Yakuza fans have been eating well for a few years now. With several annual releases, Ryu ga Gotoku, the studio behind this legendary franchise, has shown how care and love for their characters can overcome anything. That and making countless remasters, spinoffs, and knowing when to make a fortunate twist to the franchise’s formula. Because no one expected the transition from action game to JRPG to work so well. Nor did anyone expect it to have its own series with Amazon.
Now it seems that SEGA is working on something new. Because on July 26th, as it has been leaked, they registered a new trademark. Yakuza Wars. Made public today, it has no associated information. That doesn’t mean that, given its name, it’s not difficult to imagine that this could well be a Like A Dragon: Yakuza Wars.
In fact, the existence of a new Yakuza is something we were already aware of. On April 1st, both SEGA and Ryu ga Gotoku Studio were holding auditions for the next Like A Dragon title. Shortly after, they introduced the girls who would play the hostess role in the game. This means that the game is not only in development, but since they are already casting, it must be in a very advanced stage. Something that gives us hope of seeing it early.
How soon? We don’t know. What we do know is that it’s not about Yakuza Kiwami 3. Because even though they want to do it at some point in the future, according to Masayoshi Yokoyama, franchise director, they are not working on it yet. This doesn’t mean that they won’t eventually have the idea of tackling that project, given the success of the first two Kiwami games. Excellent remakes of the franchise’s original two games.
That’s why, although we still don’t know more details, everything seems to indicate that very soon we will know more about a new Yakuza. Whether it will be a JRPG or an action game, a spinoff or a main series game, or when it will be released, everything is up in the air. But in any case, even considering that Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth was released this year, we won’t have to worry about not being able to play another Yakuza game next year.
