Originally posted on 20 January 2016
Source: page 156

Destiny of a Dragon

Ryu ga Gotoku continues in a new direction

During the development of the Ryu ga Gotoku series, he always gives everything he has. When he sees it through to completion, he is always left burned out like an empty shell. And even still, after a while, new ideas for the next game he wants to make begin to spring into Nagoshi's mind.

Amidst the ideas he thinks up are plenty that are practically impossible. For example, projects that, even if he thinks they sound interesting, would seem not to be accepted by a broad range of people and must be shelved. But at first, Ryu ga Gotoku was a project he predicted would not be accepted by the public. Despite this, he pushed ahead with the "interestingness" he wanted to show, prepared to relinquish the foreign market, which you could say is what made it such a hit.

Should he press ahead with what he thought was fun, or should he have what the players would want in mind? When thinking about the plan for a game, you will always be troubled by such dilemmas. However, he couldn't stand still. Constantly searching for new directions in which to take a game is the destiny of the man who gave life to Ryu ga Gotoku.

"Overseas reaction"
Though Ryu ga Gotoku was developed without other countries in mind, it was also released in the west under the title Yakuza. Though not as big of a hit as in Japan, it appears to have its own hardcore fanbase.
"He'd like to try making a sci-fi game, too?"
"When I saw the film Avatar I thought 'Wow!', but... If I get the chance, I'd like to make some kind of sci-fi creation different from that. Sci-fi has this solid, cold image, so I'd like to try out something warm and human." (Nagoshi) Perhaps in the near future we could be seeing a sci-fi version of Ryu ga Gotoku?
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