With the official announcement in the interview with Famitong at the end of January, the whereabouts of the original Sega "Like Dragon" series producer Yue Minoru have finally come to light - NetEase Mingyue Studio. It is not difficult to see the sincerity of NetEase from the name of the studio, and the core members of the current team are all old acquaintances of Mingyue in the Sega period.
Despite this, the outside world is still worried about whether NetEase, which is currently more prominent in the mobile game market, will affect the future work direction of Mingyue. In a recent interview with IGN Japan, Nagoshi responded to players' concerns by making it clear that he would not make products such as puzzle mobile games because "those games are fun, but they are not what we are good at."
The name is More than a Yoshiyoshi
Do a "high-level narrative game" in a "good atmosphere"
In order to facilitate the development of new work, it is not unusual for star producers to jump to a new company with old acquaintances, but Nagoshi's explanation of this is quite meaningful - to maintain a "good atmosphere".
Although he now looks like the gangster boss in a Japanese movie, this spontaneous "big brother" also has a rather "little brother" past. As a teenager, Nagoshi never touched games, and his interests were in manga, film, and writing. Obsessed with developing in the film industry, he did not feel the fun of the game for the first time until he got a red and white machine from Nintendo from his girlfriend in college.
After graduation, he unfortunately bumped into the low point of Japanese movies and unexpectedly won the favor of Sega. But this layman, who couldn't even use a computer, was ridiculed by his colleagues after he joined the company, and the company's predecessors did not seriously teach him relevant knowledge. At that time, when Japan's bubble economy collapsed, he was worried that his hasty departure would affect his livelihood, and he could only swallow his anger and wait for the opportunity.
Super monkey ball
Fortunately, the game industry at that time was undergoing a transformation from 2D to 3D, and the film expertise gained in Nagoshi University came in handy, and the successive departures of his predecessors gradually gave him a say. Since then, from "Sleepwalking america" to "Super Monkey Ball" to "Like a Dragon", Nagoshi's talent has finally been fully released on the game stage. It is precisely because of these workplace experiences that he has a special dedication to "good atmosphere".
In an interview with IGN, Nagoshi said that the new studio currently has about 10 people, but even if it is full in the future, it will not exceed 100 people, and he is considering outsourcing more work to other companies in Europe, america and Asia. He wanted to connect compact studios with "good games" and "fun games" while maintaining a "good atmosphere." Therefore, he is very grateful to Sega's old friends for once again coming together with him to build a "team with temperature".
The Nagoshi Studio LOGO movie is full of atmosphere
The emphasis on atmosphere is also an important reason why Nagoshi chose to leave Sega. In his view, NetEase not only has strong financial strength, but also a developer who is really engaged in game research and development like his team, which also makes both sides have more empathy. Joining NetEase would give him greater creative freedom without having to think about the company's overall business and financial plans, as was during the Sega period.
With a streamlined team, greater freedom, and resource security, Nagoshi was finally able to create a "fun game." For the new project, in addition to making it clear that he will not do mobile games, Nagoshi also revealed that due to the influence of the film, he hopes to continue to create high-level narrative games.
The understanding of "high-level narrative games" may still start from "Like a Dragon".
Cinematic narrative that makes the world fall in love with day trips again
When you think of Japanese storytellers, you might think of a lot of names: Hayao Miyazaki, Gen Ikubuchi, Maeda Jun, and even Hideo Kojima. Compared to them, Nagoshi was undoubtedly faced with a more difficult perspective to deal with when making "Like a Dragon" - the real world. More specifically, it's the Japanese gang.
Those who know a little about Japanese society know that gangs in Japan are not a black-and-white topic, but a gray group that always wanders between black and white. They would hand out candy to the children in suits and leather, but they would also set off a bloody storm in the dark corners. Because of this, how "Like a Dragon" portrays the most authentic Japanese gangsters has become the key to success or failure.
In the end, this filmmaker from this class chose the most heartfelt way of expression - to see the big in the small. From "Like Dragon 1" to "Like Dragon 6", the six generations of works actually only tell the story of the protagonist Kiryu Ichima alone. This man, born of benevolence and righteousness, entered the underworld by following his adoptive father, who was kind to him. Since then, from special forces, CIA agents, to professional killers, tigers, in the fight with countless black and white enemies, he himself has grown from 37 years old in 1 generation to 48 years old in 6 generations. These eleven years of birth and death also depict the changes in Japanese society as a whole.
