Another world Game Developers in Japan`s 1991

Zaboru leaned back in his chair and released a long sigh before smiling to himself. "Sigh… I definitely need to change the story a little. Hehehe…"

The project sitting in front of him was one he had deliberately refused to rush.

Ryu Ga Gotoku.

Or simply Yakuza, as most international players would eventually know it.

In his previous life, it had easily become one of Zaboru's favorite game franchises ever. It stood somewhere alongside Dark Souls, Bloodborne, and Elden Ring in his personal favorites, but for completely different reasons. The Souls games fascinated him because their core gameplay was simply incredibly fun to master. Combat, exploration, boss fights, builds, environmental storytelling—Zaboru could break down exactly why those games worked so well.

Yakuza was different.

Zaboru loved Yakuza simply because it was Yakuza.

The series had flaws. Sometimes the writing became ridiculous. Certain story decisions made absolutely no sense if he thought about them for too long. Some characters survived things that should have killed them several times over, while other characters disappeared from the story because the writers apparently decided they were finished with them.

And yet none of that ever stopped him from loving it.

Yakuza somehow managed to combine serious crime drama, absurd comedy, emotional character stories, brutal street fighting, ridiculous minigames, strange strangers, nightlife, friendship, family, betrayal, and Japanese city life into something no other franchise could properly reproduce.

Zaboru stared at the empty development document for several moments before tapping his fingers against the desk. "The real question is… where the hell do I start?"

He leaned back again and thought about the two obvious choices.

"Yakuza 0 first… or Yakuza 1?"

If he wanted to preserve the release order from his previous life, then Yakuza 1 was the obvious answer. That was where players originally met Kazuma Kiryu, learned about the Tojo Clan, discovered Kamurocho, and experienced the foundation that everything else would eventually build upon.

That was how the franchise had originally begun.

But from a story perspective?

Zaboru slowly smiled.

"Yakuza 0 is actually the beginning."

And that made the decision considerably harder.

Yakuza 0 was special.

Not only as a prequel, but as the game that had completely transformed the reputation of the franchise in Zaboru's previous world.

He chuckled while remembering it. "Yakuza 0 literally took Yakuza from 'that weird Japanese crime game' and turned it into a GOAT franchise."

Before Yakuza 0 became widely available internationally, the series had remained relatively niche outside Japan. Japanese players already understood that Yakuza was far more than simply a game about organised crime, but many international players only saw the title and assumed they already understood it.

Oh. So it's a game about Yakuza.

Cool.

Then they moved on.

But once Yakuza 0 reached a wider audience, especially after appearing on PC and becoming much easier for international players to discover, everything changed.

Players suddenly realised how strange the franchise truly was.

The main story could be incredibly dark and violent, filled with murder, betrayal, power struggles, desperate men, broken families, and people willing to destroy one another over money and reputation.

Then five minutes later, Kiryu could somehow become involved in helping an awkward man learn how to speak to women.

Majima could spend half an hour managing a cabaret club.

Kiryu could become emotionally invested in miniature racing cars.

Some random stranger could challenge him to karaoke.

A serious gangster walking through Kamurocho could suddenly become involved in the dumbest problem imaginable.

And somehow, none of those things destroyed the atmosphere.

If anything, they made the world feel more alive.

Zaboru grinned. "That's the magic."

Yakuza 0 in particular had captured the feeling of Japan's economic bubble era beautifully. The streets were filled with neon lights, money, clubs, businesses, luxury, arrogance, ambition, and people spending ridiculous amounts because the economy seemed unstoppable.

Kiryu have real estate business and hired Chiken as one of its top Manager and its feel so badass.

The contrast made the darker parts of the story even stronger.

Everyone appeared wealthy.

Everyone looked confident.

Yet underneath all that money were people fighting over land, power, status, and control.

Then there was the combat.

Zaboru always found it funny when people described Yakuza as a simple beat-'em-up.

Technically, they were not wrong.

