In a talk at San Francisco's Game Developer's Conference on Friday, Like a Dragon series director Ryosuke Horii said something simple out loud that I wish more big RPGs truly took to heart: the balance between the "main" narrative and its side stories is what it's all about.
Ask a dozen Like a Dragon fans what they love most about the games and you'll likely get a dozen answers: Suplexing bad guys in brawler combat, deploying weirdo human Pokémon in turn-based battles, karaoke, gambling, running your own resort island… but if there is a single most common answer, it's almost certainly going to be the sidequests. Each Like a Dragon entry has a lengthy and dramatic main quest, but it's often the smaller, quirkier stories around the margins that prove to be surprisingly touching or memorable. "One minute you're fighting for your life, and the next you're teaching a rookie dominatrix how to successfully humiliate perverts," praised PC Gamer editor-in-chief Phil Savage in his review of Yakuza 0. "This clash of realism, drama and comedy might sound like a disparate grab bag of styles, but substories are a key part of why Yakuza 0 works so well."
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