I joined SEGA right after I graduated in 2000, and worked in game design for arcade and console titles. I've been involved with the Like a Dragon & Yakuza Series since the first game, both as a director and producer, and I'm currently the global Chief Producer for the series.

I joined the company after I graduated from college in 2006, and started working on the series as a game designer for Yakuza 2. I was the main game designer for Yakuza 5, and I've directed most of the series titles from Yakuza: Like a Dragon onward. Right now I'm the Chief Director for the series, and I helped direct and produce the latest game, Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties. I've also handled the performances and production of Ryu Ga Gotoku THE LIVE - IKIZAMA, a live concert with in-game music and lyrics.

I joined SEGA in 2002. I was originally seconded from another company to work on background production for Dobuita Shopping Street and other areas in Shenmue, then joined Amusement Vision as a mid-career hire, and finally transferred to SEGA after that. I worked as background staff on the first Yakuza game, then background lead on the second, and I was the art director for Binary Domain, as well as Like a Dragon & Yakuza Series games from Ishin through Infinite Wealth. I was the series art director for Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name, Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii, and Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties. I was also in charge of the key visuals and merchandise artwork for Ryu Ga Gotoku THE LIVE - IKIZAMA.

I finished college and joined SEGA in 2003, working on the first Yakuza game as a programmer. Since then, I've played a part in pretty much every game in the Yakuza & Like a Dragon & Yakuza Series. I started off as the programming lead for battles, then became the main programmer for Lost Judgment, and since then I've served as the main programmer for Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth and Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii as well.

The Like a Dragon & Yakuza Series is one of SEGA's key IPs, so the simplest part of our mission is just to keep it going and help it grow. The console game industry is highly competitive, though, with tens of thousands of games released each year, so simply making games is no longer good enough. We need to clearly establish and expand on the sort of unique fun that only the dev team at RGG Studio is capable of creating.

Since the series has been running for more than 20 years, you'd think that creates a pretty solid base to work from, but we tackle each game from scratch—that's what a dev team is for, right? We're always trying to surpass the last game, change up how we make things, toss in new ideas. It's exactly this process of continuous improvement that has created the RGG Studio of today.

Our biggest focus is making the games fun for us. The Like a Dragon & Yakuza Series started out as an action-adventure game in the criminal underworld, but for Yakuza: Like a Dragon we switched genres and made an RPG, and for Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii we introduced pirate elements. We try new things to make sure each game has its own unique elements and style, but what they all have in common is that we thought they were fun and enjoyed making them. That's the most important thing. The idea that we'll never, ever, for any reason, include things we don't personally think are fun is embedded in the whole team and division. We might not give you what you expect, but we'll never let down your expectations—that's how we want people to think of our studio. That's our goal when we're making a game.

The original target audience was Adult Japanese men, but now people across genders, ages, and nationalities play our games. Something that stands out is how much support we get from more casual players. A surprisingly high proportion of our players only play Like a Dragon & Yakuza Series games. I just touched on this a bit, but our games were originally meant for adults who had gotten away from gaming, so we made sure they could be enjoyed with simple controls and without needing any deep knowledge about video games. That still impacts our game design philosophy.

So even if you don't know which button normally does what, all it takes is a bit of an effort to win fights and make progress in ours. We take care to strike the right balance: enough depth to have satisfying action gameplay for people who get good, while still making it accessible enough that anybody can pick up and play. I think the user demographics we have now are related to that approach.

People who were 20 when the first game came out are in their 40s now. I genuinely want even 70-year olds to be able to finish our games. If it gets so difficult that someone puts down their controller, that means we've taken away their fun.

At least half of our sales are actually from outside Japan. When developing the first Yakuza game, we were trying to make a unique game aimed at adult Japanese men, so we started off with a pretty defined market.

But our sales kept growing, and there was a period where that growth overlapped with a trend where players overseas were discovering previously unknown content. Japanese TV and movies also benefited from that tailwind.

We also learned the ins and outs of localization. Instead of directly translating Japanese expressions, we wanted to convey the same nuances in a way that native speakers in other languages could understand. With that, we saw the proportion of sales tilt toward overseas markets. The rise of social media made it a lot easier for people to learn about Japan's unique culture, and we began seeing a more positive reception of said culture, including the parts that tied into our characters.

