In researching Saejima's necklace from 4, I found some information I thought could be useful to fans. Strap in, this one's a bit of an adventure, as well as a terrifying insight into my research process.
First of all, big thanks to the person who ripped the models and posted them online here: https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/yakuza-4-saejima-07416a2299bc4c48b7ebed5e70153ee7
Otherwise, the necklace would be nothing but a pixel-y blur to my eyes.
This happened because I am making a necklace inspired by Saejima's in 4. I wanted a clean view of the necklace for reference, and did a reverse search to see if it was perhaps based on a real piece of jewelry. I found that, no, it's based on a piece of clipart.
Obviously meant to be a generic "tribal" design, roughly 3d modeled as-is and then sloppily intersected with a donut to attach it to the chain. The upside is we get about the crispest reference for the design as is humanly possible.
But where did this come from? I doubted the modelers would have just grabbed any old bullshit for a main character. The copyright says "Oilshock," so I look them up.
東京原宿·湘南を拠点にするアパレルグラフィックに特化したデザイン会社です。キャラクター·サーフ系·ストリート系·韓国系·坂道系グラフィック制作。数万点に及ぶアーカイブからのライセンス商品の展開、パッケージ·カタログ·WEB·画像·映像·店舗デザインも行っております。
In their own words, "OILSHOCKDESIGNS is a graphic design production company that specializes in apparel and fashion..." A design house of artists that does design graphics for clothes, wallart, stationary, ect, but also have worked on costume design for at least 1 video game: some Tekken Tag Tournament 2 DLC.
Not much else info. Barely any pictures. They mostly make designs for other companies. They did release a design book in 2008 (RGG 4 released in 2010) containing high-res samples of their designs and, an important part of this journey, a CD-ROM of all the art in the book. On the first page, OILSHOCK welcomes the buyer to use the art from the book in their own designs; change and edit them however they like. AKA, a complete open license. Bingo.
If only I could get my hands on a copy. Thank god we live in the future, because Archive.org has this book up online, free to borrow and flip through at my leisure.
127 pages : 19 cm +
There she is: page 50, design #180. The exact origin of a necklace seen in 1 game. I may never know why the hell Kiryu included a necklace in the bag of clothes he gave Saejima, but by god, I now know where the design came from.
I also found a site that licensed the design for expensive temporary tattoos. Fun! : https://www.inkboundtemporarytattoos.com/product-page/tribal-56