Like a Yakuza

 Say that again!

Ryū ga Gotoku, (or Yakuza) it's become a little bit of an obsession for me in the past year as you may have noticed, to the point where I'm finding myself thinking back on it almost weekly. It's already entered that state of fond recollection in my mind, with the rosy-haze of a nostalgic dream, and I've only just finished it a few months back. I even started picking over my thoughts on it during my Dark Souls time, and you have to have something darn interesting on your mind if it can cut into Dark Souls time. (Either that or you're procrastinating because you've just realised how stupid it was to mount a low-armour run now that you've made it to 'Ornstein and Smough'. I did beat them, but it took a long while.) I think it's safe to say that I'm absolutely enamoured with Yakuza 0 and consider it to be one of the most understated masterpieces of the last generation. Although it's surprising to me to say that, as understated as I consider it to currently be, that's nothing compared to the levels of obscurity the series apparently suffered under before 0. In fact, in many ways Yakuza 0 was the game which saved the entire franchise for the West, and it all comes down to the localisation.

I've spoken a bit about localisation before in my blog about 'Subs vs Dubs', but essentially it's the work that goes into making the content of the game understandable to overseas audiences who perhaps don't speak the native language of the game. Cyberpunk 2077's official Youtube has uploaded an extensive video going into their localisation efforts for Russian, (No, I don't know why they did that, they just did) so if you want a glimpse at the nitty gritty of these sorts of works then I recommend you watch that. But to summarise, localisation is about more than just translating the subtitles and calling it a day. Just as with translation there's a decent amount of interpretation and even remodelling of the text in order to strike a cord that matches the original with an entirely different audience. Essentially, I'm saying that there are times when a direct translation would elicit a different reaction over a complete restructuring or remodelling, and it's up to the localisation team to figure out where that sweet spot sits.

Inverse recently published an exhaustive article going into the way in which Yakuza 0 saved the series and even touching base with the localisation team to talk. (Which is a great read, by the way.) And I wanted to touch on my personal experience with some of the topics that they mention. For one, I absolutely understand the problem which the author highlights with the Yakuza franchise, "the lack of an easy elevator pitch". If I were to have anyone to recommend games to, I think the best I could do would be to say it's like Saints Row 2 but crazier and better. But even then the comparison is muddy and weak at best. How do you really get to selling a franchise that is as defined by it's wacky antics as by it's melodrama and even the odd bout of genuine emotion? It's like a great anime perfectly captured in game-form, only with somehow less gloating and more fighting. And as I struggle with these comparisons I start to see the issues that a marketing team would have marketing this game across the world where people haven't even heard of it.

According to the article, Sega themselves had reached a point where it was looking grim for the Western future of this franchise, people just weren't buying these localisations enough to justify their existence. And for my part I suspect there may be a few reasons behind this, but I feel they all link back to a central idea: a distinct lack of exposure. Take me, for instance, someone who's heavily invested in the gaming landscape, back when I was into gaming magazines I never read a single article pertaining to Yakuza excluding a single article which referenced it as an example of a fighting game. (Which, again, is a bad categorisation. Just because it's a game with fighting that does not make it a fighting game.) I genuinely had no clue what these games were about and my older brother had actually played some, he couldn't even really explain what they were to me. (But then again I was pretty young at the time, he probably just didn't want to.)

Nowadays the world has changed and Yakuza isn't just recognised in the West, but praised heavily; and rightly so. One man who apparently doesn't feel comfortable taking credit for that is Scott Strichart, who is the localisation producer as Sega, as he remarked "A good localization is not gonna win you points, but a bad localisation loses points." To which I have a direct response, at it would just so happen. You see Scott is right, and wrong. A decent localisation isn't going to stand out to anyone except those with interest in such things like me, but I am being absolutely honest with you that there were times during Yakuza 0 when I literally threw myself back in my chair and said "This localisation kicks ass!" No joke and I'm not pandering, that is the absolute truth. (I think I even mentioned it in my review, you can look it up for proof!)

Now I've endured all kinds of localisations and truly bad ones are usually a relic of the past. Past Yakuza games, for example, where context got kind of muddled and a bit of a reputation was developed for the translations being unfaithful. The team back then experimented with getting some big names for the english VO, including Mark Hamill, but its hard to really get into this inherently Japanese games when simple custom is ignored such as the way Kiryu seems introduce himself by his first name, Kazuma, wherever he goes. (That's not right.) In fact, that particular pet peeve still haunts me to this day, because the recently released Steam version of Persona 4 Golden does the exact same thing, even when I have the Japanese voice track on and can literally hear the voices saying the second name. (It's nitpicky but infuriating! "He did not say 'Yukiko', he said 'Amagi-chan'")

Yakuza 0 has no English VO, which means all the weight of the translation effort has to go into the phrasing of the English text and that is where this localisation team blew me away time and time again. What they managed to capture, more than anything else, was character; and when you're dealing with a cast as crazy as this one, character is everything! Let me feel that bitter pride pouring out of Kuze with every exchange, the sleaze oozing off of Awano's cocky drawl, the nigh-on-perverted mania seeping out of Nishitani's every delighted exhale. The pitch-perfect performances and diamond-strong writing prepares the dish, but it's the localisation team who delivered it without fail and completely intact, fresh off the stove. Thiers is work that can be easy to overlook, but if you've never noticed a localisation effort for it's quality before then I implore you: let Yakuza 0 be the first to show you a bona fide masterclass in the art.

Yakuza 0 was a great game, and it's success has pretty much single handily revived the Yakuza franchise over here. In it's wake 2 Yakuza games have been treated to full remakes in order to bring us Western fans up to speed, and we've even been treated to the release of 'Yakuza: like a Dragon' over hear with a full English voice track. (I mean, I'll ignore it for the Japanese track, but it's an option!) The next step is, of course, a simultaneous world wide release, but that's a big step to take that (given how 'Like a Dragon' just came out) Sega won't have to deal with for a while yet. But until then I can smile to myself in the knowledge that a spectacular game franchise that deserves it is steadily gaining the recognition that has been absent for oh so long. Maybe there is a little justice in this world.