Another character who makes players feel mixed is Haruka Sawamura, who is not even a protagonist group. In the first generation, she is only a 9-year-old girl who leaves the nursery in search of her mother, and accidentally becomes the object of Kiryu Kazuma's lifelong protection. This miserable little girl has an over-age calmness, and she is calm in the face of underworld, kidnapping and various customs and topics that are inappropriate for children. From the 1st generation to the 6th generation, looking for a mother, studying, becoming an idol, retiring from the circle, giving birth to a child by accident, and becoming a hostage again in order to protect the child, this thin body has always touched the heartstrings of players in the shadows of black and white.
In order to further enhance the authenticity of the game, Nagoshi also let the voice actors really "star" in the game. For example, in the 5th generation, the staff of the underground arena, the face module, adopted the appearance of Kuroda Takaya himself, who voiced Kazuma Kiryu. The use of a large number of actors to directly participate in the game performance is a major feature of "Like Dragon", and this idea of highly combining the game with the movie also achieves the unique realism and artistry of "Like Dragon".
Contrary to the delicate character portrayal, the "Like a Dragon" series has a grand game stage and freedom that is not inferior to "GTA". In this infinitely real-world open world, players can not only advance the main storyline, but also enjoy a large number of side content and mini-games interspersed with it. At the same time, as an action RPG game, in the core combat mechanism, "Like Dragon" also has a very high degree of completion, in addition to refreshing fighting, QTE (rapid reaction) gameplay and other enhancement elements are readily available, therefore, "Like Dragon" is not just a "3D animation movie", as a standard sense of the action RPG masterpiece, in terms of gameplay, "Like Dragon" has also withstood the harsh test of the market.
Because of this, in 2020, the "Like a Dragon" series, which had been around for fifteen years at the time, sold more than 14 million sets worldwide. Even Nagoshi himself did not expect that in the context of the overall decline in overseas sales of Japanese games after entering the 21st century, this game that is completely based on Japan as a stage and has no elements to please foreign players can achieve such amazing global sales.
Would "fun games" be a good business?
Although the purely Eastern perspective of "Like a Dragon" has also achieved great success in the Western world, Nagoshi did not explicitly state in an interview with IGN that the next work will still use the Eastern world as a stage. He simply stressed that if the game itself is a grand proposition that focuses on "humans", as long as it is completed enough, it can be enjoyed by players in all countries.
In GameLook's view, if you combine the market performance of narrative games with Mingyue's statement about "not doing mobile games", you may be able to better understand the commercial considerations behind his words.
The current mobile platform, interactive games that rely purely on plot to win, except for a small number of text AVG games transplanted from PC, are basically based on female products. The basic business logic is to pay for the script, and players can get a "movie experience" after purchasing a script. On the PC side, independent games represented by "Invisible Guardians" have verified the feasibility of another business model, that is, expanding a single script into a complete interactive video work through high-quality performances, and then stimulating users to pay.
But either way, it is difficult to match the production cost and expression of "Like a Dragon", a 3AA movie-level narrative game that is both ornamental and gameplay. Therefore, from a business point of view, the products that Mingyue wants to build are difficult to effectively monetize on the mobile phone platform, and the buyout of the stand-alone end game is undoubtedly more in line with Mingyue's pursuit.
It is worth noting that in 2019, NetEase invested in Quantic Dream, the developer of Detroit: Becoming Human. Although the background stage is far from "Like a Dragon", "Detroit: Becoming a Human" is also a "revolutionary narrative product" that uses a lot of 3D motion capture technology.
In a sense, "Detroit: Becoming a Human" and "Like a Dragon" confirm the broad prospects of interactive narrative game 3A from different cultural backgrounds in the East and the West: products that take into account gameplay and storytelling can enjoy players with different preferences, and compared with mobile game players with fragmented game time, end gamers naturally have better phases for this interactive narrative game that requires a long immersive experience.
Since he chose Duanyou as the next point of strength and wants to develop it into a good business, Nagoshi naturally does not dwell on whether the stage is still dominated by Japan. For global players, what kind of world-class sparks can be collided with the CP of NetEase and Mingyue in the post-"Like Dragon" era, which naturally deserves more expectations.
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