Despite the influx of young and female fans, the Like a Dragon series will keep being about middle-aged guys doing middle-aged guy things, according to devs 

Taking a definitive turn to the RPG genre with its latest two numbered entries, the Like a Dragon series has become a distinctly character-driven experience. Its wordy Party Chats, Table Talks and substories are what inject the Yakuza series and its characters with a distinct flavor – it’s not about youthfulness, treasure chests and heroic declarations, but about ordinary flesh-and-blood humans and their relatable lives and personalities.  

Speaking to AUTOMATON about the series’ unique focus on “middle-aged guy things”, Like a Dragon series director Ryosuke Horii and lead planner Hirotaka Chiba humorously comment, “We are middle-aged guys ourselves… so I guess that’s the kind of target audience we’re going for, probably.” 

However, this is exactly what makes the Yakuza series so compelling, as Horii puts it, “I think that this is precisely one of Like a Dragon’s selling points. In Yakuza: Like a Dragon, everything starts with three unemployed middle-aged guys being like “Let’s go to Hello Work.” They have a different air about them than a group of young heroes would, complaining about back pain and the like. But this “humanity” you feel from their age is what gives the game originality.”

The two creators compare the feeling of playing Yakuza games to “chilling out with older guys in a bar,” as opposed to “going on an exhausting drinking party with young people.” Horii adds that “The characters are flesh-and-blood human beings much like our players are, so their problems are relatable. That’s why it’s easy to really get into the game and feel like you’re listening to conversations between ordinary people. There isn’t any typical “game-like” language like “where is the treasure chest?” 

This approach to the games’ writing can be felt right down to the smallest topics, as Chiba explains, “For example, there’s a conversation where Adachi is conflicted about whether he should drink beer or not because he’s worried about his uric acid level. We’re making the hearty talks of middle-aged dudes our identity, rather than youthfulness.”  

Despite how the Like a Dragon series continues to grow, with more younger and/or female players joining the playerbase, the devs do not intend to change the games’ topics. Commenting on the unexpected influx of female players, Horii says, “We have had a large increase in new fans, including women, which we’re truly happy and grateful for. However, we don’t plan to do anything like deliberately changing conversation topics in order to cater to new fans. That would make us unable to keep talking about things like uric acid levels… (laughs)” 

“There’s a Party Chat (in Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth) where Seonhee and Saeko’s girl talk gets hijacked by Nanba and ends up turning into guy talk. I think situations like this will keep on happening” Chiba adds jokingly. 

At the end of the day, the success of the Like a Dragon games has less to do with being conscious of specific demographics or groups, but more to do with its creators pursuing the ideas they personally find entertaining – and that approach is here to stay. “Our policy as creators has not changed. We are very grateful for the recognition we have received from overseas fans and new, younger players, but we will not change our policy of creating games, which is based on our personal ideas of what’s fun,” Horii concludes.