Producer of the Yakuza Series Wants to Make a Sonic Game

How do the words "Sonic the Hedgehog by the producer of Yakuza" sound to you? Because if Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio's Daisuke Sato apparently had a choice of which other SEGA franchises he'd like to make a game for, he'd definitely go for Sonic.

yakuza producer sonic game In an official SEGA interview in honour of the company’s 60th anniversary celebration, Daisuke Sato, credited on various Yakuza titles throughout the franchise and its current producer, had his say on why and how he’d take on the creation of his on Sonic the Hedgehog game. 

It’s an IP that I haven’t come to before. In the sense that I want to try it, … well, Sonic. After all, when you hear Sega you think Sonic. I’d like to get involved once at least. But for me, the so-called Sonic is, well, if I were to do it, I wouldn’t do Sonic as it was. I would like to make a completely different Sonic.

Sadly, we didn’t get any elaboration what Sato would do differently. Would he have Sonic and Knuckles curb stomp Dr. Eggman’s various hordes of robotic drones as per one of the Yakuza series’ popular violent tropes? Would Tails peruse in-game SEGA arcades to play retro titles like Outrun and Virtua Fighter 2? Just like our favourite hard-hitting Yakuza protagonist, Kazuma Kiryu would? Only time will tell, depending if SEGA executives take this personal preference as an application submission to work with the blue speedster, I guess. 

Until then you can watch the full interview below.

Daisuke Sato’s latest credits have been on Yakuza: Like a Dragon and Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio’s recent spin-off title, Judgement, also as a producer. Other series and individual games he’s worked on include Virtua Fighter, Super Monkey Ball, F-Zero AX/GX, Fist of the North Star: List Paradise and Streets of Rage 4. If SEGA were looking for someone with a varied résumé of games featuring both family fun and heavy action to helm a Sonic game, it would be this man.

Yakuza: Like a Dragon is one of the newest games kicking off the latest console generation, being both playable on the PS5 and the Xbox Series X/S. Still unsure which of the new systems you should invest your cash into when stock becomes available? Then check out my console buying guide, taking your gaming preferences into account to find out which is best for you.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

×