"It's just like walking around an actual red light district."
"The battles are amazingly exhilarating."
"Just playing the mini-games is fun."
"It looks like that idol is addicted to Ryu ga Gotoku too!"
Roughly six months had passed since release. Ryu ga Gotoku solidified itself as one of 2006's big hits.
In June 2006, sales had broken the 300,000 mark. Even as the gaming industry was gripped with a slump, the brand new game was a smash hit. It received the frontier award at the Famitsu Awards 2005 and the award for excellence at the Japan Games Grand Prix 2006, garnering much praise from within the industry itself.
To maintain its booming popularity, Sega announced the release of a cut-price version.
In October 2006, Ryu ga Gotoku PlayStation 2 the Best was released. It was a low-priced version paired with a promotional DVD for Ryu ga Gotoku 2. Including tax it cost 1890 yen, surprisingly cheap for such a hit. People who wanted to try it out but had been hesitant about paying full price dashed out to buy the game. In only a month after release, sales of 100,000 copies had been recorded, eventually totalling over 500,000.
And then, on 7 December 2006, Ryu ga Gotoku 2 was released.
Having left the world of the yakuza, legendary dragon Kazuma Kiryu returns to the game's turbulent setting. In order to protect the Tojo Clan, the largest yakuza organisation in Kanto, Kiryu challenges Ryuji Goda, the dragon of Kansai, in battle. Development took just 10 months from start to finish. The game, created with unprecedented speed, recorded shocking sales of more than 500,000 units in just a month after release.
The project, with which once upon a time no one wanted to get involved, had certainly become a legend.
―Without Kikuchi's plan to make the game in 10 months, without the staff sticking to the uncompromising schedule, they would never have made it this far.
Nagoshi's thoughts turned to the allies who had worked tirelessly along with him.