Yeah, the RgG team understands the importance of versimilitude with MOST of their branding. Not *all* of it, because since at least Yakuza 5 there's always been at least one substory or substory chain where they insert the literal IRL CEO or actual locally famous guy into the game. Like the Ikinari Steak president just . . . showing up in Judgment for some reason and becoming Yagami's friend.
@@marcomorinm190 Yeah, Yakuza 5 has this happen like, 3 times? It happens in Judgment, and I think it happened in Y7 as well? There's at least one more game where it does at least.
@@charlescalthrop2535 I love the rainbow cans, only recently been drinking them. I wish there was more availability for the gold cans, recently went on a holiday to Perth and plenty of stores were stocking them but unfortunately here in NSW there seems to be none around.
@@murai_maquina I know the Akiba Donki branch well enough at this point that I'm no longer overwhelmed, but the Kabukicho and Dotonbori branches are legit kinda brutal to go into. Doesn't matter if you jump in there at 2AM or 2PM, it's still kind of a nightmare.
Pretty sure they did at least one promotion for one of the more recent games (like Yakuza 7 or 8) that saw one of the convenience store brands in Japan dress up one of their stores like a Poppo. Or maybe I just dreamt that.
12:32 you forgot to mention that Saejima from Y6 - onwards wore an Alpha Industries parka jacket indicated by the red "remove before flight" tag on the left side of the jacket
I think even the one he wears in Y5 is just a generic videogamey version of the same one, like that coat was the look they had been going for the whole time but they didn't get the right to the real product until later.
Guy who came back from Waikiki recently, I can fact check some of the Hawaii brands: ABC stores have more touristy shirts, so while they look generic I have not seen the designs that were in-game. They're also underrepresented, as there's ABC stores pretty much on every corner in Waikiki. Hilo Hattie was skipped over, it's the shop you get Joongi's new clothes when he arrives in Honolulu and they make Aloha shirts. Dean & Deluca is also a real life cafe chain that's present in Honolulu. Matsumoto's Shave Ice, while being in the wrong place in-game due to North Shore not being an explorable area, the interior is actually correct. A small thing on the crossover restaurants, they actually have posters that were advertisements for the game. Matsumoto's Shave Ice still have the Ichiban shirts and stickers in their store, as well as they also have pictures of the restaurant in game and have a corner with a game copy and some merch. Hip Hop Shrimp I think is a parody brand of Giovanni's, one of the more popular shrimp food trucks in Hawaii. Cream and Berry is a parody of Waffle and Berry, a breakfast restaurant also in Waikiki. Oahu Burger is a parody of none other than McDonald's. McDonald's is exactly on that corner near Waikiki Beach. Also some minor fun facts: Honolulu actually has a Don Quijote - if it weren't for the fact that Donqi doesn't exist in the series anymore, it'd most likely be there. Albiet it's not as cramped as the Japanese stores. Alongside this, their radio isn't 24/7 Donqi. It's mainly regular radio with the theme there every once in a while. Suntory has a restaurant in Honlulu as well, and it's a high end restaurant in the Royal Hawaiian shopping center. A little strange that it's not on display in the game. ZONE - the energy drink that's in Judgment, tastes like Monster. I didn't go everywhere and Waikiki is just super packed with shops and restaurants, I'm bound to have missed some other brands.
The big one is Anaconda Shopping Center, which is based on the real life Ala Moana Center shopping mall! It's splices sections the real life mall, but every section is very authentically created (as is the entire Honolulu map in the game). Most notably Hilo Hattie in Anaconda is in roughly its actual location in Ala Moana. Worldwide Marketplace is based on the International Marketplace in Waikiki. It is also a spliced version of the real mall.
Still remember going to the don quijote in kabukicho (where yakuza is based off) and that DAMN SONG playing on loop 24 hours a day and it surprises me how no one isn't going insane. Also I was completely weirded out on the sex toys being on display in the 4th floor and the fact that they had pocket pussy testers for people to..... Touch I guess....
Bro, at least it’s a good jingle. 80% of shops that play jingles are lame or annoying. My personal favs are Yamada Denki (Electronic shop), Giant (Supermarket), Hardoff/Hobby house, and Ikari (supermarket).
@@DatBoiAntixyou probably tune it out of your mind, like if you've worked at mcdonalds the beeping kind of becomes normal after a while, at least for me
Yakuza/Like a Dragon is legit one of the only times I don't dislike the existence of product placement, no matter the actual reason for it existing. For me, it just works really well with one of the series' biggest appeals: virtual tourism. Learning about all the products and companies that exist in Japan is insightful.
11:10 Sonic music also plays in Yakuza 5! If I remember right, the songs I've heard were "A New Venture" from Sonic Rush and "Dreams of an Absolution" from Sonic 06
Add Vela Nova (Sonic Rush), Knight of the Wind (GOATed theme, don't @ me; Sonic and the Black Knight) and Un-Gravitify (Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity) to that list as well Shoutouts to the most unexpected cameo of The Concept of Love from JSR in Y5 convinience stores
I’d say, the product placement in these games really make the map look so much more real, because obviously, real companies and brands would naturally have logos and sell their products in these cities. (This comment is definitely not a sponsored advertisement. Pls sponsor me.)
Also compared to other games, since brands and adverts are nearly everywhere you go in Yakuza they don't feel as jarring to look at compared to say Monster in Death Stranding or FF15's Nissin Noodles. When everything's a product placement, nothing feels out of place 🤣
I was in Japan last month and was very excited to try out all the different drinks I've seen in the game. CC Lemon, Boss, Asahi, even Lipovitan D (essentially Staminan). Also went to Kabukicho for a bit but due to illness and bad weather I didn't stay long, just passed the red neon gate, found the batting center and went home.
