The creator of the Yakuza series says it may be time for the development team to try something entirely new, after so many years devoted to the franchise. In an interview, Ryu Ga Gotoku director Toshihiro Nagoshi talks about his hope that he can allow his team to stretch their development muscles.
"The Ryu Ga Gotoku team members, they've only really worked on the Yakuza series," Nagoshi told Game Informer. "But I think it would be a waste if these really talented team members that we have aren't able to use all of their skills to their full potential. That might be challenging themselves, creating something of a whole different genre and a different style. We don't know that yet, but that’s something that we're really taking into consideration right now for the growth of our team as a whole."
Ryu Ga Gotoku has dabbled in new genres within the Yakuza universe--it explored the other side of crime dramas with Judgment, and turned its latest Yakuza game, Yakuza: Like a Dragon, into a turn-based RPG. But it does sound like the team may want to venture even further from its comfort zone.
The Yakuza series has been in development for more than 15 years, and only gained more mainstream success in the West relatively recently. Most of the series focuses on the life of yakuza Kazuma Kiryu, while Like a Dragon introduced an entirely new protagonist, Ichiban Kasuga. Like a Dragon scored a 9/10 in GameSpot's review.