Vortex Gaming

The appearance of Like a Dragon 8 Gaiden was quite confusing from the start. Majima, known as Shimano's Mad Dog, was suddenly selected as the protagonist of a new work and became a pirate.

The Like a Dragon series has always been like that. Humor and cheerful direction that are permissible because it's a game, and the surrounding world that watches it without a care. But it's not just a game full of such comedy. A yakuza who experiences the death of a father figure from the start of the series. And various social phenomena and serious dramas lead the entire work.

Masayoshi Yokoyama, the head of Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio, says that he has no intention of dealing with social issues like a heavy social drama. However, he also says that stories that are devoid of realism are futile, and stories that are too clichéd are boring.

The unrealism and realism of the Like a Dragon series. And the reason why they wanted to convey a single theme with a trilogy of Like a Dragon 7 Gaiden, Like a Dragon 8, and Like a Dragon 8 Gaiden, which starts with the dissolution of the Yakuza and depicts what comes next. We met directly with Masayoshi Yokoyama, producer Hiroyuki Sakamoto, and director Ryosuke Horii of Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio to hear the in-depth story of 'Like a Dragon 8 Gaiden: Pirates in Hawaii'.

Q. It hasn't been a year since Like a Dragon 8 was released. What is the reason for releasing a new work so quickly?

Representative Masayoshi Yokoyama (hereinafter Yokoyama)= First of all, while making Like a Dragon 8, I thought that I had to tell the story that comes out in Like a Dragon 7 Gaiden. I thought that the story of Like a Dragon 8 would not be complete if I didn't tell the story of the part that leads from Like a Dragon 7 to Like a Dragon 8. So I made Like a Dragon 7 Gaiden.

At the same time, isn't there a story about nuclear waste being dumped in Hawaii at the end of Like a Dragon 8? While making the game, I thought that I had to talk about the aftermath. So, in fact, this story was discussed at the company around the time before last year's game show. And after the game show, we started in earnest. This project had already started moving when I was promoting Like a Dragon 8.

It may be a spoiler for Like a Dragon 8, but it is not the protagonist, Ichiban Kasuga, who handles the Yakuza in Hawaii, which leads to the ending of the game's story. In terms of the story, I thought that Dojima Daigo, Saejima Taiga, and Majima Goro, who decided to move again after seeing the message left by Kiryu Kazuma in the Like a Dragon series, would move. Among them, I chose Majima Goro as the person who can lead the direction of the story well.

Q. When you think of Hawaii, you don't usually think of pirates first. I'm curious as to why you decided to make the theme of this work pirates.

Yokoyama= Well, because it suits them? But that's what I was thinking from the beginning. I thought that if Majima went to Hawaii, it wouldn't be normal, so I thought he would become a pirate. Ideas always come out like that. I have a style of executing ideas that come to mind without hesitation.

Q. The theme of this work is pirates, and a ship appeared in the demo, but you couldn't actually control it. However, there was a phrase that said it would be possible to control it, so will there actually be activities that you can do in the sea?

Producer Sakamoto= The demo experienced at TGS was just an excerpt from a very small part of the game, and it was to simply check Majima's battle style. I can't reveal everything here yet, but I plan to reveal more information before the release. I think you can think of the main story as a game where you can fully enjoy pirates and the islands of the South Seas.

Q. In this work, Hawaii, the largest map in the series, is the background, and the sea is also included. The map seems to be very large, but can you give us a hint about the map size or activities in the sea?

Producer Sakamoto= I think I have to say that you should wait for future information to be released. However, rather than just creating a large map, we considered the balance so that you can enjoy all the elements of the game within a map of an appropriate size as a side story. Please wait a little longer for more details.

Q. Majima is a very popular character. He was popular in the past, and I thought that a work with Majima as the main character would come out again after Like a Dragon Zero. However, it took a long time for him to become the next protagonist, but was there any movement within the development team to develop a work with Majima as the protagonist?

Yokoyama= I never thought of making Majima the main character. As I have often said before, Majima is the most attractive character from an objective point of view. So he is not suitable as the main character.

The protagonist of the game must be a character who emotionally matches the player, so there are many characters with neutral personalities. But I think the reason why Majima is cool is because he does things that players can't think of. The reason why Majima could be the main character in Like a Dragon Zero was because it was possible to depict Majima's personality formation at the time, that is, the appearance of Majima before he became who he is now.

