Trivia / Yakuza: Like a Dragon

Like a Dragon | Main Page
Yakuza series
Yakuza | Yakuza 2 | Yakuza 3 | Yakuza 4 | Yakuza 5 | Yakuza 0 | Yakuza 6
Like a Dragon series
Yakuza: Like a Dragon | Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name | Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth
Judgment series
Judgment | Lost Judgment
Other Spin-Offs
Ryū ga Gotoku Kenzan! | Yakuza: Dead Souls | Like a Dragon: Ishin! | Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise

---

• Acting for Two:
  • Kosuke Toriumi and Will Yun Lee voices both Masato Arakawa and Ryo Aoki in Japanese and English respectively. It turns out to be Significant Double Casting as both characters are the same person.
  • Sumire Uesaka and Elizabeth Maxwell voices both the Mukoda twins Nanoha and Saeko in Japanese and English, respectively.
  • Erika Harlacher voices both Masato's girlfriend Yumeno and the vocational school receptionist Manae.
  • SungWon Cho voices both Mitsuo Yasumura and the circus ringleader Yasuda.
  • Zach Aguilar voices both Sota Kume and Masumi Arakawa in his childhood.
  • Johnny Yong Bosch pulls triple duty as Young Masumi Arakawa, Chau Ka Long, and Ikari from the Ounabara-related sidestories.
• All-Star Cast: Besides the actresses mentioned in As Herself below, there's also quite a few big names in the cast, such as Kiichi Nakai, Kosuke Toriumi, Sumire Uesaka, Show Hayami, Hana Takeda, and Shinichi Tsutsumi, to name a few. On the other side of the coin, the English dub has a diverse casting pool of anime dub (e.g., Kaiji Tang, Elizabeth Maxwell, Greg Chun, Robbie Daymond, and Eden Riegel among a few others), western animation (such as John Eric Bentley, Rino Romano, Bill Farmer, and Brian Bloom), and even live-action actors such as George Takei and Will Yun Lee.
• As Herself: Eri Kamataki, Iroha Yanagi, Sumire Sawa, Manae Miyakoshi, and Ririka, as the Top 5 finalists in an open audition for the last party member of The Heroes of Tomorrow, all get to portray a fictionalized version of themselves in this game. Eri, being the grand winner, gets the extra honor of being an Optional Party Member.
• The Cast Showoff: Greg Chun gets to show off his singing skills in the karaoke segments when Nanba gets to sing, and even gets the first English-language version of Yakuza karaoke classic "Bakamitai" for good measure. Elizabeth Maxwell and Robbie Daymond also get to sing their characters' specific karaoke songs..
• Celebrity Voice Actor:
  • George Takei, best known for his role as Sulu in Star Trek: The Original Series and for his popular social media accounts, voices Masumi Arakawa in the English dub.
  • Will Yun Lee, mostly known for his role as Wei Shen in Sleeping Dogs (2012), voices Masato Arakawa in the English dub.
• Contest Winner Cameo: Eri Kamataki's role as an Optional Party Member was due to her winning an open audition for the part of a party member. The four runner-ups (Iroha Yanagi, Manae Miyakoshi, Sumire Sawa, Ririka) were given roles as minor NPCs.
• Directed by Cast Member: Valerie Arem, in addition to voicing Hamako, is also one of the casting directors and production coordinators for the English dub.
• Dummied Out: Despite saying that he doesn't enjoy singing, there are voice clips of Joon-gi Han singing karaoke and the other party members cheering for him within the game's files.
• Dueling Games:
  • For a while it was so with Cyberpunk 2077, both being open world RPGs with Celebrity Voice Actors released around the same time (at least in Western territories). However, with Cyberpunk 2077 being delayed, this is no longer the case.
  • It ended up being such with Sakuna Of Rice And Ruin, both being rather open RPGs with a major part being based around the main character working (whether it be Kasuga's biggest sidequest being his stint as an entrepreneur, or Sakuna's rice farming being her level up system).
• Killer App: For the Xbox Series X|S. With Halo Infinite being delayed after being advertised as the system's marquee title at launch, Like A Dragon was left to pick up the slack due to its timed exclusivity and advertising deal with Microsoft.
• Meme Acknowledgement: The "The Quest Begins" trailer reveals that the English dub includes dubbed karaoke with the "Dame da ne" / "I'm such a mess" verse from "Bakamitai" that became a widespread meme.
