{"id":48145,"date":"2025-05-20T12:51:09","date_gmt":"2025-05-20T03:51:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=48145"},"modified":"2025-05-20T12:55:50","modified_gmt":"2025-05-20T03:55:50","slug":"stellar-blades-director-has-always-wanted-to-make-a-game-like-yakuza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/stellar-blades-director-has-always-wanted-to-make-a-game-like-yakuza\/","title":{"rendered":"Stellar Blade\u2019s director has always wanted to make a game like Yakuza\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In a three-way interview with ThisIsGame<\/a> and Dave the Diver director Jaeho Hwang, Shift Up CEO and Stellar Blade director Hyung-tae Kim talked about his love for RGG Studio\u2019s long-running Like a Dragon<\/strong> series. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, both Kim and Hwang name Like a Dragon the \u201cgame of their lives,\u201d with Kim mentioning that his admiration for the series started when he played the Korean localization of Yakuza Kiwami (2016) and found that, in some ways, it felt like a spiritual successor to Sega\u2019s Shenmue – another title he loves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Yakuza<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Kim describes the Like a Dragon franchise and its portrayal of Kabukicho\u2019s fictional counterpart as \u201ctrue\u201d adult entertainment, noting that \u201cwhile the term is usually associated with violence or sexual content, <\/em>Yakuza really deals with modern urban culture from an adult perspective.\u201d Kim compares this quality to that of a noir film. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although Shift Up releases like Stellar Blade and Goddess of Victory: NIKKE may not suggest it, Kim says that he\u2019s always wanted to create something like Like a Dragon. However, he doesn’t feel confident in how such themes would translate to a Seoul-based setting. \u201cIn Kamurocho, it just fits. That uniqueness is what makes Yakuza irreplaceable. Every time a new game comes out, I look forward to what kind of \u2018adult story\u2019 it will tell.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Like<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Kim also highlights that Like a Dragon games are balanced all-rounders in terms of how they treat different aspects of game design like narrative, combat, minigames, etc. This aspect of the franchise differs from Kim\u2019s personal philosophy as a game creator, as he prefers to pursue depth in fewer aspects of game design rather than fan out, but as a player, this \u201ccomprehensive\u201d approach of the Yakuza series is something that draws him in. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Related articles: Like a Dragon cleverly avoids complaints about reused assets by getting players emotionally attached to its recurring locations <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stellar Blade dev talks about \u201cfetishistic elements\u201d in the game\u00a0<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stellar Blade director Hyung-tae Kim considers RGG Studio’s Like a Dragon series to be “true adult entertainment.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":48149,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"\nStellar Blade\u2019s director has always wanted to make a game like Yakuza\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Stellar Blade director Hyung-tae Kim considers the Like a Dragon series to be "true adult entertainment," something he has always wanted to create.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/stellar-blades-director-has-always-wanted-to-make-a-game-like-yakuza\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Stellar Blade\u2019s director has always wanted to make a game like Yakuza\u00a0 - 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