Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio

Background

Sega CS Research and Development No. 1 (CS1), also known as Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio (originally known as Sega's CS1 Team until the release of Yakuza: Dead Souls) is a Japanese video game research and development division of Sega, founded on July 1, 2004 as New Entertainment R&D, consolidating staff from Toshihiro Nagoshi's previous studio Amusement Vision alongside some staff from Smilebit. In 2008, Sega consolidated the NE team with most of the Sega Sports Design R&D team to form Sega CS1. On August 21, 2011, the team unveiled the RGG Studio name meant for future projects. In 2021, Nagoshi alongside Daisuke Sato left Sega, which led to Masayoshi Yokoyama being named as its CS1 head.

The studio is best known for developing the popular Like A Dragon series (formerly known as the Yakuza series) of games since 2004's Yakuza as well as Binary Domain (the first game to use the RGG Studio name), the Like a Dragon spin-off series Judgment, Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise (a brawler based off the popular manga Fist of the North Star with elements from the Like a Dragon games), and recent Super Monkey Ball games starting with Super Monkey Ball: Touch & Roll

The studio's name is derived from the Like A Dragon series' Japanese name, Ryū ga Gotoku. As of 2022, the RGG Studio name is mainly used for games in the Like A Dragon series, while all other games developed under CS1 are simply credited under the Sega name.

Contents

1st Logo (February 16, 2012-August 8, 2013)	2nd Logo (December 5, 2012-)	3rd Logo (November 9, 2023-)

1st Logo (February 16, 2012-August 8, 2013)

Visuals: There is the black painted Japanese text (龍が如くスタジオ), translating directly to "Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio". "Studio" is in red, with the first character (龍) being larger than the rest.

Technique: A still, digital graphic.

Audio: None.

Availability: Seen on Binary Domain, Kurohyō 2: Ryū ga Gotoku Ashura hen for PlayStation Portable, Ryū ga Gotoku 1&2 HD for PlayStation 3 and Wii U, Yakuza 5 (also shown in the English version), Yakuza 6: The Song of Life, Yakuza 0, Ryū ga Gotoku: Ishin!, Yakuza Kiwami and Yakuza Kiwami 2.

2nd Logo (December 5, 2012-)

Visuals: On a white background, there is a crude-looking black painting square, with a single white kanji inside (龍, translating as "Dragon"). Below, there is the text "RYU GA GOTOKU" (with the first letter of each word being slightly larger), and "STUDIO" in a thinner, spaced-out font.

Trivia: This logo was created to make appeal to the worldwide audience.

Variant: An inverted variant exists, with a white logo on a black background. It may also be seen on the title screen of Ryū ga Gotoku Online.

Technique: A still, digital graphic.

Audio: None.

Availability: Seen on most of the studio's games starting with Ryū ga Gotoku Online and Judgment, and including the remastered versions of Yakuza 3, Yakuza 4 and Yakuza 5. The inverted variant can be seen on Yakuza: Like A Dragon and Like A Dragon Ishin! .

3rd Logo (November 9, 2023-)

