As reported by Gematsu yesterday, SEGA have filed a trademark in Japan for the term “Yakuza Wars”. This happened on July 26th, and while Gematsu speculate this might be related to the next game in the Yakuza: Like A Dragon series, I have other plans. For the imaginary game.
That I have nothing to do with. SEGA are also the parent company of Total War studio Creative Assembly, who earlier this year put out a survey asking fans about potential settings they’d like to see for the strategy series. Lord Of The Rings and Marvel were among the options, as was the rumoured-to-be-in-development Star Wars .
Sigh, said I. Why dally with all these expensive, obvious choices when the real answer was in front of you all along? Then I realised that Total War: Crazy Taxi would be a shitshow, so I set my hopes on the next best option. The concept is bountiful, and the foundations of it exist in the Yakuza games already.
I’m picturing something similar to Yakuza 0 ’s Real Estate Royale, where settlements are different chunks of Kamurocho, provinces are entire streets, and individual buildings represent different specialisations. Want to recruit some high level thugs? Build a soapland. Want to rake in the cash? Gambling den.
Need some morale buffs before you go into battle? Build a SEGA arcade and let your dudes play Space Harrier, then buy them some Takoyaki. Actually, Takoyaki can be its own resource. A Takoyaki-based economy.
Practical. Delicious. Public order can be fleshed out as.