Like A Dragon Gaiden Only Took 6 Months To Make

In a new interview with Automaton, Like a Dragon Gaiden developers revealed that it only took six months to make the game. Masayoshi Yokoyama, the director of Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio, told the magazine that the studio developed the adventure game alongside Like a Dragon 8 and used the same engine. As a result, the upcoming installment in the franchise didn’t take as long. 

There isn’t a huge difference Between Like a Dragon Gaiden and Like a Dragon 8. By this I mean that, in a sense, Like a Dragon Gaiden was derived from Like a Dragon 8. It uses the same engine, so we thought ‘It’s not like we have to make it from scratch,’ and decided to go with it. In the end, it took us about half a year to make it.”

Yokoyama further expanded on his answer, saying that originally, Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name was going to be an interlude in next year’s Infinite Wealth. Only thirty minutes would have been given to Kiryu’s past in the eighth mainline entry, but Yokoyama and Hiroyuki Sakamoto decided with the dev team that the story would be much more interesting as a standalone game.

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First, however, the team brought up the idea of making the tale a DLC for Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth. But, Masayoshi Yakayoma himself hit upon the idea of Like a Dragon Gaiden, saying making a game about Kiryu’s past would be quicker than making a single episode and that it was engaging enough to be a title on its own.

We could have just told of Kiryu’s past through a thirty-minute interlude as part of Like a Dragon 8, but we decided it would be a lot more interesting as a game of its own, which is how the project came to be. I’m the one who first went, ‘Let’s make it.’ I said, ‘If you’re going to make an episode about Kiryu’s past, it’s going to be much quicker to make a game about it.'”

Taking place between Yakuza: Like a Dragon and Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, this upcoming spin-off announced last year will follow the story of Kazuma Kiryu after he faked his death in Yakuza 6. With the game directly leading into Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, there is every reason to be excited for Like a Dragon Gaiden, which launches across the globe on November 9, 2023, for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and PC.