Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio (RGG Studio) has announced not one, not two but three new upcoming Yakuza games, but curiously, the word “Yakuza” is not seen in its English names.
Instead, all the announced games have now adopted Like A Dragon as the series name.
The next mainline game from the series is now Like A Dragon 8 – the logo featuring both the name in English and Japanese.
The upcoming remake of what fans have been calling Yakuza Ishin is officially titled Like A Dragon: Ishin! and the spin-off game featuring Kazuma Kiryu is Like A Dragon: The Man Who Erases His Name, completely embracing the long naming scheme Japanese media tends to do.
A Sega of America, speaking to Digital Trends, has officially confirmed that the series is now known as Like A Dragon.
The series has always been known in Japan as “Ryu Ga Gotoku”, translated in English as “Like A Dragon”. Sega chose to localise the first game in the series as Yakuza.
The previous mainline game wasn’t called Yakuza 7, but rather Yakuza Like A Dragon. In hindsight, it’s likely a choice to ease in English-speaking fans in the west and the rest of the world of the new (original) name.
Even the events within Yakuza Like A Dragon have hinted at this in some ways, as pointed out by Scott Strichart, who was involved with localising RGG Studios’ games up to Lost Judgment. One of the chapters is called The End Of Yakuza. As the chapter name alluded, calling the series Yakuza after this won’t make much sense.
It’s an interesting move to see Sega changing the franchise name this far in. Some established game series remain to have different names in Japan and for the rest of the world. Capcom, for example, has a few of these like Biohazard (Resident Evil) and Rockman (Mega Man).
Source: Digital Trends via The Tojo Dojo