GameMAG.ru interview with Masayoshi Yokoyama on Yakuza: Like a Dragon

Last month, thanks to our partnerts from SEGA and SoftClub, we had an opportunity to talk with Masayoshi Yokoyama, Chief Producer of Yakuza: Like a Dragon, in celebration of the Russian localization release. 

Previously the interview was only available in Russian, but now we have decided to publish English-version as well, which you can read in all of its glory below. 

• Why exactly have you decided to bring Russian localization to the series with Yakuza: Like a Dragon? 

Our wish is to have as many people as possible be able to play the game that we created. For a long time, I have felt that the spirit of the people living in Russia, especially the sense of "toughness” has something in common with the characters in the Yakuza series. We localized the game because we wanted the tough men and women of Russia to experience the world of Yakuza as well.

• Can Russian fans expect more games from Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio to be localized in the future? 

Personally, I’d like for more people around the world to be able to enjoy the Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio’s games in their native language. I think we’ll continue to think of ways to have people enjoy the game in Russian going forward. Reception plays a major factor in these decisions, so if you’d like to see more, please play Yakuza: Like a Dragon! 

• Now that Yakuza: Like a Dragon is out both in Japan and the West, how are you finding the overall reception of the game, given its drastic changes to gameplay and main cast of characters? 

My impression is that the reception continued to become more positive after the game launched and I’m quite delighted by that.

The 2 points that had significant impact on this title, especially in the Japanese market, were: changing the protagonist and changing the game genre. We were surprised and happy at how well Japan accepted our new protagonist, Ichiban Kasuga! Interestingly, fans seemed to be more focused on the change in battle mechanics than the protagonist.

When it comes to long-standing game series such as Yakuza, fans can sometimes become skeptical or even reluctant to change. They find comfort in the familiarity of core parts of the series. Personally, I was most concerned about the loss of fans due to the change of protagonist in Yakuza: Like a Dragon, but I think one of the main reasons for its success was that we were able to counteract this by changing the game genre in tandem, which left a stronger impression on people. 

The Japanese market is gradually becoming an environment where genuinely fun games are praised and succeed long-term, rather than those that are just fads or garner attention for a short period of time. The sales in the West are doing great as well. It is very gratifying for game creators to know that quality games are appreciated across various countries and cultures, but it also puts pressure on us in a good way. I hope to continue creating truly fun games going forward. 

• How hard was it to move to a completely new protagonist, Kasuga Ichiban after so many years with Kazuma Kiryu and his story?

For this game, our mission since the beginning of the project was to think of “what kind of protagonist are we going to create?” instead of “what kind of new game are we going to make?”

The world of the Yakuza series is driven by the strength of its characters and changing the protagonist has caused a shift in its very principles. Kazuma Kiryu was the kind of character who believed only in his own abilities, and he would often recklessly charge at his enemies. But when Ichiban Kasuga is put into the same situation, there’s a dramatic difference.

Ichiban is heroic and charismatic, but he's not superhuman like Kiryu. He’s at the bottom of the pecking order in terms of both reputation and power in the underworld. So in order to portray Ichiban as a man who stands up to powerful forces, he needed some friends to support him.

Unlike Kiryu, Ichiban is a character who talks, laughs and plays a lot. His charisma is a total reversal of Kiryu's, and that attracts people to him. Unconsciously, people who are initially drawn to him because of a unified goal become his good friends and join his “party,” and together they’ll face powerful foes.

In order to express the changes that Ichiban Kasuga brings to the game, we needed to dramatically change the game system itself, from the combat to the mini games across the city. In other words, changing the protagonist from Kazuma Kiryu meant immense changes in everything about the game from the ground up.

• Would you like to expand on the turn-based systems featured in Yakuza: Like a Dragon with the future Yakuza titles? 

Our studio strongly believes in creating games that allow the player to experience the story in the most compelling way possible. The major changes to the game system and battle system are simply the result of adopting the most suitable system for players to experience the story of this game, which naturally led to the RPG system. This means that if we end up making a sequel at some point, the protagonist and story of that game will dictate what game system we end up moving forward with.

• Given how big and dense Yokohama was in Yakuza: Like a Dragon, is it safe to assume that this city will get the main spotlight in the future titles? Or will Kamurocho, Tokyo still play a major role in the overall narrative? 

I’m not too sure about the future. *laughs*
I mean, considering there are period piece spin-off titles like Ryu ga Gotoku Kenzan! And Ryu ga Gotoku Ishin! that were released in Japan, who knows what’s to come in the future.

• By the end of Yakuza: Like a Dragon Kasuga Ichiban is a middle-aged man, far past his youth days. Is there any challenges in writing such a character?

