True, except only difference is they kept Resident Evil overseas. I do know some people don’t know this stuff or something because I’ve heard “Why is it Like a Dragon? It’s Yakuza” and “Why is it called Sparking instead of Budokai Tenkaichi”
dude literally, both yakuza and resident evil changed protagonist in the 7th game, both games have arrived to the 9th entry in the series but have a prequel with 0
@@MadDogSolo Also: their logo has a "hidden number" romanized over. Noticed that "eVII" or "Bioha7_ard" is stylized as *VII* or *7* ? Resident Evil *VIll* -age continues that tradition.
@@MikeJr9284that was relevant before they made Kiryu playable again after 7. But now it's just an unnecessary additional confusion. All the power to you though. But for branding and marketing purposes, consistency is key.
It's funny how every mainline entry since 4 had a subtitle in Japanese, but then when we got Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth in the west, Japan simply calls it "Like a Dragon 8." It's poetic.
@@darknightspider7495 that doesn't piss me off as much because at least with the Japanese, they were consistent with the titles and having a subtitle under each game and only changing that for the 8th installment.
Does make me wonder what's going to happen with 9, though. They couldn't call 8 8 in the west because they didn't call 7 7. But rotate the 8 90 degrees and you get Infinity. But what can they do with 9? They're gonna have to come up with some other random title now. I'd personally prefer if they just called it "Like A Dragon 9" and stopped screwing with the titles.
@@mjc0961 a huge part of me actually likes the games that have the subtitles because they just sound cool in both Japanese and English I'm not mad about the fact that 8 doesn't have a subtitle because at least in Japan, they were consistent with the games unlike America and the West Edit: most of the installments in my Like a Dragon/Yakuza fanfiction series have subtitles in all of them.
@@darknightspider7495 fun fact about the English subtitle is that it was made by the Japanese developers not the localisation team and is based on the final chapter title in the Japanese version which is roughly translated to Infinite Wealth.
Walking up to my local gamestore in February: "Excuse me do you have my copy of RGG Like a Dragon Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii Majima Gaiden, DLC to Like a Dragon 8 Infinite Wealth"
I really think that they should be extreme in their approach of rebranding, instead of being indecisive of what to do Either completly rename every Yakuza to Like a Dragon, or just keep the name Yakuza; it actually unsettles me about how the games are still numbered in Japan and here they simply dropped the numbering, or the lack of Gaiden in the new Majima game, sometimes it actually feels like laziness
Yes. In Yakuza 8's case, they should have just named it "Like a Dragon 8" instead of "Infinite Wealth" here in the West. Now, when the inevitable Yakuza 9 comes out, it will have a different name once again, making it even more confusing for newcomers.
@@randomatomizer6652IMO calling it "like a dragon 2: infinite wealth" would be perfect, with the kiryu saga being yakuza and ichiban's like a dragon, but then theres the potential kiwami remakes, would they call an eventual kiwami 3 as yakuza kiwami 3, like a dragon 3 or like a dragon kiwami 3?
I do think that’s weird, they decided to unify the original name, but they’re still changing up the English title regardless, though they couldn’t just slap the “Yakuza” on the samurai games though.
I was okay with these titles, since I was thinking that okay Kiryu Saga has been ended so it's wise to use Like a Dragon moving forward. Then they didn't include the word Gaiden in the latest Pirate spin off game and I was like Wtf are they doing with the titles? Before that I was like: Yakuza - Kiryu Saga Like A Dragon - Ichiban Saga Ishin - Unrelated Spin Off Samurai Game Judgment - Detective Spin Off Game Deal Souls - Zombie Gaiden - Spin off series of Main line entry It was so much clear before they messed up with adding Pirate Yakuza and didn't add the word Gaiden for further confusion.
Yep, when I heard about the game, I thought it'd be like Ishin where its Majima as a famous pirate with characters throughout the series playing famous figures in history. Not another Gaiden type game.
as excited as i am for pirates in hawaii (and as hilarious as the title YAKUZA pirates in hawaii is) the one tweak in the localized version really irks me. like did they think american fans would somehow get the game with the giant picture of majima on the cover mixed up with something else
To this day I still think they should have just called simply call them Like a dragon 7 and Like a Dragon 8 outside of Japan. The name ”Yakuza” makes it sound like a crime simulator like GTA which MANY people to this day think the games are GTA clones and don’t play them because of that misconception. The numbers make it clear that they are sequels to long running series. Removing the numbers makes it seem completely disconnected from anything prior which is far from the truth, especially 8. I’ve seen countless people play 7 as their first game and be completely lost in chapter 12 and be completely lost on Kiryu parts in 8.
Starting with 7 also happens a lot in Japan too even the title is called Ryu Ga Gotoku 7. To make matters worse, because of starting with 7 with a fresh new protagonist Kasuga Ichiban, this can potentially lead them playing Gaiden as their next game and so on which is a tremendous fucked up in storytelling and emotional wise without any realization of the previous titles from 0 until 6. Trust me, TONS of Vtubers from Nijisanji Japan still starts with Yakuza 7 which in promotion wise is a massive mistake which sends a wrong message to their fanbase. Some even skips to 7 after Kiwami 2 for various reasons. Personally, unless they reach 3 after 0, K1 and K2, NEVER EVER trust anyone in any possible way lol
Never saw it as a gta clone I got into yakuza 4 back into 2012 and I saw gameplay and I thought it was like a open world tekken game partially true but I loved the series since
@@JasonVelez-q7g most people only hear the name and the original trailers for 1-4 we’re all about the crime and making it sound like Kiryu was criminal like a GTA protagonist
I dislike when people call a game a “clone” . Making an open world crime game??? GTA clone . Making a first person shooter ? Cod clone ! Making a monster catching game? Pokémon clone! Like seriously why do people do this
@@LYK1003tbh I think starting with yakuza 7 is ight. My only yakuza games I’ve beat are 7 and 8 and kiryu feels like an unstoppable force of nature with intrigues me to play the older games. Already love the series too
I've personally already had to explain the naming to newcomers and it's not very fun if they don't understand the first time. The main thing that gets me is how the English names are changing but Japanese, Chinese and Korean are all the same. If the English titles became simply Like a Dragon: 7 then 8, I don't think anybody would get too confused. LAD 8 personally annoyed me because I wanted to know where the Infinite wealth name came from. The infinite symbol seemed like a cheap way to get something that looks like an 8 on the box art.
i came to the conclusion that in the game, Infinite Wealth means familial love which makes sense cause Ichiban reunites with Akane and Kiryu learns the meaning of having a support system
I really dont know why the didnt include gaiden in the yakuza pirate spin off, its CLEARLY A GAIDEN GAME, and they HAVE named TMWEHN clearly as a Gaiden game. One of my theories is that the West Sega team is treating the word "Gaiden" as the actual name of the game, rather than a denotation of the entry's type, like how the fifth installment is called "Yakuza 5", this 7.5 Installment is called "Gaiden" when in reality they should stick to the Japanese naming convention.
They couldve also called the film: "Like a Dragon: Rebirth" "Like a Dragon: Reborn" As it's a complete rewrite of Yakuza 1 as a story. It's close to the Kiwami name but not the same either.
@@Ron1n_Sim yeah, also helps disassociate the story of the show from the story of the games to prevent disappointment from fans who were expecting a straight adaptation.
It's never not funny to me that in a game called Yakuza, you'll never play as an active yakuza member but you will play as a cop and an idol at some point in the series.
@@thatbloomer5642 right lol. That's why the Yakuza title was never a good fit to begin with IMHO. It catches the eye for sure. But when you truly look at the series as a whole, it's misleading. At least that's how I personally felt about it when I started. I thought I was going to play as a Yakuza but turns out I wasn't.
Because it’s not supposed to be called Yakuza It was supposed to be “like a dragon” The same way “yakuza:Isshin” and “yakuza: Kenzan” doesn’t work because they never even join the Yakuza in the first place in those 2 games
@@Cherry91A bit late, Yeah I think they were banking on was to make people think they’ll be buying “GTA but in Japan” to make sales with the original ps2 English dub reflecting that, Definitely misleading marketing
I can honestly flip flop between either names... But at the very least, for this Majima game... I'm gonna to call it Yakuza: Like a Pirate. It just roll off the tongue so easy for me at least.
I can't wait to play, Yakuza:The Road to become a Pirate King🫡 (I hope the next gaiden game will have a story about Akiyama and Tanimura, I can't wait to play those two again 🙏)
i wouldn't mind a daigo dojima game either or they could explore some of the older characters like ryuji goda or nishiki theres a world of possibility when it comes to the gaiden games
Gotta say, as much as I love the series original name, I’m quite glad that it is called Like a Dragon, to bring it closer to the japanese original Some names might not always work well, like Shutokou Battle series was known as Tokyo Xtreme Racer in the rest of the world. Worked alright for game set in Tokyo, but in Kaido games, predominantly set around Japan outside of Tokyo (or even Tokyo prefecture for that matter), a name like Tokyo Xtreme Racer Drift doesn’t fit as well
Besides the fact it's no longer set on the highways of Tokyo, the subtitle "Drift" also misrepresents what the game is all about (it's not a game centered around drifting, but rather around touge racing and culture as a whole).