You walked around Japanese streets and punched criminals.

But once someone properly understood the combat system, there was considerably more depth than it first appeared.

Different styles.

Dodges.

Counters.

Throws.

Weapon interactions.

Environmental attacks.

Heat Actions.

Positioning.

Timing.

Combos.

Yakuza 0 had made that even stronger by giving Kiryu and Majima multiple combat styles that could completely change how the player approached a fight.

It was flashy.

Brutal.

Occasionally ridiculous.

Exactly what Yakuza combat should feel like.

Then there were the minigames.

Karaoke.

Dancing.

Arcades.

Gambling.

Darts.

Bowling.

Fishing.

Miniature racing.

Business management.

Cabaret clubs.

And a ridiculous number of other distractions that could make players forget the main story existed for ten hours.

Zaboru chuckled while remembering how many times that had happened to him personally.

"You start the game wanting to save somebody from the Yakuza, and somehow three hours later you're emotionally invested in a tiny racing car."

That was Yakuza.

And that was precisely why he did not want to rush the project.

Zaboru looked at another document containing notes regarding Yakuza 1.

His smile weakened slightly.

"Still… Yakuza 1's story is kind of…"

He stopped.

Then sighed.

"Yeah."

The early Yakuza games were not terrible.

Far from it.

Yakuza 1 had plenty of excellent material. Kazuma Kiryu himself was immediately compelling. Nishikiyama's transformation had enormous emotional potential. Haruka gave Kiryu a much softer side, while the Tojo Clan politics created a strong foundation for future stories.

But when Zaboru compared the writing of the earlier games with the stronger entries that came much later, the weaknesses became extremely obvious.

Especially across Yakuza 1 through Yakuza 4.

There were always great characters and fantastic emotional moments, but sometimes the plots appeared determined to become more complicated than necessary.

Secret organisations.

Ridiculous conspiracies.

Characters returning from apparent death.

Betrayals stacked on top of other betrayals

Rubber Bullets.

People refusing to explain incredibly important information simply because the story needed another misunderstanding.

Dead of really interesting characters.

Then there were certain twists that Zaboru remembered and immediately rubbed his forehead.

"No."

He laughed softly.

"Absolutely not. Some of this shit needs fixing."

That was where his current life gave him an advantage his previous-life developers never had.

Zaboru was not merely researching organised crime from books, movies, interviews, or police records.

He was married into a Yakuza family.

He smiled slightly. "Well… technically my wife is a Yakuza princess."

Ayumi would probably complain if he said that directly to her.

But it was not entirely wrong.

The Hamazou family had once been deeply rooted in the Japanese underworld, and although Akechi was now slowly guiding them toward legitimate business and public operations, that history remained part of the family.

Zaboru knew real Yakuza.

Not fictional stereotypes.

Actual people.

His father-in-law, Akira Hamazou, had spent decades inside that world. His brother-in-law Akechi—known throughout the underworld as Rashomon—was one of the most terrifying planners Zaboru had ever met.

Akechi barely spoke.

He rarely showed emotion.

He could sit through an entire conversation with almost the same expression from beginning to end.

Yet Zaboru had also seen the completely different Akechi who appeared around Zenshin and Arumi. The supposedly emotionless Rashomon could suddenly become warmer, more patient, and noticeably more talkative around his nephew and niece.

That alone reminded Zaboru of something important.

Yakuza members were still people.

Some were violent.

Some were cruel.

Some were loyal.

Some were idiots.

Some were unexpectedly kind.

Some joined because of family.

Others because of poverty, ambition, desperation, loneliness, or simply because they had nowhere else to go.

Even inside the Hamazou family, personalities differed dramatically.

That was something Zaboru wanted to use.

Not by directly copying Akechi or Akira into the game.

That would be incredibly awkward.

But he could borrow pieces.

Mannerisms.

Ways of speaking.

How people showed respect.

How senior members treated juniors.

How internal politics actually worked.

What loyalty meant when organisations operated almost like families.

