Like a Dragon developers say the series will continue to focus on ‘middle-aged guy things’

The lead developers of the Like a Dragon / Yakuza series say they have no intention to stray from the theme of doing “middle-aged guy things”.

In an interview with Automaton, series director Ryosuke Horii and lead planner Hirotaka Chiba explained that despite the series continuing to grow and appealing to a wider range of players, they feel the middle-aged nature of the protagonists is what gives the series its unique flavour.

“I think that this is precisely one of Like a Dragon’s selling points,” Horii said. “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 pair went on to describe the game’s feel as the equivalent of “chilling out with older guys in a bar” instead of “going on an exhausting drinking party with young people”.

Chiba added that this approach to the series’ tone is so ingrained that it can be found in the smallest of in-game conversations.

“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,” he explained. “We’re making the hearty talks of middle-aged dudes our identity, rather than youthfulness.”

Asked whether the series’ growing popularity, including a surge of interest from woman players, would encourage the team to widen these conversation topics, the pair say this won’t be the case.

“We have had a large increase in new fans, including women, which we’re truly happy and grateful for,” Horii said. “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,” he laughed.