However, in this Like a Dragon 8 Gaiden, Majima has lost his memory, right? It felt like a story about forgetting the personality of Goro Majima once and getting to know Goro Majima again. That's why I was able to make this side story because it's a story line where other people tell him what kind of person Goro Majima was, and Majima himself remembers it.

Q. When you look at Goro Majima this time, he has returned to an energetic and energetic design, unlike the older and weaker appearance in Like a Dragon 8. Is there a reason why you made Majima look younger?

Yokoyama= I just shaved his beard (laughs). Maybe in Like a Dragon 8, he had a beard all over his cheeks. I didn't modify the modeling either. He just looks more energetic because he trimmed his beard, but he hasn't changed, he's still Goro Majima.

Producer Hiroyuki Sakamoto (hereinafter Sakamoto)= The graphics have also improved, so there may be parts that look better in that regard.

Yokoyama= Majima in Like a Dragon 8 was in the Sea of Japan on a cloudy day with snow, right? It was cold too. It was dark when he appeared in the Millennium Tower at night. So this time, everyone will be seeing Majima's appearance in a place where the sun is shining strongly during the day in the 8th episode timeline for the first time.

Q. You're back to an action-style game. There are two battle styles, Mad Dog and Pirate style, how did you decide on these and how did you want to express them?

Director Ryosuke Horii (hereinafter Horii)= The Mad Dog style is a style that maximizes Majima's characteristics as the name suggests. In the game, we tried to reflect the protagonist Majima's sense of speed, clone ability, and sense of humor when facing enemies as much as possible. The Mad Dog style is based on this, and we re-shot the motion and completely remade it from scratch.

This Mad Dog style depicts actions using bare hands or weapons such as daggers. After thinking about how to express a refreshing feeling of battle that is different from that, we decided to organize the pirate style with a slashing action using a cutlass.

Sakamoto= We have been making action games from the beginning, and this Like a Dragon 8 Gaiden is classified as an action adventure genre. However, we have always tried to develop the protagonist's character, the tempo of operation, and the refreshing action within it. I think the action currently expressed in the game is the most complete of the works made by Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio.

Q. I actually felt that the action had improved significantly. It's a shame that this great action ends with a side story, but will we be able to see this action in the next work?

Yokoyama= It will probably depend on the situation at the time. I worked very hard to create this action, and I think it's the best I've ever made in the series. However, that doesn't mean I have any plans to make the next work based on this (laughs).

However, as an aside, I thought it was a waste to use the Hawaii stage in Like a Dragon 8 for only one episode, but I'm glad I was able to use it again through Like a Dragon 8 Gaiden (laughs).

Q. The combat action is fast-paced, fun, and interesting. However, there may be fans who are not familiar with action, so are there any difficulty adjustments or auxiliary systems so that these fans can also enjoy it?

Horii= I know that there are Like a Dragon fans who are familiar with action, but there are also many who are not. For those fans, the demo also included an 'Action Assist Mode'. If you select that mode, you can enjoy refreshing action with just button mashing without complicated controls.

We are considering various aspects of this in the main story as well, so please enjoy it with peace of mind.

Q. The Like a Dragon series is famous for karaoke. In particular, I know that Director Horii has written more than 50 songs. New songs come out every time a new work is released, but what did you think about differentiating the songs for each work, or what was difficult when writing the lyrics?

Horii= I've never really worried about writing lyrics. I still have over 100 ideas I want to do. Among them, I think about which song users will like the most this time, whether it's fun to put in the game, and whether it goes well with the game. I only worry about choosing songs like this, rather than worrying about a lack of ideas.

There is a new song called 36.5 Degree Sun that you can meet in this demo. I think that the best song of the minimum level has come out so far. The voice actor, Mr. Ugaki, also shed tears of emotion while singing the song during recording. Please look forward to it.

Q. First Summer Uika, who played Akame in Like a Dragon 7 Gaiden, appears as a boy named Noah this time. What is the reason for casting First Summer Uika again in this work?

Yokoyama= To put it simply, it's because she's good at acting. There are two ways to have a character's voice actor in our game: one is to voice an original character, and the other is to appear directly using their own face, etc.

First Summer Uika played the role of Baba with her own face, but this time she is acting as a voice actor. Her acting skills are excellent, and her voice acting as a voice actor is also excellent. So I was able to entrust it to her with peace of mind.

Also, Noah plays the role of Majima's partner in the game. In particular, recently, it is difficult to entrust important roles unless you have a deep understanding of the Dragon series. First Summer Uika not only has the skills as a voice actor, but also plays all the works in the series and deeply understands the game in various senses. That's why I thought she was suitable for the role of Noah.

