TriggerRedd Posts

2018-07-05
TriggerRedd 2695713

Thread: Yakuza Community |OT| No Yakuza here officer

Hey guys. We've pretty much confirmed on our streams that the Yamashita songs didn't make it into the Western version. I know for many of you that's a major letdown, and we absolutely are not deaf to that. I got my first #nosoubounobuy sent my way on Twitter not that long ago, and while it's disheartening, I understand where the sentiment is coming from. So let me do my best to recap what we've said about this across various platforms for you guys, since it seems some of this information got lost to the ether. Note that what I'm telling you here is pretty much all I can say, because discussing licensing, which correlates to a game's profitability, is generally a dicey-ass topic for "the localization" guy. Let's start here, because I think sometimes people do actually get confused by this. Some gaming companies pay popular artists to license their popular songs to put inside their games. This has been happening for years, and while maybe it wasn't the first, Final Fantasy VIII's "Eyes on Me" by Faye Wong was arguably one of the biggest and most impactful games to do it, at least for games made in Japan. But "licensing" is not as simple as "Hey [popular artist], we want your song. Here's 50 bucks." No! It's more like, we want to use your song and release it in our game in Asia, North America, and Europe, we want the right to put it on our soundtrack, release the game digitally, and nowadays, let players record their footage of this song over their gameplay and upload it to their own channels! Oh, and we want to be able to do this for the rest of the game's natural life, and perhaps even when we remaster this game in ten years, we'll need that too. How much? The figure for all that would be astronomical. That's basically a buy-out. At least, for an established, well-known artist. An up-and-coming artist might be more affordable? I couldn't tell you. And bear in mind, the music industry in Japan is not the same as in America. It's different in ways I'm sure I'm not even qualified to speak on. So things start getting left out. Okay, how much for just this region? Okay, we don't need it on our soundtrack. Or, okay, we can't afford to pay you [astronomical fee], but what if we give you a cut of every game we sell? Ah, very good then. Negotiations by professional negotiators and lawyers (not localization dudes) are finalized, contracts are signed, songs are put into games, share blocking is placed over scenes that use said song, digital rights are negotiated (or not), and the issue pops up all over again for remakes and remasters down the line. So that's it, in principle. If I've made it sound easy, I've done it a disservice, because it's not. Very. Ask any Japanese person if they've heard of them, the answer will probably be yes. I've been told he's essentially the Japanese "voice of Christmas." So perhaps a solid equivalent Western, and you don't have to like this, would be Michael Buble. It's important to stress - had you heard his name prior to his appearance in Yakuza 6? And remember, even if you had, I don't want to burst your... bubble... but you are the 1%. Yes. Yes, it's probably cheaper to negotiate a package deal. But there's a wrinkle in that logic. Cheaper does not equal . Like adding fries and a drink, the cost goes UP when you start including more regions. And per above point, does it make sense for regions where nobody has heard of the artist to pay that cost? Is the game going to sell enough to cover that? Questions that go beyond me, obviously. YES, every game. The numbers get ran. And if the numbers are making the game run the risk of being REJECTED in its entirety, well.... Would you rather have a Yakuza game with replaced music, or be in this thread asking why Yakuza stopped coming West? We believe it's the former, but if it's the latter, just let us know by not purchasing the game. That's the surest way to get the point across. I hope we're right, personally, because I love this damn series. The SEGA sound team. Shoji-san did Y0, and I'm actually not sure who did Y6. It just appeared one day. ...Licensing is a little different than us objecting to content and replacing it. But you can see it how you want to see it, I guess. If you go in expecting it not to be, because it can't compare to Yamashita, no. If you give it an honest listen, maybe you'll like it. Our fourth generation PR man, Jacob, IM'ed me one day after sitting down to play and said, dude, the music is so good! And I looked up at his screen, and he was on a scene with replaced music. I said... Oh. That's good to hear. He was new, and didn't know this was even a thing yet. So there you have it. I hope this helps!

