New RGG Studio interview
An interview with the creators of Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name and Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth. Masayoshi Yokoyama and Hiroyuki Sakamoto talk influences and fandom behavior.
automaton-media.com
Pretty interesting stuff. They dont have multiple teams, only one team
with specific people doing specific tasks (minigames, AI, physics whatever)
for each single game and as soon as they have finished their part, they move on to the next game
where they are going to be responsible for the same thing.
So one big team where a lot of people are jumping between projects.
Like a Dragon 8 (Infinite Wealth) as a project, started before Ishin Remake and Gaiden.
So while working on 8, they simultaneously began and finished the Ishin Remake and then they
worked on Gaiden and 8.
Yokoyama admitted that it can get confusing for the team, for example while recording voices
for Ishin, Gaiden and 8 (they share some of the same cast members)
they sometimes forgot for which game they recorded the lines.
They thought about Gaiden as like a big flashback section in Infinite Wealth
or later as a playable DLC but then they decided that it would be more interesting as a standalone game.
They want to keep releasing games fast and without any delay between the japanese and worldwide version
because they will always use current themes / topics as part of the story
and they are afraid that some of it wont be relevant anymore when theres
too much delay between making the game and releasing the game.
automaton-media:
Nowadays, feedback and fanart from overseas fans is pouring in.
Yokoyama:
Yes, but this is not to say that I am in any way conscious of the overseas market. The staff over at the Sega overseas offices always tell me “Don’t change anything.” For things like adding foreign characters or foreign stages, they tell me not to do it unless it’s absolutely necessary. “Just do things the Yokoyama way, as you have been till now,” I’m told. A lot of people are warning me not to be influenced in weird ways, and I place a high importance on that too.
Sakamoto:
Whatever I’m told by people overseas, I try not to mind too much (laughs).
. Still playing Yakuza 3.
