Cognition Dissemination: Time for Another Historical Yakuza Game

There was always a good chance that Ghost of Tsushima would be a quality game, given the quality of developer Sucker Punch’s first three Sly Cooper games and Infamous titles. With GoT’s 13th-century Japan setting, the key question was whether the Japanese market would warm up to it. Publishers always release AAA games for the worldwide audience thanks to the millions they pour into them, but this was the first such title with a Japanese setting from a western developer.

The Japanese market also has a history of not being as receptive towards western-developed games, though they’re progressively becoming more open minded thanks to the solid advertising efforts over the years. It was always possible that Tsushima would be among them.

Turns out, it was. Famitsu’s opinion was one thing, but GoT has sold well over 200,000 copies at retail alone. Sony hasn’t been able to keep it on shelves since it released, meaning digital sales are likely higher than the average game in Japan. It’s also received high praise from game developers like Yakuza series producer Toshihiro Nagoshi, who said that “to be honest, we [Japan] were beaten.” He thinks it was “a game that should be made in Japan.” Sucker Punch did serious historical research for this project, and understood more about the topic than what he (and likely other Japanese players and developers) would have expected from a western studio.

It’s true that a Japanese company could have developed a game like this. In fact, a Japanese company can develop a game like this. That company could be Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio, the very team responsible for the Yakuza games. They could even localize one of their games within a similar setting for the worldwide audience.

The sales of Ghost of Tsushima and other samurai-themed titles like Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice and Nioh have proven that those who said samurai games didn’t sell in western territories should never have been listened to. This was presumably the logic behind leaving previous historical Yakuza games behind, namely Yakuza Kenzan for PlayStation 3 and Yakuza Ishin for PS3 and PS4. Now that it’s clear Sega understands there was always an audience for these games outside Japan after all, it’s possible at least one of them could come over. But “possible” there cannot be emphasized enough.

The idea of localizing Kenzan previously came up with Yakuza series producer and director Daisuke Sato, who said the game would need the “Kiwami” remake treatment at this point. That makes sense considering Kenzan was released in the early days of the PS3 in 2008, over twelve years ago. Sato feels that it’s archaic by today’s standards, and a remake like those given to the first two Yakuza games (in the form of their Kiwami versions) would be preferable.

Meanwhile, Ishin isn’t as archaic by modern Yakuza standards considering it was released as a cross-generation game between the last and current console generations in 2014… for now, anyway. But it’s been outclassed by several recent and upcoming Yakuza games that haven’t been included in collections in terms of presentation and gameplay. Of these, it would be more expensive but more prudent to advance with the Kenzan remake, to ensure that it wouldn’t look or feel ancient by the time it released. These games have a lot of text and would take time to translate and localize, meaning it might already be too late for Ishin if they haven’t already started on it. (I’ll assume they haven’t.)

Whether RGG Studio has a team capable of taking on a Kenzan remake depends on what they’re working on now. But keep in mind that Sato only said Kenzan would need a Kiwami-style remake if they were to release it, and provided no hints suggesting they were going through with it. Given how quickly the team moves from one game to the next, it’s possible they’ve been working on a brand-new game since Yakuza: Like a Dragon released in Japan in January, and they don’t need a big team to port it to next-generation platforms and PC. It’s also guaranteed that they’re not doing as much as they’d like to currently due to the ongoing (and what feels like perpetual) coronavirus pandemic.

Perhaps the new game they’re working on could be a new samurai-themed title. Note that Kenzan and Ishin were both the first Yakuza games to grace new generation PlayStation platforms in 2008 and 2014 — though, again, the latter was a cross-gen title. If a project like this is in development at the moment, it could also arrive later than expected thanks to the pandemic wrecking schedules everywhere. The studio tends to reveal new titles at or around Tokyo Game Show time between the end of this month and early-to-mid September (Like a Dragon was revealed on August 29th last year), but it’s a question as to whether that will happen this year. If it does, expect any reveal to be virtual, like TGS itself will be.

Samurai games really are back, as I mentioned in a post following E3 2018. There’s a good chance they aren’t leaving, but it would be golden if we could get a Yakuza iteration — any one — outside Japan. Keep hope alive.