And First Summer Uika will be doing a special performance at the stage event tomorrow (28th). I think you'll be able to see how genius she is when you see that. We're going to screen the opening movie and recreate the scene as it is, and there will be performances for two days starting tomorrow, so please come and see it.

Q. Many new famous actors have participated in this work. Aoki Munetaka has also participated in Korean films, but what do you consider when casting?

Yokoyama= Oh, come to think of it, he said he appeared... I think he was in a movie with actor Ma Dong-seok. I remembered. But I didn't pay much attention to that.

Speaking of casting, we use actor casting at the presentation as a promotional tool, but to be honest, we don't rely on this part. We are casting the actors who can best play the drama we have created, that is, the story of the game. So I didn't pay much attention to fame or topicality.

For example, Kenji Matsuda is a very famous actor, but he is not topical enough to decorate the front page of a newspaper or magazine when he is cast in our game. But I thought he was the best fit for the role in our game and the actor I wanted to work with the most right now.

However, Aoki Munetaka is a bit different, and he played the role of Majima Goro in the Amazon Prime Like a Dragon drama video. When I was thinking about casting the character of Shigaki, I thought Aoki was good, but I thought, 'This could happen'. I was a little annoyed. Since this is the case, I thought, why not have him appear in our game too.

So I told Amazon to let us announce it on our stage, and they really let us announce it. I am grateful that Amazon readily agreed.

Q. Is there anything you can tell us about the drama in the Like a Dragon series?

Yokoyama= The story is completely different. We use the basic settings of Kiryu's Like a Dragon 1 and many characters from the game appear, but there are also many original characters in the drama version. We created an original story by mixing the events that took place in Kamurocho in 1995 and the story of 2005.

Nevertheless, if I say my impressions, I think, 'This is Like a Dragon'. If I were to go back to the past, lose my memory, and make the game again from the beginning, I think I would like the Amazon drama version of the story more now. There are so many fun elements.

Q. The Like a Dragon series has dealt with very realistic stories and social phenomena, while also incorporating elements that are possible with game allowances. Ichiban Kasuga turns into a hero in the game, and Majima becomes a pirate in this 8th side story, but realistic stories are deeply intertwined within it. I feel that the balance between reality and the game is very good, and I'm curious whether you make the game while considering development philosophies, etc.

Yokoyama= I don't think deeply about philosophical aspects.

I have no intention of making Japanese social problems into a serious social drama. But I think stories that are not realistic are boring. But I also think that stories that are too clichéd are boring. So there are unrealistic elements such as the protagonist acting absurdly like an RPG protagonist or Majima becoming a pirate, but the basic story is based on reality.

I don't think about deep philosophy, but I think our ideas and intuition create a balance between game allowances and reality.

Q. Finally, please give a message to the users.

Horii= I think this work is a work that has made various attempts from a development perspective. There were various challenges, including Majima's new action and jumping, and there were also attempts to express the pirate world, which we had never dealt with before, in our own way. It was also a work that made various challenges within the development team.

As a result, I think a very good work has come out, and I think this work has become a title that broadens the world view and expression of Like a Dragon. I hope you will play it and enjoy it.

Sakamoto= This game is the second title as a side story. This Like a Dragon 8 Gaiden is full of new elements that can be enjoyed because it is not numbered, has a moderately compact scale, and is a side story. I think that those who have played it will enjoy it until the end and have the impression that 'Ah, I really enjoyed playing this game'. I will continue to provide you with a lot of new information in the future. I hope you look forward to it.

Yokoyama= In Like a Dragon 7, we drew the end of the Yakuza with the theme of the large-scale dissolution of the Yakuza, and depicted the beginning of that end. In Like a Dragon 8, the story after the Yakuza is drawn as a hidden theme.

Like a Dragon 8 was the story needed to draw that theme, Like a Dragon 7 Gaiden was needed to draw the 8th episode, and Like a Dragon 8 Gaiden was needed to draw the next story.

In other words, if you think of it as one big flow, the new trilogy that depicts the end and beginning of the Yakuza is Like a Dragon 7 Gaiden, Like a Dragon 8, and Like a Dragon 8 Gaiden.

It may be a little difficult to play all of them, but if there are any works you haven't tried yet, please go back and play them, and you will enjoy Like a Dragon 8 Gaiden even more. Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio worked on these three works with the feeling that they were creating one work, so I hope you will enjoy them.

웹진 인벤강승진 기자
2024-09-27