As the Like a Dragon & Yakuza Series is set in the modern day, players have an idea of what to expect. That's why instead of perfectly mirroring our world, we focus on creating a form of heightened reality. Drama drives these stories, so we pay close attention to even the smallest facial expression, carefully refining animations to convey each character's feelings.

The Like a Dragon & Yakuza Series mainly uses our in-house Dragon Engine, which accounts for differences between platforms. It lets artists and other non-programmers work without fretting about the target platform. We can also fine-tune the engine, so that it's tailored to the specific vision we have for each title.

Every installment comes with different challenges, and we dabble in many genres. We've pivoted from real-time to turn-based combat, created a unique cannon-based naval battle system, and even incorporated a simulation minigame where players develop an island resort. For the naval battles, we needed to animate the ocean and implement ship physics, while the simulation game called for seamless time of day transitions and the ability to freely place objects. Each added feature requires a new system.

Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii's naval combat in particular comes to mind. In the game, players sail vast seas on their own pirate ship, and the ocean and ships required us to work at a scale unlike anything we'd done previously. Dragon Engine had been optimized for the scale of people and cities, so we developed the technology to support both ship movement across the sea and hand-to-hand combat that'd unfold on the ship deck. That's why it's vital for us to have a flexible game engine and a programming team that can rise to any occasion.

At the start, our game designers propose their ideas through design documents. Once development gets underway, game designers, programmers, and artists alike pitch ideas on how to make the game more fun. As everyone's ideas bounce off one another, something like a minor minigame can gradually grow into something huge. In the past, a three-month job for one person actually ended up requiring an entire game's development cycle, haha.

We might devote more resources to minigames that show potential and scale back other content, balancing priorities mid-development as we work toward the final version. If game designers like me come up with 100 ideas, that number might change to 120 or 130 as new ideas come in. We're flexible to make revisions if doing so makes a game even more fun. This is a collaborative environment, and every section—regardless of role—comes together to make fun games.

Meetings can sometimes feel like friendly pitch competitions. Artists bring in concept art or videos. Then, the programmers walk in with working game prototypes made with placeholder assets. When programmers propose an idea we could try, the artists might chime in with the visuals needed to execute the concept—leading to a more tangible and exciting vision. Rather than simply building what they are told to build, everyone thinks proactively about what the game needs. The programmers in the 1st Development Division are capable of proposing gameplay specs like game designers.

So yeah, our games don't necessarily match the original vision in our design documents, haha. In fact, if you create something exactly as instructed, we might ask why. When designers create compelling visuals, programmers may write code specifically designed to bring their work to life in the game. Of course, things would be easier if we simply reused what we have done before, but that's not how games evolve. We need to keep going beyond our limits—and have fun while doing so.

Every idea has strengths and weaknesses, so selecting among them is always a delicate process. We make our decisions in consideration with the project's core concept, game balance, the workload required, its contribution in making the game more fun, and impact. Directors hold the responsibility of making the game fun, so I go with ideas I stand by. Ones I am personally confident will make the game better.

When we decide not to use someone's idea, I make sure to clearly explain why we chose a different approach. This can be more important than the choice itself. Everyone should be on board with the final decision.

Incidentally, the Karaoke minigame, one of my early proposals that became a series staple, was one such idea made possible by our collaborative environment.

Yeah, you were just a game designer back then, and it started as a simple minigame. The feature and the song "Baka Mitai" became world-famous. It's even been used as teaching material for a Japanese class in another country. Now, we've held a live concert centered around the game's Karaoke tracks. Something that starts as a single piece of game content can grow beyond that, entertaining audiences beyond the game and bringing people together. Opportunities like that can come along for anyone, not just game designers.

It's a full-fledged remake of Yakuza 3 from 2009, and has multiple new features. The game differs from the original quite a bit, but our highest priority was portraying Kazuma Kiryu's humanity. In the first two games, Kiryu gets caught up in yakuza conflicts in these sprawling entertainment districts, but in Yakuza 3, Kiryu heads to Okinawa to take care of kids at an orphanage. That was where we began to depict Kiryu not just as a legendary yakuza, but as a human being. Kiwami 3 expands upon this, giving players more chances and ways to interact with the orphans. In showing how Kiryu raises the kids, we wanted to explore Kiryu's emotional side in greater depth.

