Sega-Mag:
Hello! Is this your first time in France, your first meeting with French Yakuza fans?Daisuke Sato: Yes, it's the first time ever!
The success of the Yakuza series came quite late, since it really started last year with Yakuza 0 . How do you explain this late success in the West?D.Sato: I think that can be explained in many ways. First, the game Yakuza 0 itself: I think it's the one we did the best, we really managed to condense a lot of things with a lot of quality on this game, and the player's feedback and ratings were excellent, and the reviews were very good. This is a first explanation.
The second explanation is also related to a structural change between Sega and Atlus , which took place a little later. Indeed, until the release of Yakuza 5 , the Yakuza games did not come out right away, and by that I mean the gap between the Japanese release and the Western releases was relatively high, this did not really allow us to put the franchise on good tracks with this lack of momentum and we didn't reach as many people as we would liked. Until in fact, from about Yakuza 5's release, there was a structural change and SEGA moved closer to Atlus and so they benefited from Atlus's communication skills, since Atlus teams that were pretty good at really reaching more fans in the West.
So they did a very good job on the Yakuza series, which helped hyping the games and so people are finally starting to get interested in the West.
Yakuza 0 is my favorite episode personally: I find that the balance in the Yakuza games and especially in Zero, between the seriousness, the drama in the main quest, and the somewhat quirky sidequests is really successful. We gets to be emotionally moved with the story and at the same time we can laugh a lot with the sidequests. For a long time the dialogues of the main quest were the only ones to be voiced and I wanted to know if you read the dialogues of the side quests, if you played the game and if you would have liked to voice the more crazy dialogues from the sidequests ?Takaya Kuroda: Yes, I personally want all the scenes to be voiced, even the scenes of the side quests, and it's true that it's something that has been done gradually, because it's from Yakuza 6 that all the texts have been voiced [They talk to each about Kiwami, they're not sure ^^] . Until now, most of the time, there were a few sentences that were voiced and the rest remained as text, and we had to take the problem head-to-head and decide to voice everything.
And you've never been a little embarrassed by some dialogues, because when I think of Yakuza Zero, for example the dominatrix or Mister Libido, sometimes it's a little daring ... Don't you ask yourself like in Yakuza 6, "Oh, that's a little bit ... too much"?T. Kuroda: Whatever scene is played, let's say I'm really careful to stay in Kazuma Kiryu's mind and not to be out of the character. Even in the more daring scenes like the ones you talked about, I make sure the scenes are played in character, and for example that he is a little embarrassed and he does not go all crazy. But anyway, Kiryu remains a man, he can also find himself in this kind of situation, it's just that I'm going to make sure that he stays himself in these scenes.
For example, in the scenes of the hostess bars, in the same way Kiryu does not consider himself a ladies' man, he is always clumsy and a little shy, he does not dare too much and even when he tries to hit on women, it's important to make the player feel that he is not so sure of himself in those situations.
Just on this subject in an interview , Mr. Masayoshi Yokoyama had said that, in his opinion, Kiryu was still virgin, what do you think?(Laughs) Mr. Sato cuts the translator's sentence and says "virgin" before the word is spoken.
D. Sato: Only he knows the answer (laugh).
T. Kuroda: I asked myself the question, when I was voicing some moments (laughter).
It's hard to say, since he remains a fictional character, but for example, in Yakuza 2 he has a kind of thing with Kaoru Sayama, the policewoman. But the game shows nothing really between them, so we know that something is going on ... But in the end Sayama left without doing anything with Kiryu and nothing has happened. So in fact, it may not be that much of a stretch to think that Kiryu is still virgin!
Ok, but in this case what does he do at the hotel with the hostesses? What do they do ?(Laughter)
D. Sato: What do they do ? it's a mystery ... maybe it's just a massage and he goes home afterwards.
T. Kuroda: Or he talks to them and listen to their problems!
He is a real gentleman then!(Laughter)
I wanted to know if the interpretation of Mr. Kuroda had influenced Kiryu's writing. Since Kiryu's writing has evolved a lot over the series.(Intense reflection) → T.Kuroda: Hum, about my interpretation?
Sato: Not particularly. The character of Kiryu was already defined in a fairly specific way from the beginning of the series and when we chose Mr. Kuroda to do the voicing, we already had a very precise idea of what we needed and the writing really stuck to the image we had of the character. Mr.Kuroda influencing the scripts isn't something that would happen.
During the production of the series, which was still spread over three generations of machines. Was there any elements that you wanted to integrate in one game that had to be pushed back in the next episode for technical reasons or delay?D. Sato: Yes, of course, this is something that happens regularly, firstly because we are always limited by the development schedule and necessarily there are always things that we wanted to integrate and that we could not do it and so we had to postpone them on the next episode. The importance varies depending on the episodes, but for example during the transition from the PS3 to the PS4 we finally managed to remove almost any loading time and everything is done almost in real time , and that's something we wanted for a long time and that became possible only on PS4.
Any your movies inspirations or actors, to help define the characters of the games, the story and the writing of Kiryu?D. Sato: The genesis of the Yakuza series has necessarily been inspired by many things that revolve around the Yakuza world. I do not write the script myself - it's mainly Yokoyama and Nagoshi who are in charge of the scripts - but on the other hand I think that there is a strong image which somewhat inspired them a lot and which inspires us too. The movies with Ken Takakura , which represents a bit of a masculine ideal, at least in the eyes of Japanese men. He is someone who retransmits what a man should be. It is a strong image that influenced us a lot in the creation of the games.
The interesting thing in Yakuza is that Kiryu doesn't changes much and stays true to his values - besides, he's a Yakuza who does very little Yakuza stuff, we do not really know how he gains money and live his life (laughter of guests) . Even his clan loses their values. He has a slightly reactive and at the same time extremely open-minded side. Is that the japan you want the players to see in the games ? The fact that the world moves and doesn't really go in the right direction and that it takes real men to protect those values ?D. Sato: There isn't any will to deliver a message in particular, at least through the actions and the personality of Kazuma Kiryu who evolves in this universe. On the other hand, we still believe firmly that the players who faces various events in their lives can be inspired by Kazuma Kiryu to become better persons ... . Why not ? If at least it can bring something positive to the players that would mean something to us. That our games can change something in the players.
Except for the fights ..?Mr. Sato (he smiles): Of course everything doesn't get resolved by a punch in the face, but let's say that what is important ... I mean in real life it's hard to be as strong as Kiryu: He's someone one who faces many traumatic events with a lot of composure and manage put things into perspective. Many do not do that in the real world. And through video games, this medium that allows precisely to project us into someone you are not yet, and leave some room for personal improvement.
Thank you very much and have a nice stay in France!Fuente:
Reddit
. ![[tadoramo]](/images/smilies/adora.gif "Adorando")
![[carcajad]](/images/smilies/nuevos/risa_ani2.gif "carcajada")
![[babas]](/images/smilies/babas.gif "Babeando")
![[decaio]](/images/smilies/nuevos2/decaido.gif "decaido")
dan ganas de importar la japo si no fuera por el idioma... 