Like a Dragon’s switch to the Dragon Engine was a big part of the series graphical evolution, devs say
Sega’s Like a Dragon series gets more visually impressive and detailed with each entry. The latest title in the series, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, not only breathed even more life and realism into its characters and Japanese locations but also headed abroad for the first time, taking the story to Hawaii. One of the important changes that have helped make all the bustling nightlife areas, animated signs and vibrant sunsets possible, is the series’ switch to the Dragon Engine.
We recently sat down with Infinite Wealth’s art director Nobuaki Mitake and lead designer Michihiko Hatoyama to find out more about how the introduction of the Dragon Engine allowed Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio to push the series further (check out the full interview).
The Dragon Engine is RGG Studio’s in-house proprietary game engine that has been used for every Like a Dragon game since Yakuza 6. The series’ increasingly lifelike graphics are a result of the team’s extensive research and accumulated skill, but they also say that the switch to the Dragon Engine made a big impact. “Many things evolved with that change.” explains Mitake. “For example, we added animation to the street signs and made the electric decorations more realistic.” At the same time, improvements in anti-aliasing reduced jaggedness (screen jitter) made Like a Dragon’s locations look visually smoother.
For Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, the team used instancing to clone 3D models allowing them to add more people to the streets without using up too much processing power. This helped make the locations feel realistically busy.
Aside from the Dragon Engine allowing the team to make the Like a Dragon series’ locations more vibrant than in previous games, a lot of the impressive realism on show is thanks to the team’s commitment to conducting extremely detailed research. For example, Hatoyama mentions being very particular about getting the lighting just right. Even if you make the perfect background “it’s all ruined if you have bad lighting!” he states. Hatoyama describes going so far as to measure the lux of every streetlamp in Tokyo’s nightlife area of Kabukicho to make sure that the in-game equivalent (Kamurocho) has just the right lighting.
RGG Studio’s has also gone to great lengths to get other details correct- everything from Saeko Mukoda’s skin to Ichiban Kasuga turning a doornob.
Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is available for the PC (Steam), PS4/PS5 and Xbox One/Xbox Series X|S
I do like the natural evolution. The anti-aliasing is the hugest change for me due to clean lines. But one I truly do wish to see is better textures on cityscapes in terms street signs and logos in terms of readability. For some parts of LAD 7 and even in Gaiden street signs are lower resolution behind the main buildong across the pier and I think it could be cleaned up and AI Upscaled easily without much effort.