After leaving Sega’s Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio in the fall of 2021, Yakuza series lead Toshihiro Nagoshi started a new studio under the NetEase banner. Nagoshi Studio, as it’s aptly called, is apparently drawing inspiration from American filmmaker Quentin Tarantino for its upcoming game.
Speaking to German website 4Players (via VGC), Nagoshi expressed a desire to try something different with his next project. “It will definitely contain violence as a game element,” he said, “but I don’t want to go too much in the direction of thriller or even horror.” Nagoshi is looking to the films of Quentin Tarantino, which combine graphic violence with comedy. “I want my game to be more like a Quentin Tarantino film, so there can be humor. I want a human touch: a bit of silliness and a bit of seriousness.”
If you were to ask a Yakuza fan if the games were already funny, you’d get a lot of affirmative answers. In that sense, Nagoshi is staying in his element with the new game. Upon founding the new studio, he stated that he wants to make games “that offer a high level of human drama.” Perhaps he felt a need to clarify that the new game won’t be self-serious, which could be inferred from that quote. Lots of quips and farcical situations in the Tarantino style would certainly counter that.
It doesn’t sound like we have to wait long to learn more about the game either way. “I’m not the type who can hold something like that back for long,” Nagoshi continued. “You probably won’t have to wait too much longer. I think I will go public with it much sooner than other developers would.” In other words, expect the game to be revealed in the near future.
As for the Yakuza series that Nagoshi left behind, things seem to be in good hands. Yakuza: Like A Dragon was a departure for the series, but the last one under Nagoshi’s lead was still a fun JRPG worth exploring. Since then, we’ve seen off-screen footage of Yakuza 8, showing off a different haircut for protagonist Ichiban Kasuga. It also confirmed the return of two characters: Koichi Adachi and Yu Nanba.
