One Piece Was the Biggest Inspiration for Yakuza: Like a Dragon, Says Producer

The Straw Hat Pirates have sailed their way into countless video games over the years, with the One Piece franchise set to release a new entry next year thanks to One Piece: Odyssey. Thanks to creator Eiichiro Oda’s creative Shonen franchise, the series continues to have an influence on both anime and video games alike, with the producer behind Sega’s Yakuza series revealing that Monkey D. Luffy and his crew were the biggest influence on the latest Yakuza entry, Yakuza: Like A Dragon.

Yakuza has been a long-time series for Sega, with the franchise beginning in 2005 and stretching across multiple generations of consoles. While the series has had a much more realistic take than the high seas adventure of the Straw Hat Pirates, Like A Dragon definitely took the opportunity to dive further into the wildest and craziest aspects of the series, thanks in part to the imagination of the protagonist Ichiban Kasuga. 

Yakuza: Like A Luffy

In speaking with IGN, producer Masayoshi Yokoyama spilled the beans on information that hadn’t been revealed prior when it came to the origins of the latest Yakuza entry, revealing just how much of an influence One Piece had on the video game:

“I’ve never really talked about this before, so I’m not sure if I should just go for it now, but for [Like a Dragon] I was really, really inspired by One Piece. To me, Ichiban is basically Luffy. And around him there’s Zoro and Nami and basically the rest of the party. One Piece’s party composition was on my mind so much during writing that it was a massive influence.”

Yokoyama even goes one step further and states how he felt that he was almost making a One Piece game when it came to expanding the video game world that focuses on the seedy underbelly of Japan’s criminal organizations:

“This is definitely not official, but in my own heart, [Like a Dragon] was basically my ideal version of what would be Yakuza: One Piece. That’s how I got the inspiration to make it.”  

Would you love to see a video game crossover between the Straw Hat Pirates and the Yakuza? Feel free to let us know in the comments or hit me up directly on Twitter @EVComedy to talk all things comics, anime, and the world of the Grand Line. 

Via IGN