Visuals: A blue background with blue and orange lights can be seen and a flame appears leading to the scene transitioning to the camera zooming out from the iconic Ichiban-gai gate in Kamurocho (the series' equivalent of Kabukicho, an entertainment district in Shinjuku) accompanied by still photos of the gate. The photos appear in a film strip style and move upward. Images of characters from various games in the series (The remastered version of Yakuza 3-5, Yakuza 6: The Song of Life and Yakuza: Like A Dragon, then later Like A Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name) appear in the same film strip style moving downwards. More characters flash on the screen ending with the series' original protagonist Kazuma Kiryu (also known in Like A Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name as his codename, Joryu) (voiced by Takaya Kuroda (child counterpart voiced by Kenji Nojima) in Japanese, Darryl Kurylo and Yong Yea in English and Beichen Liu in Chinese) ripping off his jacket and shirt and his dragon irezumi (the Japanese word for "tattoo") is shown. There are black and white splats on the screen which transition to various characters wiping in (the characters are as they appear in Yakuza 6: The Song of Life, Yakuza Kiwami 2 and Yakuza: Like A Dragon- Kiryu, Goro Majima (voiced by Hidenari Ugaki in Japanese, Mark Hamill and Matthew Mercer in English and Liu Yao in Chinese), Taiga Saejima (voiced by Rikiya Koiyama in Japanese, Ron Yuan in English and Shane Feng in Chinese), Shun Akiyama (voiced by Koichi Yamadera in Japanese, Stephen Fu in English and Junhang Fan in Chinese), Koichi Adachi (voiced by Akio Otsuka in Japanese, Andrew Morgado in English and Yuhang Wang in Chinese), Joongi Han (voiced by Yuichi Nakamura in Japanese, Keong Sim in English and Zhang Pai in Chinese), Daigo Dojima (voiced by Satoshi Tokushige in Japanese, Roger Craig Smith and Tim Friedlander in English and Yuxuan Liu in Chinese), Tianyou Zhao (voiced by Nobuhiko Okamoto in Japanese, Robbie Daymond in English and Zhang Pei in Chinese), Saeko Mukoda (voiced by Sumire Uesaka in Japanese, Elizabeth Maxwell in English and Wu Di in Chinese) and Seonhee (voiced by Hana Takeda in Japanese, Fiona Rene in English and Menglu Lang in Chinese)) as the camera zooms out and the new protagonist Ichiban Kasuga (voiced by Kazuhiro Nakaya in Japanese, Kaiji Tang in English and Jason Cao in Chinese) throwing a punch which transitions into a fiery explosion. The same characters and a few others (Yu Nanba (voiced by Ken Yasuda in Japanese, Greg Chun in English and Zhichao Cheng in Chinese), Masaru Watase (voiced by Rintaro Nishi in Japanese and James C. Burns in English) and Ryuji Goda (voiced by Masami Iwasaki)) appear in flames of different colors which end with a transition of Kasuga jumping. The flames rotate on a platform and gradually extinguish in the shape and outline of the inverted version of the 2nd logo (the logo in white on a black background) and as the camera zooms out, the screen flashes with fire to fully form the logo and the flames go out.

Trivia: This was made as the Yakuza series was now being known in the west as the Like A Dragon series, to make it more in-line with the Japanese name of said series: Ryū Ga Gotoku. However, should the player skip it, it then cuts to the logo (in a similar vein to the previous logo). The same goes with the Sega logo, in which the rest of the company's CI sound being heard over the logo, should the player skip it fast enough.

Variants:

September 5, 2022: The characters appearing in the first part of the logo are majorly from the remastered versions of Yakuza 3-5, (Tetsuo Tamashiro (voiced by Unsho Ishizuka), Kiryu, Saejima, Akiyama, Masayoshi Tanimura (voiced by Toshiki Masuda), Joji Kazama (voiced by Tetsuya Watari), Yoshitaka Mine (voiced by Shido Nakamura II (child counterpart voiced by Machiko Kawana)), the hostesses, Haruka Sawamura (voiced by Rie Kugimiya in Japanese, Debi Derryberry and Xanthe Huynh in English and Minglin Geng in Chinese) and Tsuyoshi Kanda (voiced by Hiroyuki Miyasako and Taketora)).
November 9, 2023- present: Characters from Like A Dragon Gaiden: The Man who Erased His Name (Joryu (Kiryu's codename), Yuki Tsuruno (voiced by Yoshiyuki Yamaguchi in Japanese and Eugene Nomura in English), Kosei Shishido (voiced by Yasukaze Motomiya in Japanese and Matt Bushell in English), Homare Nishitani III (voiced by Kim Jaeuck in Japanese and Tyler Yamabe in English) and Akame (voiced by First Summer Uika in Japanese and Holly Chou in English) appear in the first part.

Technique: CGI alongside 2D computer animation. It is animated at 60fps with some footages interpolated at 24fps, but can be lowered to 30fps.

Audio: The opening of Raise Your Shoes by Splasher, but with different vocals.

Audio Variant: A version with the song's original vocals exists.

Availability: Seen in Like A Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased his Name and Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth.

◄	Amusement Vision Smilebit

Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio