While spin-off games of the Yakuza franchise are generally shorter, that won't be the case for the upcoming Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii, due in early 2025, as it's confirmed to be a longer game compared to its predecessor, Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name.
This was something RGG Studio director Masayoshi Yokoyama said in a new interview, where the developer also explained how they're not trying to lengthen the game artificially.
Expect Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii To Be 1.3x Longer Than The Last Spin-Off Game
According to Masayoshi Yokoyama, the volume of a game is determined by the length of its central storyline. Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii is about 1.3 times longer (about 30 percent) compared to The Man Who Erased His Name.
It's not a case of RGG Studio purposefully adding stuff to make the game longer; as Yokoyama explains, developers can increase a game's volume as much as they want "if they try hard enough." This can be done by adding fetch quests and the like, but in Piratate Yakuza in Hawaii, it turned out to be a longer game without the devs even trying....
