137 - Scott Strichart of SEGA of America

Hello and welcome to The SEGA Lounge podcast, sharing interesting conversations with people from all around the SEGA universe. And welcome to the final stretch of the current season of the show. This is actually the first of not two but three episodes we're putting out this week. Yes, there's a third bonus episode coming out soon, but I'll talk about that at the end of the show so stick around for that.

However, before we talk about this week's show, I wanted to mention an event The SEGA Lounge is very proud to be a part of: RadioSEGA's WinterFest. Back in 2014, me and the rest of the RadioSEGA crew put together a community-wide event spanning a whole weekend and invited not only RadioSEGA's in-house show hosts, but people from other fansites, community radio stations and musicians. I've since stepped down as organizer but GreenViper8's been doing a terrific job bringing back WinterFest every year and even expanding on its original idea as is the case with the 2020 edition. This time, shows are spread out through four days, starting on Friday, December 18th at 5pm GMT and going all the way till Monday, December 21st after 10pm GMT. It's going to be lots of fun and there will be loads of prizes to win for those listening in live. Also, The SEGA Lounge will be a part of the festivities with the preview of our season finale on Monday, December 21st from 6pm GMT. As a reminder, the radio version of the show, albeit shorter in interview content, is also the only way to listen to our guest's musical picks. For more information on RadioSEGA's WinterFest 2020, head over to http://radiose.ga/winterfest2020.

This week, I'm thrilled to be joined by Scott Strichart, localization producer of the Yakuza series at SEGA of America. If you listened to our bonus summer episodes, you may remember a talk I had with Scott back in 2018 on another show, which you should definitely go listen to if you want even more detail into his video game experiences. This time, however, it was great to have him on for the full Lounge experience. Listen as he discusses working closely with RGG Studio and the process behind localizing Yakuza: Like a Dragon and much more. We'll also find out if he is indeed worthy of his Twitter bio title of "Patriarch of the Yakuza Localization Family" in another challenge that is not for the faint of heart.

• Follow Scott on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TriggerRedd

My thanks to Scott Strichart for coming on the show and being such a great guest. Really enjoyed recording this one! I would also like to thank the lovely Sarah Wellock of SEGA of Europe and Erin Williams of Forty Seven for their help in setting this up.

And since we're on the subject of Yakuza, I have another bit of news for you: remember that bonus episode I promised earlier? Well, it's about time I posted my review of Yakuza: Like a Dragon, wouldn't you say? As I mentioned during my chat with Scott, it's very hard to review a Yakuza game when you're a fan, because you can easily get sidetracked and waste a lot of time doing side missions and playing minigames. Although, it's not really wasted if you're having fun, right? Anyway, the point is it took me longer than I expected to actually be able to do a proper review of the game, but it's finally time to share my thoughts on the game with everyone. So expect the review to drop as a bonus episode here and on your podcast service of choice during the weekend. I have a lot to talk about, but I'll try to keep it as straightforward as humanly possible.

And as you know, there's only one full episode of the show left. My next and final guest of the season is Tom Campbell, who's putting together an audio documentary series dedicated to Sonic the Hedgehog as a way to celebrate the blue blur's 30th anniversary next year. You'll be able to learn more about Tom and his 'mad radio skillz' on Monday, the 21st, at 6pm GMT during RadioSEGA's WinterFest. Of course, the full episode will be available in podcast form after the preview airs, so sometime on Monday evening GMT. I hope you're looking forward to it!

This episode is sponsored by Podpage: thesegalounge.com/podpage

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