So, a couple interesting(?) things about DWANGO, the telecom company -- it runs the Japanese equivalent to RUclips, Nico Nico Douga, has ownership of Spike Chunsoft (the Danganronpa guys); and it actually spun off from the relatively short-lived American DWANGO, a mid-90s dialup service used to play games like Doom, Warcraft II, and Duke Nukem 3D. There is a whole series of Dwango-compiled random multiplayer map packs for Doom 2 that still see some use for deathmatch today
I like the substory in dead souls where date is dying of starvation and so you give him some instant ramen and he says “thanks Kiryu, you’re a life saver. The only way I’ve been able to keep myself sane is by shaving. You know, you should shave while I eat. I got a razor in the back and after all, you’re not a real man unless you shave.” He’s going delirious in his hunger and became an ad. Also weird how I think that’s the only substory in the franchise that they use a still image.
The whole thing with Hatsune Miku is that it's true that SEGA has the license to make games based off the character (Project Diva series, Project Mirai which was a spinoff for the 3DS using Nendos as the models in game instead of the normal models in Diva and Project SEKAI for phones) and also SEGA has a brand of figurines with one of the figurines series are Vocaloid ones (I, for example, own a Luminasta of Nazuna Nanakusa from Yofukashi no Uta at home and it's from SEGA) but the character is owned by Crypton Future Media which is another company that is external to SEGA. In fact, in Project Diva MegaMIX (and I think that in Colorful Tone too) there were modules for Miku and company based off SEGA franchises such as Space Channel 5, Valkyria Chronicles, Sonic the Hedgehog, Phantasy Star Online 2 and Virtua Fighter iirc.
Btw, I already knew about Pepsi since, well, it's a western brand and I hard agree with you, Pepsi Max is delicious and superior to Coke Zero in every way lol
If I remember correctly, they actually had to slightly censor the western release of Yakuza 6 because some random guy in a substory had branded shoes (Nike I believe?) and they couldn't get the license for the western release so they gave him generic shoes instead. I wish I could find the stream that comment was made in but I can't for the life of me find those streams archived on Sega's Twitch and it sucks because there was a lot of insight into both localisation and development of these games.
I occasionally buy a few cases of BOSS Coffee every once in a while since they’re fairly uncommon to come by where I’m from, save for the odd Asian market. They’re extraordinarily convenient when you need to pound something in a pinch, and taste pretty good too. The rainbow blend is my personal favorite.
I went to Japan last month and it was truly embarrassing how many things I saw and went "I know of that from the Yakuza games!" so I guess the product placement works? I'm impressed by the dedication to the research, well done.
A lot of people do credit the games for their visit to Japan. :) It certainly was for me - I went to Osaka for the first time in Dotonbori, playing "Unrest" in my earphones as I walk around. :D
A thing I find funny is that there's been a Beef Bowl cold war of sorts throughout this series. Because they created the fake Ashikimaru brand beef bowl shop just to have a place, and then, in what I think was Yakuza 4 (IIRC) they actually got the license for Matsuya, before losing that license (I assume due to that curry powered superhero substory kind of relying on Matsuya for his "powers") and then eventually getting the license for Yoshinoya (the oldest chain in Japan) in the most recent games (which to some degree is an international brand, as there were a bunch on the west coast of the US for years too). The next biggest beef bowl brand is Sukiya, and amongst Japanese foodies, the debate between these top 3 brands: Matsuya, Sukiya, and Yoshinoya, is essentially never ending, and seems very similar from what I can tell, between how Americans treat our burger chains, endless debating between McDonalds, Burger King, Carl's Jir, Rally's etc. Which means essentially that RGG has gotten 2 out of the 3 big chains, but has never gotten them simultaneously, which would be the most accurate to real life, and instead you see the Beef Bowl dominance of Japan constantly go back and forth throughout this series, changing hands from game to game, as if the 3 brands are engaged in a long fought war with each other, gaining or losing territory as their fortune change with the years. What's really funny to me though, is that the same logic was never applied to Poppo, which is their 7-11 stand in. Because I'm sure they could have gotten an actual 7-11 tie-in or maybe Lawson's which is a competitor of theirs, but they've actually been loyal to their fake brand for 20 years now. Meaning that the RGG team seems to assign a different sense of importance to their in-game convenience stores and their in-game beef bowl shops . . . and I have NO idea what the distinction is between these two things is, internally.
Speaking of the convenience stores. One thing I found interesting is the disappearance of M-Store after Y5. It was said to be a national convenience chain, appearing outside of Kamurocho in Y2, Y3 and Y5. Yakuza 6 even interestingly had an abandoned supermarket with full enterable interior in Nakamichi Alley, the same place the old games had a Poppo in, which is entirely unused in the story or substories. In Judgment it was used as a Mahjong Parlor for that real TV personality woman. We give RGG a lot of shit for reusing stuff, but the subtle differences between the same maps throughout the series paint a story for themselves. Regardless of the reasons (like the beef bowl restaurants moving and replacing each other due to licensing), the cities feel alive, both always and never changing.
We have lots of those brand here in Thailand too , from Don Quijote , Sekai no Yamachan Isakaya , Osaka Oshou , Boss Coffee , and yes especially those Suntory Tea . also iirc Donki have been rebranding in Japan last year .
I feel like what gives most Diet/Zero pepsi their flavor is the citric acid, which is absent from the Japanese version. That version also has phosphoric acid absent as an ingredient. The lemon zero and regular one are the only 2 JP Pepsis that redeem it. I started to notice that about the flavor of the Japanese sugar-free Pepsi variant. Miku and the main vocaloids (Rin//Len, Meiko, Luka, and Kaito) are owned by Crypton Media. Sega just holds licenses to make games with them, which could explain the lack of Sega branding on the figurine boxes.
