Like A Dragon Gaiden Is Launching Without An English Dub
Like a Dragon Gaiden Kiryu suit
Sega’s Like a Dragon (formerly Yakuza) series has had a bit of a spotty relationship with localization. While many of the games in the series have been dubbed into English, there was a good stretch in the middle where games were left with just a Japanese dub and English subtitles. The next game in the series is seemingly taking a step backwards on its localization — but it won’t be forever.
When Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name launches next month, it will be doing so without an English dub. Players who pick the game up on launch day will be required to play it with Japanese voice acting, while players who grab it later down the line will have the choice between the Japanese and English dubs.
Kiryu’s English voice actor, Yong Yea, pointed out the situation on Twitter, where he noted that the English dub won’t be there at launch. He did, however, also note that the English dub will be available in a post-launch patch for the game, although a release date for that patch is not public information.
Since Like A Dragon: Gaiden is a few weeks away and many may not know about this, thought I should let you know the English dub will not be available on the 11/8 launch date and will release as a post-launch patch (no official date yet). Hope you'll look forward to it! pic.twitter.com/BWJcM5GvNz
— Yong Yea 🐉 Eng Voice of Kiryu (@YongYea) October 15, 2023
Like a Dragon Gaiden is a side story in the Like a Dragon series, set between Yakuza 6 and Yakuza: Like a Dragon with connections to the next main series game, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth. It will show the series’ primary protagonist, Kiryu Kazuma, following the faking of his death, and his rise through the underworld as a secret agent.
It, along with the previously remastered Like a Dragon Ishin, will be one of two Like a Dragon games headed to Xbox Game Pass this year, with Gaiden being available to Game Pass subscribers on its release day — November 9, 2023. Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth has not yet been announced for Game Pass, but all previous Like a Dragon/Yakuza games have come to the service in one way or another, so it’s only logical that one will too.
Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth recently got a January release date, with publisher Sega announcing in late September that the game would be releasing at the tail end of January — just two months after Gaiden. Fans won’t have to wait too long to get a tease at Infinite Wealth though, since Like a Dragon Gaiden will have a bonus demo for the game.
