#yokoyama masayoshi

[moophinz]

[kkrazy256]

SNOOP DOGG IN PROJECT CENTURY?! (x) (x)

[0nsyu]

Yokoyama’s thoughts on Majima’s true self

[alinktoana]

yokoyama be like

[demifiendrsa]

Amazon Prime Video has announced that it is producing a six-episode live-action series based on SEGA / Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio's Like a Dragon (titled Ryū ga Gotoku in Japan and initially titled Yakuza in the West) game series titled Like a Dragon: Yakuza (Ryū ga Gotoku ~Beyond the Game~ in Japan). The episodes will debut on Amazon Prime Video in over 240 countries and territories in two batches on October 25, 2024 and November 1, 2024.

Overview

■ About

The series is a live-action adaptation with an original story based on SEGA’s global hit game franchise, Yakuza: Like a Dragon. Directed by the critically acclaimed Masaharu Take, the series will feature Ryoma Takeuchi as the lead character, Kazuma Kiryu. Like a Dragon: Yakuza is the latest addition to the Prime membership. Prime members in Japan enjoy savings, convenience, and entertainment, all in a single membership.

Released in 2005 by SEGA, the Yakuza game series was positioned as an entertaining game for adults, which found massive fanfare amongst its target audience. The series depicts the lives of fierce yet passionate gangsters and people living in a huge entertainment district, Kamurocho, a fictional district modeled after the violent Shinjuku ward’s Kabukichō, that acts as the backdrop of the gameplay. Like a Dragon: Yakuza showcases modern Japan and the dramatic stories of these intense characters, such as the legendary Kazuma Kiryu, that games in the past have not been able to explore. The much-loved game has captured the attention and hearts of fans not only in Japan but also internationally and will now be adapted, developed, and streamed worldwide on Prime Video.

In 1995 and 2005, spanning across two time-periods, Like a Dragon: Yakuza, an original crime-suspense-action series, follows the life, childhood friends, and repercussions of the decisions of Kazuma Kiryu, a fearsome and peerless Yakuza warrior with a strong sense of justice, duty, and humanity.

■ Cast and Staff Comments

Ryoma Takeuchi, Kazuma Kiryu Actor

“I am truly honored to be given the opportunity to play the role of Kazuma Kiryu, a beloved character and the game series. I strongly felt that I was willing to put my life on the line. Audience will enjoy the show’s human drama and conflict that unfolds around Kazuma Kiryu. Moreover, please take a look Kiryu’s intense fighting scenes with the Dragon tattoo on his back.”

Masaharu Take, Director

“I have poured out my heart, soul, and the experience that I have garnered over 35 years into Like a Dragon: Yakuza. The unbridled passion, talent, and countless hours of efforts from the entire team have helped bring this spectacular story to life in the form of a riveting series that will be launched this year, the year of the dragon. Please look forward to Kazuma Kiryu, played by Ryoma Takeuchi.”

James Farrell, Head of International Originals, Amazon MGM Studios

“We are thrilled and extremely excited to announce the Amazon Original action-drama Like a Dragon: Yakuza, based on the popular Japanese game series. The unfettered appeal for Japanese content from within Japan and other parts of the world has been growing exponentially. While Prime Video Japan continues to offer a variety of content across genres, adapting an internationally popular game franchise that has such deep resonance and layered characters presents a unique charm and makes for an extremely compelling watch. We are committed to augmenting our content library and are confident that Like a Dragon: Yakuza will strike a chord with audiences all over the world.”

Masayoshi Yokoyama, Producer and Studio Head, Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio

“Since the day I first put pen to paper on the original Yakuza‘s script, I’ve never once thought about revisiting any of my work on the series. It’s because I understand all too well the challenges and hardships that come with remaking a finished title. However, if I were ever sent to the past through some kind of cosmic joke, this is the experience I’d want to create. If I had to go through the wringer anyhow, I’d want to make the most engaging versions of Kamurochō and Kazuma Kiryu I could—and this show has it all. There is no question that Prime Video’s Like a Dragon: Yakuza will become another landmark release for the Like a Dragon series. While the games let you experience their world through the subjective lens, this adaptation will be the ultimately objective way to enjoy the show. I have no doubt that fans of the series will be drawn to how it brings the games to life and adds new surprises. Newcomers, I’m sure will find themselves invested simply in the gritty realism of the show. If anything, I’d love to watch this version alongside audiences all around the world—experiencing all of its intensity and soaking in every single second.”

[loseranthems]

they "retired" and now live together and work at daigo's cute little sotenbori crime syndicate security company. they also go grocery shopping on thursdays with a senior discount. it's actually entirely true and canon, masayoshi yokoyama texted me last night in perfect english for some reason and said so

[satoshi-mochida]

Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii release date moved up to February 21, 2025, ‘Naval Combat’ trailer - Gematsu

Publisher SEGA and developer Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio have moved up Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii from its previously planned February 28, 2025 release date to February 21, 2025. It will be available for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC via Steam, and Microsoft Store.