A bit of an aside, we do have one Lawson store here, but if you're looking for dry goods available in the Japan/Asia ones, be prepared to be disappointed. Ironically, the 7-11s have some of the snacks from the Japanese ones.
I was surprised to see Gyu Kaku because I'd known about it BEFORE playing Yakuza, I live fairly close to one. Still have yet to try it but it was fun finding one in-game - A fair amount of the brands here can be found very easily in Texas, specifically Houston.. the Japanese domestic and business presence is huge there.
As someone who loves yakuza Being able to not only go to yoshinoya and drink a CC Lemon while here in Japan has been awesome. And being able to smoke seven stars like Yagami is forever my favorite
One of my favorites is the fact they couldn't get the copyright for the Ala Moana shopping mall, so they went with Anaconda instead. They kept the same green-blue colors and font for the name, and the logo is really well done to mimic Ala Moana while including the snake motif.
My theory is because a certain main story arc is featured in Anaconda Center, the devs or Ala Moana did not want to taint the name of the real life mall, so the devs came up with a fake one.
@UNIT0918 That's a fair point, I could see that as a completely valid reasoning. Still one of the better segments and the music in this section bopped.
As Ancient SEGA Lore Say: Their Main Mascot may be a Smiling Blue Hedgehog who wags his finger at you slyly, but if you look Really closely at his eyes you can see the Figure of a Gray Suited Dragon.
Fun fact: If IW took a bit more inspiration from RL waikiki/ala moana area, there would have been a DonQ! ...yes they play the jingle here too please save our souls.
Gyu-Kaku also has a few restaurants internationally. I happen to live in a city with one and I have a booking for this Friday, so hopefully I enjoy it!
I had a moment and a half playing Persona 5 Royal when I went to the "bar" to play darts and recognized it was Dartslive because of the branding and even the sounds peak virtual tourism 10/10
Yeah DartsLIVE machines are pretty common on the west coast of the US as well. I'm not sure about all of the US or other countries, but I've seen those machines IRL a bunch of times.
To know so many real brands are really in these games are amazing. I was wondering why all of the signage was so high quality. Never felt obtrusive. Also great song selection for the video.
If it hasn't been mention before in the comments, the explanation between Suntory and Pepsi is that Suntory has the license to distribute Pepsi products within Japan- they do not own Pepsi. This was done as when the deal was made PepsiCo was not able to build a sufficient local entity to compete with Coca-Cola in that market. Additionally PepsiCo owns all the distribution rights of Dr. Pepper-Snapple Group's products(Dr. Pepper, 7-Up) and thus Suntory within Japan while Coca-Cola maintains distribution within the USA only since DPSG does not maintain its own network.
I love this and never fully understood the hate against product placements in games and movies. When i recently played Midnight Club LA for the first time, it was awesome to see all the real brands and advertisements for like T-Mobile Sidekick, Gamestops and 7-Eleven. I could feel the zeitgeist of that era better than in any other game, and it felt like The Osbournes or Xzibit could behind any corner to film for MTV. And that MSN Information kiosk in the movie The Island makes me always grin. But most of all, these adverts allow us, to see how fast the world keeps changing.
I cant find it, but at one point in the video you were covering a random brand or company advertisement, and right next to it was Pepper Lunch. Pepper Lunch (or Peppā-ranchi) is a Japanese steak restaurant and franchise that is popular in Tokyo but is also available outside of Japan. To my knowledge, they are also available in Australia, however its more common where i live. (Singapore)
It’s so weird but I get so excited with product placement in like a dragon games, especially when it’s something I recognize. Anywhere else and I would groan but the the product placement in Lad games add a sense of realism
You missed a couple. The Jail sign next to the restaurant with the similar logo to like a dragon is probably a reference to Osaka Jail. An SM bar near dotonbori. Also the OPA logo that's in different colors is also a real company.
I think what really makes it work compared to other product placement is the fact that like you said, there's over 150 brands fighting for your attention. It's when a single brand or multiple brands owned by one company are focused on constantly and in such a biased fashion that it becomes distracting and almost condecending toward the audience.
I'm still trying to figure out why, when everything else in the Like a Dragon series feels natural, the Rizap side content in Y6 always feels like blatant advertising. Like, I can totally see Kiryu stopping into a bar and ordering a Jack Daniels, or Yagami picking up a can of ZONe on the way back to his office, but every time I see that "before and after" presentation from Rizap I can't stop rolling my eyes.
15:58 you missed Pepper Lunch, that is real restaurant chain that sells beef and rice hotplate, i knew that restaurant but this is the first time i saw the logo in-game :)
@@RexDanielleCariaga yeah, i went there with my family 2 days ago, the food was tasty, and our branch have "buy 3 get 3 free" deal this week, so why not :)
On the subject of the Sega music references: Some of them get incredibly obscure! Yakuza 4 and 5 have music from Segagaga in them. That was a Japan-Only Dreamcast title where you had to run the Sega company and save them from bankruptcy before the PS2 came out. The Hatsune Miku figure you can win in Yakuza 5 is also a real figure. The NiGHTS figure is not real, as it uses their design from the Wii game instead of the Saturn original.
Im curious if you plan to do a video on all the characters that appear in the series but are also real people the obvious examples being all thw NJPW wrestlers throughout most modern RGG games Also as a aussie who doesnt drink coffee or alcohol either i raise my Pepsi MAX to you mate
Another brand that I saw unmentioned is M-150, which is an energy drink brand. Its sign appears in Kiwami 2 around the ramen shop alley (most noticeably in the Daigo cutscene in the first chapter). I don't know how it is in Japan, but it's damn popular here in Thailand.
