Ryuu ga Gotoku Kenzan!
A few days ago Sega announced the third installment of the Ryuu ga Gotoku series (????, “Like a Dragon”), “Ryuu ga Gotoku: Kenzan!”, and it is looking pretty damn awesome!
I thought it looked mildly interesting at first (my enthusiasm kept in check by the fact that I haven’t even tried the first two games yet), but seeing the trailer at www.ryu-ga-gotoku.com really got me stoked. Curiously the modern-day Tokyo of the first two games has now been traded for 17th century Edo - at first I was a bit skeptical about the drastic change, but seeing the trailer relieved me of any doubts I may have had about this game. So go check it out already! (but do come back and read the rest of this post, by all means.)
As mentioned, I haven’t played the first two games yet, and that’s something I want to do something about, at some point anyway. Thing is though, that is an undertaking not without its fair share of problems. The reason for that is somewhat complex, but as you may know I’m no stranger to a good rant, so time for a brief history lesson:
The first RgG came out in Japan in late 2005. It was an ambitious action-adventure with shades of Shenmue, set in the underworld of organized crime. It was lauded for its unprecedented accuracy and depth of its representation of the Yakuza culture, and became a huge hit, critically as well as commercially. In a sense, it became the success that the Shenmue games never was. The game was a huge project for Sega, but despite that, as well as its great success, for the longest time there was no word at all on a potential release outside Japan.
However, after a few months had passed, Sega announced that the game was going to be released in the US. Though unfortunately - but hardly unexpectedly - the game was going through a few changes. First of all, the name of the game was changed; in the west the game would be plagued by the painfully generic title “Yakuza”. Worse than that though, Sega proudly announced that a new English voice tracked would be recorded, with talent such as Micheal Madsen and Mark Hamill. It was also announced that due to lack of disc space, the original Japanese audio would have to be omitted in the English-language releases.
“But I was going to the Toshi station to pick up some power converters!”
So 10 months after Ryuu ga Gotoku had made a splash in Japan, us round-eyes were going to be treated by an accurate depiction of the world of Yakuza, as interpreted by Mr. Blonde and Luke Skywalker. Needless to say, I was less than exstatic. Not long after, in the winter of ‘06, RgG 2 came out in Japan, and was as big as the first game, if not moreso. And as of today, there has been no word whatsoever on an English version of the second game being released, since reportedly, “Yakuza” didn’t sell well enough.
I know a lot of people think I’m a snob for it, but in a situation like this where I have to choose between a version I can barely understand, and one butchered by dubbing, I don’t even need to think about it for a second before deciding. I’m vehemently against dubbing in games and movies, not least when the language is an integral part of the story and presentation like it is in this Ryuu ga Gotoku. Playing it in English would be like watching a historically accurate Western movie, only dubbed to Finnish or something. I really want to play these games - not least after having the trailer for the upcoming game make my mouth water in anticipation - but because of YET ANOTHER case of Sega’s brilliant decision making, SCEA’s retarded language policies and the generally stupefying traditions surrounding localization of Japanese games, I can’t. I will definitely try to play these games in Japanese sooner or later, but the situation pisses me off all the same. I’m tired of being shit on by game companies just cause I happened tobe born in Europe, and I absolutely cannot wait to get fluent in Japanese to the point where I won’t have to care about any of this.