The first yakuza The game was released back in 2006, and the branding was last used in the 2020s Yakuza: Like a dragon. Across eight major releases and a number of spin-offs have become synonymous with the name With sharp suits, hour-long cutscenes, and bikes smashed in guys’ faces, but as Sega prepares to welcome a whole new generation of games to the series, it also chooses this moment to say it Farewell to the name.
You may have noticed that the new games announced earlier this week range from historical spin-offs to modern spin-offs and even the ninth entry in the main seriesall had something in common: Sega called them all ‘Like a dragon‘while we still called her’yakuza‘, partly because old habits are hard to break, but also because we know it, too we call her anyway yakuza Games, most of you too (I even refer to the judgement play as yakuza title just because it helps).
I contacted Sega today to clarify this and their response was clear: the yakuza name is no more. For these three games, and for every new title in the upcoming series, they all carry the ‘Like a dragon‘ Branding instead, so I’m told they “adapt more to the Japanese name.”
Japanese gamers will probably be wondering what the big deal is, as the home of the series is home to both the games themselves and the development studio behind them to have always been called Ryuga Gotoku/Ryu ga nyo, which means in English…Like a dragon. So in Japan there is no need for changes, it is only western releases that will carry new branding.
As you can see now Yakuza 7 full title in the west—Yakuza: Like a dragon-was actually a little one chaosbut like the game itself seemed thenit was also the perfect farewell to the old yakuza Name, when slacking off us all in one Like a dragon Future.
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So bye, yakuza, and thanks for all the memories. you must have been smaller faster and funnier to say as Like a dragon.
