Sato wants to reassure fans that Kasuga will be just as "cool" as his predecessor. At Gamescom, the producer's interpreter said: "There might be some fans who are worried the new character might not be cool, might not be attractive, or might not be that interesting. [Sato] wants to reassure [fans] that they're on a good track to create a new, very interesting and very lovable character. He wants the fans to trust them that he will create something cool for them."
According to Sato, the character swap is something that the studio has been considering since the original game. "When we started out with
Yakuza one, we were talking about, 'Yeah, it would be cool if we could use Kiryu through
Yakuza 2 and
3, but then we'll probably have to change it,'" Sato said. "And then Kiryu became a more and more...let's say attractive and interesting character, so while in four we added [some] other main characters and, [with] five, even more main characters, at the end of the day the story of Kiryu lasted longer than just three Yakuza titles. It lasted six Yakuza titles."
Further Y
akuza 7 details will be shared
at a press conference in Tokyo next week. It's a pivotal moment for the developer. The new character should make
Yakuza 7 another jumping-on point for newcomers. Sato describes Kasuga, and the larger game, as a blank piece of paper. "There's a lot of pressure, of course," he said. "And there's a lot of hard work you have to do when you're starting anew, but it's also an opportunity to think about new backstories, new possibilities, new mechanics when you're creating something from scratch that no Yakuza fan knows anything about."
