LIKE A DRAGON: ISHIN
The Yakuza team belatedly brings its historical classic to the west
Given it has developed eight major games in the Yakuza series, you could be forgiven for assuming that Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio harbours an obsession with Japan’s criminal underworld. While these games could never be mistaken for gritty documentaries – there are far too many spin kicks and rhythm-action disco minigames for that – any player will, from their time slinking around Kamurocho (the series’ approximation of Tokyo’s red-light district, Kabukicho) emerge with a greater understanding of the tone and texture of Japan’s tattooed underbelly.
It’s an assumption Masayoshi Yokoyama, RGG Studio’s director, rejects. “Our studio’s main objective is not to depict Japanese yakuza,” he says. “It is to depict people who are in positions where they are more likely to experience life-or-death situations. This enables us to explore fundamental human emotions and drama.” Crime is not the studio’s primary subject, then. Lust is. “We focus on the people who live in a nightlife district, where lust is more prone to be exposed,” Yokoyama says. It just so happens that lust and crime are often easy bedfellows.
It was for this reason that, in 2006, when considering a setting for spin-off Ryu Ga Gotoku Kenzan, Yokoyama settled on Gion, Kyoto’s red-light district. “At the time, consoles were transitioning from PlayStation 2 to PlayStation 3,” he recalls. “I wanted the team to create a game with a different kind of setting so we could try out new textures and technology, and better understand the characteristics of the hardware.” Gion offered the development team a self-contained “sandbox”, as Yokoyama puts it, well suited to telling a story within useful geographical and technological boundaries.
Less expectedly, Yokoyama and the team chose to set the game not in the contemporary era but in the 19th century, casting players as the historical figure of Miyamoto Musashi, a widely loved swordsman and philosopher. “The game explored what might have happened had Musashi, who is said to have lived a very stoic life, been placed in the largest red-light district in Japan at the time,” Yokoyama explains. A history-breaking taboo to some players, perhaps, but an enjoyable one nonetheless.
When PS3 made way for PS4 in 2014, Yokoyama decided to repeat the trick, returning to Kyoto for a game set in the 1860s, the Bakumatsu era when Japan experienced widespread violence brought on by social inequality. In Like a Dragon: Ishin, you are cast again as a historical figure, Sakamoto Ryoma. A samurai, the real Ryoma advocated for democracy, fought for the abolition of feudalism, and became an influential figure in the establishment of the Empire of Japan.
Just as the previous game sought to create an intriguing juxtaposition by placing a stoic in a salacious setting, so the RGG team took historical liberties with Ishin. “We essentially wanted to have Japan’s most renowned revolutionist acted out with the personality of Yakuza series’ protagonist, Kazuma Kiryu,” says Yokoyama. In the game, Ryoma returns to Kyoto to track down his father’s killer, and clear himself of the murder for which he has been framed. Born just as the old world made way for the new, Ryoma wields both a sword and a revolver, weapons he must use to help restore his honour and kickstart the revolution.
While some studios might have spent time researching their chosen setting, Yokoyama and his team freed themselves from the burden of historical precision. “Our plan was never to reproduce a historically accurate city of Kyo, so we didn’t have trouble creating the setting itself,” he says. “But we did have trouble figuring out aesthetic details related to the character – outfits, hairstyles, and so on. It was frustrating not being able to talk to people from that era, or to experience life at that time first hand.” Yokoyama chose the setting purely because it interested him. “I didn’t consider the challenges or issues we might come across in the process,” he admits. “But we researched what we needed when we needed it, as we started to write out the scenario.”
In spite of its rather indiscriminate approach to authenticity, Ishin earned critical acclaim and was considered an instant classic by many Japanese players. It was a commercial hit too. “At that time we had been receiving a lot of feedback, even within Japan, from people saying they were interested in the Yakuza series but couldn’t quite get themselves to play it because of the criminal subject matter,” Yokoyama says. “With videogames, people often intuitively choose what to play based on the setting. By changing the period and subject matter to a period piece which is deeply rooted in Japan, it became a gateway to get many fresh players to try out the other games in the Yakuza series.”
Despite that success, the game was at first considered too Japanese – even within the context of a series that is uniquely specific to its location – to localise for western audiences. “The Bakumatsu is a difficult time period to understand, even in Japan,” Yokoyama explains. “There were ‘han’, which are like the prefectures we have in the country now, but they were highly independent organisations, and each of these han had their own political philosophies. As such, it is extremely hard to understand everything about the conflicts that arose.”
Even when drafting a story for a Japanese audience, Yokoyama and his team tried to build a scenario that required little historical knowledge, a decision that proved useful when, following the release of Yakuza 0 in 2017, the studio began to consider localising the game for the west. Even if the subtleties of the Bakumatsu era pass foreigners by, the game’s action foundations transcend spoken language. Sakamoto Ryoma has four fundamental interactions available to him: slashing with katanas, fighting barehanded, shooting with guns, and a combination of blade and revolver. Weapons can be powered up, and the remake evolves a mechanic whereby it’s possible to call in the assistance of thirdparty troops, known as subordinates, which apply buffs to Ryoma and debuffs to his foes – a feature unique to Ishin.
For Yokoyama, it is Ishin’s willingness to playfully explore history, combining humour and cartoonish violence with serious themes, that has made it one of the studio’s most popular titles. “In Japan there are numerous novels, films and television dramas that depict Sakamoto Ryoma and the Shinsengumi police force,” he explains. “With such a popular subject, there are inevitably many people researching what is and isn’t historically accurate. In our game, Sakamoto Ryoma and the Shinsegumi meet in the story. Historically speaking, they may never have physically crossed paths, even though they were technically of the same period. Some people were flabbergasted by this decision. But by integrating historical events and making new interpretations, many Sakamoto Ryoma and Shinsengumi fans accepted the game for what it was. That’s part of the game’s enduring power.”
Born as the old world made way for the new, Ryoma wields both a sword and a revolver