- yakuza: like a dragon → yakuza 7: like a dragon - like a dragon gaiden: the man who erased his name → yakuza 7.5: the man who erased his name - like a dragon: infinite wealth → yakuza 8: infinite wealth - like a dragon: pirate yakuza in hawaii → yakuza 8.5: hawaiian high seas (???) any further mainline entries are yakuza #: subtitle. any further gaidens are yakuza #.5: subtitle. if you remake any games prior, you don't give them "kiwami" names, you just give them a subtitle. it's madness that the post-6 entries had names that made it through marketing tests. i've been streaming these lately and my community keeps having to ask which games go where in the continuity and the way they've framed the titles has made it an unapproachable nightmare
The two big Yakuza groups disbanded and all others are soon to follow. Makes sense they wouldn't call it Yakuza anymore even if RGG wanted to do something else
The reason it was done, more than anything, is that numbered titles scare people off when they become high. Customers will ask, do I have to play through all 6 others before jumping in? So the rebrand allowed them to start from scratch so they could convince newcomers that it was the perfect jumping on point. As you mentioned in the video though, it's backfired. They should have switched it to Like A Dragon back when 0 and Kiwami were being translated if they were that bent on doing it. Would have been best, imo. I do appreciate the slight number nods they've been doing (the Like 7 Dragon, and the infinity symbol looks like a sideways 8), but don't know how they'll keep them up.
exactly.. Video Game companies make the naming next model/game so complicated. this is how i got away with giving my nephew an XBOX 360 instead of an XBOX One like he wanted. (he is 6) "you dont want an xbox one.. youd rather have the xbox 360 since 360 is more than One right?)
I thought it was really cool that they we’re gonna change the name to match the Japanese one and while it would’ve made it confusing doing it all of a sudden I think them flip flopping is making it even worse, at this point they are better off going all in on the like a dragon branding
I’ve recently only started the Yakuza games….starting from Yakuza 0 and I’m going to work my way through them in order, I’m loving the game so much, I can’t believe I never picked these games up before….but I did have to get a list of all the games in order so I know which games to play, quite confusing for someone just starting out, but I’m absolutely hooked on the wackiness and it’s brought back that passion I had for gaming which honestly I thought I had lost in recent years.
I've gone through something similar recently with the Senran Kagura games. I think the main takeaway for newcomers is that it's best to somewhat research what the over all continuity of games is like, because the history of Yakuza/RGG/Like a Dragon is very complex and evolving.
Should've stayed Yakuza, the way Resident Evil 7 had the subtitle Biohazard in the west but still the series was called Resident Evil. It's been nearly twenty years with the Yakuza title. People gonna still call it that
The trend of Japanese studios wanting to curb alternate names in the West seems to be an industry wide thing. It's going on in Monster Hunter too, Gens 1-4 usually had an involved localisation process of new names being created for monsters to incorporate more Latin inspired etymology. _(eg. "Raizekusu" becomes "Astalos", "Dinobarudo" becomes "Glavenus")_ Meanwhile Gen 5 and seemingly so far Gen 6 have used mostly direct translations, with some accomodations for pronounciation like Ls/Rs swapping or a syllable being dropped. (eg. "Rabara Barina" becomes "Lala Barina", "Chatakabura" becomes "Chatacabra", and "Doshaguma" is just directly ported over)_ I assume that it's less to do with communities, and more to do with social media algorithms, which probably can't directly recognise "Like a Dragon" and "Yakuza" are the same thing for example. To cite Monster Hunter again, "baby Pukei-Pukei" may not've taken off as a meme so much or warmed the hearts of Capcom's offices, if it wasn't for Pukei having essentially the same name between Japanese and English.
Instead of the upcoming Dragon Ball game being Budokai Tenkaichi 4, it's Sparking Zero. Which is so much worse because calling it Budokai Tenkaichi actually has a legitimate reason in the lore. Sparking Zero means nothing as far as I know
I've never played the games in English, so I never even knew some of them had stupid names till I saw online. And I was watching the RGG summit in Japanese and thought, RGG 8 Gaiden Pirates in Hawaii made sense as a name. But little did I know that the braindead localizers decided it would be better to call it, Like a Dragon Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii. Are they that dumb they don't think it's such a mouthful that newcomers would not be interested in it? In Japan, long titles are pretty normal. And usually there's more wordplay going on with the choice of spelling used in the title. (Hard to explain in English) And people don't get turned off by it. I think Sega hasn't noticed that long titles don't work in English at all.
When 0 and Kiwami were released, it was literally the best time to get into the series. Both games were really good entry points into the series. Coincidentally this was when the series got its first popularity boost in the west.
Tbh the series will forever been simply Yakuza for me, no matter how future entries have Like A Dragon or try to stray away from being Yakuza-centric plots. Like Yakuza Like A Dragon is just too much of a mouthful to say and I rather just say Yakuza 7, even Yakuza LAD is a bit confusing considering it's not only game with the LAD title. Then there's Like A Dragon Gaiden The Man Who Erased His Name which is a even bigger mouthful and I've been calling it Gaiden or Yakuza Gaiden though now I suppose I'll have to call it Yakuza 7.5 since it's not going to be the only 'Gaiden' game. It's same thing with Like A Dragon Infinite Wealth where I've bouncing between calling it Infinite Wealth, IW or Yakuza 8. Now we have Like A Dragon Yakuza Pirates in Hawaii that started to call Yakuza Pirates but I think Yakuza 8.5 should also work.
I think that maybe originally with Yakuza 7 they intended to do a complete rebrand. But seeing the warm reception that Kiryu, Majima (etc) and why not, the rest of the games have had in the new audience, perhaps they have integrated both elements by taking a couple of steps back: I consider it a beautiful decision. It embraces the past and the present with pride and love for the work and for the fans before and after.
I really do love and enjoy both Names and kinda like how they keep using them both! Shows how they have evolved but are also sticking to their roots :)
I was actually talking a friend a couple who been wanting to get into yakuza and said didn't know where to start cause of the branding and i realized how confusing the name convention even as diehard fan of the series Like song of life cool subtitle Yakuza : like dragon cool nod neat symbolism yata yata Like a dragon pirate yakuza in Hawaii okay now you just trying to shove as much words as possible 😂 And how idea was it to call the show like a dragon yakuza 😂 every time i look it up the first result is the ichiban games Thanks for great video
This was a very good discussion piece on an issue that's been boggling everyone's mind. It feels as though RGG has been making quite a number of weird decisions with their games and branding (eg. Terrible autotune with the English karaoke, removing item shortcuts, fixing Yakuza style's combo speed to its slowest)
they really are making it harder than it needs to be. Its a mess. Now the amazon show is called Like A Dragon: Yakuza, which ive seen people already think its gonna be based on Yakuza: Like a dragon. LIKE A DRAGON: BEYOND THE GAME would have been fine!!! And then why use gaiden once then not again? they dont need to mess with it so much.
As a fan who plays the entire mainline Yakuza series, the way Sega rebranding the title for the overseas is quite confusing in my eyes. Take Yakuza: Like A Dragon (Ryu Ga Gotoku 7 in Japan) as an example, being a Yakuza fan in the west knows that this is the seventh mainline Yakuza installment that shifts the gameplay style to turn based while telling the story in a completely new perspective with new protagonist within the same universe since Yakuza 0 to 6. But as a newcomer, some of them may think this is a hard reboot to the series that basically has no connection to the older titles, which in reality is a huge misconception and when they finally reach the certain chapters, some may realize starting with this game is a huge mistake with some of the key moments spoiling the older titles right away. And because of the way they rebranding the series with Like A Dragon since 7, there is a risk that some people would rather continue on since Yakuza Like A Dragon and play Like A Dragon Gaiden and so on instead of going back to the past in order to take on the future titles which contain tons of references from the Kiryu Saga. With such influence, this is a tremendous screw up in terms of the storytelling order. The similar mindset goes for Like A Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii, instead of outright telling people Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth Gaiden which clearly telling people that this is a side story to the event of Infinite Wealth, rebranding to the official name for the west is a huge confusion to the general audience. And the fact that using pirate theme as a general story plot is enough to confuse people even more and they would think this has nothing to do with the previous titles AGAIN. While RGG for the west in the future might tell the audience a new game being a great starting point on social media, the fans will definitely tell a complete different story on how NOT to start Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii with bunch of compelling reasons (Similar thing happens when Gaiden was marketing on Twitter). Combining with having 10 mainline titles previously (0, K1, K2, 3, 4, 5, 6, YLAD, Gaiden and IW), this will be much harder for people who wants to get into the series. Just to clarify, I have no problem with people who want to play any Yakuza game whatever they want even with the latest title. It is just that the rebranding strats from RGG makes people harder to spot a clear picture of the whole series (especially for the west) so that it leads to the current influence of having tons of people on internet asking the fan community whether the Yakuza game they want to play is a great starting point or not.
I find it strange how RGG 8 was originally marketed as "Like a Dragon 8" (just search youtube for Like a Dragon 8 trailer by Sega), but it started bearing the Infinite Wealth name several months later when the second trailer dropped. As a fairly big fan of the series, the trailer was very confusing to me and at first I thought "Infinite Wealth" was a completely separate title from 8 until I googled around a little.
Yep , that probably the complete name unlike Lost Judgment, in japan thé full name can be translate in something like : Lost Judgment unjudges memories
What's really bad are those packs they put out on steam. The Yakuza pack comes with everything up to 6 and the Like a Dragon pack only comes with 7 and 8. Gaiden, Judgement, and Ishin are all left out even though technically you have to play all of the games in order to understand Kiryu's part in 8. And yeah, that includes Ishin. Glad I got into it so that my two friends that were interested know the order because they would've been screwed.
I'm okay with the "Like A Dragon" brand change after the soft-reboot. For me, the mistake was the "Pirate Yakuza" title. They should have kept the "Gaiden" title in the west, just like The Man Who Erased His Name, and make it a subsaga of games set between mainline ones.
Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii = Like A Dragon: Goro Majima in Hawaii its not so much going back to using Yakuza in naming its follow up, its just part of the subtitle.
honestly they way I go about it is if I talk to someone about the games in a more official style (aka recommending it to someone) I'd just use the official western titles to avoid confusion on what title I meant (unless it's a japanese exclusive then I'd either the full japanese or a translated version of it) as for casual use and documentation (like desktop shortcuts and talks with kyodais) I'd honestly just either call them yakuza (insert number and or subtitle) or just use translated versions of the japanese titles as for how I use the translated versions I'd translated ryu ga gotoku to like a dragon, keep words like ishin, kenzan gaiden or kiwami (well and also kurohyou but I also like to sometimes translate that one to black panther depending on mood) in japanese as they sound better that way and then I'd use the japanese subtitles but translated to english if they have them (so heirs to the legend for 4, and 6 I'd use poetry if life rather than song) only game I'd make an exceptions for is 8 as I call it Like a Dragon 8 Infinite Wealth instead of just lad 8 or lad iw since I think it's weird how this is the only time a yakuza game got a subtitle in the west but not japan hope this wall of text makes sense to others
also I want to add that the only thing pissing me off rn with rgg is the naming system but hey as I just exained that is somewhat easy to fix as you can technically call the games whatever you want and don't have to use the official title (well obviously if you order the games or other similar stuff you need the official title but you get my point) so props on rgg for having that as the only thing pissing me off about them
I think lack of numbers combined with subtitles is the mistake. I don't think subtitles really work for series i think they make it harder to comprehend what people are looking at. Like i remember when infinite wealth and gaiden were shown at summer games fest, outsiders had to be told that they were the new yakuza games because it wasn't obvious. Like a dragon gaiden the man who erased his name is just incomprehenisble to someone who isn't already a fan
Agreed 💯 Not just outsiders, but even fans thought Infinite Wealth was some spinoff and it was a huge pain to get them to recognize that the Infinity is a rotated 8 and that it's called 8 in Japan I think we're long overdue for SEGA to stop screwing around with the names. Call the next one "Like A Dragon 9" and then "Like A Dragon 10" We should be calling the Majima game "Like A Dragon 8 Gaiden: Pirates In Hawaii" like the Japanese title. Maybe drop the 8 since they didn't call it "Like A Dragon 8" here, but after that stop screwing around
Speaking as an Ace Attorney fan here, I agree that replacing numbers for subtitles isn't really a good solution. In Japan the series is properly numbered from 1-6 (Numbering obviously resets for the Investigation and Great Ace Attorney titles but those are spin-offs anyway) but in America all numbers got ditched. Nowadays it's not _too_ big an issue since the games are all pretty neatly packaged in collections, but I remember before those came out that I had to constantly say stuff like "No, the game that has a different dude in the title is actually mainline game number 4, not a spin-off" or having to explain which goes first between Justice for All and Trials & Tribulations since there's nothing that implies which one comes first to less informed people. Nowadays we're kind a stuck with it alas, even if fortunately the fact that all the collections are a thing minimizes this considerably.
This was a fantastic video. I was okay with them changing from 'Yakuza' to 'Like a Dragon' for Ichiban's new start but its ridiculous how they can't make up their minds after that. Even the live action show feels compelled to include both names.
best way for rgg is keeping both, but they really need the numbering and gaiden tag yakuza like a dragon gaiden - pirates in hawaii yakuza like a dragon 8 - infinite wealth they just cant make up their name, they definitely did not want to be associated with yakuza tag seeing how bad it is in japan back then.
I can see why in the west it’s called Pirate Yakuza In Hawaii. Iirc you can’t exactly title things Yakuza or portray actual yakuza behavior in Japan. That and blending the titles probably helps fans and newcomers recognize the game. Not to mention shifting protagonists helps the name change since it’s new within the same series. That said there does need to be consistency. If this is a side story to 8 then calling it LAD 8 would be fine. But then again IW didn’t have a number in the west. Idk, just keep it consistent Sega lol
Changing Kiwami's branding to Like a Dragon specifically for a new rerelease would only introduce unnecessary confusion. Similarly, releasing Ishin for the first time in the West as "Ishin Kiwami" would have people wondering where the first Ishin is. And I don't think using the word "yakuza" in subtitles is quite the same as trying to keep the Yakuza branding. The biggest reason I see for why they changed the branding is... the numbers. RGG isn't the *most* in-depth and connected narrative, but it is continuous. So when someone sees "Yakuza 7," they'll think "do I need to play the other 6 to get into this one?" This is right around the time where many long-running series will find some way to drop numerical titles, as the implied sequel baggage becomes daunting to new audiences. And with RGG switching focus to an entirely different genre of gameplay and a new main hero, it was the perfect time to make that switch. However I do agree that Pirates in Hawaii dropping "Gaiden" was a misstep. I'm assuming this decision comes from some marketing data they got from 7 Gaiden, but the change even had me confused like "no way there's a new main game already" (the higher price compared to 7G doesn't help) until I saw the Japanese title. They probably added "yakuza" to this one's title to make it clear that it's not a pirate-era spinoff a la Ishin (which I also thought at first).
I like the "Yakuza Like a Dragon" title because it gives "soft reboot" vibes, new protagonist, new story but same core. But I think that with that resetting the counter would have been appropriate. So, like you said and it is a very good idea, "Gaiden" becomes 1.5, "infinite wealth" becomes "like a dragon 2: infinite wealth" and "Gaiden pirate yakuza in hawaii" becomes "like a dragon 2.5: pirate yakuza" or something like that. Right now there really is a naming problem for the series, and also with the spinoffs(I had to google it beforehand to know that Lost Judgment contains major spoilers for Y7, so now I must not buy the direct sequel of the game I'm currently playing to not have Y7 spoiled smh)
The best thing they could do is call all the games Yakuza: Like a Dragon with numbers. Originally, I thought the Like A Dragon branding was a thing because of Yakuza 7's radically different gameplay... But then they used it for side games that were brawlers.
Honestly for IW I feel it would've made it much more simpler to just call it Yakuza: Like a Dragon 2, but they probably just called it IW 'cause they didn't want people to think "oh I have to play the first one before this!" to get as many sales as possible. In the long run though, it really just makes everything more confusing and may even make some people turn away and lose interest before even playing a game due to not knowing where to even begin. LADG: TMWEHN is fine as a name and sets up Gaiden as a subseries, but now they completely went back on that and removed Gaiden from the Western name. SEGA seems to be wayyy too indecisive about this stuff, and although there's practically 0 chance they'll go back on Majima Gaiden's name, I hope they see this as a mistake and name future Gaiden games consistently. At least they've found a way to distinguish between the Kiryu and Ichiban saga, though which I do think works to some extent at least (except 7G is a bit inbetween both sagas). I gotta say though, Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii is such a bad name its actually kinda good, mainly because of it being Majima.
they removed gaiden from the name in the west because "gaiden" means side story in japan, but we of course dont know what gaiden means, so the man who erased his name is known just as "like a dragon gaiden", so probably they thought calling the majima game "like a dragon gaiden" would only make confusion plus kiryu's gaiden in japan is called "like a dragon 7 gaiden" and majima's gaiden called "like a dragon 8 gaiden", while in the west theres no numbering, this problem would be solved if they just decided to call IW as like a dragon 2: infinite wealth
I think people are also confusing what RGG when referring to the scope of Pirate Yakuza. They said not to view it as a small side project like Gaiden was, but it definitely still is a Gaiden game since it doesn't star Kasuga. And I still refer to the series as Yakuza because it's straight to the point and its a name that i just think works better in English. And I also would have just done Yakuza 7: Like A Dragon then Yakuza 8: Infinite Wealth and so forth. And for games like Kenzan and Ishin, I think Like a Dragon could still work for those, as calling those Yakuza doesn't make sense, and even if you're confused, once you see Kiryu's face, it'll make sense what it is.
Funny enough, I pretty much refer to Infinite Wealth as "LaD 8" or even "Yakuza 8" but rarely "IW." A friend of mine is has been playing 7 and he just calls it LaD but I know he is referring specifically to 7.
It absolutely boggles my mind that they didn't start the rebranding with the release of the remasters, because then you could continue with numbers in the name for Yakuza 7 and 8 and have it easier to determine the order and what isn't in the main story-WHICH THEY DIDN'T EVEN DO FOR MAJIMA GAIDEN. The decision to change the name has bothered me since it happened, and it's now in the problem I thought it would run into, which you've laid out, and will only gets worse. I really don't understand what localization is thinking, especially with the horrendous name for Pirate Yakuza.
imagine the shock when i bought this new spin off called yakuza like a dragon straight out of kiwami 2 thinking there wouldnt be spoilers lol. the new name probably helped the series get up to mainstream but i think they should return to the yakuza name and numbers to make it less confusing and keep the gaiden and kiwami in the respective games .
They could call it literal gibberish and it doesn't matter. It's almost expected for a Japanese product to have a long, nonsense title at this point. It's so common that it's an industry joke.
i think a lot of this could have been saved and made way less confusing if they had just kept the numbers when they swapped the name so we go from yakuza 6 to yakuza 7 like a dragon to like a dragon 8 infinite wealth and just made a statement of how hey we're changing the title to match the japanese name
Should have just kept the numbers like the japanese entries, though we could still have a mixed title for 7 to ease the change in. "Yakuza: Like a Dragon 7", and then "Like a Dragon 7 Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name", and so on. I think that would be more clear than what we have now.
If they were gonna rename the series, then 0 would have been the perfect game to do so. Every mainline game after that was either remade or remastered. I understand them wanting to make it the same as what it's priper name is, but still, the name Yakuza was fine.
I would have preferred they just stayed numbered 'Yakuza', even with Takayuki spin-offs with 'Judgment', just 'Yakuza: Judgment'. Only Final Fantasy seems to take some kind of pride in a long-running series, outside of sports games. I think it would be really badass and impressive to see a title card on a Yakuza game saying "Yakuza 17" or something, but I don't know.
