Like a Dragon Collection Producer Says Devs At all times Supposed for Kiryu to Return

Because the reveal of Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, many veteran followers of the collection have been perplexed by the choice to deliver again long-time collection protagonist Kazuma Kiryu as a twin protagonist. Nonetheless, Like a Dragon collection producer Hiroyuki Sakamoto claims that Kiryu’s return has been within the playing cards for an extended, very long time.

First, some context. Be warned: beneath the video, we have included spoilers for the ending of Yakuza 6: Music of Life, and the late-game of Yakuza: Like a Dragon.

On the finish of Yakuza 6: Music of Life, Kiryu fakes his personal loss of life to guard these closest to him, successfully ending his profession as a member and/or pawn of the yakuza. Nonetheless, he made a short return in Yakuza: Like a Dragon in a dramatic section the place he battles protagonist Kasuga Ichiban. The late-game struggle is extremely troublesome, and was seen by many gamers as symbolizing Kiryu passing the torch of being “the dragon” from himself to Ichiban – a real closing farewell for Kiryu of types.

With that context, it is smart why followers have been so stunned to search out out that Kiryu would return in full in not simply the eighth collection installment, but additionally in an upcoming spinoff entitled Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Identify. Nonetheless, once we spoke to Sakamoto at gamescom 2023, he indicated that the plan had all the time been for Kiryu to return, even way back to the event of Music of Life.

After we mentioned goodbye to [Kazuma Kiryu], we have been nonetheless planning to have him seem as a double protagonist for [Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth]

“After we mentioned goodbye to [Kazuma Kiryu], we have been nonetheless planning to have him seem as a double protagonist for [Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth]. So, this has been type of a very long time one thing that we have been fascinated by. So, additionally in [Yakuza: Like a Dragon], Kazuma type of appeared as a form of backup character, and lots of people who performed [Yakuza: Like a Dragon] however weren’t conversant in the earlier video games within the collection are in all probability nonetheless questioning, ‘Who is that this character and what’s his position?’ inside the collection.

“So, [Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name] was type of invented as a derivative, a Gaiden, however what we actually needed to do with it was speak about what kind of life Kazuma had from the top of [Yakuza 6] to the occasions in [Infinite Wealth]. So, what he was doing within the background and what he was as much as. That is the objective for this entire sport.”

We additionally spoke with Sakamoto about extra particulars from Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Identify, together with some tidbits about his vogue, a brand new battle enviornment known as the Coliseum, and the presence of Ono Michio within the sport. You’ll be able to learn our full Q&A proper right here, and meet up with all the remainder of the information popping out of gamescom with our roundups of day one and Opening Night time Stay. And for extra Like a Dragon Gaiden, take a look at our first preview of the sport proper right here.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Acquired a narrative tip? Ship it to rvalentine@ign.com.