When we learned the new direction for the game, we translated it into the game's design. This meant softening Kiryu's expressions and adding new interactions with people around Okinawa. At the same time, we needed to make something that both veteran Yakuza 3 players and newcomers could enjoy. The people who played the original game in their 20s are now nearing their 40s or 50s. It was tough, but that's what makes our job fun.

We didn't plan this or anything, but 3 out of the 4 people here joined the company right after graduating from college. The vice executive manager joined partway through his career, though, and we actually have a lot of people who find success as mid-career hires. I want to work with people who push beyond the status quo. People who want to break the mold. On the other hand, people who want to just slot into a certain role and say, like, "I'm an artist so that's not something I need to think about," those people probably aren't a great fit. And I'm not just picking on artists, the same goes for programmers and game designers, too. To make a game fun, everyone in the department needs to give it their all, including whatever they can bring to areas outside their own.

The most important thing for me is passion. You can’t force someone to want to make fun games after you hire them, so the best fit would be someone who already has a genuine, positive attitude. In this kind of work, we especially need people who can communicate their passion and inspire those around them.

People who aren't averse to new, unknown things, and instead actually enjoy them, are a good fit. We have minigames and incorporate lots of different types of gameplay. You might be working on a racing game one year and a management sim the next. If you're open to anything and enjoy a good challenge, you'll go far here.

If you're a fan of the Yakuza & Like a Dragon series, you'll probably vibe with us, and we love to have people like that on the team, but it's in no way required. A lot of people join the team and then become fans of the games. If you have passion and a genuine desire to work with others to create something fun, join the team and let's work together toward that goal.

Creating things is hard work, so we need people who enjoy that work. In addition, as with Yakuza Kiwami 3, each title has its own significance and meaning. We need people who can understand those and take them into account as they work.

We have a culture of going beyond our original plan and giving 120%. Programmers and artists are more than welcome to share ideas as well. You don't have to be a game developer to have ideas on how to make a game fun. What you do need is to be proactive and have a passion for games.

We actively recruit programmers without industry experience. People who have worked in programming in other fields, or used game engines like Unity outside of games, can do well here even if they have no actual experience making games. We're happy to provide training after you join. Even if you're a student or are new to the industry, we love it if you've dabbled in game design on your own time.

In the game industry we also have task force teams that work on things outside game development. Things like AI, networks, game engines, and motion. You join a team in an area that interests you, meet weekly to research, and share your results with the division every six months. Even though we're not currently developing an online game, we continue researching networking technology so that, when the time comes to make one, we can quickly make informed technical decisions knowing that our team has kept up-to-date on that topic. In terms of game engines, we're constantly researching those. Not just the Dragon Engine, by the way. We also look at Unreal Engine and Unity.

We do a lot of research, even if it's often invisible. And that foundation is what allows us to suddenly make a boat game or an RPG.

We have tons of skilled and knowledgeable team members, and those who join partway through their career can quickly grow as a specialist. Naturally, we want you to become an expert in your field of specialization. And if you approach your day-to-day work with a view to developing the IP as a whole, you can build a bright future by taking advantage of the opportunities here.

One thing I'd like to share is that RGG Studio isn't always going to be working just on the Like a Dragon & Yakuza Series. That's been true to this point, but we're now venturing out to games like Virtua Fighter and STRANGER THAN HEAVEN. Those projects don't even use the same engine, and they're being developed in parallel in a single studio. While we're carrying over some of the same methods and mindsets, we don't plan to rest on our laurels.

In a few years, there's a non-zero chance that we'll be making a totally different game—or games. There's a tendency for people to think we're only capable of making dramatic games for adults, but we certainly don't believe that. When we see an opportunity, or feel that a certain type of game is what people would find fun at that particular moment, we'll break out of our mold and take our shot.

A global perspective is also indispensable. Being able to evolve for the global market will become increasingly important going forward, so we want to instill that mindset in the entire division.