I hate this so much. Like I mentioned in a previous video of yours, this whole "Kiryu is Yakuza, Ichiban is Like A Dragon" creates the issue that, when you visit the RGG Studios page for Steam (and maybe other stores) for example, you find LAD 0 to 6 in the "Yakuza series" collection, 7 and 8 in the "Like A Dragon" collection, but you can't find Ishin nor Gaiden, because they are named Like A Dragon but they don't star Ichiban. It's so freaking stupid and I hate it, just rename everything to "Like A Dragon". It's what makes more sense. It also bothers me that they changed the name of the series back to Like A Dragon "for the sake of everything having the same name everywhere" and yet NOT A SINGLE product since the rebrand has had the same name as in Japan. Yakuza: Like A Dragon (actual name LAD 7), Like A Dragon Gaiden (missing the 7 in the name because LAD7 dropped the number overseas), Like A Dragon Ishin (missing the Kiwami word that indicates remake), Like A Dragon: Yakuza (named Beyond The Game in Japan), Yakuza Kiwami Switch (rather than Like A Dragon Kiwami), and most recently Like A Dragon: Pirate Yakuza In Hawaii (missing 8 Gaiden, added the word "Yakuza")
You know none of this would've happened if the original Sega of America localization team just called it Like A Dragon in the first place Even the original Takashi Miike film was released in English as Like a Dragon: Yakuza
I think Like a Dragon is probably the better name However I think if they were going to rebrand they should have done it a long time ago. Changing the name of a series after 7 mainline entries is just too much. Everyone is already used to the old name and changing it now just makes everything confusing so I’ll still call the series Yakuza.
I think the change from Yakuza to LAD makes sense due to the overall tonal shift of the mainline entry, plus it would allow them to explore topics beyond the yakuza. However, they should've stuck with the numbering system and only give subtitles to the gaiden games "Like a Dragon 7: The Man who erased his name" and "Like a Dragon 8: Pirate Yakuza" (It referencing 8 could also indicate that it takes place in Hawaii without saying so). So basically, using less words the subtitles on their own can indicate it's a side story (without saying Gaiden) and the numbering can give an indication what mainline game it centers around.
To this day I believe that the larger series rebranding was, in fact, because of Ishin. Calling it Yakuza: Ishin! or Yakuza: Revolution! didn't make sense, as there are no *proper* yakuza in that game. They looked at 7, thought that people are now familiar with "Like a dragon" and decided to go with literal translation (no "Kiwami" since there is no original in the west), and one thing just led to another. As for Gaiden, I am still a bit confused about dropping that with the Majima game. Probably it is an attempt to reach Zero's audience and simultaneously hide it is a "side", "smaller" game. And also once again get those journalists to write reviews about a "good starting point for the franchise" (for a game that absolutely isn't one). If the Western market is so terrified of large numbers and those exotic Japanese words, I would go for something akin to Star Wars: "A Yakuza (tm) Story" as a subtitle under the proper title. In general, I would prefer it like this: Kiryu Saga: Yakuza 0-6 Ichiban Saga: Yakuza: Like a Dragon, Yakuza: Infinite Wealth Side Games: Ishin!, Yakuza Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name, Yakuza Gaiden: Pirates in Hawaii
It's not the most conducive remark, but the rebranding has brought a few bad apples who have tried to correct me when I say Yakuza 8, and it makes this wonderful franchise just a tad less easy to enjoy.
I prefer to call the franchise 'Like a Dragon'. Whist 'Yakuza' is an accurate title as it's what the games are about, i just think LAD sound way cooler and plus it synergizes with the original japanese title.
Commit to the Like A Dragon namesake, I say. I guess at some point, a LAD story may not include Yakuzas in the story anymore (or at least be less centered around it). Besides, few years down the line we'll all get used to the Like A Dragon namesake. And the best first games for newconers are still 0 or 7. If any new bloke finishes either game, there is no way they wouldn't understand the timeline.
I wish they just ripped the bandage off and started only calling it Like a Dragon before they started with the Gaidens and the odd named Ichiban games. I just call Y:LAD "7" and IW "8" without the Yakuza prefix because it's easier
Thank you this is something I've pointed out several times before to people that it was clear they dropped the 7 to hide the fact that they changed the gameplay style to not alienate the western fanbase.
While I think Yakuza / Like A Dragon is way more accessible than it has ever been, I feel it's way harder to get into the series properly these days. Not only is there a ton of games, but the naming conventions are beyond confusing. For someone who's never played any Yakuza game to play the games in order actually takes a decent amount of research, since the series is now called "Like A Dragon" what about the games like Yakuza 0 - 6? It makes it really confusing to tell what is "Yakuza" and what is "Like A Dragon" without researching it yourself. Not to mention the two latest mainline games don't even have numbers on them, for someone who doesn't know, Yakuza Like A Dragon, just seems like a new series despite it being Like A Dragon 7 in Japan, same with Like A Dragon Infinite Wealth, which is just called 8 in Japan. These are continuations to long-running franchise in Japan, but in the west it just looks like an entirely new sub-franchise. I also found that many people who play either of these two games becoming lost, since it's a CONTINUATION, not an entirely new story, in Infinite Wealth for example, all the parts with Kiryu and getting his memories have no emotional payoff, nobody knows the characters if that's the first game they played, so you don't really care about why Kiryu loves his children, or why he did certain things. Also the naming is really getting out of hand, like the names are getting so absurdly long and hard to remember, for example "Like A Dragon Gaiden: The Man who erased his name" like what?? Or this newest game "Like A Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii" it's just way too much words and it makes conversations about the game annoying, since you have to shorten them in conversation. Imagine talking with your friend about videogames and he tells you "Bro, you know that Like A dragon Pirate yakuza in hawaii game? It was super fun, you should totally play it" like you're going to be wondering what he's even talking about. Even if you are familiar with Yakuza, it's still confusing to begin with, is it a spinoff? Is it mainline? Is it even canon to the story?
Is like when vanilla P3 and P4 had the "Shin megami tensei" branding, while Persona started as a spin-off of Shin megami tensei. I can see the Gaiden games as a way to keep the real time beat-up thingy still alive, despite the new jrpg role of the main-line series, meaning probably Goro Majima will appear in Yakuza 9, since Kazuma Kiryu will be ☠, I didn't finished Yakuza 8, yet. 😅
Which name for the series do you prefer: Yakuza, Like a Dragon, or a hybrid of the two? Whatever the case, thank you for checking the video out!
Like a Yakuza: Dragon Man
Even though I'm used to say Yakuza, I prefer Like a Dragon since it always was the actual name of the franchise in Japan
Dragon: Like a Yakuza
Yakuza: A Dragon Like
Yakuza-like Dragon
Yakuza: Like a Dragon
Resident Evil: Biohazard
Both 7th games, both have both titles, coincidence I think not
True, except only difference is they kept Resident Evil overseas. I do know some people don’t know this stuff or something because I’ve heard “Why is it Like a Dragon? It’s Yakuza” and “Why is it called Sparking instead of Budokai Tenkaichi”
Deadsouls
dude literally, both yakuza and resident evil changed protagonist in the 7th game, both games have arrived to the 9th entry in the series but have a prequel with 0
@@MadDogSolo Also: their logo has a "hidden number" romanized over. Noticed that "eVII" or "Bioha7_ard" is stylized as *VII* or *7* ?
Resident Evil *VIll* -age continues that tradition.
In Japan I think it is called Biohazard: Resident Evil
Cant wait to play ''Lost Yakuza: like a dragon: the man who erased his name: ishin: kenzan: dead souls: pirate Yakuza in hawaii: -9: Yakuza: kiwami''!
Ah yes, the "Soulsbornekiro: Armored Core edition" naming convention of the Fromsoft fandom.
&Knuckles
Featuring Dante from Devil May Cry series.
Collectors premium deluxe edition
Of the End.
Even with the rebranding I'm still going to call it Yakuza
Imma keep calling it yazuka
same
I'm gonna keep calling it the koozer
exactly it's always going to be the Yakuza series to me
Let me guess, you also deadname trans people?
I consider the Kiryu Saga games the "Yakuza" series and the Ichiban Saga games the "Like a Dragon" series.
That’s a good way to look at it. Gives a nice break to the series.
we literally have Like a dragon: Gaiden
@@MikeJr9284that was relevant before they made Kiryu playable again after 7. But now it's just an unnecessary additional confusion. All the power to you though. But for branding and marketing purposes, consistency is key.
Like a Dragon: Ishin is not about Ichiban though
I agree
I can't wait to play "Yarrkuza Like a Pirate Gaiden 8 in Hawaii: The Man Who Forgot His Name"
It's funny how every mainline entry since 4 had a subtitle in Japanese, but then when we got Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth in the west, Japan simply calls it "Like a Dragon 8." It's poetic.
@@darknightspider7495 that doesn't piss me off as much because at least with the Japanese, they were consistent with the titles and having a subtitle under each game and only changing that for the 8th installment.
Does make me wonder what's going to happen with 9, though. They couldn't call 8 8 in the west because they didn't call 7 7. But rotate the 8 90 degrees and you get Infinity. But what can they do with 9? They're gonna have to come up with some other random title now.
I'd personally prefer if they just called it "Like A Dragon 9" and stopped screwing with the titles.
@@mjc0961 a huge part of me actually likes the games that have the subtitles because they just sound cool in both Japanese and English I'm not mad about the fact that 8 doesn't have a subtitle because at least in Japan, they were consistent with the games unlike America and the West
Edit: most of the installments in my Like a Dragon/Yakuza fanfiction series have subtitles in all of them.
