Yakuza: Dead Souls Was Originally About Fighting Aliens Instead of Zombies

During the massive 151-hour Yakuza livestream for its 15th anniversary, series creator Toshihiro Nagoshi shared a fun tidbit about the early development of Yakuza: Dead Souls. While the final game involved zombies, early in development aliens were involved instead. [Thanks, Gamestalk.]

Yakuza: Dead Souls is a non-canon spin-off that appeared on the PS3 worldwide. (The game originally released in Japan in June 2011 as Ryu ga Gotoku of the End.) It takes place in a parallel world and is set after the events of Yakuza 4, with Kazuma Kiryu, Goro Majima, Shun Akiyama, and Ryuji Goda as playable characters. Instead of attacking thugs, they fight zombies that suddenly emerge in Kamurocho. The characters have unique weapon sets consisting of various firearms. Think of it as a third-person shooter set in the Yakuza world with survival horror elements.

During the 15th anniversary livestream, Nagoshi revealed that the original idea wasn’t about surviving a zombie apocalypse, but instead about repelling an alien invasion. The reason he wanted to make something with aliens was to give Kiryu a specific line. The line was along the lines of, “How dare you step on the people’s planet with your dirty shoes.”

The staff had a good laugh about it, but in the end, the team decided to make a game with zombies instead. In any case, I’m sure fans would still welcome a Yakuza vs. Aliens game. We’ve already seen a Yakuza RPG and a spin-off title set during the Bakumatsu Period of Japan, Ryu ga Gotoku: Ishin.

Yakuza: Dead Souls is available on the PlayStation 3 worldwide.