Anyone who comes away from Yakuza: Like a Dragon will have a strong impression of lead character Kasuga Ichiban. Love him or not, he drives the tone and perspective for an earnest story about living on the margins, loyalty to loved ones, and just being an adult trying to make something of themselves. He's quite a far cry from the stoic, but lovable Kazuma Kiryu who we grew to know and love through seven previous entries in the series--and I think that speaks to developer Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio's ability to create layered, expressive characters who drive its dramatic, hilarious, yet sobering stories.
Masayoshi Yokoyama, chief producer and writer, has been at the forefront of Yakuza's storytelling, and I was able to exchange with him via email through a translator to dissect what went into Yakuza: Like a Dragon in particular. As with any game, a slew of factors go into its creation, and he provided insight into the move to making an RPG, conveying new narrative themes, and what the future holds for the Yakuza franchise. (Hint: It may not come as much of a surprise, but there is another Yakuza game currently in development.)
The following interview was edited for clarity and readability--it also contains spoilers for Yakuza: Like a Dragon, so beware.
Tell me about writing a new story for a brand-new protagonist and following up to a legend like Kazuma Kiryu while managing expectations.
I didn't feel too much pressure since I already knew and was determined to create a new protagonist when we decided that Yakuza 6 would be the last chapter of Kiryu's story.
In the past, I have experience portraying other characters as protagonists, such as Shun Akiyama, Taiga Saejima and Masayoshi Tanimura for Yakuza 4, and Tatsuo Shinada and Haruka Sawamura for Yakuza 5, so I think that experience helped and the process came rather naturally.
The character Ichiban Kasuga was originally conceived as a protagonist for the Japan-only mobile game Ryu Ga Gotoku Online. At the time, we just ended the development for Yakuza 6, and needed to come up with a new face for the series. I really wanted to create a character that players felt compelled to help instead of a "flawless" character like Kiryu, so I went with creating a character that looks and acts completely the opposite of him. I then took the concept and presented it to executive director [Toshihiro] Nagoshi and the team, which led to talks of making the Ichiban character the protagonist of the console game as well. Thus began our challenge of using the same protagonist for two stories for two completely different games.
Unfortunately, Ryu Ga Gotoku Online is not available in the West, so you may not be familiar with the other "Ichiban Kasuga epic" but in Japan, the fans were given more than a year to become familiar with the character before the launch of Ryu Ga Gotoku 7 (Yakuza: Like a Dragon in the West). Since we had some good initial reactions from the fans through that, I wasn't too worried about Ichiban Kasuga.
Chief producer and writer for Yakuza: Like a Dragon, Masayoshi Yokoyama.On the other hand, if Ryu Ga Gotoku Online didn't exist, we may have faced more challenges in the development for the sudden change in protagonists.
All the side quests outside of the main story and vast amounts of dialogue in the game were written not only by the story writing team but also by many other game designers. I think it's because we already had experience with Ichiban Kasuga's story in Ryu Ga Gotoku Online, that the character remained consistent throughout with a great balance in seriousness and humor.
To complete the difficult mission of changing the main character in a long-running series, you could say that this type of game development process was necessary in addition to story writing techniques.
We would do anything to protect Ichiban, he's an inspiring character for many of us. What can you tell us about what went into creating him?
Our mission after Yakuza 6 was not to "create the next Yakuza title" but to "create the next protagonist."
What I tried to do with Ichiban Kasuga was to create a "life-sized hero." Kazuma Kiryu is a modern version of a typical Japanese hero. He has inherited the spirit of a samurai who lives by the way of the sword, and in embracing elements like that, a man should not talk too much, not act in groups, and above all, be strong. The main characters in traditional Japanese "Ninkyo" movies are usually like this.
Ichiban Kasuga, on the other hand, is not that strong. He's also not that mature and is, in a sense, a "normal guy." This is what I wanted to portray.
In reality, I'm pretty close to Kasuga's age, and not all that an adult either (laughs). This is why I wanted to create a hero that we, the creators of the game and the users, could sympathize with, instead of portraying an unrealistic hero from the perspective of an observer.
The world has changed quite rapidly since Yakuza was born in 2005, fifteen years ago. The means of playing and enjoying games have also shifted and become multifaceted, ranging from TVs to smartphones. YouTube is bigger than it was before.
Yakuza has also had to change with the times. I wanted to shift from the era of enjoying the stories of heroes like Kiryu in solitude to one where everyone can share and empathize with the emotions shown.
In essence, I wanted Ichiban Kasuga to be a catalyst for change in Yakuza. That's why I created him the way that he is, a character who laughs and cries with his friends and expresses his thoughts unabashedly.
Overturning worldly prejudices and fighting against invisible discrimination may be the greatest role of Ichiban Kasuga in this game.
Like A Dragon was great about humanizing groups of people that face a lot of prejudice and hate (sex workers, immigrants, homeless), and it was refreshing to see a fair representation of them. What was your approach in incorporating these elements in the story?
When writing Ichiban Kasuga's background, him being born and raised in a soapland was set from the start, so the rest was a rather natural progression.
One of the themes in this game was the struggles of those people who live in Japan's "grey zone," so we did portray these people's standpoint and their profession as they live in an area that isn't quite black or white.
To Ichiban Kasuga, who grew up right in the middle of this grey zone from the beginning, these people are not "something that shouldn't be," but are common everyday people. I always try to avoid portraying unconditional good and evil. There are evil people even among the elderly, and there are righteous people among those with criminal records. Overturning worldly prejudices and fighting against invisible discrimination may be the greatest role of Ichiban Kasuga in this game.
Ichiban is the catalyst for so many heartwarming and uplifting moments in Yakuza: Like a Dragon.How do you keep yourself in check with all the twists and turns with the story? Do you ever have to reel yourself in?
In the story writing process, coming up with the overall setup is my first task. I make up the major events of the entire story, place the necessary characters, and create a bird's eye view of the entire story. I often create a character correlation diagram and then build the story from there.
After that, I write up the flow of each chapter, a technique called "box writing," and it's around this point that I start to change my original plan a few times over, which often results in some changes from the original plan. For instance, Bleach Japan was originally just an organization that caused trouble here and there, but a little twist was added later on that there was an unexpected mastermind boss controlling the organization, and then making them a party member, and so on.
I do often take a step back to think about things, but for me, it's important to add a climax to each chapter. I tend to prioritize that over making every little thing in the story make sense. I also adjust the story so that the boss fights are exciting for each chapter.
Consider a movie: Even if the first 60-90 minutes are a bit boring at times, the movie can be considered a masterpiece so long as the ending is superb. However, for games and especially for Yakuza, even if chapter 10 and 11 are very good story-wise, it won't work as a game if there are no battles. Many players would probably put their controllers down at that point.