[UST] Change Of Fortune ~变福~ (Vs. Jun Oda Custom Boss Theme) - Yakuza 0

Описание: De-rusted from Prisoner 1356, we're jumping back in time to 1988 for a bit. Oda is the first boss after Kuze (we'll get to him later), and the most memorable boss fight in the game for me because of the fantastic setting. No other rooftop or building interior fight gives you a view of Kamurocho quite like this fight does. I also think it's incredibly lazy that half the bosses reuse one generic theme, so we're starting with Oda to undo that. [Yakuza 0 spoilers ahead]

As for the title: oh boy. Abi and I brainstormed this one for a while, working backwards from the twist that Oda is actually Chinese and has a bat tattoo, but while trying to not spoil that fact either. Bats (蝠) are seen as as a sign of fortune (福) in China because the two characters are homophones; the characters are pronounced slightly differently, but in hanyu pinyin (the Chinese language equivalent of romaji to Japanese) both are written as simply "fú".

At this point, Abi noted that you can also write bat as 蝙蝠 (biānfú), which has the same pronunciation as 变福 (to become lucky), thus settling on the title Change Of Fortune while including the Chinese translation a la Judgement ~Shinpan~. Using the 变福 characters specifically directly translates to the track's English title, but still has its hidden connection to Oda's bat tattoo if you dig into it. Apparently, these characters also mean the same in Japanese, heavily masking Oda's past, just like he is here.

I think the title of "Change Of Fortune" is perfect for that reason; as well as all of the weight it carries as detailed above, at this moment in the game, Kiryu is now ex-yakuza and about to work for Tachibana Real Estate during Japan's bubble economy. Siding with Tachibana sets forth a fair amount of the game ahead, and ignoring that it's a late prequel, indirectly influences the rest of the series to happen the way it does.

I also learnt during our brainstorming that bats were known in Middle English as Flittermouse, which is an amazing name I'll have to remember.

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Gameplay: devilleon7    • Ryu Ga Gotoku 0 - Boss Battles: 3 - Jun Od...  
Thumbnail by Abi (I only realised we used the same shot of Oda after we finished it, sorry GGalactical)