Link: https://www.resetera.com/posts/2695713/

Archive.org: https://web.archive.org/web/20180705233244/https://www.resetera.com/threads/yakuza-community-ot-no-yakuza-here-officer.356/page-31

Archive.is (legacy): https://archive.is/NSBsE

2018-07-05
TriggerRedd 2717216

Thread: Yakuza Community |OT| No Yakuza here officer

See, this is why I do my best NOT to post in here, because this is thread to shoot the shit about Yakuza in, and when I show up, I end up hijacking it. As much as I love reading about people being happy with the games, you shouldn't feel like you can't talk shit about them here, or even decisions we make on the loc team because you know I'm reading it and might jump in like a jackass and get all defensive. (I won't do that.) I only chimed in on the music because I felt like that's one area that's needed clearing up for a long time. If you have questions, you can always hit me or Sam on Twitter, or stop by during our streams that we'll resume at some point! BUT, I don't wanna be a jerk and leave the questions hanging, so I'll answer those two and then poof, smoke bomb! Cool? We collate feedback from reviews and those user surveys you can take via the live tiles into a doc that's a pain in the ass to drop what I'm doing and write, but ends up being a great tool for discussion around the game's reception and performance. (In the industry, this is often referred to as a "postmortem.") This doc gets sent up through management and ultimately to the dev team. The topic of stronger women has come up from both reviewers and players before, and it's very evident to us that characters like Miss Tatsu or Kaoru Sayama are well received in the West - so this makes it into our post mortem, and the dev team can do or not do with that as they please. We actually are listening! The whole discussion around the importance of the subtitle coming out of Japan hit us pretty hard. Nagoshi-san talked about that period at the end of "Song of Life." signifying closure on Kiryu's arc, and even though we couldn't use it here (We tried it out, but it just ended up awkward, and nobody even remembered to put it in) we felt like adding the subtitle to the series in the first place carried roughly the same weight. It's not indicative of a trend moving forward or anything, it was more to give Kiryu the sendoff he deserves.

Link: https://www.resetera.com/posts/2717216/

Archive.org: https://web.archive.org/web/20180705233244/https://www.resetera.com/threads/yakuza-community-ot-no-yakuza-here-officer.356/page-31

Archive.is (legacy): https://archive.is/OVgtl

2018-07-05
TriggerRedd 647895

Thread: Yakuza Community |OT| No Yakuza here officer

Eyyyy, just wanted to let you guys know I made it over too. (I do the English for this series if you didn't know.) As a personal policy, I'll do my best to stay out of The Discourseā„¢, but admittedly, sometimes I can't resist stepping in if I feel like it's needed or if doing so will help somebody out. As always, you can find me on Twitter if you have any questions I am both allowed to answer and that fit in 140 characters. (The 280 continues to elude me, thankfully.) And finally, if I've never said it, thanks for being such a great, welcoming community, no matter where you call home. =)

Link: https://www.resetera.com/posts/647895/

Archive.org: https://web.archive.org/web/20180705232938/https://www.resetera.com/threads/yakuza-community-ot-no-yakuza-here-officer.356/page-10

Archive.is (legacy): https://archive.is/NroAF

2018-07-05
TriggerRedd 6930494

Thread: Yakuza 6: The Song of Life |OT| The Real Dad of War

If you've got the stomach for it, try taking a selfie in the area where you find those. ;)

Link: https://www.resetera.com/posts/6930494/

Archive.org: https://web.archive.org/web/20180705215719/https://www.resetera.com/threads/yakuza-6-the-song-of-life-ot-the-real-dad-of-war.36589/page-15

Archive.is (legacy): https://archive.is/NU31s

2018-07-05
TriggerRedd 6842818

Thread: Yakuza 6: The Song of Life |OT| The Real Dad of War

You're never "locked out" unless you're at a point where it's the wrong time of day or the main story has taken all precedence. Assuming you're past the main story baseball game, cruise around by the Navy Apartments (I think) until you run into Chiba.

Link: https://www.resetera.com/posts/6842818/

Archive.org: https://web.archive.org/web/20180705215705/https://www.resetera.com/threads/yakuza-6-the-song-of-life-ot-the-real-dad-of-war.36589/page-3

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