Who is one iconic character who seems to fit right into so many competitive fighting games as a guest character? For hand-to-hand fighting games like Tekken and Street Fighter, then you probably won’t have a hard time coming up with two names – Tifa from Final Fantasy VII and Kazuma Kiryu from the current Yakuza aka Like a Dragon series. As for the latter, the reason why he has never made it to a fighting game has been stated. Back in 2020, Yakuza producer Nagoshi stated that he didn’t want to see Kiryu hitting or attacking women. Now with Nagoshi gone and the Like a Dragon franchise in the hands of a new producer, how likely is it that this policy will change?
With the Like a Dragon franchise now under new leadership – Yokoyama, this question has been raised again by Polygon. Unfortunately, Yokoyama seems to be taking a similar stance to Nagoshi. Yokoyama said that for now, he would prefer to see the characters move to another medium, as happened with the live-action film with Prime Video that will be released this year. He admitted that there were many offers to make the Like a Dragon characters as guest characters, but they themselves never pursued the opportunity.
The new Like a Dragon producers are also not interested in making Kiryu a guest character in a fighting game.
Of course, the dream of seeing Kazuma Kiryu or Goro Majima drop by and fight in a competitive fighting game in the future is still very strong from casual gamers or from the FGC community itself. What about you? Still holding high hopes?
Source: Polygon