@@mjc0961Maybe eomething like Like A Dra9on (with the nine stylized as a G), logo only. And then just call it another subtitle.
@@darknightspider7495 fun fact about the English subtitle is that it was made by the Japanese developers not the localisation team and is based on the final chapter title in the Japanese version which is roughly translated to Infinite Wealth.
Walking up to my local gamestore in February: "Excuse me do you have my copy of RGG Like a Dragon Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii Majima Gaiden, DLC to Like a Dragon 8 Infinite Wealth"
Looking forward to the day the Western title gets so long, that a physical release will require two cases to fit the entire namesake 😂
@@gokudoniyou will have to open the case to rest of the title 😂
@@SarmInTheHat7030 it will wrap around the spine and the back
@@tezcanaslan2877 wrapping around
*like a dragon*
The new lore is Majima is so popular he’s in multiple franchises
Majima Everywhere Kiwami-er
I really think that they should be extreme in their approach of rebranding, instead of being indecisive of what to do
Either completly rename every Yakuza to Like a Dragon, or just keep the name Yakuza; it actually unsettles me about how the games are still numbered in Japan and here they simply dropped the numbering, or the lack of Gaiden in the new Majima game, sometimes it actually feels like laziness
Yes. In Yakuza 8's case, they should have just named it "Like a Dragon 8" instead of "Infinite Wealth" here in the West. Now, when the inevitable Yakuza 9 comes out, it will have a different name once again, making it even more confusing for newcomers.
the like a dragon pirate yakuza in hawaii name pretty much takes the cake as the most confusing name in the series lol
@@randomatomizer6652IMO calling it "like a dragon 2: infinite wealth" would be perfect, with the kiryu saga being yakuza and ichiban's like a dragon, but then theres the potential kiwami remakes, would they call an eventual kiwami 3 as yakuza kiwami 3, like a dragon 3 or like a dragon kiwami 3?
I do think that’s weird, they decided to unify the original name, but they’re still changing up the English title regardless, though they couldn’t just slap the “Yakuza” on the samurai games though.
@@MilkEnjoyer2 or u know they wont make a kiwami 3
I was okay with these titles, since I was thinking that okay Kiryu Saga has been ended so it's wise to use Like a Dragon moving forward. Then they didn't include the word Gaiden in the latest Pirate spin off game and I was like Wtf are they doing with the titles?
Before that I was like:
Yakuza - Kiryu Saga
Like A Dragon - Ichiban Saga
Ishin - Unrelated Spin Off Samurai Game
Judgment - Detective Spin Off Game
Deal Souls - Zombie
Gaiden - Spin off series of Main line entry
It was so much clear before they messed up with adding Pirate Yakuza and didn't add the word Gaiden for further confusion.
Yep, when I heard about the game, I thought it'd be like Ishin where its Majima as a famous pirate with characters throughout the series playing famous figures in history. Not another Gaiden type game.
Like A Maddog: The Dog Who Couldn't Bark
The goat youtuber of "the like a yakuza dragon man who pirated in hawaii ishin" is back with another banger video
There needs to be a shirt with this series title 😂
as excited as i am for pirates in hawaii (and as hilarious as the title YAKUZA pirates in hawaii is) the one tweak in the localized version really irks me. like did they think american fans would somehow get the game with the giant picture of majima on the cover mixed up with something else
Oh hey, didnt know that you were into yakuza
Imagine if they named it Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth Gaiden: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii
That's why I'm personally calling it Like a Pirate. Short and sweet lol.
@@Cherry91 im just calling it Yakuza Pirates
@@ItHamBoi anything is better than that awful unnecessarily long title lol.
To this day I still think they should have just called simply call them Like a dragon 7 and Like a Dragon 8 outside of Japan.
The name ”Yakuza” makes it sound like a crime simulator like GTA which MANY people to this day think the games are GTA clones and don’t play them because of that misconception.
The numbers make it clear that they are sequels to long running series.
Removing the numbers makes it seem completely disconnected from anything prior which is far from the truth, especially 8. I’ve seen countless people play 7 as their first game and be completely lost in chapter 12 and be completely lost on Kiryu parts in 8.
Starting with 7 also happens a lot in Japan too even the title is called Ryu Ga Gotoku 7. To make matters worse, because of starting with 7 with a fresh new protagonist Kasuga Ichiban, this can potentially lead them playing Gaiden as their next game and so on which is a tremendous fucked up in storytelling and emotional wise without any realization of the previous titles from 0 until 6.
Trust me, TONS of Vtubers from Nijisanji Japan still starts with Yakuza 7 which in promotion wise is a massive mistake which sends a wrong message to their fanbase. Some even skips to 7 after Kiwami 2 for various reasons. Personally, unless they reach 3 after 0, K1 and K2, NEVER EVER trust anyone in any possible way lol
Never saw it as a gta clone I got into yakuza 4 back into 2012 and I saw gameplay and I thought it was like a open world tekken game partially true but I loved the series since
@@JasonVelez-q7g most people only hear the name and the original trailers for 1-4 we’re all about the crime and making it sound like Kiryu was criminal like a GTA protagonist
I dislike when people call a game a “clone” . Making an open world crime game??? GTA clone . Making a first person shooter ? Cod clone ! Making a monster catching game? Pokémon clone! Like seriously why do people do this
@@LYK1003tbh I think starting with yakuza 7 is ight. My only yakuza games I’ve beat are 7 and 8 and kiryu feels like an unstoppable force of nature with intrigues me to play the older games. Already love the series too
Like a Pirate: Gaiden- The Man Who Forgot His Name
Spot on 😂😂
Like a Dragon 9: Yakuza: The Brand That Forgot Its Name
I've personally already had to explain the naming to newcomers and it's not very fun if they don't understand the first time.
The main thing that gets me is how the English names are changing but Japanese, Chinese and Korean are all the same. If the English titles became simply Like a Dragon: 7 then 8, I don't think anybody would get too confused. LAD 8 personally annoyed me because I wanted to know where the Infinite wealth name came from. The infinite symbol seemed like a cheap way to get something that looks like an 8 on the box art.
@@N7RiZe you've hit the nail on the head pretty much.
The infinite wealth is unironically the friends we made along the way and I love that
i came to the conclusion that in the game, Infinite Wealth means familial love which makes sense cause Ichiban reunites with Akane and Kiryu learns the meaning of having a support system
I really dont know why the didnt include gaiden in the yakuza pirate spin off, its CLEARLY A GAIDEN GAME, and they HAVE named TMWEHN clearly as a Gaiden game.
One of my theories is that the West Sega team is treating the word "Gaiden" as the actual name of the game, rather than a denotation of the entry's type, like how the fifth installment is called "Yakuza 5", this 7.5 Installment is called "Gaiden" when in reality they should stick to the Japanese naming convention.
Oh don’t worry, they have, but only in the Japanese version with the title name cover.
Potential titles for Pirate Yakuza:
Like a Dragon: Maddog
Like a Dragon: Gaiden II
Hawaiian Pirate
Yakuza: Hawaiian Pirate
They couldve also called the film:
"Like a Dragon: Rebirth"
"Like a Dragon: Reborn"
As it's a complete rewrite of Yakuza 1 as a story. It's close to the Kiwami name but not the same either.
@@Ron1n_Sim You mean the series that's coming? It's not a movie. And the only Yakuza movie that was made, was never officially localized.
@@Ron1n_Sim yeah, also helps disassociate the story of the show from the story of the games to prevent disappointment from fans who were expecting a straight adaptation.
how about "Like A Dragon: Pirates of Hawaii"
"Yakuza: Like a Pirate"
I’m gonna call the latest announced Yakuza as “Yakuza Majima”.
Appreciate that finally someone made a video about this.
Shoulda just stayed Yakuza all along.
It's never not funny to me that in a game called Yakuza, you'll never play as an active yakuza member but you will play as a cop and an idol at some point in the series.
The producers themselves literally said there moving away from the whole yakuza thing
@@xtube9157 pretty sure they made it very clear when they made Daigo dissolves the Tojo and Omi back in 7.
@@thatbloomer5642 right lol. That's why the Yakuza title was never a good fit to begin with IMHO. It catches the eye for sure. But when you truly look at the series as a whole, it's misleading. At least that's how I personally felt about it when I started. I thought I was going to play as a Yakuza but turns out I wasn't.
Because it’s not supposed to be called Yakuza
It was supposed to be “like a dragon”
The same way “yakuza:Isshin” and “yakuza: Kenzan” doesn’t work because they never even join the Yakuza in the first place in those 2 games
@@Cherry91A bit late, Yeah I think they were banking on was to make people think they’ll be buying “GTA but in Japan” to make sales with the original ps2 English dub reflecting that, Definitely misleading marketing
I can honestly flip flop between either names... But at the very least, for this Majima game... I'm gonna to call it Yakuza: Like a Pirate. It just roll off the tongue so easy for me at least.
I for one mistakenly played Man who erased his name before Like a Dragon : Yakuza
Finished it a week ago and am now playing Like A Dragon lol. Damnit.
I can't wait to play,
Yakuza:The Road to become a Pirate King🫡
(I hope the next gaiden game will have a story about Akiyama and Tanimura,
I can't wait to play those two again 🙏)
i wouldn't mind a daigo dojima game either or they could explore some of the older characters like ryuji goda or nishiki theres a world of possibility when it comes to the gaiden games
Gotta say, as much as I love the series original name, I’m quite glad that it is called Like a Dragon, to bring it closer to the japanese original
Some names might not always work well, like Shutokou Battle series was known as Tokyo Xtreme Racer in the rest of the world. Worked alright for game set in Tokyo, but in Kaido games, predominantly set around Japan outside of Tokyo (or even Tokyo prefecture for that matter), a name like Tokyo Xtreme Racer Drift doesn’t fit as well
Besides the fact it's no longer set on the highways of Tokyo, the subtitle "Drift" also misrepresents what the game is all about (it's not a game centered around drifting, but rather around touge racing and culture as a whole).
