Like a Dragon Series Will Keep Using the Dragon Engine
gamingbolt.comThe Like a Dragon series (formerly known as Yakuza) has been built on developer Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio’ internal engines for as long as anyone can remember, with the Dragon Engine having served as its primary development toolset since being introduced in Yakuza 6: The Song of Life. Last year’s Like a Dragon: Ishin! broke series convention by being built on Unreal Engine 4, but it doesn’t look like that’s indicative of the series’ future in any meaningful way.
Speaking in a recent interview with Japanese outlet Type, Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio technical director Yutaka Ita touched on the aforementioned topic, saying that development of Like a Dragon games should ideally always be on the Dragon Engine (or some other internal toolset), owing to ease of use, and the fact that the toolset was designed specifically to suit the needs of the series.
“In order to develop Like a Dragon, the Dragon Engine is something that must never be lost, and we will continue to develop an in-house engine,” Ita said. “Dragon Engine concentrates its development resources on the functions necessary for Like a Dragon, and above all, the speed at which new functions are added is a big advantage. If you’re using a general-purpose engine, you can email support and get a reply in about 3 days, but if you ask the programmer next to you, it only takes 5 seconds. I think this difference is significant.
“But it’s not a good idea to think, ‘Our game engine is the best!’ In particular, I believe that we programmers should always have a sense of urgency that ‘that one is greater, and we need to work harder.'”
So why exactly has Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio been dabbling with external, third-party engines like Unreal Engine and Unity of late, like the former being used in Like a Dragon: Ishin! last year? According to Ita, that was down to the studio want to expand its familiarity with multiple engines rather than becoming too reliant on a single one, as well as the potential ways that could improve the Dragon Engine as
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