Summary
Guest characters in fighting games are becoming more and more common these days, withGuilty Gear StriveandStreet Fighter 6both breaking tradition with the additions ofLucy from Cyberpunk EdgerunnersandTerry and Mai from Fatal Furyrespectively. It’s led to calls for some of gaming’s most iconic brawlers to have their own guest appearances.
Alongside Tifa from Final Fantasy 7, Kiryu from the Like A Dragon/Yakuza series has been a popular shout for either a Tekken 8 or Virtua Fighter guest appearance. Former series producer Toshihiro Nagoshi answered the question about a Kiryu fighting game appearance in the past,claiming that he didn’t want the character hitting women, but now that Masayoshi Yokoyama is running things, there was some hope that stance might have changed.
Unfortunately, while Yokoyama doesn’t have the same worries as Nagoshi, he doesn’t think putting a Yakuza character like Kiryu in a fighting game is in the best interest for the series. In a recent interview withPolygon, Yokoyama explains that he’d much rather see characters from the Like A Dragon/Yakuza series go “across mediums” instead,pointing to the upcoming TV show as a good example.
“I think it’s better to say that going across mediums like how we did with [the Like A Dragon: Yakuza TV] series is better, rather than just going to another game,” Yokoyama said. “We receive all kinds of invitations to appear in other games, but we never actually went over to their doorstep and said ‘let us in.’ I think going cross-medium is the better way to go about it.”
It’s Not An Outright No, But Don’t Expect Kiryu To Show Up In Tekken 8
While that’s a less firm no than Nagoshi, it still sounds like Yokoyama is hesitant to put Kiryu and friends in other games, regardless of the genre. While it’s true that having Kiryu or Ichiban throw down in something like Tekken 8 or a new Virtua Fighter would bring far fewer newcomers to the series than something like a highly-produced TV show would, it is disappointing to hear that he seems to think crossover have little value in a world that has seen games likeFortniteandDead by Daylightexplode in popularity because of them.
It also means that if you were hoping for Kiryu to take up that final spot in Tekken 8’s first wave of DLC, then your hopes have almost certainly just been dashed. It seems as though Kiryu may finally be able to retire in peace after all,though a new Sega trademark for something called Yakuza Wars could see him enter the fray once again. At least he won’t be fighting Heihachi.
