Last year the game Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth was released to mixed receptions in the West. While the gameplay was more than fine, problems with the English release began early when voice actor Yong Yea was widely mocked and ridiculed for giving a terrible performance as the main character Kiryu.
It wasn’t just the absurdly awful English dub that had upset fans as many focused on the bizarre dialogue choices. And those were largely blamed on Western localizers changing the game from its original Japanese script.
But the problem was actually so much worse than anyone could have imagined…
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Yakuza series director Masayoshi Yokoyama may have accidentally revealed just how ingrained Western localizers have become within the Japanese gaming industry.
Yokoyama basically admitted that while developing Like A Dragon Infinite Wealth, localizers were reviewing the game and having him make adjustments to the script. While certain things like taking out an unintentional derogatory term can make sense what exactly does he mean by ‘Discriminatory Expressions’ or ‘Religious Issues’?
We all know a Cross is like Kryptonite to the woke, so would that also be deemed too offensive and be removed?
His next reply then threw everything onto SEGA’s back by stating that they are the final decision on localization. Yokoyama said this only days after the massive backlash SEGA received following their own promotion of self-censorship and localizations which only seemed to draw even more criticism for his own game as well as SEGA!
Another user even pointed out that one of the many changes localizers had made, seemingly with Yokoyama’s blessing, was trashing the entire country of Japan for liking ‘anime porn’ and ‘panty machines’.
It’s important to note that in Japan it’s generally seen as incredibly disrespectful for someone to speak out against their employer and to not promote the company’s message. This would explain why Yakuza director Yokoyama made this statement and the timing of it.
That said if Yokoyama really was working directly with localizers and they were making changes directly to the Japanese script what would Like A Dragon Infinite Wealth have been like had Yokoyama and SEGA not been influenced?
With SEGA’s recent debacle and the Yakuza series director exposing how ingrained localizers have become the golden days of Japanese games are long gone. And what comes next probably isn’t worth wasting your money on.
What do you think of Yokoyama’s defense of SEGA and localizers and would you give any of them another chance? Leave a comment!
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Don’t be surprised if we get another video game crash. One we haven’t seen since 1983. They let in the Marxist pigs(both writers and localizers).
Marxist Pigs ruin everything.