I’ve actually been to dotenbori way back in 2018. This was before I even knew of the yakuza series so my mind was kinda blown when I was playing yakuza 5.
I've been to a Gyu-Kaku before in New York, it is one of my favorite places to dine out at. The best thing about the product placement in this vs. other games that have done it - it's just not overwhelming in your face to the point where it's hard to ignore. The brands here complement the aesthetic of the urban areas, and unironically help to give it much more realism and liveliness. Imagine a Yakuza game as we know it, but with completely fake brands everywhere. That would be way too distracting by contrast.
It might be a bit outside the scope of the video, but in the PS3 version of Y5 there's a TON of manga that you could read the first chapters of in convenience stores (albeit untranslated in the NTSC U version) including Attack on Titan right as it was getting super popular.
just wanna add one thing you missed that i know. Pepper Lunch is a real life restaurant too with several international branches. Its available in Australia too according to wikipedia so you could give it a try if you want! (i recommend its pretty good)! I thought you're going to mention it because it showed up when ypu mention Ikinari Steak lol
Funnily enough, I didn't know Ikinari Steak was a real brand until after playing through 0-7 and then Judgment, 'cause you meet the CEO there. And when I showed a bit of the game to my sister, she'd actually known about the chain already and wanted to go to the first branch that opened in my country. We had a good laugh about seeing the statue of the Tuna King outside Sushizanmai, too, 'cause that's one we did get to eat at when we were in Tokyo. This series has been the one time that product placement hasn't felt any kind of obnoxious, and has only made me want to go back to Japan even more.
Aloha, I'm from Hawai'i and you missed Tomato Jam from 53 by the Sea and Dean and Deluca café. Hilo Hattie is a real clothing store at Ala Moana (Anaconda) Matsumoto Shave Ice's Ichiban Special is a real menu item IRL. We also have Don Quijote stores and a Suntory restaurant.
The product placement in this game feels natural
Yeah, the RgG team understands the importance of versimilitude with MOST of their branding.
Not *all* of it, because since at least Yakuza 5 there's always been at least one substory or substory chain where they insert the literal IRL CEO or actual locally famous guy into the game. Like the Ikinari Steak president just . . . showing up in Judgment for some reason and becoming Yagami's friend.
Yakuza is pretty much just our world. Heck, even COVID is canon.
@@MidlifeCrisisJoe yakuza 5 has the sushi zanmai and 2 watami irl ceo I think in substory
@@marcomorinm190 Yeah, Yakuza 5 has this happen like, 3 times? It happens in Judgment, and I think it happened in Y7 as well? There's at least one more game where it does at least.
@@MidlifeCrisisJoe Infinite wealth does it, making you meet a radio host
this is how advertising should be in all games tbh
makes the world feel real
western ads be like: nu uh you cant advertise another company that competes with my product, whats this, a competitive market?
I can safely say that without Yakuza, I wouldn't be drinking boss coffee daily. They stock the blue cans everywhere known to man in Australia.
Yea, they're honestly pretty good. I like the rainbow and black cans. Also just how strong the cans are is kinda satisfying.
@@charlescalthrop2535 I love the rainbow cans, only recently been drinking them.
I wish there was more availability for the gold cans, recently went on a holiday to Perth and plenty of stores were stocking them but unfortunately here in NSW there seems to be none around.
@@GhostaTheHidden Yea, I've never seen the gold ones anywhere in QLD.
There's a wholesaler website selling them in Australia but it's $50 shipping fee. The cans are about $1 each. Was all in until I saw the shipping
Shopping at Don Quijote IRL is an absolute nightmare, because they WON'T STOP PLAYING THE JINGLE
The interior is also maze-like so you can't leave the store easily.
Don Quijote irl is kind of a sensory nightmare
@@murai_maquina I know the Akiba Donki branch well enough at this point that I'm no longer overwhelmed, but the Kabukicho and Dotonbori branches are legit kinda brutal to go into. Doesn't matter if you jump in there at 2AM or 2PM, it's still kind of a nightmare.
@@rebirth2526New SCP: Infinite Don Quijote
DON-DON-DON DONDOKI
DOON QUIJOITE!
Can't wait for Yakuza brands to exist in real life
Pretty sure they did at least one promotion for one of the more recent games (like Yakuza 7 or 8) that saw one of the convenience store brands in Japan dress up one of their stores like a Poppo. Or maybe I just dreamt that.
Ichiban Confectionery and Majima Construction stocks, BUY BUY BUY
I want a Smile Burger.
12:32 you forgot to mention that Saejima from Y6 - onwards wore an Alpha Industries parka jacket indicated by the red "remove before flight" tag on the left side of the jacket
I think even the one he wears in Y5 is just a generic videogamey version of the same one, like that coat was the look they had been going for the whole time but they didn't get the right to the real product until later.
the jacket kiryu wears when raiding the hotel in yakuza 6 is also alpha industries, hirose wears the same one
Dude big thanks on this one. It's a topic that's been buzzing in the back of my brain for years now.
thanks for helping me all the time in yakuza 3 and 4
Same here and I live in Japan but too lazy to look up the brands.
Guy who came back from Waikiki recently, I can fact check some of the Hawaii brands:
ABC stores have more touristy shirts, so while they look generic I have not seen the designs that were in-game. They're also underrepresented, as there's ABC stores pretty much on every corner in Waikiki.
Hilo Hattie was skipped over, it's the shop you get Joongi's new clothes when he arrives in Honolulu and they make Aloha shirts.
Dean & Deluca is also a real life cafe chain that's present in Honolulu.