“This [new release date] is party because development is progressing more smoothly than expected, but we also want to deliver the game to players around the world as soon as possible,” said Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio head Masayoshi Yokoyama in a video message. “With the support of everyone involved at SEGA, both internal and external, we have been able to make this a reality.”

For more information, Xbox Wire has also published an interview with Like a Dragon series chief producer Hiroyuki Sakamoto.

Watch a new trailer and the video message below.

Naval Combat Reveal Trailer

English

Japanese

Release Date Update

English

Japanese

[spitblaze]

I haven't even gotten to do anything yet how is this game already so good

Masayoshi Yokoyama knows how to tell a killer crime story is the thing

[hardcore-gaming-101]

Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name

This article will discuss spoilers for Yakuza 6 Before we talk about Gaiden, we need to establish that Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio went under some changes after the last main game entry. Studio and series founder Toshihiro Nagoshi had a title change in January 2021, and then left a month after Lost Judgment released with series director Daisuke Sato to form a new studio at NetEase. Another big shake-up this would lead to is the main series writer Masayoshi Yokoyama taking the reins of the studio, meaning the guy in charge of scripts and story direction now had a lot more responsibilities. All of that might explain the weird place the modern series has found itself in. Gaiden was announced alongside Infinite Wealth and the Ishin remake, all released within the span of a year. That is, frankly, insane. Hearing that they apparently finished the dev cycle on this one in six months on the tail end of Infinite Wealth‘s development also helps explain a lot about this smaller scale entry for the series. An experiment in creating a more compact Like A Dragon that was somewhere between a Kaito Files style DLC and a full release, Like A Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name is a curious beast that it a bit troubling as a possible blueprint for future smaller releases from RGG, but a surprisingly solid entry in its own right – even if it is still as padded out as most major releases.

Read more...

[everygame]

Yakuza 4 

Developed/Published by: Sega CS1 R&D / Sega Released: 15/03/2011 Completed: 18/12/2024 Completion: Finished the story and all substories (other than the hostess club ones.)

Well, it’s taken me five years to play another game in this series, thanks to a global pandemic meaning my PS3 was in storage miles and miles away from me, and because one of the main roles, Masayoshi Tanimura, was recast for the remastered version, I absolutely refused to play it first (it’s like wanting to play a Lucasarts adventure in EGA. You want to see the original author's intent!)

Anyway, it’s a good thing too, because–as I mentioned the last time I was on the Insert Credit podcast–Yakuza 4 takes ages to install and while it’s installing it’s the only place you hear the vocal version of the main theme, “For Faith” and it absolutely slaps. They literally just play it about ten times in a row, setting a precedent where I play it ten times in a row. I find it hard to believe there will be a better track across the entire series (though I’m excited to find out if there is) because I have to be honest that nothing from 1, 2, or 3 stuck with me.

You should listen to this while reading the rest of the article, right?

Unfortunately, outside of one of the most hype tracks ever, Yakuza 4 is… kind of a mess? It’s not actively the fault of the Yakuza core, which is all there and accounted for, but simply that the game feels like it’s a billion hours long and the narrative is… genuinely nonsensical.

Taking place a year after Yakuza 3, with Kiryu still running an orphanage in Okinawa, the plot hinges on a massacre of 18 yakuza in 1985 in a botched hit on a clan chairman. We play and follow the stories of Shun Akiyama, a loan shark(!), Masayoshi Tanimura, a corrupt cop(!!) and Taiga Saejima, the guy who did the massacre(!!!) gradually unravelling the mystery of what happened and why it connects their lives, before Kiryu has to show up and (ostensibly) pull all the threads together in a humdinger of a climax.

This does not, exactly, go as you might hope. First let me say that one of my absolute favourite thing about the Yakuza games is that it is a rule that you are playing the kindest, nicest person who ever lived, but who will also, at a drop of a hat, beat you within an inch of your life with the nearest piece of roadworks. It reaches absolutely absurd levels here as our loan shark turns out to be giving his money away without even charging interest [“come on man, at least charge inflation”--Investment Ed.] our corrupt cop turns out to be shaking people down to support and protect immigrants who otherwise have no legal recourse, and our mass murderer turns out to (spoilers!) have never killed anyone at all!!!

This “our heroes are the most honorable men to have ever lived” gimmick is especially funny here because if you look a bit deeper it gets a bit confusing. Our loan shark does a surprising amount of funnelling desperate people into sex work as a condition of a loan (sex work is work, but it definitely feels like coercion) our corrupt cop turns a blind eye to some seriously fucked up stuff to get kickbacks, and Saejima… definitely intended to kill those dudes!

The problem ultimately is that compared to the (relatively) straightforward stories of 2 and 3, 4 gets lost in a web of increasingly unbelievable twists even as it should be following a fairly straightforward episodic form. You have never seen any piece of media where this many characters get shot to death and then turn out to never have been shot at all. Indeed my favourite bit in the game might be when a character says “ok I’m going to kill these two people now” before a cliffhanger, only for one of the characters you just thought were shot to show up in basically the next scene and for another character to attempt to explain away why he said that. It doesn’t work.

The game was written by Masayoshi Yokoyama as the other games have been, but I have to wonder if the script was in flux for a long time, or if there was meddling from the top down. Notably, Kiryu feels absolutely inessential to the plot here. His chapter front loads about an hour of cutscenes and he doesn’t really do anything except any substories you choose to do. It’s possible he wasn’t originally planned to be included, but maybe they just liked the idea of the fourth game having four protagonists.

The game generally feels unbalanced–the first character you play, Akiyama, does seem to have the most interesting stuff to do, and he’s the most charming, interesting non-Kiryu protagonist–and I was disappointed in the substories this time around. Maybe it’s just that I’m four games in, but “go to place, beat up guys, go to other place, beat up guys” isn’t that interesting the hundredth time you do it, and the stories generally aren’t interesting enough to make up for it. 

As usual, there are a zillion mini games, but this time round managing hostesses is made as tedious as possible (you have to walk around the club listening to people and constantly dressing your hostesses differently???) and the only other in-depth mode is a martial artist manager that I wasn’t too excited for either.

This is still a Yakuza game, though, and it’s still entertaining! I love strolling Kamurocho and I still enjoyed the fighting even if I didn’t love having four different fighting styles to remember in the climax. The issues really do relate to the story, which constantly undercuts any opportunity to be moving by constantly being confusing or ridiculous. The game actually ends with an intense one-on-one battle for each of the protagonists to a different arrangement of For Faith and it should have made me so hype but for at least three out of four battles I was confused as to why they were happening.

Unfortunately, I’ve heard that Yakuza 5 doesn’t make massively more sense, but hopefully it won’t take another five years to get to it.

Will I ever play it again? Of the Yakuzas I’ve played, this definitely feels like the most inessential to play. 1 and 2 have Kiwami versions (although I believe that 2 has some cuts and visual downgrading in its remaster) and 3 was chopped to ribbons in localisation, whereas this one has everything in the remastered version. So probably not!

Final Thought: Actually, it might take five years to get there, considering I’ve got two PSP exclusive Yakuzas and Yakuza Dead Souls to get through first. There are so many of these!!!

Every Game I’ve Finished 14>24 is OUT NOW! You can pick it up in paperback, kindle, or epub/pdf. You can also support Every Game I’ve Finished on ko-fi! You can pick up digital copies of exp., a zine featuring all-exclusive writing at my shop, or join as a supporter at just $1 a month and get articles like this a week early.

[nexttrickanvils]

Considering how much crap Localizers get, it's nice to see something like this.

(Here's the article link for anyone who wants more details:)

[moophinz]

RGG really is old man yaoi

[koholint]

today's playlist:

Yasuyuki Okamura - Dog Days

Chisa Yokoyama - Natsu ga Kita! Natsu ga Kita!

Kazusa Murai - Steppin' to Love

Akihisa Matsuura - The Wreck of the Lady Binsense

Masayoshi Takanaka - Dancing to Cat Guitar

Izumi Kobayashi - Feeling Free

Umi no Sachi - Chibarayaasai

Mika Uchizato - Hounen Ondo

Kabushikikaisya Okinawa Entertainment Group (?) - Haisai Ojisan

Qujila "Dragon" Orchestra - Coconut

Haruko Momoi - Oyo・ge・na・i -Body Beat Board Version-

Dialogue+ - Meccha Only You

Yosui Inoue - Feminist

Eiichi Ohtaki - Manatsu no Hiru no Yume

Pardon Kimura - Zen

thanks for listening!

[0nsyu]

Four months later, Yokoyama revisits his thoughts on Majima’s true self

[alinktoana]

Towards the 20th anniversary

I think that games are something that can exist in the world or not. But humans are also the only creatures that can love things that are not necessary for living.

If you're going to live, do it while laughing and having fun. If you're going to create games, do it steadily and honestly.

The people who work at our company and studio are serious about creating games and sending them out into the world. We spend a lot of our lives on them.

"Ryu ga Gotoku" started out as a serious prank for adults. Even if it's useless to the world, we want it to be something that will stay in someone's heart. After 20 years since the series began, I feel like we've finally become "something" that can enrich someone's life.

We will continue to create adult pranks more seriously than anyone else through the medium of games.

Silly and beautiful. Ephemeral yet long-lasting. For users all over the world who want to enjoy the wonderful "waste of life".

We hope you will continue to support us, liking and disliking us in a good way. We look forward to your continued support! - Masayoshi Yokoyama

just leaving this google translated version of yokoyama's rgg 20th anniversary message bc 1. i need to write it down on my journal and 2. i dont have the time *right now* to procress how much yakuza means to me, and how much his words resonate with every fiber of my being. but i will lol so im leaving this here in case anyone hasnt had a look yet bc. ty yokoyama lol i had my beef with you but... i think i can forgive you

[todayisafridaynight]

-Masayoshi Yokoyama and the RGG Development Team/Staff

literally every RGG board meeting