To a casual observer, adapting Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio’s swaggering action-RPG looks like a much more straightforward, greenscreen-free proposition. No need to build clanking mech armour or deploy CGI sleight-of-hand to convincingly remove your leading man’s nose. The Yakuza brand started out as a contemporary street-level Tokyo crime saga, albeit one capable of reaching operatic heights of melodrama. Thanks to an obsessive amount of architectural and anthropological detail, its fictional setting of Kamurocho has always felt palpably real, from the iconic red gate on Tenkaichi Street to the tight, cluttered warren of the Champion District.