@@thehwguy4293 exactly, finally someone says that
- yakuza: like a dragon → yakuza 7: like a dragon
- like a dragon gaiden: the man who erased his name → yakuza 7.5: the man who erased his name
- like a dragon: infinite wealth → yakuza 8: infinite wealth
- like a dragon: pirate yakuza in hawaii → yakuza 8.5: hawaiian high seas (???)
any further mainline entries are yakuza #: subtitle. any further gaidens are yakuza #.5: subtitle. if you remake any games prior, you don't give them "kiwami" names, you just give them a subtitle. it's madness that the post-6 entries had names that made it through marketing tests. i've been streaming these lately and my community keeps having to ask which games go where in the continuity and the way they've framed the titles has made it an unapproachable nightmare
My scrawny ass and 2 cents be like:
"Like A Dragon: Pirates of Hawaii"
Dragon: Like a Yakuza
When they get into the pet companion genre!
They should have just stuck with the Yakuza name. It's short, descriptive, and everything still calls Yakuza.
They would've needed Like A Dragon for Ishin. I just wish they'd commit to the Like A Dragon name instead of continually backtracking to Yakuza.
Then you'd have the odd duck called Kenzan and ishin. Should've stuck with the actual title, which is Like a Dragon. (Ryu ga no Gotoku)
@@Kaimax61 Sorry for being that "ACKSHUALLY" guy, but it's "Ryu ga Gotoku", not "Ryu ga no Gotoku". You were basically saying "Like a of Dragon".
The two big Yakuza groups disbanded and all others are soon to follow. Makes sense they wouldn't call it Yakuza anymore even if RGG wanted to do something else
i like the new title honestly
The reason it was done, more than anything, is that numbered titles scare people off when they become high. Customers will ask, do I have to play through all 6 others before jumping in? So the rebrand allowed them to start from scratch so they could convince newcomers that it was the perfect jumping on point. As you mentioned in the video though, it's backfired.
They should have switched it to Like A Dragon back when 0 and Kiwami were being translated if they were that bent on doing it. Would have been best, imo. I do appreciate the slight number nods they've been doing (the Like 7 Dragon, and the infinity symbol looks like a sideways 8), but don't know how they'll keep them up.
exactly.. Video Game companies make the naming next model/game so complicated. this is how i got away with giving my nephew an XBOX 360 instead of an XBOX One like he wanted. (he is 6)
"you dont want an xbox one.. youd rather have the xbox 360 since 360 is more than One right?)
I thought it was really cool that they we’re gonna change the name to match the Japanese one and while it would’ve made it confusing doing it all of a sudden I think them flip flopping is making it even worse, at this point they are better off going all in on the like a dragon branding
I’ve recently only started the Yakuza games….starting from Yakuza 0 and I’m going to work my way through them in order, I’m loving the game so much, I can’t believe I never picked these games up before….but I did have to get a list of all the games in order so I know which games to play, quite confusing for someone just starting out, but I’m absolutely hooked on the wackiness and it’s brought back that passion I had for gaming which honestly I thought I had lost in recent years.
I've gone through something similar recently with the Senran Kagura games. I think the main takeaway for newcomers is that it's best to somewhat research what the over all continuity of games is like, because the history of Yakuza/RGG/Like a Dragon is very complex and evolving.
I like Yakuza for the Kiryu games, Like a Dragon for the Ichiban games.
Should've stayed Yakuza, the way Resident Evil 7 had the subtitle Biohazard in the west but still the series was called Resident Evil.
It's been nearly twenty years with the Yakuza title. People gonna still call it that
To me, it will always be Yakuza ❤️
The trend of Japanese studios wanting to curb alternate names in the West seems to be an industry wide thing. It's going on in Monster Hunter too, Gens 1-4 usually had an involved localisation process of new names being created for monsters to incorporate more Latin inspired etymology. _(eg. "Raizekusu" becomes "Astalos", "Dinobarudo" becomes "Glavenus")_
Meanwhile Gen 5 and seemingly so far Gen 6 have used mostly direct translations, with some accomodations for pronounciation like Ls/Rs swapping or a syllable being dropped. (eg. "Rabara Barina" becomes "Lala Barina", "Chatakabura" becomes "Chatacabra", and "Doshaguma" is just directly ported over)_
I assume that it's less to do with communities, and more to do with social media algorithms, which probably can't directly recognise "Like a Dragon" and "Yakuza" are the same thing for example. To cite Monster Hunter again, "baby Pukei-Pukei" may not've taken off as a meme so much or warmed the hearts of Capcom's offices, if it wasn't for Pukei having essentially the same name between Japanese and English.
Instead of the upcoming Dragon Ball game being Budokai Tenkaichi 4, it's Sparking Zero. Which is so much worse because calling it Budokai Tenkaichi actually has a legitimate reason in the lore. Sparking Zero means nothing as far as I know
Big brain video.
Love and blessings!
Really interesting points 👍 and awesome that you could bring in your knowledge :)
I've never played the games in English, so I never even knew some of them had stupid names till I saw online. And I was watching the RGG summit in Japanese and thought, RGG 8 Gaiden Pirates in Hawaii made sense as a name. But little did I know that the braindead localizers decided it would be better to call it, Like a Dragon Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii. Are they that dumb they don't think it's such a mouthful that newcomers would not be interested in it? In Japan, long titles are pretty normal. And usually there's more wordplay going on with the choice of spelling used in the title. (Hard to explain in English) And people don't get turned off by it. I think Sega hasn't noticed that long titles don't work in English at all.
When 0 and Kiwami were released, it was literally the best time to get into the series. Both games were really good entry points into the series. Coincidentally this was when the series got its first popularity boost in the west.
Tbh the series will forever been simply Yakuza for me, no matter how future entries have Like A Dragon or try to stray away from being Yakuza-centric plots. Like Yakuza Like A Dragon is just too much of a mouthful to say and I rather just say Yakuza 7, even Yakuza LAD is a bit confusing considering it's not only game with the LAD title. Then there's Like A Dragon Gaiden The Man Who Erased His Name which is a even bigger mouthful and I've been calling it Gaiden or Yakuza Gaiden though now I suppose I'll have to call it Yakuza 7.5 since it's not going to be the only 'Gaiden' game. It's same thing with Like A Dragon Infinite Wealth where I've bouncing between calling it Infinite Wealth, IW or Yakuza 8. Now we have Like A Dragon Yakuza Pirates in Hawaii that started to call Yakuza Pirates but I think Yakuza 8.5 should also work.
Can't wait for like a dragon astronaut yakuza in space who lost their memory.
I think that maybe originally with Yakuza 7 they intended to do a complete rebrand. But seeing the warm reception that Kiryu, Majima (etc) and why not, the rest of the games have had in the new audience, perhaps they have integrated both elements by taking a couple of steps back: I consider it a beautiful decision. It embraces the past and the present with pride and love for the work and for the fans before and after.
I really do love and enjoy both Names and kinda like how they keep using them both! Shows how they have evolved but are also sticking to their roots :)
I was actually talking a friend a couple who been wanting to get into yakuza and said didn't know where to start cause of the branding and i realized how confusing the name convention even as diehard fan of the series
Like song of life cool subtitle
Yakuza : like dragon cool nod neat symbolism yata yata
Like a dragon pirate yakuza in Hawaii okay now you just trying to shove as much words as possible 😂
And how idea was it to call the show like a dragon yakuza 😂 every time i look it up the first result is the ichiban games
Thanks for great video
This was a very good discussion piece on an issue that's been boggling everyone's mind. It feels as though RGG has been making quite a number of weird decisions with their games and branding (eg. Terrible autotune with the English karaoke, removing item shortcuts, fixing Yakuza style's combo speed to its slowest)
they really are making it harder than it needs to be. Its a mess.
Now the amazon show is called Like A Dragon: Yakuza, which ive seen people already think its gonna be based on Yakuza: Like a dragon.
LIKE A DRAGON: BEYOND THE GAME would have been fine!!!
And then why use gaiden once then not again? they dont need to mess with it so much.
As a fan who plays the entire mainline Yakuza series, the way Sega rebranding the title for the overseas is quite confusing in my eyes.
Take Yakuza: Like A Dragon (Ryu Ga Gotoku 7 in Japan) as an example, being a Yakuza fan in the west knows that this is the seventh mainline Yakuza installment that shifts the gameplay style to turn based while telling the story in a completely new perspective with new protagonist within the same universe since Yakuza 0 to 6. But as a newcomer, some of them may think this is a hard reboot to the series that basically has no connection to the older titles, which in reality is a huge misconception and when they finally reach the certain chapters, some may realize starting with this game is a huge mistake with some of the key moments spoiling the older titles right away.
And because of the way they rebranding the series with Like A Dragon since 7, there is a risk that some people would rather continue on since Yakuza Like A Dragon and play Like A Dragon Gaiden and so on instead of going back to the past in order to take on the future titles which contain tons of references from the Kiryu Saga. With such influence, this is a tremendous screw up in terms of the storytelling order.
The similar mindset goes for Like A Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii, instead of outright telling people Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth Gaiden which clearly telling people that this is a side story to the event of Infinite Wealth, rebranding to the official name for the west is a huge confusion to the general audience. And the fact that using pirate theme as a general story plot is enough to confuse people even more and they would think this has nothing to do with the previous titles AGAIN. While RGG for the west in the future might tell the audience a new game being a great starting point on social media, the fans will definitely tell a complete different story on how NOT to start Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii with bunch of compelling reasons (Similar thing happens when Gaiden was marketing on Twitter). Combining with having 10 mainline titles previously (0, K1, K2, 3, 4, 5, 6, YLAD, Gaiden and IW), this will be much harder for people who wants to get into the series.