Matsumoto's Shave Ice, while being in the wrong place in-game due to North Shore not being an explorable area, the interior is actually correct.
A small thing on the crossover restaurants, they actually have posters that were advertisements for the game. Matsumoto's Shave Ice still have the Ichiban shirts and stickers in their store, as well as they also have pictures of the restaurant in game and have a corner with a game copy and some merch.
Hip Hop Shrimp I think is a parody brand of Giovanni's, one of the more popular shrimp food trucks in Hawaii.
Cream and Berry is a parody of Waffle and Berry, a breakfast restaurant also in Waikiki.
Oahu Burger is a parody of none other than McDonald's. McDonald's is exactly on that corner near Waikiki Beach.
Also some minor fun facts:
Honolulu actually has a Don Quijote - if it weren't for the fact that Donqi doesn't exist in the series anymore, it'd most likely be there. Albiet it's not as cramped as the Japanese stores. Alongside this, their radio isn't 24/7 Donqi. It's mainly regular radio with the theme there every once in a while.
Suntory has a restaurant in Honlulu as well, and it's a high end restaurant in the Royal Hawaiian shopping center. A little strange that it's not on display in the game.
ZONE - the energy drink that's in Judgment, tastes like Monster.
I didn't go everywhere and Waikiki is just super packed with shops and restaurants, I'm bound to have missed some other brands.
The big one is Anaconda Shopping Center, which is based on the real life Ala Moana Center shopping mall! It's splices sections the real life mall, but every section is very authentically created (as is the entire Honolulu map in the game). Most notably Hilo Hattie in Anaconda is in roughly its actual location in Ala Moana.
Worldwide Marketplace is based on the International Marketplace in Waikiki. It is also a spliced version of the real mall.
Product placement in Yakuza: How Sweet!
Product placement in any other game: Hello, human resources?
I understood that reference!
Don Quixote workers that have to listen to the same song for 16 hours a day: 😭🔫
Western Yakuza fans: “🎵 Don-don-don, Donkiiii. Don Quixote 🎵 🗣️”
Average spanish mf after fighting some windmills:🗣🔥🔥🔥🔥
Still remember going to the don quijote in kabukicho (where yakuza is based off) and that DAMN SONG playing on loop 24 hours a day and it surprises me how no one isn't going insane. Also I was completely weirded out on the sex toys being on display in the 4th floor and the fact that they had pocket pussy testers for people to..... Touch I guess....
Project Moon Don Quixote fans: " 🎵 Herooo, Forever my Herooo🎵🗣"
Bro, at least it’s a good jingle. 80% of shops that play jingles are lame or annoying. My personal favs are Yamada Denki (Electronic shop), Giant (Supermarket), Hardoff/Hobby house, and Ikari (supermarket).
@@DatBoiAntixyou probably tune it out of your mind, like if you've worked at mcdonalds the beeping kind of becomes normal after a while, at least for me
Oh shit he finally released the video he kept teasing about in his streams
He streams?
He has stream?
Yeah he usually streams on saturday 9/10 AM AEST
Yakuza/Like a Dragon is legit one of the only times I don't dislike the existence of product placement, no matter the actual reason for it existing. For me, it just works really well with one of the series' biggest appeals: virtual tourism. Learning about all the products and companies that exist in Japan is insightful.
i love the iconic scene of Mine drinking Prime
11:10 Sonic music also plays in Yakuza 5! If I remember right, the songs I've heard were "A New Venture" from Sonic Rush and "Dreams of an Absolution" from Sonic 06
I can confirm Silver's theme plays in Yakuza 5
Add Vela Nova (Sonic Rush), Knight of the Wind (GOATed theme, don't @ me; Sonic and the Black Knight) and Un-Gravitify (Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity) to that list as well
Shoutouts to the most unexpected cameo of The Concept of Love from JSR in Y5 convinience stores
And live and learn is also on it (i am not lying)
I’d say, the product placement in these games really make the map look so much more real, because obviously, real companies and brands would naturally have logos and sell their products in these cities.
(This comment is definitely not a sponsored advertisement. Pls sponsor me.)
Also compared to other games, since brands and adverts are nearly everywhere you go in Yakuza they don't feel as jarring to look at compared to say Monster in Death Stranding or FF15's Nissin Noodles. When everything's a product placement, nothing feels out of place 🤣
Once again SnowiestAngeman sneaking a FFXVI shoutout in his videos. Love it.
Ironic that someone who doesn't drink would be so into Yakuza and FF16.
They are great games though.
I was in Japan last month and was very excited to try out all the different drinks I've seen in the game. CC Lemon, Boss, Asahi, even Lipovitan D (essentially Staminan). Also went to Kabukicho for a bit but due to illness and bad weather I didn't stay long, just passed the red neon gate, found the batting center and went home.
So, a couple interesting(?) things about DWANGO, the telecom company -- it runs the Japanese equivalent to RUclips, Nico Nico Douga, has ownership of Spike Chunsoft (the Danganronpa guys); and it actually spun off from the relatively short-lived American DWANGO, a mid-90s dialup service used to play games like Doom, Warcraft II, and Duke Nukem 3D. There is a whole series of Dwango-compiled random multiplayer map packs for Doom 2 that still see some use for deathmatch today
It's kind of surreal to think DWANGO which was thought up by John Romero and some other guy became a japanese communications empire
The Oahu Burger building in 8 is a McDonald's IRL. Huge missed opportunity lol
Oh damn now this is a cool fact!
I like the substory in dead souls where date is dying of starvation and so you give him some instant ramen and he says “thanks Kiryu, you’re a life saver. The only way I’ve been able to keep myself sane is by shaving. You know, you should shave while I eat. I got a razor in the back and after all, you’re not a real man unless you shave.” He’s going delirious in his hunger and became an ad. Also weird how I think that’s the only substory in the franchise that they use a still image.
