Exclusive details, exclusive screens, and an exclusive poster for The Blood of Dawnwalker. Subscribe today! Share Follow Us Share Close Post Tweet Email https://gameinformer.com/feature/2022/11/24/the-future-of-ryu-ga-gotoku-studio Copy Link Follow Us Close Twitter Facebook Instagram Twitch YouTube Feature The Future Of Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio Exclusive access to the leads behind the Like A Dragon series by Blake Hester on Nov 24, 2022 at 10:00 AM Share FacebookPost TwitterTweet EmailEmail CommentComment Introduction It’s September 13, and Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio is just over 24 hours away from revealing its big plans for the future. It’ll be a night of celebrities, game announcements, and an infamous afterparty full of alcohol, confetti, and blaring music. It’ll take over Twitter, and leave more than a few people nursing headaches the following day. But today, instead of focusing on his big night, studio head Masayoshi Yokoyama is sitting in a conference room talking about why he loves the anime Neon Genesis Evangelion. “If you watch a VHS tape enough times, the [plastic tape] inside will start ripping, and then you won’t be able to watch it anymore,” he says. “But if you actually just take tape and tape it back up, it’ll work again. I watched my Evangelion VHS tape and had to repair it three or four times.” Yokoyama is flanked on his left and right by the six heads of Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio (RGG), each leading a different department and discipline. I’m sitting opposite at a long conference table at RGG’s office in Tokyo, Japan. We’re all here to talk about the future but are admittedly side-tracked. We should be talking about the Yakuza series, especially now that it’s more popular globally than ever. We should also be talking about the fact Yokoyama only recently took his title as head of the studio, and some very high-profile departures made that possible. And we will. But before that, Yokoyama wants to talk about his biggest influence. “It’s this manga called Oishinbo,” he says, making the room laugh in surprise. “It’s a manga about food. It’s a food thing. Essentially, for me, the Ryu Ga Gotoku [Yakuza] series is probably like Oishinbo, the Yakuza version. I read it the most as a kid; I would just read it over and over. Every week there’s basically a new, ‘This is how you make food.’ So, probably that, but Yakuza?” There’s confidence in the way the RGG staff speaks. It could be mistaken for cockiness – and perhaps is. But in its defense, especially in the last few years, RGG has the games and sales to back up that confidence. Things might be changing around here, but the team is still laser-focused on its long-running narrative crime series. There’s time to let conversations go off-topic because, as far as the seven leads are concerned, no matter what’s changed or what will change, it’s still business as usual. Even if it isn’t, really. Saving Face Saving Face In October 2021, RGG lost its face. Kind of. It depends on who you ask. Since its inception, Toshihiro Nagoshi – a then-30-year veteran of parent company Sega – had been the recognizable founder and head of RGG. He often spoke for the series and studio in interviews, especially outside of Japan. When people think about the Yakuza series, there’s a good chance they also think of Nagoshi. Despite his age, it didn’t hurt that he was also always ahead of the curve regarding fashion and trends. It was a common sentiment to say he looked like a character from his games. But he left, as did several high-ranking members of RGG’s staff. Nagoshi, Yakuza series producer Daisuke Sato, Judgment producer Kazuki Hosokawa, and half a dozen other Sega and RGG employees left to form Nagoshi Studio, funded by NetEase. In their absence, Yokoyama, with the company since the beginning, and a longtime writer on the Yakuza series, stepped up, now officially serving as RGG studio director and executive producer. Largescale and high-profile departures can often look like trouble for a developer. And in the case of RGG, Nagoshi’s departure came during the height of the Yakuza series’ global popularity – beginning with 2017’s hit Yakuza 0, and reaching a fever-pitch with 2020’s Yakuza: Like A Dragon. It was shocking to see the series’ most recognizable face leaving as soon as it really found its wider audience. But as Yokoyama tells it, it wasn’t such a shock internally. In fact, it was a slow process, and he pushes back on the idea that there was one sole face of RGG. “We never actually really intended or thought that Nagoshi-san was the face of the company,” he admits. “We all thought that we were also coming out and speaking and being part of it as well.” This is true to some degree – especially in Japan; himself, Yakuza series chief director Ryosuke Horii, and Yakuza series chief producer Hiroyuki Sakamoto have given tons of interviews and appeared at events over the years. But still, Nagoshi's name and face is intrinsically tied to RGG's tentpole series moreso than anyone els...