Like a Dragon too violent and "underground" for Nintendo Switch, says producer
But Kazuma Kiryu has never killed anyone?
Despite the flurry of Like a Dragon (or Yakuza) games that have been recently announced, none of them will be released on Switch.
Indeed, a Switch port of anything Yakuza is unlikely to happen, according to Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio head Masayoshi Yokoyama.
Yokoyama made the statement in an interview with GameSpot yesterday and explained why the studio was reluctant to put Yakuza on Switch.
Yokoyama cited the "family-friendly image of the Switch" as the reason why the studio wishes to keep Yakuza off the console. And yes, Kiryu slamming someone's head in a microwave at a convenience store and asking the employee to "heat this junk up" isn't exactly wholesome.
Yokoyama, who also served as producer for Yakuza: Like a Dragon, continued, sharing that the studio considers the Yakuza series as having an "underground kind of feeling". "We don't want to be like walking around the day with everybody else," he said, contrasting Yakuza to the lighter tone of games that come to mind when you think of Nintendo, like Mario.
The series itself is far from being underground right now. In the past couple of days, RGG Studio has announced three new games. February 2023 will see the release of Like a Dragon: Ishin!, a remake of the PS3 game that was not released outside of Japan. A smaller interlude game starring Kiryu called Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name is also planned for a 2023 release. Lastly, Like a Dragon 8 was officially announced for 2024.