Guest of the Japanese program Weekly Ochiai, Toshihiro Nagoshiformer creative director of Sega and creator of the series Yakuza / Like a Dragonrevealed how SAW initially doubted the chances of success of the first Yakuza chapter, so much so that there was a risk that it would never be released.
Speaking about the first Yakuza, Nagoshi wanted to explain the atmosphere that reigned in the video game industry of the time. THE Japanese games they no longer dominated global bestseller lists, and American and European games were becoming increasingly important. Video game companies, including SEGA, were having difficulty producing successful titles.
A change of mentality
“This led to the development of a mentality that only wanted games that could appeal to the general public, games that could be sold anywhere and to anyone. Many manufacturers, including myself, thought so,” Nagoshi explained.
“But this mentality wasn’t leading to one solution of the problemand I saw many proposals become more and more watered down as producers bent on changing things according to management’s instructions.” The situation made Nagoshi doubt himself. “This is where it all started.”
And Yakuza? How did SEGA react to the proposal for the game? “Of course, it was flatly rejected. After all, it was completely against what I said earlier about appealing to the masses. Children couldn’t play it, and it wasn’t suitable for women or foreign audiences. In that sense, there’s no It was a way for it to be approved without resistance.”
Fortunately, also for SEGA, Nagoshi he didn’t give up, because he felt that Yakuza could still succeed due to its strong identity. The problem was to prove it to SEGA. The approval came after three attempts and was very forced, according to what he said. Having overcome this obstacle, Nagoshi immediately had to face another: aligning his vision with that of the development team: “I wanted it to be a game that made you want to do your best to live another day. I remember often reminding the people”.
Yakuza finally arrived on the market and the rest is history. The first installment sold 1 million copies. The second came out the following year, made in a hurry to ride the wave. However, SEGA feared that the series wouldn’t take off. Today we can say that it didn’t go like that. Today we can say that it didn’t go like that.
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