Like a Dragon Series Producer Says Devs Always Intended for Kiryu to Return | gamescom 2023

ign.com:

Since the reveal of Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, many veteran fans of the series have been perplexed by the decision to bring back long-time series protagonist Kazuma Kiryu as a dual protagonist. However, Like a Dragon series producer Hiroyuki Sakamoto claims that Kiryu's return has been in the cards for a long, long time.

First, some context. Be warned: below the video, we've included spoilers for the ending of Yakuza 6: Song of Life, and the late-game of Yakuza: Like a Dragon.

At the end of Yakuza 6: Song of Life, Kiryu fakes his own death to protect those closest to him, effectively ending his career as a member and/or pawn of the yakuza. However, he made a brief return in Yakuza: Like a Dragon in a dramatic segment where he battles protagonist Kasuga Ichiban. The late-game fight is incredibly difficult, and was seen by many players as symbolizing Kiryu passing the torch of being "the dragon" from himself to Ichiban - a true final farewell for Kiryu of sorts.

With that context, it makes sense why fans were so surprised to find out that Kiryu would return in full in not just the eighth series installment, but also in an upcoming spinoff entitled Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name. However, when we spoke to Sakamoto at gamescom 2023, he indicated that the plan had always been for Kiryu to return, even as far back as the development of Song of Life.

"When we said goodbye to [Kazuma Kiryu], we were still planning to have him appear as a double protagonist for [Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth]. So, this has been kind of a long time something that we've been thinking about. So, also in [Yakuza: Like a Dragon], Kazuma kind of appeared as a sort of backup character, and a lot of people who played [Yakuza: Like a