While the West gears up for the English release of Yakuza 5, the next major Yakuza title to be released in Japan is Yakuza Kiwami, a full remake of the first Yakuza game. And this time it won’t just be Japanese Yakuza fans that will get to play the game – Yakuza Kiwami is set to receive Korean and Chinese localizations. The Korean-subtitled version was announced on the Japanese official website for the Yakuza series, and was noticed by KHHSubs. The Mandarin Chinese version was mentioned in this tweet from the Ryu ga Gotoku official Twitter account. This tweet also provides us with our featured image for this writeup. There’s a tall banner for Yakuza Kiwami on the right, and this banner is an advertisement in Taiwan.
Toshihiro Nagoshi has in the past expressed doubts about the sustainability of Yakuza maintaining a Japan-only presence, so this is a logical step. It also seems unsurprising given Phantasy Star Nova and Shining Resonance‘s Chinese localizations. It isn’t as if Sega’s had a strong console presence in China or Korea (especially the former, since laws against games have only recently been relaxed there) though we might attribute that to the relative weakness of console gaming nowadays compared to the past. So what we’re seeing here is Sega should be Sega doing their best to cement a foothold in Asia.
Ideally, what we should also be seeing is greater Western presence for Yakuza games too! Let’s hope that such a path pans out.