Yakuza 6: The Song of Life is still a few months away, but Sega has a few updates to share and help keep fans up to date.
In an update on the PlayStation Blog, titled “The Secrets to Localizing Yakuza 6: The Song of Life,” Sega’s Scott Strichart detailed some of the challenges that go into localizing a game like Yakuza. Interestingly, he notes that rather than one or two major challenges, localizing Yakuza is marked by multiple smaller challenges “that needed to be recognized early on,” which generally arise from the game being left in its native Japanese.
One of the more interesting issues that was detailed was the minigame involving baby Haruto. As you carry him around the streets of Kamurocho, he’ll occasionally become upset, prompting Kiryu to interact with him to calm him down. In the Japanese version, the UI takes up where the subtitles would normally be and the hints are delivered via voice. However, since an English audience will generally need subtitles and the usual location to place them is already used up, the team had to not only ensure that the hints were displayed somewhere else on screen, but that they didn’t conflict with the UI.
If you want to learn more about what went into the localizing Yakuza 6, then follow the link.
The update wasn’t solely about challenges, however, and Sega took the time to show off a new trailer for Yakuza 6, dubbed “Previously on Yakuza…,” as well as the official cover art for launch edition of the game, which has been officially titled the “Essence of Art Edition.”
Yakuza 6: The Song of Life is set to release on the PlayStation 4 in North America and Europe on March 20.
Check out the “Previously on Yakuza…” trailer below:
