The Yakuza saga has seen its popularity in the West increase exponentially in recent years. At last we can play the entire main saga on the same platform and the last two games of the franchise have reached us localized in Spanish. As if that were not enough, Yakuza has opened the doors to more platforms, arriving for the first time on Xbox and PC. The latest release in the franchise, Yakuza: Like a Dragon, accompanied the departure of Xbox Series X | S and presented us with a new protagonist, as well as a radical change in the style of play.
Ichiban Kasuga is very different from what Kiryu had us used to, and he more than wins our affection throughout the hours of play of Yakuza: Like a Dragon. Thus, it seems that this litmus test has been passed by Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio, which has managed to completely renew a saga with 15 years behind it. Now it’s time to look to the future and precisely that future is linked to Ichiban, as his voice actor has confirmed in a recent interview with Famitsu that GameRant collects.
Ichiban Kasuga will be the protagonist of Yakuza for the next 10 years
The Japanese media interviewed Kazuhiro Nakaya and Takaya Kuroda, voice actors of Ichiban and Kiryu respectively and it was the voice actor of Ichiban who dropped a pearl that can make it clear to us what the future of the saga will be. Nakaya commented that the producer and head of Yakuza, Toshihiro Nagoshi, pushed him away and spoke to him privately saying “Nakaya, you are going to help me live off this for the next 10 years. “
It seems obvious that Nagoshi is confident that Nakaya will reprise his role as Ichiban’s voice actor and that he will be the protagonist of Yakuza for the next 10 years, forging a legend on the level of Kiryu’s. For his part, the voice actor of the mythical hero commented that he would not dislike going back to work giving voice to Kiryu, but that it was time for the saga to be renewed. For its part, it seems that we will soon have news of a new Yakuza, all while we are still waiting for the arrival of Yakuza: Like a Dragon to PS5 next March.