The whole thing with Hatsune Miku is that it's true that SEGA has the license to make games based off the character (Project Diva series, Project Mirai which was a spinoff for the 3DS using Nendos as the models in game instead of the normal models in Diva and Project SEKAI for phones) and also SEGA has a brand of figurines with one of the figurines series are Vocaloid ones (I, for example, own a Luminasta of Nazuna Nanakusa from Yofukashi no Uta at home and it's from SEGA) but the character is owned by Crypton Future Media which is another company that is external to SEGA. In fact, in Project Diva MegaMIX (and I think that in Colorful Tone too) there were modules for Miku and company based off SEGA franchises such as Space Channel 5, Valkyria Chronicles, Sonic the Hedgehog, Phantasy Star Online 2 and Virtua Fighter iirc.
Btw, I already knew about Pepsi since, well, it's a western brand and I hard agree with you, Pepsi Max is delicious and superior to Coke Zero in every way lol
I think this is the way to advertise without overtly emphasing, thanks for making this I'd learnt something very useful
If I remember correctly, they actually had to slightly censor the western release of Yakuza 6 because some random guy in a substory had branded shoes (Nike I believe?) and they couldn't get the license for the western release so they gave him generic shoes instead. I wish I could find the stream that comment was made in but I can't for the life of me find those streams archived on Sega's Twitch and it sucks because there was a lot of insight into both localisation and development of these games.
ESP is the brand of guitars that Jun Senoue uses, the primary composer of Sonic since like Adventure 1
I yearn for the day he makes a track for Yakuza
Yep, and the guitar you see in the image is the signature guitar of Akira Tokasaki, the guitarist of the 80s metal band Loudness.
@@michaelhall736 that's sick
i love ESP guitars!
7:02 Poppo is also the Japanese name for Pidgey, the sparrow Pokemon.
I occasionally buy a few cases of BOSS Coffee every once in a while since they’re fairly uncommon to come by where I’m from, save for the odd Asian market. They’re extraordinarily convenient when you need to pound something in a pinch, and taste pretty good too. The rainbow blend is my personal favorite.
0:27 so much WHAT?!!!?!
more
It isn't Yakuza that becomes more real with the brands. It's the World that becomes more Yakuza with it.
I went to Japan last month and it was truly embarrassing how many things I saw and went "I know of that from the Yakuza games!" so I guess the product placement works? I'm impressed by the dedication to the research, well done.
A lot of people do credit the games for their visit to Japan. :) It certainly was for me - I went to Osaka for the first time in Dotonbori, playing "Unrest" in my earphones as I walk around. :D
A thing I find funny is that there's been a Beef Bowl cold war of sorts throughout this series.
Because they created the fake Ashikimaru brand beef bowl shop just to have a place, and then, in what I think was Yakuza 4 (IIRC) they actually got the license for Matsuya, before losing that license (I assume due to that curry powered superhero substory kind of relying on Matsuya for his "powers") and then eventually getting the license for Yoshinoya (the oldest chain in Japan) in the most recent games (which to some degree is an international brand, as there were a bunch on the west coast of the US for years too). The next biggest beef bowl brand is Sukiya, and amongst Japanese foodies, the debate between these top 3 brands: Matsuya, Sukiya, and Yoshinoya, is essentially never ending, and seems very similar from what I can tell, between how Americans treat our burger chains, endless debating between McDonalds, Burger King, Carl's Jir, Rally's etc.
Which means essentially that RGG has gotten 2 out of the 3 big chains, but has never gotten them simultaneously, which would be the most accurate to real life, and instead you see the Beef Bowl dominance of Japan constantly go back and forth throughout this series, changing hands from game to game, as if the 3 brands are engaged in a long fought war with each other, gaining or losing territory as their fortune change with the years.
What's really funny to me though, is that the same logic was never applied to Poppo, which is their 7-11 stand in. Because I'm sure they could have gotten an actual 7-11 tie-in or maybe Lawson's which is a competitor of theirs, but they've actually been loyal to their fake brand for 20 years now. Meaning that the RGG team seems to assign a different sense of importance to their in-game convenience stores and their in-game beef bowl shops . . . and I have NO idea what the distinction is between these two things is, internally.
they should just get persona4 beef bowl instead, it looks sweet
Speaking of the convenience stores. One thing I found interesting is the disappearance of M-Store after Y5. It was said to be a national convenience chain, appearing outside of Kamurocho in Y2, Y3 and Y5. Yakuza 6 even interestingly had an abandoned supermarket with full enterable interior in Nakamichi Alley, the same place the old games had a Poppo in, which is entirely unused in the story or substories. In Judgment it was used as a Mahjong Parlor for that real TV personality woman.
We give RGG a lot of shit for reusing stuff, but the subtle differences between the same maps throughout the series paint a story for themselves. Regardless of the reasons (like the beef bowl restaurants moving and replacing each other due to licensing), the cities feel alive, both always and never changing.
2:35 they own WHAT whiskey?!
Basketball people whiskey
I'm American, we have Asahi branded drinks. Yes it does make me feel like I'm back in Japan.
We have lots of those brand here in Thailand too , from Don Quijote , Sekai no Yamachan Isakaya , Osaka Oshou , Boss Coffee , and yes especially those Suntory Tea .
also iirc Donki have been rebranding in Japan last year .
the acecook substory from yakuza 3 makes a lot more sense now
Pronounced “Asu cock” on the tv adverts.
