Fans of Sega's Yakuza series are all-too familiar with the franchise's top notch localizations at this point. While the original PlayStation 2 titles suffered from some vastly altered scripts and PlayStation 3's Yakuza 3 even cut major gameplay modes, thanks to titles like Yakuza Kiwami and the Yakuza Remastered Collection, Sega has gone back and brought these titles up to the high standard that Yakuza 0's excellent localization introduced. One of the best parts of the series in recent history is the embrace of inside-jokes and references to both Sega itself past and gaming as a whole. Now, thanks to a fan, the team has made a somewhat major change to the battle system in the upcoming Yakuza: Like a Dragon.
During the English gameplay reveal for Yakuza: Like a Dragon during IGN's Summer of Gaming event, Twitter user John Ricciardi, who also happens to be the co-founder of video game localization company 8-4, pointed out that the game's battle menu which reads "Skill, More, Guard, Attack," could benefit from changing the "More" command to either "Etc." or "Extra," essentially spelling out "SEGA".
It seems like Sega's localization team agreed with Ricciardi as earlier this week the newest behind the scenes trailer showcasing the game's dub showcased the newest version of the game's user interface, which now includes the "Etc." tab instead of "More." Kotaku has also claimed that upon reaching out to Sega for clarification, a representative confirmed that Ricciardi's Tweet was the inspiration behind the UI change.
Kotaku later reached out to Ricciardi, who responded "I‘m just glad they liked the idea enough to try and work it in", claiming "I know what it’s like to make last-minute requests of dev teams—sometimes it goes well and sometimes it doesn’t, but when you have a [localization] team that genuinely cares about a game and a developer that’s gracious enough to listen (especially so late in the dev cycle), good things are bound to happen. I love Sega and I love the Yakuza series, so on a personal level, I’m just stoked to have been able to leave a tiny mark on the game."
Given Sega's dedication to not only listening to its western video game localization team peers and its fans, it makes the wait for Yakuza: Like a Dragon all the more exciting wondering what other fan suggestions could have made it into the game. Yakuza: Like a Dragon marks a major departure for the franchise, acting as a soft-reboot while introducing a brand new cast of characters, new locations, new JRPG style combat system and more, making it a perfect jumping on point for newcomers to the series. The game also includes an English dub and takes advantage of Smart Delivery on Xbox Series X.
Yakuza: Like a Dragon will release on November 13th 2020 for PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Xbox Series X. A PlayStation 5 version will be released sometime later.
Source: Kotaku