Just to clarify, I have no problem with people who want to play any Yakuza game whatever they want even with the latest title. It is just that the rebranding strats from RGG makes people harder to spot a clear picture of the whole series (especially for the west) so that it leads to the current influence of having tons of people on internet asking the fan community whether the Yakuza game they want to play is a great starting point or not.
I find it strange how RGG 8 was originally marketed as "Like a Dragon 8" (just search youtube for Like a Dragon 8 trailer by Sega), but it started bearing the Infinite Wealth name several months later when the second trailer dropped. As a fairly big fan of the series, the trailer was very confusing to me and at first I thought "Infinite Wealth" was a completely separate title from 8 until I googled around a little.
Yep , that probably the complete name unlike Lost Judgment, in japan thé full name can be translate in something like : Lost Judgment unjudges memories
What's really bad are those packs they put out on steam. The Yakuza pack comes with everything up to 6 and the Like a Dragon pack only comes with 7 and 8. Gaiden, Judgement, and Ishin are all left out even though technically you have to play all of the games in order to understand Kiryu's part in 8. And yeah, that includes Ishin. Glad I got into it so that my two friends that were interested know the order because they would've been screwed.
I'm okay with the "Like A Dragon" brand change after the soft-reboot. For me, the mistake was the "Pirate Yakuza" title. They should have kept the "Gaiden" title in the west, just like The Man Who Erased His Name, and make it a subsaga of games set between mainline ones.
Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii = Like A Dragon: Goro Majima in Hawaii
its not so much going back to using Yakuza in naming its follow up, its just part of the subtitle.
For short, Yakuza going full Saints Row 3 - 4
honestly they way I go about it is if I talk to someone about the games in a more official style (aka recommending it to someone) I'd just use the official western titles to avoid confusion on what title I meant (unless it's a japanese exclusive then I'd either the full japanese or a translated version of it)
as for casual use and documentation (like desktop shortcuts and talks with kyodais) I'd honestly just either call them yakuza (insert number and or subtitle) or just use translated versions of the japanese titles
as for how I use the translated versions I'd translated ryu ga gotoku to like a dragon, keep words like ishin, kenzan gaiden or kiwami (well and also kurohyou but I also like to sometimes translate that one to black panther depending on mood) in japanese as they sound better that way and then I'd use the japanese subtitles but translated to english if they have them (so heirs to the legend for 4, and 6 I'd use poetry if life rather than song)
only game I'd make an exceptions for is 8 as I call it Like a Dragon 8 Infinite Wealth instead of just lad 8 or lad iw since I think it's weird how this is the only time a yakuza game got a subtitle in the west but not japan
hope this wall of text makes sense to others
also I want to add that the only thing pissing me off rn with rgg is the naming system but hey as I just exained that is somewhat easy to fix as you can technically call the games whatever you want and don't have to use the official title (well obviously if you order the games or other similar stuff you need the official title but you get my point)
so props on rgg for having that as the only thing pissing me off about them
I think lack of numbers combined with subtitles is the mistake. I don't think subtitles really work for series i think they make it harder to comprehend what people are looking at. Like i remember when infinite wealth and gaiden were shown at summer games fest, outsiders had to be told that they were the new yakuza games because it wasn't obvious. Like a dragon gaiden the man who erased his name is just incomprehenisble to someone who isn't already a fan
Agreed 💯
Not just outsiders, but even fans thought Infinite Wealth was some spinoff and it was a huge pain to get them to recognize that the Infinity is a rotated 8 and that it's called 8 in Japan
I think we're long overdue for SEGA to stop screwing around with the names. Call the next one "Like A Dragon 9" and then "Like A Dragon 10"
We should be calling the Majima game "Like A Dragon 8 Gaiden: Pirates In Hawaii" like the Japanese title. Maybe drop the 8 since they didn't call it "Like A Dragon 8" here, but after that stop screwing around
Speaking as an Ace Attorney fan here, I agree that replacing numbers for subtitles isn't really a good solution. In Japan the series is properly numbered from 1-6 (Numbering obviously resets for the Investigation and Great Ace Attorney titles but those are spin-offs anyway) but in America all numbers got ditched. Nowadays it's not _too_ big an issue since the games are all pretty neatly packaged in collections, but I remember before those came out that I had to constantly say stuff like "No, the game that has a different dude in the title is actually mainline game number 4, not a spin-off" or having to explain which goes first between Justice for All and Trials & Tribulations since there's nothing that implies which one comes first to less informed people.
Nowadays we're kind a stuck with it alas, even if fortunately the fact that all the collections are a thing minimizes this considerably.
This was a fantastic video. I was okay with them changing from 'Yakuza' to 'Like a Dragon' for Ichiban's new start but its ridiculous how they can't make up their minds after that.
Even the live action show feels compelled to include both names.
best way for rgg is keeping both, but they really need the numbering and gaiden tag
yakuza like a dragon gaiden - pirates in hawaii
yakuza like a dragon 8 - infinite wealth
they just cant make up their name, they definitely did not want to be associated with yakuza tag seeing how bad it is in japan back then.
I can see why in the west it’s called Pirate Yakuza In Hawaii. Iirc you can’t exactly title things Yakuza or portray actual yakuza behavior in Japan. That and blending the titles probably helps fans and newcomers recognize the game. Not to mention shifting protagonists helps the name change since it’s new within the same series. That said there does need to be consistency. If this is a side story to 8 then calling it LAD 8 would be fine. But then again IW didn’t have a number in the west. Idk, just keep it consistent Sega lol
Changing Kiwami's branding to Like a Dragon specifically for a new rerelease would only introduce unnecessary confusion. Similarly, releasing Ishin for the first time in the West as "Ishin Kiwami" would have people wondering where the first Ishin is.
And I don't think using the word "yakuza" in subtitles is quite the same as trying to keep the Yakuza branding.
The biggest reason I see for why they changed the branding is... the numbers. RGG isn't the *most* in-depth and connected narrative, but it is continuous. So when someone sees "Yakuza 7," they'll think "do I need to play the other 6 to get into this one?" This is right around the time where many long-running series will find some way to drop numerical titles, as the implied sequel baggage becomes daunting to new audiences. And with RGG switching focus to an entirely different genre of gameplay and a new main hero, it was the perfect time to make that switch.
However I do agree that Pirates in Hawaii dropping "Gaiden" was a misstep. I'm assuming this decision comes from some marketing data they got from 7 Gaiden, but the change even had me confused like "no way there's a new main game already" (the higher price compared to 7G doesn't help) until I saw the Japanese title. They probably added "yakuza" to this one's title to make it clear that it's not a pirate-era spinoff a la Ishin (which I also thought at first).
I like the "Yakuza Like a Dragon" title because it gives "soft reboot" vibes, new protagonist, new story but same core. But I think that with that resetting the counter would have been appropriate. So, like you said and it is a very good idea, "Gaiden" becomes 1.5, "infinite wealth" becomes "like a dragon 2: infinite wealth" and "Gaiden pirate yakuza in hawaii" becomes "like a dragon 2.5: pirate yakuza" or something like that.
Right now there really is a naming problem for the series, and also with the spinoffs(I had to google it beforehand to know that Lost Judgment contains major spoilers for Y7, so now I must not buy the direct sequel of the game I'm currently playing to not have Y7 spoiled smh)
Kazuga "Don't you know me by now? I'll forgive anything."
imagine they gonna release ryu ga gotoku 4 gaiden of the end kiwami
after kiwami yakuza 4
The best thing they could do is call all the games Yakuza: Like a Dragon with numbers. Originally, I thought the Like A Dragon branding was a thing because of Yakuza 7's radically different gameplay... But then they used it for side games that were brawlers.
Honestly for IW I feel it would've made it much more simpler to just call it Yakuza: Like a Dragon 2, but they probably just called it IW 'cause they didn't want people to think "oh I have to play the first one before this!" to get as many sales as possible. In the long run though, it really just makes everything more confusing and may even make some people turn away and lose interest before even playing a game due to not knowing where to even begin.
LADG: TMWEHN is fine as a name and sets up Gaiden as a subseries, but now they completely went back on that and removed Gaiden from the Western name. SEGA seems to be wayyy too indecisive about this stuff, and although there's practically 0 chance they'll go back on Majima Gaiden's name, I hope they see this as a mistake and name future Gaiden games consistently.
At least they've found a way to distinguish between the Kiryu and Ichiban saga, though which I do think works to some extent at least (except 7G is a bit inbetween both sagas). I gotta say though, Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii is such a bad name its actually kinda good, mainly because of it being Majima.
they removed gaiden from the name in the west because "gaiden" means side story in japan, but we of course dont know what gaiden means, so the man who erased his name is known just as "like a dragon gaiden", so probably they thought calling the majima game "like a dragon gaiden" would only make confusion
plus kiryu's gaiden in japan is called "like a dragon 7 gaiden" and majima's gaiden called "like a dragon 8 gaiden", while in the west theres no numbering, this problem would be solved if they just decided to call IW as like a dragon 2: infinite wealth
I think people are also confusing what RGG when referring to the scope of Pirate Yakuza. They said not to view it as a small side project like Gaiden was, but it definitely still is a Gaiden game since it doesn't star Kasuga.
And I still refer to the series as Yakuza because it's straight to the point and its a name that i just think works better in English. And I also would have just done Yakuza 7: Like A Dragon then Yakuza 8: Infinite Wealth and so forth.
