As you already know,Yakuza: Like a Dragonlaunched on January 16 in Japan. Celebrating the game’s launch, multiple big Japanese outlets (4Gamer,Game Watch,GameSpark) published interviews with Sega’s Toshihiro Nagoshi. We summarized the most important bits of these interviews, most notably how theRPG change wasn’t decided yet when that crazy April Fools video was made. Toshihiro Nagoshi also explained thevarious troubles Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio encountered during the game’s development,seeing it was their first time creating an RPG. Moreover, Toshihiro Nagoshi was also asked what he wishes to do with theYakuzaseries moving ahead.
Toshihiro Nagoshi gave us a rough idea of what will happen to theYakuzaseries in the future. He answered that making the jump to RPG was a big challenge for Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio, and how there are now multiple roads available.
Toshihiro Nagoshi:MakingRyu Ga Gotoku 7into an RPG was a big challenge. For the next game, we can keep going with RPG and make something that surpasses it. We can also go back to action. We could also make a hybrid system mixing action and the new RPG system. All of these are possible scenarios.
Nagoshi also revealed which of these three scenarios he would personally prefer:
Toshihiro Nagoshi:Personally speaking, I want to keep going through the same road, and see what we could improve. For example, making the battle system even more enjoyable, by adding new functionalities related to the terrain and the battles' areas. We could also strenghten the company management mode. Things like that. But for now, I don’t wanna think about all that yet (laughs).
Company management mode is something unlocked early inYakuza: Like a Dragon, where Ichiban needs to save a company by handling negotiations, meetings, satisfy the employees, and the like. Progressing through this mode alsounlocks party member Eri Kamataki.
Seeing this is probably the last time I’ll be writing onYakuza: Like a Dragon,till we have more details regarding its western release date,let’s look back on the game’s journey. Yakuza: Like a Dragonwas first revealed under the tentative nameShin Ryu Ga Gotokuin August 2017, we saw protagonist Ichiban Kasuga for the first time back then.
Later on, Segaorganized from March to August 2019anactress auditionto cast one of the female characters of the game. This auditionwas won by Eri Kamataki.She plays and voices herself in the game, and also handled the acting for another party member, Saeko. However, Saeko is voiced by Sumire Uesaka,who shared some thoughts on the game along with the rest of the main cast.
Next, the game wasfully revealedasRyu Ga Gotoku 7 Hikari to Yami no Yukuein August 2019, along with its turn-based RPG battle system. Toshihiro Nagoshialso mentioned back thenthe series will go back to the usual action battle system if the game doesn’t sell. The western nameYakuza: Like a Dragonwas thenrevealed at Tokyo Game Show 2019in September.
Next up, the game’s promotion machine started, with new details regularly coming out, most notably how the game parodiesMario Kart,Dragon Questand evenFinal FantasyandPokemon.Ademo of the gamealsoreleased on the Japanese PSN.
PS4 exclusiveYakuza: Like a Dragonwill launch sometime in 2020 in the west.
