#so what it means when the translation is suddenly insisting on ichiban instead of kasuga i don’t know

[fabiansociety]

one of the best things about like a dragon 7 so far is how much of a loser kasuga is. the yakuza series EXCELS at losers, but it’s had a tendency to treat its yakuza characters as actually cool, which has made them sometimes flat (kiryu in yakuza 4, say) and sometimes violently at odds with the actual narrative (kiryu in yakuza 6). having a yakuza main character who is an enthusiastic dork who won’t shut up about dragon quest and who is textually a smelly dingus with bad hair just gives the game so much more room tonally.

shinada told me so much more about living alongside yakuza culture in one section than half a dozen games of kiryu wrecking face managed. kasuga is a nice mixture of civilian and insider in a way the series hasn’t done before—the closest were tanimura in yakuza 4 and yagami in judgment, but they had unique protections as legal officials. but kasuga is OUT in a way kiryu never was.