Yakuza 3, Yakuza 4, and Yakuza 5 Directors Reminisce on Their Work in an Interview Video

Following the release of The Yakuza Remastered Collection last month, Ryu ga Gotoku Studio’s devs reminisced their past work in a series directors interview video.

In the video, we hear from Yakuza 3 director Daisuke Sato, Yakuza 4 director Jun Orihara, and Yakuza 5 director Kazuki Hosokawa. Check it out below:

Daisuke Sato kicks things off with Yakuza 3.  In Yakuza 3 we see many moments with the children at the orphanage, but as it turns out, those were actually planned as substories. However, in order to have Kiryu protect the things he loves, Sega added those portions in the main story. It was actually series creator Toshihiro Nagoshi who requested it midway through the project. This proved to be quite a challenge.

With Yakuza 3 being the first PS3 entry from the series, it had to be completely rebuilt from the ground up. Since the previous entries had fixed camera angles, Yakuza 3 was the first to let players freely adjust the camera in Kamurocho.

Yakuza 5 director Kazuki Hosokawa was the design lead at the time. Hosokawa explains an interesting bit on programing involving cutscene events and Heat Action animations and how they’re very different in terms of function. Daisuke Sato really wanted to have a seamless transition for the final battle but he had to beg for it. However, they ended up making it happen by cleverly combining the two styles by making a scene look like a cutscene while functioning like a battle.

The Yakuza Remastered Collection is available for PlayStation 4. The latest entry from the series, Yakuza: Like a Dragon, shipped 400,000 units since launch.