Sega and Ryu Ga Gotoku Studiofully revealed PS4 exclusiveYakuza 7during a press conference on August 29. New details on the game’s characters, story, and turn-based battle systemwere revealed.During the event, Sega’s Toshihiro Nagoshi explained the genre change of theYakuzaseries, going from action to turn-based RPG. Nagoshi also opened up about his recent health problems.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Famitsu, 4Gamer, Game Watch and all the Japanese outlets present at the press conference, Toshihiro Nagoshi explained how theYakuzaseries reached its “complete form”. As such, Sega and Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio opted for a complete change and decided to makeYakuza 7a Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio flavored RPG, using their savoir-faire from making action games. However, ifYakuza 7doesn’t end up being a success, and ends up being majoritarily disliked by older fans, they’ll change back the series to the original action gameplay for future games.
According to Oricon, Toshihiro Nagoshi also spoke about his health problems during the press conference. Nagoshi talked about how he is suffering from a Congenital heart disease and underwent a major heart surgery three weeks ago. His heart was stopped for around 5 hours during the operation, and he “could have well died”. He’s supposed to stay at the hospital and is still convalescent, but he got a special authorized leave for the press conference. Nagoshi laughed saying “the doctors will probably get angry later” and added that laughing actually hurts as his ribs and stuff that got moved from the operation isn’t quite back together yet. Lastly, Nagoshi said he’s happy to be alive, to be there, and talk aboutYakuza 7himself.
Personally speaking, I’m quite hyped aboutYakuza 7’s battle system, and I think it’s a great idea to change a series that way after so many years. It’s much better than always redoing the same thing over and over, without originality.Yakuzagames are action RPGs already, and rationally, I think they’re simply adding an ATB-like system over it for less immediate action, more planning and strategy.
As such, I don’t consider it that huge of a change. While it might alienate some fans, I wholeheartedly hopeYakuza 7will be a success. It’s also a fun situation and contrasts with howShin Sakura Taisenin an action RPGinstead of aValkyria Chronicles-like game. Anyway, I wish all the best to Toshihiro Nagoshi and I hope he’ll back in shape soon. All of this also explains why there was noSega Nama streamthis month.
PS4 exclusiveYakuza 7will be launching on June 12, 2025, in Japan, asRyu Ga Gotoku 7 Hikari to Yami no Yukue. The game is coming west later on in 2020.