And for games like Kenzan and Ishin, I think Like a Dragon could still work for those, as calling those Yakuza doesn't make sense, and even if you're confused, once you see Kiryu's face, it'll make sense what it is.
Funny enough, I pretty much refer to Infinite Wealth as "LaD 8" or even "Yakuza 8" but rarely "IW." A friend of mine is has been playing 7 and he just calls it LaD but I know he is referring specifically to 7.
I continue to call them Yakuza. It's simpler and it just sounds right. Like a Dragon just doesn't have the same oomph in English.
It absolutely boggles my mind that they didn't start the rebranding with the release of the remasters, because then you could continue with numbers in the name for Yakuza 7 and 8 and have it easier to determine the order and what isn't in the main story-WHICH THEY DIDN'T EVEN DO FOR MAJIMA GAIDEN. The decision to change the name has bothered me since it happened, and it's now in the problem I thought it would run into, which you've laid out, and will only gets worse. I really don't understand what localization is thinking, especially with the horrendous name for Pirate Yakuza.
imagine the shock when i bought this new spin off called yakuza like a dragon straight out of kiwami 2 thinking there wouldnt be spoilers lol. the new name probably helped the series get up to mainstream but i think they should return to the yakuza name and numbers to make it less confusing and keep the gaiden and kiwami in the respective games .
They could call it literal gibberish and it doesn't matter.
It's almost expected for a Japanese product to have a long, nonsense title at this point. It's so common that it's an industry joke.
i think a lot of this could have been saved and made way less confusing if they had just kept the numbers when they swapped the name so we go from yakuza 6 to yakuza 7 like a dragon to like a dragon 8 infinite wealth and just made a statement of how hey we're changing the title to match the japanese name
To community, forever Yakuza
I started calling these games Yazula becuase of a group chat meme and it fits series in its current state so much better.
yazaza
Should have just kept the numbers like the japanese entries, though we could still have a mixed title for 7 to ease the change in. "Yakuza: Like a Dragon 7", and then "Like a Dragon 7 Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name", and so on. I think that would be more clear than what we have now.
If they were gonna rename the series, then 0 would have been the perfect game to do so. Every mainline game after that was either remade or remastered.
I understand them wanting to make it the same as what it's priper name is, but still, the name Yakuza was fine.
I would have preferred they just stayed numbered 'Yakuza', even with Takayuki spin-offs with 'Judgment', just 'Yakuza: Judgment'. Only Final Fantasy seems to take some kind of pride in a long-running series, outside of sports games. I think it would be really badass and impressive to see a title card on a Yakuza game saying "Yakuza 17" or something, but I don't know.
I hate this so much. Like I mentioned in a previous video of yours, this whole "Kiryu is Yakuza, Ichiban is Like A Dragon" creates the issue that, when you visit the RGG Studios page for Steam (and maybe other stores) for example, you find LAD 0 to 6 in the "Yakuza series" collection, 7 and 8 in the "Like A Dragon" collection, but you can't find Ishin nor Gaiden, because they are named Like A Dragon but they don't star Ichiban. It's so freaking stupid and I hate it, just rename everything to "Like A Dragon". It's what makes more sense.
It also bothers me that they changed the name of the series back to Like A Dragon "for the sake of everything having the same name everywhere" and yet NOT A SINGLE product since the rebrand has had the same name as in Japan. Yakuza: Like A Dragon (actual name LAD 7), Like A Dragon Gaiden (missing the 7 in the name because LAD7 dropped the number overseas), Like A Dragon Ishin (missing the Kiwami word that indicates remake), Like A Dragon: Yakuza (named Beyond The Game in Japan), Yakuza Kiwami Switch (rather than Like A Dragon Kiwami), and most recently Like A Dragon: Pirate Yakuza In Hawaii (missing 8 Gaiden, added the word "Yakuza")
You know none of this would've happened if the original Sega of America localization team just called it Like A Dragon in the first place
Even the original Takashi Miike film was released in English as Like a Dragon: Yakuza
🔥
I think Like a Dragon is probably the better name
However
I think if they were going to rebrand they should have done it a long time ago. Changing the name of a series after 7 mainline entries is just too much. Everyone is already used to the old name and changing it now just makes everything confusing so I’ll still call the series Yakuza.
since Gaiden means Side story.. i just looked at it as a side story to the Like a Dragon 7 storyline leading into Infinite Wealth.
i think Judge Eyes is perfect
Imagine if by some miracle they did rerelease the PS2 entries and called them something like Yazuka Classic or Like a Dragon Classic.
I think the change from Yakuza to LAD makes sense due to the overall tonal shift of the mainline entry, plus it would allow them to explore topics beyond the yakuza. However, they should've stuck with the numbering system and only give subtitles to the gaiden games "Like a Dragon 7: The Man who erased his name" and "Like a Dragon 8: Pirate Yakuza" (It referencing 8 could also indicate that it takes place in Hawaii without saying so). So basically, using less words the subtitles on their own can indicate it's a side story (without saying Gaiden) and the numbering can give an indication what mainline game it centers around.
To this day I believe that the larger series rebranding was, in fact, because of Ishin. Calling it Yakuza: Ishin! or Yakuza: Revolution! didn't make sense, as there are no *proper* yakuza in that game. They looked at 7, thought that people are now familiar with "Like a dragon" and decided to go with literal translation (no "Kiwami" since there is no original in the west), and one thing just led to another.
As for Gaiden, I am still a bit confused about dropping that with the Majima game. Probably it is an attempt to reach Zero's audience and simultaneously hide it is a "side", "smaller" game. And also once again get those journalists to write reviews about a "good starting point for the franchise" (for a game that absolutely isn't one). If the Western market is so terrified of large numbers and those exotic Japanese words, I would go for something akin to Star Wars: "A Yakuza (tm) Story" as a subtitle under the proper title.
In general, I would prefer it like this:
Kiryu Saga: Yakuza 0-6
Ichiban Saga: Yakuza: Like a Dragon, Yakuza: Infinite Wealth
Side Games: Ishin!, Yakuza Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name, Yakuza Gaiden: Pirates in Hawaii
More peak has arrived from our Croatian brother.
I will always call it Yakuza. Simpler, shorter, easier to look up relevant vids.
At this point I just call all the games released before "Like a Dragon: Yakuza" Yakuza and "Like a Dragon (Insert the subtitle)" starting with LaD 7.
I honestly hope they keep scrambling the name to fuck with people
It's not the most conducive remark, but the rebranding has brought a few bad apples who have tried to correct me when I say Yakuza 8, and it makes this wonderful franchise just a tad less easy to enjoy.
I prefer to call the franchise 'Like a Dragon'. Whist 'Yakuza' is an accurate title as it's what the games are about, i just think LAD sound way cooler and plus it synergizes with the original japanese title.
Commit to the Like A Dragon namesake, I say. I guess at some point, a LAD story may not include Yakuzas in the story anymore (or at least be less centered around it).
Besides, few years down the line we'll all get used to the Like A Dragon namesake. And the best first games for newconers are still 0 or 7. If any new bloke finishes either game, there is no way they wouldn't understand the timeline.
I wish they just ripped the bandage off and started only calling it Like a Dragon before they started with the Gaidens and the odd named Ichiban games. I just call Y:LAD "7" and IW "8" without the Yakuza prefix because it's easier
This will be avoided if they called yakuza 7 yakuza 7
Thank you this is something I've pointed out several times before to people that it was clear they dropped the 7 to hide the fact that they changed the gameplay style to not alienate the western fanbase.
Can’t wait for Yakuza 9.5 Like A Dragon. Gangstas in Paris.
While I think Yakuza / Like A Dragon is way more accessible than it has ever been, I feel it's way harder to get into the series properly these days. Not only is there a ton of games, but the naming conventions are beyond confusing. For someone who's never played any Yakuza game to play the games in order actually takes a decent amount of research, since the series is now called "Like A Dragon" what about the games like Yakuza 0 - 6? It makes it really confusing to tell what is "Yakuza" and what is "Like A Dragon" without researching it yourself.
Not to mention the two latest mainline games don't even have numbers on them, for someone who doesn't know, Yakuza Like A Dragon, just seems like a new series despite it being Like A Dragon 7 in Japan, same with Like A Dragon Infinite Wealth, which is just called 8 in Japan. These are continuations to long-running franchise in Japan, but in the west it just looks like an entirely new sub-franchise. I also found that many people who play either of these two games becoming lost, since it's a CONTINUATION, not an entirely new story, in Infinite Wealth for example, all the parts with Kiryu and getting his memories have no emotional payoff, nobody knows the characters if that's the first game they played, so you don't really care about why Kiryu loves his children, or why he did certain things.
Also the naming is really getting out of hand, like the names are getting so absurdly long and hard to remember, for example "Like A Dragon Gaiden: The Man who erased his name" like what?? Or this newest game "Like A Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii" it's just way too much words and it makes conversations about the game annoying, since you have to shorten them in conversation. Imagine talking with your friend about videogames and he tells you "Bro, you know that Like A dragon Pirate yakuza in hawaii game? It was super fun, you should totally play it" like you're going to be wondering what he's even talking about. Even if you are familiar with Yakuza, it's still confusing to begin with, is it a spinoff? Is it mainline? Is it even canon to the story?
Is like when vanilla P3 and P4 had the "Shin megami tensei" branding, while Persona started as a spin-off of Shin megami tensei. I can see the Gaiden games as a way to keep the real time beat-up thingy still alive, despite the new jrpg role of the main-line series, meaning probably Goro Majima will appear in Yakuza 9, since Kazuma Kiryu will be ☠, I didn't finished Yakuza 8, yet. 😅