Yakuza creator Nagoshi shares early info on his new studio’s first game
Yakuza creator Toshihiro Nagoshi has been sharing his thoughts on the first game being developed by his new team, Nagoshi Studio.
In an interview with IGN Japan, the designer made a number of references to the studio’s first project following the departure of Nagoshi and other Yakuza veterans from Sega.
Nagoshi suggested that his new NetEase-backed studio won’t be straying too far from what made the Yazuka and Judgment games so successful.
“You may have seen our studio logo, which is similar to a film design,” Nagoshi explained. “It’s not meant to represent a film, but rather a ‘drama’ that we want to deliver as a game experience.
“We think it’s fun to make puzzle games for smartphones, but what we are good at, and what the world wants from us, is an emotional game with drama.”
Nagoshi also stressed that the studio’s first game is still in its earliest stages and hasn’t officially entered the planning stage yet.
“We’ve just built the studio,” he said. “As for the idea, it’s one that I originally had myself. We’re still in the process of expanding it and solidifying it, while listening to the opinions of the rest of the staff.”
Nagoshi’s games are highly regarded for their detailed Japanese settings, but the designer stressed that the quality of the game and its story was more important to the team than its setting.
“I can’t tell you about the setting yet,” he said. “When Yakuza sold well in the west, people thought it was a unique game with an Asian setting. But it wasn’t just the uniqueness of the game that made it sell more than a million copies worldwide.
“There has to be a more solid reason for its success, and it has to be about the overall completeness of the content – whether it’s that the story is moving, the battles are
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