That’s rad.Picture: Toei Animation / Sega / Kotaku
Have you ever ever had the niggling feeling that Yakuza: Like a Dragon felt an terrible lot like an anime, with its combination of palpable melodramatic drama and the cognitive dissonance of its wildly entertaining “filler” side-quests? Your emotions are actually validated, as a result of the sport’s head author says he was “massively influenced” by the favored shonen anime, One Piece.
Throughout an interview with Crunchyroll Information at Tokyo Recreation Present 2022, Masayoshi Yokoyama, the pinnacle of Ryu Ga Gotoku studio, revealed that Yakuza: Like a Dragon was closely impressed by two of the “Massive Three” anime: One Piece and Bleach.
Learn Extra: Yakuza: Like A Dragon: The Kotaku Assessment
“To me, Ichiban is principally Luffy. And round him, there’s Zoro and Nami and principally the remainder of the occasion, you realize?” Yokoyama informed Crunchyroll Information. “One Piece’s occasion composition was on my thoughts a lot throughout writing that it was a large affect.”
In distinction to earlier Yakuza video games which had been largely a one-man present, LaD featured a turned-based fight system the place the rotating members of Ichiban’s band of misfits banter with each other out and in of fight. This additionally happens typically in One Piece’s numerous narrative arcs, which rotate the composition of its crewmates as they journey on mysterious new islands, culminating in an incredible feast among the many complete crew.
The anime inspiration even affected the sport’s ads. Considering again to the ads for Yakuza: Like a Dragon, Yokoyama stated the tagline “Life is an Journey” was additionally impressed by One Piece, a property which at all times emphasised that an important a part of an journey is the journey, not the vacation spot.
“That is positively not official, however in my very own coronary heart, Yakuza 7 was principally my perfect model of what could be Yakuza: One Piece,” Yokoyama stated. “That’s how I received the inspiration to make it!”
Learn Extra: Yakuza’s Newest Protagonist Is The Hero I Want Proper Now
Now that the cat’s out of the bag, it’s laborious not to attract comparisons between Like a Dragon’s occasion of outcasts and Luffy’s Straw Hat Pirates. As Yokoyama talked about earlier, Ichiban is clearly his model of Luffy as a result of each characters are loveable idiots who struggle to make their goals come true. However what of the remainder of the occasion?
In my estimation, Saeko Mukoda is certainly the Straw Hat’s aloof navigator Nami, as a result of she’s initially callous however is a cinnamon roll when you get to know her. She’s additionally received a sister who seems to be an terrible lot like her. Yu Nanba is the Straw Hat’s Usopp, given his penchant for being a jokester with one thing to show. Koichi Adachi is Jimbei as a result of he bleeds blue (as a former cop) and is the senior of the group. Joon-gi Han is Zoro, due to his large tits. And the perfect occasion member, Eri Kamataki, is akin to pirate demon little one and bookworm Nico Robin due to her crafty ethics as a saleswoman. I’m additionally gonna go on a limb and say Tianyou Zhao is LaD’s model of Trafalgar Regulation due to his tsundere-like disposition towards Ichiban regardless of the 2 of them principally being work husbands.
Along with LaD’s occasion dynamic being impressed by One Piece’s Straw Hat Pirates, Yokoyama additionally revealed that the sport’s dialogue was impressed by one other member of the “large three,” Bleach. Bleach characters have a penchant for spelling out each minutia of their powers and plans to at least one one other throughout battles, and certainly, I’d should put down my controller for 20 minutes at a time throughout Like a Dragon’s intensive cutscenes.
Hmmmm Good Bike ツ
Whereas Yokoyama’s revelation about how One Piece and Bleach influenced the completely critical crime drama that’s the Yakuza/Like a Dragon sequence, the sequence is not any stranger to creating overt homages to in style anime. Living proof is a scene in Yakuza 4, wherein a person with panties on his face, to not be confused with Judgment’s Professor Panty (don’t ask), slips from a fireplace escape and plummets gracefully towards the loving concrete. Though the scene is performed for laughs, it’s clearly a reference to one of the revered anime, Cowboy Bebop, wherein hero Spike Spiegel falls from a church tower after his ugly battle with Vicious. The extra you realize.
Given all this, it appears probably we’ll uncover much more anime references influences injected into the Like a Dragon sequence come the discharge of Like a Dragon: Ishin!, Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Title, and Like a Dragon 8.