I feel like what gives most Diet/Zero pepsi their flavor is the citric acid, which is absent from the Japanese version. That version also has phosphoric acid absent as an ingredient. The lemon zero and regular one are the only 2 JP Pepsis that redeem it. I started to notice that about the flavor of the Japanese sugar-free Pepsi variant.
Miku and the main vocaloids (Rin//Len, Meiko, Luka, and Kaito) are owned by Crypton Media. Sega just holds licenses to make games with them, which could explain the lack of Sega branding on the figurine boxes.
A bit of an aside, we do have one Lawson store here, but if you're looking for dry goods available in the Japan/Asia ones, be prepared to be disappointed. Ironically, the 7-11s have some of the snacks from the Japanese ones.
I was surprised to see Gyu Kaku because I'd known about it BEFORE playing Yakuza, I live fairly close to one. Still have yet to try it but it was fun finding one in-game
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A fair amount of the brands here can be found very easily in Texas, specifically Houston.. the Japanese domestic and business presence is huge there.
As someone who loves yakuza
Being able to not only go to yoshinoya and drink a CC Lemon while here in Japan has been awesome.
And being able to smoke seven stars like Yagami is forever my favorite
Thanks for putting all this together! Must’ve been a ton of work!
I appreciate the smt music in this bro
Crazy that anytime fitness is in Yakuza, considering that’s the gym i go to irl
One of my favorites is the fact they couldn't get the copyright for the Ala Moana shopping mall, so they went with Anaconda instead. They kept the same green-blue colors and font for the name, and the logo is really well done to mimic Ala Moana while including the snake motif.
My theory is because a certain main story arc is featured in Anaconda Center, the devs or Ala Moana did not want to taint the name of the real life mall, so the devs came up with a fake one.
@UNIT0918 That's a fair point, I could see that as a completely valid reasoning. Still one of the better segments and the music in this section bopped.
My guy Tatsuya is REAL?! Hell YES! 2nd best thing of Y5!
Rad video, kyoudai. Thanks!
As Ancient SEGA Lore Say: Their Main Mascot may be a Smiling Blue Hedgehog who wags his finger at you slyly, but if you look Really closely at his eyes you can see the Figure of a Gray Suited Dragon.
7:26 peak ost
Fun fact: If IW took a bit more inspiration from RL waikiki/ala moana area, there would have been a DonQ!
...yes they play the jingle here too please save our souls.
Having a Don Qui in the Honolulu map would have been a great excuse to put some of the Yokohama map brands into that store!
Thanks for making this video. I'm surprised how much more real product placement there is than just pepsi products and beer
Gyu-Kaku also has a few restaurants internationally. I happen to live in a city with one and I have a booking for this Friday, so hopefully I enjoy it!
a new snowiest angeman video... I can finally finish
this is one of my favorite yakuza topics i’m really glad you made a video on it !
watching for Dartslive
14:00 hell yes
I had a moment and a half playing Persona 5 Royal when I went to the "bar" to play darts and recognized it was Dartslive because of the branding and even the sounds
peak virtual tourism 10/10
Yeah DartsLIVE machines are pretty common on the west coast of the US as well. I'm not sure about all of the US or other countries, but I've seen those machines IRL a bunch of times.
the only good thing about having a fucked sleep schedule is getting to see this vid early
To know so many real brands are really in these games are amazing. I was wondering why all of the signage was so high quality. Never felt obtrusive. Also great song selection for the video.
21:58 In case no one else said it, I believe that's dorayaki
I think the "Zenrin" logo thingy on the top right of Infinite Wealth map is a real brand
If it hasn't been mention before in the comments, the explanation between Suntory and Pepsi is that Suntory has the license to distribute Pepsi products within Japan- they do not own Pepsi. This was done as when the deal was made PepsiCo was not able to build a sufficient local entity to compete with Coca-Cola in that market. Additionally PepsiCo owns all the distribution rights of Dr. Pepper-Snapple Group's products(Dr. Pepper, 7-Up) and thus Suntory within Japan while Coca-Cola maintains distribution within the USA only since DPSG does not maintain its own network.
15:57 "Pepper Lunch" to the right is also a real food brand. And very delicious.
I love this and never fully understood the hate against product placements in games and movies.
When i recently played Midnight Club LA for the first time, it was awesome to see all the real brands and advertisements for like T-Mobile Sidekick, Gamestops and 7-Eleven.
I could feel the zeitgeist of that era better than in any other game, and it felt like The Osbournes or Xzibit could behind any corner to film for MTV.
And that MSN Information kiosk in the movie The Island makes me always grin.
But most of all, these adverts allow us, to see how fast the world keeps changing.
Immediate like for that "so much more" joke, well done
Holy shit Top TRICKS and Tips cameo 11:50
I cant find it, but at one point in the video you were covering a random brand or company advertisement, and right next to it was Pepper Lunch. Pepper Lunch (or Peppā-ranchi) is a Japanese steak restaurant and franchise that is popular in Tokyo but is also available outside of Japan. To my knowledge, they are also available in Australia, however its more common where i live. (Singapore)
I remember the first time playing yakuza 0 i was surprised when i saw a 7up at one of the world food markets
I know CC drinks and Calbee potato chips
They sold here in Malaysia 711
It’s so weird but I get so excited with product placement in like a dragon games, especially when it’s something I recognize. Anywhere else and I would groan but the the product placement in Lad games add a sense of realism
Not mentioning Soft On Demand (jav company) that was on Video Booths. C'mon, this is the most recognizable brand outside the the drinks.
You missed a couple. The Jail sign next to the restaurant with the similar logo to like a dragon is probably a reference to Osaka Jail. An SM bar near dotonbori. Also the OPA logo that's in different colors is also a real company.