• Newbie Boom: Bar none the biggest since Yakuza 0. From the genre shift to a JRPG, the fact that it launched on all available platforms as opposed to being relegated to a PlayStation exclusive, increased marketing courtesy of Microsoft and starring an entirely different cast of characters with a new protagonist at the helm, this game is a better case of History Repeats for Sega.
• Milestone Celebration: Released on the year of the series' 15th anniversary in Japan.
• Playing Against Type:
  • Matthew Mercer as Goro Majima. Yeah, Jotaro Kujo and McCree/Cassidy Matt Mercer. Then again, this wouldn't exactly be his first time... or even his second time.
  • Zach Aguilar as Kume. When you think of him, you're probably thinking either Genos, Koichi, or Male Byleth... all of which are heroic characters. Kume couldn't be any further from these guys, being bar none one of, if not the biggest Hate Sinks in the entire Like a Dragon series since Jingu or Iwami, which is pretty impressive on his part.
• Playing Their Own Twin: Sumire Uesaka plays both of the Mukoda sisters, Saeko and Nanoha, and both are modeled after her. Ditto for Elizabeth Maxwell in the English Dub
• Production Posse: Many of the cast in the English dub have previously worked on Persona 5. Not too surprising given that Atlus is currently owned by Sega.
• Promoted Fanboy: On the Japanese side.
  • Akio Ōtsuka himself admitted to being a fan of the Kiryu saga, and was very interested in being able to lend his voice to a main character.
  • Likewise, Sumire Uesaka is a long-time fan of the franchise, with Yakuza 0 being her favorite installment, and as a result was extremely excited when asked to provide her voice to Saeko.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: Likely due to the licensing deal to feature it having expired, Don Quijote, a staple iconic department store in the Like a Dragon franchise, is not present in this entry.
  • Its location in Kamurocho in the year 2000 is under heavy renovation/reconstruction, while in 2019, it is replaced by a newly-built police station, as part of Ryo Aoki's "Kamurocho 3K Plan" campaign to reduce crime in the city.
  • Its location in Sotenbori on the other hand was vaguely described as an unnamed shopping mall, which the party intended to get supplies from, before the reveal that it is instead occupied by the Sotenbori Tower, which is where you'll likely be doing most of your power leveling in the last third of the game.
• Real Song Theme Tune:
  • "Ichiban Ka", made exclusively for this game, by Shonan No Kaze and Yasutaka Nakata. Plays during the credits after Masato's death.
  • "Ode to Joy", which played in the game's Japanese trailers, as well as during the credits after "Ichiban Ka".
• Referenced by...: In Persona 5 Strikers, the movie theater in Shibuya is playing a movie called Dragon: Like A Yakuza.
• Role Reprise:
  • Voice actors returning from the previous Yakuza games include Hidenari Ugaki as Goro Majima, Rikiya Koyama as Taiga Saejima, Shunsuke Sakuya as Osamu Kashiwagi, and Takaya Kuroda as Kazuma Kiryu among a few others.
  • In the English dub, Bill Farmer reprises the role of Date and Darryl Kurylo is back as Kiryu, fourteen years since the last time either of them voiced those characters.
• Screwed by the Lawyers: The localisation team originally wanted to name Daigo Dojima's Poundmates summon "Guns of the Patriarchs", but was told they couldn't use it at the last second. In the final game the attack is called the less obvious "Guns of the Forefathers".
• Time-Shifted Actor: Masumi Arakawa is voiced by George Takei in his middle and old age, Johnny Yong Bosch as a young man and Zach Aguilar during his childhood.
• The Other Darrin:
  • In the English dub, Matthew Mercer replaces Mark Hamill as Majima.
  • With the Survive bar owner hinted to be Kashiwagi, David Hayter also most likely replaces John DiMaggio as such.
  • Isaac C. Singleton Jr. is only credited for additional voices, but it's most likely him who replaces Gary Anthony Williams as Gary "Buster" Holmes.
  • Since the next game confirms Lau Ka Long and Chau Ka Long are in fact the same person, Johnny Yong Bosch replaces James Horan.
