Longtime readers of Push Square will know that we've always championed the Yakuza / Like a Dragon games, but the series has — relatively speaking — exploded in popularity over the last decade or so.
The outstanding Yakuza 0 played a huge part in introducing the franchise to a wider western audience, but even though the property's now bigger than ever, RGG Studio director Masayoshi Yokoyama refuses to let this popularity influence the series' identity.
In a revealing interview with Automaton, Yokoyama plays down the property's fame, saying: "There is definitely an audience familiar with [Like a Dragon], but we still have a long way to go."
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Chief producer Hiroyuki Sakamoto chimes in: "There are core Like a Dragon fans out there forming communities, so we do have a fanbase, but it’s still actually quite small."
"Right now, our priority is simply to firmly establish the Like a Dragon name and RGG Studio logo," Yokoyama continues, suggesting that the developer's always got an eye on the future.
But even if RGG Studio and publisher SEGA continue to grow the franchise overseas, Yokoyama's adamant that the team won't lose sight of what makes the series unique.
"If we really wanted to make a game for overseas audiences, it would obviously be better to make a foreign protagonist and set the story overseas. But if we did that, it wouldn’t be Like a Dragon. There would be no point in us making it," he states.
"Instead, we have to preserve what makes us us, and communicate that to the world. If we’re not doing that, we might as well dissolve the team right now and make a totally different game."
"I think people start making strange things when they misunderstand what their business is supposed to be," Yokoyama concludes.
It's obviously quite a refreshing perspective, but it does make us wonder about Like a Dragon's current trajectory. Yakuza: Like a Dragon took things in a dramatically new direction with its turn-based RPG design, but we could totally see the developer pivoting to something new with future instalments.
How do you view the Like a Dragon games these days? What do you want from the series going forwards? Show off your back tattoos in the comments section below.