Silicon Era recently interviewed Yas Noguchi of Yakuza 4 about the series and its future. The whole interview can be seen here. It’s a great read and a lot of interesting info can be found in it. Hit the jump to see some quotes from the interview, and make sure to head over to Silicon Era to read the whole thing!
Going back to the spin-offs will Sega bring Kenzan or…
In terms of the older games, I can really speak to that at the moment. Because currently from the Yakuza franchise we have Black Panther, Kenzan, and now we have Of the End. Which all intents and purposes is a working title for the West, we don’t know what it’s going to be called. I think the possibility is there. We haven’t closed the door on any of those titles. We’re always looking at what might be the next title that will be appropriate for the Western market.
That’s interesting because I almost feel like [Yakuza:] Of the End is almost geared for the Western market it has zombies…
Guns, explosions, and stuff like that. Stuff I really enjoy doing. [Laughs]
OK, so imagine you now have free reign to experiment with anything. I mean Yakuza has zombies. What kind of setting would you personally want to explore?
I think because of what the Yakuza series has been it would be something contemporary and it would involve something that happened in the real world. I’m not sure if you’re aware, but Yakuza 3 had something to do with land development in Okinawa, which was a big news topic in Japan. The Yakuza series incorporates real world events that happen in Tokyo or Japan at the moment.
One of the things Yakuza 4 touches on is illegal or immigrant workers. There are sub stories and side quests that involve them. So, it always incorporates things that happen in the real world.
Me, personally? If I were looking at potential direction for Yakuza it would be in the contemporary world and might have something to do with something that happens in the real world. The reason for that is I think you can make some really compelling stories and create real human drama by rooting stuff in the real world. There is plenty of awesome storytelling that can be done.
For example, “The Social Network”, you can take a film like that that deals with real life events. In the case of “The Social Network” it’s the development of Facebook. Taking people like that as actors for a drama and making a compelling story can be applied to other sorts of settings. I’m not saying the next Yakuza is going to be about Facebook or anything like that.
