Sega and Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio have had a robust 2024, and issues stay getting higher. Even discounting acclaimed titles from different Sega studios like Atlus’ Metaphor: ReFantazio, RGG Studio has launched Like a Dragon 8: Countless Wealth, Tremendous Monkey Ball Banana Rumble, and Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown’s 2.0 console replace. It’s then kicking 2025 off with the Steam release of Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. and Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii. In any case of that, the 2024 Recreation Awards introducing a brand new IP referred to as Challenge Century and a Virtua Fighter reboot appears like a victory lap.
Little is understood about those two fresh additions to RGG Studio’s slate, however with such a lot of different video games from the developer to play, that isn’t an issue. Even though Challenge Century isn’t showed as a part of the Yakuza, or Like a Dragon, universe that RGG Studio is understood for, it’s going to be a welcome new environment whether it is, and an extraordinary transfer by means of the developer if it is not. In the meantime, a brand new Virtua Fighter marks the top of over a decade of Virtua Fighter 5 stasis, and is a dream come true for lovers. Those two video games are each thrilling new frontiers for RGG Studio, and that is the reason no longer their simplest similarity.
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Virtua Fighter 6’s Reboot Standing is at a Fork within the Street
The long-anticipated revival of the collection was once introduced with Virtua Fighter 6, and the years since its predecessor makes one resolution key.
How RGG Studio’s Historical past Informs Its Fashionable Video games
Whilst RGG Studio and its predecessors AM11, R&D4, Amusement Imaginative and prescient, and New Leisure R&D Dept. have labored on many alternative video games and genres, RGG is most commonly related to the collection that gave it its identify, Ryu Ga Gotoku. Recognized in English as Yakuza, the collection normally produced action-RPGs that mixed intense brawler motion with unusually concerned storytelling and a whole lot of minigames. No less than one Yakuza recreation, or one thing sharing its gameplay, has been introduced once a year all through RGG Studio and New Leisure R&D’s life, and they have remained remarkably constant right through that point.
The Turning Level For RGG Studio and Like a Dragon
This is, till Yakuza: Like a Dragon was once launched in 2020. Earlier collection protagonist Kazuma Kiryu stepped down in choose of Ichiban Kasuga, and no longer simplest did Yakuza’s English identify additionally make manner for the extra correct Like a Dragon moniker, its gameplay was once additionally changed. Long gone had been the real-time hack-and-slash fights of previous video games, with Like a Dragon 7‘s battles changing into turn-based RPG encounters. Aspect video games reminiscent of Like a Dragon Lawn: The Guy Who Erased His Title, Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii, and the Judgement collection retain LaD’s previous brawler gameplay, however RGG’s signature franchise has in a different way completely reinvented itself.
Virtua Fighter and Challenge Century Include An RGG Studio Custom
One may just view the 2 latest RGG Studio tasks because the developer proceeding to damage new flooring, however there’s differently to interpret them. Each Virtua Fighter and Challenge Century retain some type of the vintage brawler fight that RGG Studio was once identified for earlier than 2020’s Yakuza: Like a Dragon. Neither have applied real-time fight within the actual manner a Like a Dragon recreation would, with Virtua Fighter status out as a PvP-based 3-D combating recreation, however they’re much nearer to the previous norm than LaD 7 and 8 had been.
Challenge Century appears particularly very similar to Like a Dragon’s previous gameplay taste, despite the fact that it has dialed up the blood and weapon violence more than the previous crime drama franchise up to now dared. Virtua Fighter may just additionally finally end up with a Like a Dragon tale and exploration components because of RGG’s involvement, leading to an LaD-adjacent tale mode that’s like a 3-D-flavored Side road Fighter 6 Global Excursion. Regardless, it’s essential to see RGG Studio’s motion recreation experience flourish whilst Like a Dragon follows its personal trail, with Virtua Fighter and Challenge Century feeling proper at house within the studio’s action-filled library.