How someone could commit terrible violence in one situation and then return home and behave completely normally around the people they loved.

Zaboru grinned as ideas began appearing rapidly inside his mind. "Yeah… I definitely need to adjust some of them."

He started typing.

The serious crime drama needed to remain serious.

That was non-negotiable.

The game still needed murders, betrayals, power struggles, broken friendships, corrupt businessmen, police connections, Yakuza families fighting over territory, and people being destroyed by their own ambition.

But Zaboru wanted the organisations themselves to feel more believable.

Not realistic enough that the game became boring.

Still exaggerated.

Still dramatic.

Still unmistakably Yakuza.

Just grounded enough that players could believe these characters had lives beyond standing inside expensive offices waiting for Kiryu to punch them.

He also wanted to improve Nishikiyama considerably.

Zaboru leaned forward as soon as that thought appeared.

Nishiki's downfall had always been one of the most tragic parts of the early franchise, but Zaboru believed the original version had not spent enough time showing that decline naturally.

He wanted players to understand him.

To like him.

To see his relationship with Kiryu before everything fell apart.

Then slowly watch jealousy, insecurity, humiliation, responsibility, and desperation break him apart.

If done correctly, fighting Nishiki later should not simply feel like defeating another villain.

It should hurt.

Zaboru smiled faintly. "Yeah… that could be much better."

Haruka needed stronger development too.

Majima obviously needed to become important earlier.

Not necessarily the exact Majima from Yakuza 0 immediately, but Zaboru already knew what the character could eventually become.

And then there were the substories.

His grin widened.

That was where he could truly go insane.

Serious Yakuza storylines could exist beside the most ridiculous side content imaginable.

A terrified salaryman needing help with something embarrassingly simple.

A boxer who afraid to punch ugly man

A wannabe gangster trying far too hard to look intimidating.

A foreign tourist completely misunderstanding Japanese customs.

A businessman who somehow loses his clothing.

An old woman who turns out to be absurdly dangerous.

A child desperately trying to win something from an arcade machine.

A man convinced his girlfriend has been kidnapped only for Kiryu to discover she simply went shopping.

Zaboru laughed while typing several temporary ideas.

"Okay, that one is stupid."

He paused.

Then added it anyway.

"That means it belongs."

More importantly, Zaboru wanted Kamurocho itself to become almost another main character.

The city needed restaurants.

Arcades.

Bars.

Convenience stores.

Game centres.

Hostess clubs.

Batting cages.

Small businesses.

Back alleys.

Underground locations.

Strange people standing around with problems.

If players wanted to ignore the story for several hours and simply exist inside Kamurocho, the game needed to allow it.

ZEPS 4 would make that considerably easier.

Stronger hardware meant denser streets, more NPCs, better lighting, richer interiors, more detailed characters, smoother transitions, and far fewer interruptions when entering shops or buildings.

The game could feel far more alive than the original Yakuza 1 ever had.

Zaboru stared at his notes again.

The question remained.

Yakuza 0?

Or Yakuza 1?

After several minutes, he smiled.

Perhaps the answer did not need to be decided immediately.

Yakuza was not going to be a ZEPS 4 launch title anyway.

That was intentional.

Zaboru wanted time.

He wanted to experiment.

He wanted to talk indirectly with people from the Hamazou family, observe real behaviour, study the atmosphere of Japanese nightlife, improve the early storylines, create better side content, and make sure the finished game still felt unmistakably like the franchise he loved.

As one of the biggest Yakuza fans from his previous life, simply recreating the original was not enough.

But changing everything would be equally wrong.

Zaboru cracked his fingers before placing both hands back on the keyboard. "Okay then… keep the soul, fix the bullshit, and add more insanity."

He smiled.

That sounded about right.

The empty Yakuza development document was no longer empty for very long.

Zaboru immediately became busy typing as he think about it "Okay… lets research about Yakuza later… next is… well Demon Souls… hehe"

To be continued.

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