The Yakuza games have been only increasing in popularity recently thanks to well-received games like Yakuza: Like a Dragon, and the increasing availability of the series across more platforms. The studio behind the games, Ryu Ga Gotoku, recently held the RGG Summit to reveal multiple new entries in the series that will be released over the next few years. Now, the developer has also talked about its development plans for the future, and how Unreal Engine 5 may fit into them.
Back in 2016, Ryu Ga Gotoku introduced the Dragon Engine, which has powered all the major entries of its games since. These include Yakuza: Like a Dragon, Yakuza 6: The Song of Life, Yakuza Kiwami 2, and both games in the Judgement series. However, in a new interview with IGN, Masayoshi Yokoyama, the executive producer of the franchise, says that he understands it may be time to move on to a new engine. Given that the recently announced Like a Dragon: Ishin is running on Unreal Engine 4, perhaps the studio is already testing the waters for a change.
Yokoyama talks about how the Dragon Engine “is kind of a bit of an old engine.” The studio has continuously updated it over time but there have been no major improvements to it, which means that the studio would need to make a major update going forward.
When asked about the use of Unreal Engine 5, Yokoyama says that the studio is indeed researching its merits.
“We are kind of looking at it and saying, what are the merits of each? What’s the merit of the Dragon Engine? What’s the merit of the Unreal Engine? And when it comes down to it, the Dragon Engine…it’s really perfectly designed to represent a city at night. The nighttime city. Whereas Unreal, it’s better at showing nature and daytime and that sort of feel.”
Yokoyama goes on to discuss how graphics are less worrisome for the studio than the sheer number of platforms that it now has to develop for.
“Making a game that can be on all these platforms and using the chance to share our game with people all around the world is the major challenge that we think we want to face going forward.”
Interestingly, the producer mentions that the studio might want to try “something unique” that relates to the different platforms on which future games will be released. It’s hard to say what this could mean at the moment though. That said, the studio has already confirmed that the series will not be making its way to Nintendo Switch as of right now.
Yakuza fans have a lot to look forward to on the horizon. Like a Dragon: Ishin is a remake of the previously Japan-only samurai spin-off and it will be released next February. Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name is a new Kazuma Kiryu-focused adventure coming out in 2023. Finally, Like a Dragon 8 is the sequel to Yakuza: Like a Dragon, and it will launch in 2024.
