What will be immediately obvious to fans of the series is that none of the games bear the \u201c<em>Yakuza<\/em>\u201d name, instead using the title \u201c<em>Like a Dragon<\/em>.\u201d The Japanese title, <em>Ryu Ga Gotoku<\/em>, remains the same for these new entries. The new English title now shares its meaning with the Japanese title, but why exactly did they decide to change it now? We spoke with Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio representative Masayoshi Yokoyama to find out.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1280\" height=\"854\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1280px) 100vw, 1280px\" src=\"http:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/20221013-222621-001.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-16165\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/20221013-222621-001.jpg 1280w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/20221013-222621-001-600x400.jpg 600w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/20221013-222621-001-380x254.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/20221013-222621-001-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/20221013-222621-001-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/20221013-222621-001-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/20221013-222621-001-696x464.jpg 696w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/20221013-222621-001-1068x713.jpg 1068w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/20221013-222621-001-630x420.jpg 630w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><br>According to Yokoyama, back when they first launched the <em>Yakuza<\/em> series, it was in a very different market position to where it is now. It was regarded as a very niche title, and since Yokoyama and the rest of the team did not have the knowledge of the global market that they have today, they decided to go with the title <em>Yakuza<\/em>. There have been times when they thought about changing the title, but the series had become widely known under the <em>Yakuza<\/em> name, so they chose to leave it the same until now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, around the period that <em>Yakuza 0<\/em> was released, the series began to explode in popularity overseas. Also, due to recent titles in the series starting to move away from just telling stories about conflict between yakuza, they decided to give <em>Ryu Ga Gotoku 7<\/em> the English title <em>Yakuza: Like a Dragon<\/em>. Furthermore, with these three newly announced games, the series is officially shifting to the <em>Like a Dragon<\/em> title.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Like a Dragon 8 | Announcement Trailer\" width=\"1160\" height=\"653\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/AJhqN7R_oAg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Yakuza: Like a Dragon | Cinematic Trailer\" width=\"1160\" height=\"653\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/M9rx8zbxbFk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><br>That said, <strong>Yokoyama isn\u2019t sure if the company will stick with the name <em>Like a Dragon 8<\/em>.<\/strong> As it\u2019s a sequel to <em>Yakuza: Like a Dragon<\/em>, it\u2019s possible that the western audience will find titles such as <em>Yakuza: Like a Dragon 2<\/em> or <em>Like a Dragon 2<\/em> to be more suitable. They intend to finalize the name after observing user reactions and seeing whether the current title causes confusion among western gamers. Although they want to form a shared brand name between domestic and overseas markets, they don\u2019t want to go with a title that is difficult for users to understand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In regard to <em>Like a Dragon: Ishin!,<\/em> the Japanese development team told Sega of America that they had complete freedom to come up with a new English title, and Sega of America decided that it was best to go with <em>Like a Dragon: Ishin!<\/em>, which is a direct translation of the Japanese title.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The game takes place in 19th century Japan and the term \u201cIshin\u201d refers to Meiji Ishin, or the Meiji Restoration. The setting has no connection to the yakuza, and as such, giving the game the title \u201c<em>Yakuza: Ishin<\/em>\u201d would have been rather strange.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When we asked Yokoyama whether they had ever considered using the title \u201c<em>Yakuza Ishin\u201d <\/em>instead of <em>Like a Dragon: Ishin!<\/em>, he laughed as he rejected the notion, saying, \u201cIf we did that then it would become a confusing mess.\u201d That said, it doesn\u2019t seem like the series\u2019 name change was employed just as a way to avoid using \u201c<em>Yakuza Ishin.\u201d<\/em><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Like a Dragon: Ishin! | Ambush Trailer\" width=\"1160\" height=\"653\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/4wVSyxsUQHU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><br>Yokoyama said that even if they once again release games that focus on battles between yakuza in the future, they will likely not use titles such as \u201c<em>Yakuza<\/em>\u201d or \u201c<em>Like a Dragon: Yakuza<\/em>.\u201d Each time the Ryu Ga Gotoku team releases a new game, they go to great efforts to make sure that it is relevant to the current era, and that includes the game\u2019s title.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The <em>Yakuza<\/em> series became <em>Yakuza: Like a Dragon<\/em>, and now will continue its journey as <em>Like a Dragon<\/em>. It was a clever bit of maneuvering, but one that required careful preparation.<br><br><br><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"font-size:12px\"><em>Written by. Marco Farinaccia based on the <a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/articles\/newsjp\/20221013-222621\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">original Japanese article<\/a> (original article&#8217;s publication date:2022-10-13 22:00 JST)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In September, Sega announced three new titles in its Yakuza series: Like a Dragon 8, Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name, and Like a Dragon: Ishin!, although Like a Dragon 8 isn\u2019t a finalized title yet. We spoke with Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio representative to find out why they changed the English title for the series from Yakuza to Like a Dragon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":16164,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-16156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Why did Sega change Yakuza to Like a Dragon? 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We asked the devs and learned that the title \"Like a Dragon 8\" isn\u2019t finalized yet - AUTOMATON WEST","description":"In September, Sega announced three new titles in its Yakuza series: Like a Dragon 8, Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name, and Like a Dragon: Ishin!, although Like a Dragon 8 isn\u2019t a finalized title yet. We spoke with Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio representative to find out why they changed the English title for the series from Yakuza to Like a Dragon.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20221013-16156\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Why did Sega change Yakuza to Like a Dragon? We asked the devs and learned that the title \"Like a Dragon 8\" isn\u2019t finalized yet - AUTOMATON WEST","og_description":"In September, Sega announced three new titles in its Yakuza series: Like a Dragon 8, Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name, and Like a Dragon: Ishin!, although Like a Dragon 8 isn\u2019t a finalized title yet. 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