Last week, Like a Dragon (formerly Yakuza) developer Ryu Ga Gotoku Studios said it had an “important announcement” scheduled for today. Of course, today is April Fool’s Day, so many were convinced it was going to be some kind of prank; however, the new reveal seems genuine. Plus, it’s not like RGG hasn’t hidden a real announcement inside an April Fool’s Day joke in the past. The new revelation is that the team is holding open auditions for a few cast spots in its next game. However, the biggest news out of the event is that the team is “definitely” giving fans Yakuza Kiwami 3 at some point.
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RGG Says Yakuza Kiwami 3 is “Definitely” Happening
The news comes from the latest episode of Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio TV on YouTube. That video is entirely in Japanese, but the team at Game Talk has translated the relevant quotes. First, series director Masayoshi Yokoyama discussed the auditions saying, “I can’t say yet what kind of audition it will be or what kind of new work it will be. However, an announcement will be made soon, so those who want to apply should keep an eye on it. If I give you a little hint, it will be similar to the live hostess audition in ‘7 Gaiden.’ Or rather, as an audition. Auditions for the lead role are not open to the public, so it’s different from that. We’ll be holding an audition for the new version of `Ryu ga Gotoku,’ which the general public can apply for. That’s all I’ll tell you today. The reason is that I’m going to have to release some information soon.”
That is exciting enough, especially for fans looking to get their feet wet in the voice-acting realm. However, it’s what Yokoyama said next that’s raising eyebrows: “It’s interesting, new work. It’s strange for me to say that, but it’s probably better to deny it properly since it’s been written so much, but it’s not ‘Kiwami 3’. I’ll just say that, I think I’ll do Kiwami 3 at some point. I’m sure I’ll do it someday.”
Long-time fans will remember that, following the success of Yakuza 0 in the United States, RGG released full remakes of the first two games in the series. Yakuza Kiwami and Kiwami 2 were received well, but the team decided to release a compilation called The Yakuza Remastered Collection instead of moving forward with full remakes of Yakuza 3-5. Yakuza 3, in particular, could use more of an overhaul given that it was the studio’s first PlayStation 3 release for the mainline series. With that in mind, RGG has an opportunity to give diehard fans another treat when it eventually releases Yakuza Kiwami 3.
The good news is that Like a Dragon/Yakuza fans don’t have a shortage of games to play. RGG has released three games over the last year and change, one of which is the massive, open-world RPG Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth. So, while we’re still in the early stages of whatever’s coming next, there is plenty of RGG content to play while we wait.