A single minute playing this game gives you more real companies to look at than the entire FPS genre of games
Did you forget about Carlsberg? They’re in Don Quihote stores in Yakuza 0
Because of Yakuza, I know what CC Lemon and Boss Coffee are.
I think what really makes it work compared to other product placement is the fact that like you said, there's over 150 brands fighting for your attention.
It's when a single brand or multiple brands owned by one company are focused on constantly and in such a biased fashion that it becomes distracting and almost condecending toward the audience.
RIP to that one Don Quijote store that turned into a police station
Nice video. And I love the song you pick for this video. 🔥😭
15:38 so f ing true been to its restaurant irl and i was the best yakiniku joint i ever had.
I'm still trying to figure out why, when everything else in the Like a Dragon series feels natural, the Rizap side content in Y6 always feels like blatant advertising. Like, I can totally see Kiryu stopping into a bar and ordering a Jack Daniels, or Yagami picking up a can of ZONe on the way back to his office, but every time I see that "before and after" presentation from Rizap I can't stop rolling my eyes.
15:58 you missed Pepper Lunch, that is real restaurant chain that sells beef and rice hotplate, i knew that restaurant but this is the first time i saw the logo in-game :)
I have experience Pepper Lunch it is very good.
@@RexDanielleCariaga yeah, i went there with my family 2 days ago, the food was tasty, and our branch have "buy 3 get 3 free" deal this week, so why not :)
16:52 it's not beef, the pic shown is unagi/eel with rice. they make Kamameshi (jp for "kettle rice")
On the subject of the Sega music references: Some of them get incredibly obscure! Yakuza 4 and 5 have music from Segagaga in them. That was a Japan-Only Dreamcast title where you had to run the Sega company and save them from bankruptcy before the PS2 came out.
The Hatsune Miku figure you can win in Yakuza 5 is also a real figure. The NiGHTS figure is not real, as it uses their design from the Wii game instead of the Saturn original.
Im curious if you plan to do a video on all the characters that appear in the series but are also real people the obvious examples being all thw NJPW wrestlers throughout most modern RGG games
Also as a aussie who doesnt drink coffee or alcohol either i raise my Pepsi MAX to you mate
Aside from the obvious ones like donki and boss, the only billboard I recognized was nico nico douga I thought most of them were made up.
I NEED to taste Pepsi nama
Just saying I’m in the top 0.1% of snowiestangeman viewers this year
That’s pretty based. You know I was actually in the top 0.2% apparently lol
Maruboshi from Yakuza 6 is a real ramen shop - they might still have a poster for Yakuza 6 on the wall. They had great karaage.
All food and drinks are amazing! Ive been to japan and thanks to yakuza series i had the best time
Another brand that I saw unmentioned is M-150, which is an energy drink brand. Its sign appears in Kiwami 2 around the ramen shop alley (most noticeably in the Daigo cutscene in the first chapter). I don't know how it is in Japan, but it's damn popular here in Thailand.
I’ve actually been to dotenbori way back in 2018. This was before I even knew of the yakuza series so my mind was kinda blown when I was playing yakuza 5.
A fun fact about the Phoenix Seagaia Resort is that up until recently it was owned by SEGASAMMY. Meaning they were advertising their own stuff again.
I've been to a Gyu-Kaku before in New York, it is one of my favorite places to dine out at.
The best thing about the product placement in this vs. other games that have done it - it's just not overwhelming in your face to the point where it's hard to ignore. The brands here complement the aesthetic of the urban areas, and unironically help to give it much more realism and liveliness.
Imagine a Yakuza game as we know it, but with completely fake brands everywhere. That would be way too distracting by contrast.
15:56 beside Ikinari Steak is Pepper Lunch, a real restaurant chain that serves food on a hotplate.
I've seen Acecook instant ramen in Asian supermarkets here in the UK, but not much.
18:47 It is exactly as depicted in Yakuza 0 in a way. It's still a disco and dance club
It might be a bit outside the scope of the video, but in the PS3 version of Y5 there's a TON of manga that you could read the first chapters of in convenience stores (albeit untranslated in the NTSC U version) including Attack on Titan right as it was getting super popular.
I wouldn't be surprised if they added AD Council Japan in the next Judgement game.
just wanna add one thing you missed that i know. Pepper Lunch is a real life restaurant too with several international branches. Its available in Australia too according to wikipedia so you could give it a try if you want! (i recommend its pretty good)! I thought you're going to mention it because it showed up when ypu mention Ikinari Steak lol
As well as Wild Jackson.
Loved this video! Very interesting watch!
I was shocked to find out Don Quixote was a real brand.
Funnily enough, I didn't know Ikinari Steak was a real brand until after playing through 0-7 and then Judgment, 'cause you meet the CEO there. And when I showed a bit of the game to my sister, she'd actually known about the chain already and wanted to go to the first branch that opened in my country. We had a good laugh about seeing the statue of the Tuna King outside Sushizanmai, too, 'cause that's one we did get to eat at when we were in Tokyo. This series has been the one time that product placement hasn't felt any kind of obnoxious, and has only made me want to go back to Japan even more.
can't wait for gun brands in the next yakuza games.
i will miss the bootleg makarovs they pull out during cutscenes
26:37 the Stray Sheep sign here might be a reference to the Stray Sheep bar in Catherine which is another sega game
Aloha, I'm from Hawai'i and you missed Tomato Jam from 53 by the Sea and Dean and Deluca café. Hilo Hattie is a real clothing store at Ala Moana (Anaconda) Matsumoto Shave Ice's Ichiban Special is a real menu item IRL. We also have Don Quijote stores and a Suntory restaurant.
Man theyre entangled in a lot of things like a snake or a dragon