In an interview with Red Bull, Grégory de Meyer interviewed Toshihiro Nagoshi, a Japanese video game producer and designer as well as the chief creative officer for Sega. The producer discussed the upcoming live-action adaptation of the Yakuza video game franchise with 1212 Entertainment and Wild Sheep Content, on which he is collaborating.
In terms of Yakuza's popularity around the world, Nagoshi believes that Western players are drawn to the games exactly because they are intrinsically Japanese. He also believes “the cinematic direction of the games strongly resembles Japanese-style films.”
Asked if he’d be interested in working in film, he said he hopes Yakuza reflects the “emotional human drama” of the story, rather than just the action. He hopes, as well, that the film addresses social issues more directly and adds suspense to the story.
As for the the dragon combat, the film will focus on the “real-time action” in the series up to this title, but everything hasn’t come together yet idea-wise in order to evolve it further than Like a Dragon.
However, throughout its development, he focused on creating "the most fun and interesting way to play that we could offer at the moment," and ultimately hoped to create an evolution of an RPG system.
Nagoshi is also considering a sequel to F-Zero GX for Nintendo. “ I’d personally like to make it a challenging game. If they were looking for a “fun driving” type of game, they already have Mario Kart.”
Yakuza, Sega’s bestselling franchise after Sonic The Hedgehog, was first released on PS2 in 2005 and has since expanded globally with an seven more main title sequels and eight spin-off titles on all major gaming platforms.
The first game follows Kazuma Kiryu, who is released from a 10-year prison sentence after taking the fall for the murder of his family’s patriarch. He, as well as, the entire Japanese underworld must find the $100 million stolen from the vault of his former clan, leading, Kiryu to return to world of the yakuza.
Source: Resetera