In a new interview, Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio confirmed that Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased Him Name was originally conceived as DLC for the upcoming Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth.
Talking to Automaton Masayoshi Yokoyama, director of both games, detailed how Gaiden was originally derived from Infinite Wealth, and because of that the games are quite similar.
“We could have just told of Kiryu’s past through a thirty-minute interlude as part of Like a Dragon 8, but we decided it would be a lot more interesting as a game of its own, which is how the project came to be,” explains Yokoyama.
From there Yokoyama reveals it only took the team six months to develop Like a Dragon Gaiden, likely because of moving on to Infinite Wealth.
“I’m the one who first went, ‘Let’s make it.’ I said, ‘If you’re going to make an episode about Kiryu’s past, it’s going to be much quicker to make a game about it,” explains Yokoyama “From there on, we first considered making it as DLC, but then decided it was engaging enough for a physical edition. But, for a physical edition, we needed more content, so we decided to add some. This is how things escalated.
All of this explains why there’s such a tight timeline between Gaiden and Infinite Wealth, as the two projects are intrinsically linked together. With the release of Like a Dragon: Ishin back in February, it seems like RGG Studio has gotten its development timeline down to a science, especially impressive since the series has simultaneous worldwide releases these days.
Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name releases on November 9 for Xbox, PlayStation, and PC. Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth releases on January 26, 2024, for Xbox, PlayStation, and PC.
