A new web commercial for Yakuza Kiwami has hit the internet. It features a tense encounter between the Yakuza (SEGA series, just to be clear) boss man Toshihiro Nagoshi and a Kkangpae, a Korean mafia man. Clocking in at around two minutes, it features Japanese subtitles for the Korean lines. Check it out below.
It’s been a while since we’ve written about it, but a Korean version of Yakuza Kiwami was confirmed quite a long time ago. There is also this Korean version announcement trailer that you may have seen before, too:
Still, what makes the above-linked commercial unique is the fact that it’s a commercial dedicated to Yakuza Kiwami’s Korean release (coming towards the end of May.) We’ve seen advertisements not based in Japanese, but those were posters, billboards, and the like.
Nagoshi and SEGA have previously expressed confidence in releasing SEGA games in Asian territories outside of Japan, and they have some decent numbers to support their resolve. SEGA of Japan has been embracing the idea of releasing some of their “niche” packaged game titles with such examples as the Mandarin release of Phantasy Star NOVA and Shining Resonance.
In the West, localizations of Japanese titles have picked up since 2014, and the Yakuza franchise is no longer in the dark situation that it once languished in. But of course, there remains more to be localized and played!