• Underage Casting: Erica Lindbeck lends her voice to Yuki in the English dub. Lindbeck was 28 during the development of the English version, while Yuki is 53.
• Urban Legend of Zelda: Toshihiro Nagoshi previously stated that the game was originally an action game until the positive reception to the April Fool's trailer, which caused the shift to turn-based. However, people not familiar with Nagoshi took his words at face value and spread around what he said. It was later confirmed that Nagoshi was joking, with series lead Masayoshi Yokoyama stating "We decide on those things before we ever start developing the game. It was not a late decision."
• What Could Have Been:
  • Ichiban originally looked much older and more weathered in the April Fool's trailer compared to his appearance in the final game. His afro was also less pronounced than in the final version. This appearance is also used in Ryu Ga Gotoku Online, being taken directly from his beta model.
    • Saeko in the April Fool's trailer was originally named Ayaka, and her outfit had a pattern on it.
  • If Ryu Ga Gotoku Online is any indication, Sawashiro also had a completely different concept compared to the final version. In Online, he's significantly younger (roughly the same age as Ichiban) and has a similar hairstyle to Nishiki, a scar across the left side of his face, and wears a silver suit. This was likely before he would be cast by Shinichi Tsutsumi come the final game.
  • The initial Shin Ryu Ga Gotoku teaser trailer used the same version of the Dragon Engine as Yakuza 6 and Kiwami 2, as well as Judgment before receiving a slight downgrade and change in the overall color filter (as the subtle green filter from Kiwami 2 and Judgment was removed) in the final game, likely to optimize the game to run much smoother on PC and on the ninth generation consoles (Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5.)
  • Among the enemy portraits in the files are several for characters that are fought, but not in their depicted outfits^note Ushio's 2019 look, Adachi in his funeral suit, Joon-gi Han wearing a face mask, and both Kiryu and Tendo in their suits, or are not fought at all^note Commissioner Horinouchi, Masaru Watase, Daigo Dojima, and Tianyou Zhao.
• You Sound Familiar:
  • Kazuhiro Nakaya voiced Akira Nishikiyama in the first Yakuza and Yakuza 0 and Okada Izo in Ishin before he played Ichiban Kasuga in Like a Dragon.
  • Akio Ōtsuka voiced Ryuzo Tamiya in Yakuza 3 before he played Koichi Adachi.
  • Greg Chun and Matthew Mercer previously starred in Judgment as main protagonist Takayuki Yagami and police detective Mitsuru Kuroiwa, respectively, prior to their roles as Yu Nanba and Goro Majima here.
    • Cherami Leigh also voiced Mafuyu Fujii, Yagami's Implied Love Interest, before voicing Ririka here, while JB Blanc portrayed Mitsugu Matsugane before voicing Hoshino, another elderly yakuza patriarch. Kaiji Tang, Andrew Morgado, Ray Chase, Jamieson Price, and SungWon Cho all voiced minor characters in Judgement before gaining more prominent roles this time around.
    • On the Japanese side of things, Miou Tanaka - the voice actor of Yosuke Tendo - previously voiced Kyohei Homura as a replacement for Pierre Taki. He was also the voice of Akinobu Uematsu in Yakuza Kiwami 2 as well.
  • Robbie Daymond had already voiced Kenshiro in RGG Studio's Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise prior to dubbing Zhao here. While not a Sega game, Kaiji Tang also voiced Kenshiro in Fist of the North Star: Ken's Rage.

Miscellaneous

• This is not only the first game in the series to launch simultaneously on all available platforms (PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC), but this is also the first game in the series to launch across two console generations in the West, being available on Xbox Series X|S at launch and on PlayStation 5 on March 2nd, 2021. ^note Yakuza 0 had been released on both the PS3 and PS4 in Japan, but when brought over to the West, only the PS4 version was localized.
• Due to the story events^spoilers  Chapter 12: The End of Yakuza disbanded both the Tojo Clan and the Omi Alliance and the rapid decline of the real life Yakuza, this is the final game localized as Yakuza as further installments will use Like a Dragon name (the translated name of Ryū ga Gotoku), starting with Like a Dragon: Ishin!.

---