I started this site so I’d have somewhere to post the Ryu ga Gotoku 6 translations I was doing, back before the game came out. It’s grown a lot since then! So I’ve tidied up and reorganised things a bit, and added individual categories for each game in the Ryu ga Gotoku franchise that I’ve worked on or am planning to work on.
Note: Shin Ryu ga Gotoku (New Ryu ga Gotoku) was the name used to refer to the new Ryu ga Gotoku series, which would pick up after Kiryu’s story ended in 6, and feature a new protagonist, a low-ranking ex-yakuza called Kasuga Ichiban, described as the opposite of Kiryu in every way. The Shin Ryu ga Gotoku name was used to launch the project in 2017, but has now been dropped, with the new console game being a direct continuation of the numbered series. A prologue [Part 1, Part 2] covered Kasuga’s backstory.
Ryu ga Gotoku 7: Hikari to Yami no Yukue
Previously known as the Shin Ryu ga Gotoku console game, and popularly referred to as “Shin Yakuza” in the west. The English title is now confirmed to be Yakuza: Like a Dragon (though everyone seems to still be calling it “Yakuza 7” for whatever reason). Like Ryu ga Gotoku Online, it focuses on Kasuga Ichiban, but tells a very different story.
The literal meaning of the subtitle is the “the whereabouts of light and darkness”, which of course makes no sense in English. I’m thinking of it as Between Light and Dark for now. It released on January 16 2020. Since localisation has been announced, I didn’t do any guides for the full game, just the demo and pre-release story content.
This free-to-play mobile and PC game was the first game to feature the new protagonist Kasuga Ichiban, and launched in November 2018. It features team-based card battle combat, reflecting the shift in focus from a single strong protagonist who mostly fights alone to a leader supported by a group of friends. It’s almost definitely not going to be localised. You can read my summary of RyuOn’s telling of Kasuga’s story, which is very different from the one told in Ryu ga Gotoku 7, here. Following the conclusion of the first part of Kasuga’s story, we now have a new main story, starring new protagonist Goda Ryuji.
JUDGE EYES: Shinigami no Yuigon
I translate the subtitle as The Death God’s Will. This is Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio’s brand new IP. Though it’s still set in Kamurocho, it seems to be a kind of parallel universe to the Ryu ga Gotoku series. It describes itself as “legal suspense action”. The protagonist Yagami is a disgraced lawyer who now works as a private detective. Localised as Judgment. I didn’t do any guides for it, but I translated some of the advance information.
Translates as Like the North Star, I guess. (Though it turns out the title of the localised English version is Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise. Don’t ask me why, I have no idea where that comes from!) I’m not familiar with the manga or anime that it’s based on, so I probably translated some names/moves etc differently from how you might be used to if you know Hokuto no Ken/Fist of the North Star. There’s a Japanese wiki for this game here: http://dswiipspwikips3.jp/hokuto-ga-gotoku/, google translating that might be helpful too.
My guides for Kiwami 2 focused on translating what was new in the Kiwami version, including a summary of the new Majima story section. ThePatrick’s original Yakuza 2 walkthrough on GameFAQs covered everything necessary for following the main story. There’s also a Japanese wiki here, which is helpful when google translated: http://dswiipspwikips3.jp/yakuza-kiwami2/
Where it all started. Please bear in mind that these were my very first attempts at translation, with very basic (at the time) Japanese!
Dojima's Dragon Girl