I actually didn’t have any troubles at all. In fact, I’m around the same age as Ichiban Kasuga, so in a way, I feel like I was able to portray a fairly realistic Japanese man in his early 40’s. It’d be great if you can look at him and think, “So, this is what Japanese guys are like.”

• Have you ever considered to expand Yakuza universe with more spin-off titles akin to Judge Eyes (Judgment)? 

I always have some ideas, but I won’t speak of them here.

Sort of off topic, but recently, I've been seeing a lot of fake leaks being reported online coming from overseas. This is phenomenon didn’t exist at all until a few years ago, and in a way, I feel that this shows that Ryu ga Gotoku Studio games have become recognized by game users all over the world. This also means that I need to be more careful about what I say in overseas media interviews. *laughs*

• For the last couple of years the time window between Yakuza releases in Japan and in the West was significantly shortened. Do you feel like it would be possible to see a simultaneous worldwide launch of the new Yakuza game someday? 

I can’t promise anything, but I feel that eventually, the borders between Japan and the other countries, including language and release dates will disappear overtime. We’re doing our best to try to accomplish that.

• The main narrative of the Yakuza games follow a rather straightforward path in terms of chronological order. But Yakuza 0 took the story in a different direction presenting beloved characters in a completely new ways. Do Ryu ga Gotoku team find the idea of prequels somewhat appealing?

I believe that the strength of having a series is that there is opportunity to grow each of the characters through their episodes, while sometimes using them to shift the story or feature them as the main character. However, the downside is that once a character is dead, it’s very difficult to have them appear again. 

Prequels that take place in the past allow you to overcome this weakness. However, I think that you can’t really do that more than once. The more we dig deeper and depict the past, the more we may end up negating our own work from before. It's a fascinating subject matter but as a creator, it must be handled with care.

• When localization team starts to work on the script, do you always try to stay true to Yakuza Japanese-centric core, or do you often change some things to make the games more appealing and easy to understand for overseas audiences?

In addition to the story events, it is important to us that players understand the emotion and feeling of the world and characters. Often times, direct translation is not the best avenue for conveying these, because literal meaning does not identically convey feelings between languages. Our localization teams do their best to meet in the middle between staying faithful to the original script and capturing the game's emotion with careful localization by native speakers. It is our hope to expand our localization efforts into all languages that Yakuza fans speak.

• Recently Yakuza games made their debut on Xbox console systems. Do you like the reception the games had there? Do you plan to support Xbox in the future?

I feel that this title has a global reach greater than ever before.
We were able to take on a challenge in the uncharted territories of XBOX, and with the expansion of launch regions and languages, I have the overwhelming impression that the game has spread to gamers around the world. It has been a very rewarding job, and I can only thank XBOX for creating such opportunities.

Console games are a technology-dependent medium. When the hardware evolves, we creators imagine how we can make use of the technology to convey our vision.　We imagine what kind of audience we want to entertain, and our hearts are filled with excitement, and we use that as a driving force to transform our creativity. The evolution and development of hardware will inevitably lead to the evolution of creators. I would like to actively consider taking on various challenges in the future.

• Through the power of the internet fame, karaoke song "Baka Mitai" turned into a smashing hit and one of the biggest memes of last year. What's yours thoughts on this whole situation? Do Ryu ga Gotoku team enjoys fan-created content, Yakuza-releated jokes and memes? What's your favourite ones?

As a fan, I’m very much enjoying it. It’s always interesting to see how fans interact with our games.

Though it’s amusing, it’s important to acknowledge that memes are ultimately passing fads. Information that just flows transiently, for example, is forgotten the next day after watching the video for a minute and laughing for that duration. What we are aiming for is to create something that really resonate with people in every way. Though, I think the “Bakamitai” meme is a little different from that.

I don't know if this is a good analogy, but I guess I would say that there is a difference between something that is "laughed at" and something that is "made to laugh". We don't create our works to be "laughed at". We want to continue to make things that "make people laugh" so that they will remain in the hearts of as many players as possible.

• There are a lot of fans of Yakuza franchise here in Russia. Is there anything you would like to say to your Russian community?

From all of us at Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio to the Russian community, thank you so much for your support and please enjoy Yakuza: Like a Dragon! If you enjoy the game, it would make our team very happy to see Russian fans sharing the game and their experiences widely. We hope to see some YouTube and Twitch streams! 

Yakuza is a single player game, but it’s not necessarily a game to enjoy alone. I think the game can be enjoyed in a way like watching a movie with or playing a board game with friends. 

I know we’re living in unprecedented times and can’t go out as much as we like, but I think it's still important that we try to have fun. I really hope that you enjoy the game to the fullest!

Читайте также: "Вас ждет настоящий ураган эмоций": Square Enix представила Life is Strange: True Colors - первый трейлер и подробности. 

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