Yakuza spin-off Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name was originally planned as a downloadable expansion and only took around six months to develop.
Speaking to Automaton, Like a Dragon Gaiden writer Masayoshi Yokoyama revealed the idea emerged as just an interlude in full sequel Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth (Like a Dragon/Yakuza 8) before spiralling into its own game.
“There isn’t a huge difference between Like a Dragon Gaiden and Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth,” Yokoyama said. “By this I mean that, in a sense, Like a Dragon Gaiden was derived from Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth.
“We could have just told of Kiryu’s past through a 30-minute interlude as part of Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, but we decided it would be a lot more interesting as a game of its own, which is how the project came to be. Though this meant having a whole extra game to make, it still uses the same engine, so we thought, ‘It’s not like we have to make it from scratch,’ and decided to go with it. In the end, it took us about half a year to make it.”
Like a Dragon Gaiden will reveal what former series protagonist Kiryu Kazuma has been up to since the series switched away from him in Yakuza: Like a Dragon (Yakuza 7). Kiryu returns as a dual protagonist in Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth (Yakuza 8), so Gaiden will serve as a side story taking place during but away from the events of Yakuza: Like a Dragon. If that’s not confusing enough, you can read about why developer RGG Studio renamed the series from Yakuza to Like a Dragon alongside its even more complicated naming conventions for Infinite Wealth.
Yokoyama continued: “I’m the one who first went: ‘Let’s make it.’ I said: ‘If you’re going to make an episode about Kiryu’s past, it’s going to be much quicker to make a game about it.’ From there on, we first considered making it as DLC, but then decided it was engaging enough for a physical edition. But, for a physical edition, we needed more content, so we decided to add some. This is how things escalated.”
Like a Dragon Gaiden won’t actually receive a physical edition in the west, just in Japan, but Yokoyama is essentially referring to its release as a full game here (though it will launch on November 9 at $49.99 instead of the standard $69.99).
Tying the two together even further, Like a Dragon Gaiden will also come with a special trial version of the next full release, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, ahead of its launch on January 26. The spin-off won’t launch with an English dubbed version, however, meaning players will have to play with Japanese audio and English subtitles.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.
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