Despite Kazuma Kiryu spending smacking people across the face with his fists and throwing whole-ass motorbikes at them, he's still shied away from guest-starring in any fighting games. That's largely down to original series creator Toshihiro Nagoshi telling Red Bull back in 2020 that he didn't want to see Kiryu attacking any women.
With Nagoshi departing Sega in 2021 and leaving things in the hands of Masayoshi Yokoyama, I've been secretly hoping that the series' new producer would have a different opinion on Kiryu's place in the FGC. Well, he kinda does, but don't get too excited: It's still looking pretty dang unlikely.
Speaking to Polygon, Yokoyama was asked about the possibility of Kiryu and other Yakuza characters like Ichiban Kasuga and Goro Majima guest starring in a fighting game. It seems Yokoyama has bigger, multimedia plans for the gang, saying he'd prefer to see them crossing over into other mediums. Considering there's a live action TV series hitting Amazon later this year, it seems like he's already well on the way to making that happen.
- 'Fight me': Ben Starr humorously responds to disappointment about Clive Rosfield in Tekken 8 by showing off his cosplay of the Final Fantasy character everyone thought it would be
- 'Oh, don't worry about this': Tekken boss denies he's leaving Bandai Namco after saying he's open to work on LinkedIn, claims it's just because he wants to 'meet more people'
Despite his desire to have Yakuza transcend videogames, it seems that doesn't stop other developers from trying to snag its characters for a guest appearance. "We receive all kinds of invitations to appear in other games, but we never actually went over to their doorstep and said 'let us in,'" Yokoyama said. "I think going cross-medium is the better way to go about it."
The Tekken fan in me can't help but be a little bit gutted by the response. I think it's safe to say that alongside Final Fantasy 7's Tifa Lockhart, Kiryu is easily one of the most fan-requested characters to make an appearance as DLC in Tekken 8. As someone who's been rocking a Majima cosplay on Claudio for several months now, I may also be a little bit biased in my desire to see a Yakuza crossover happen. Maybe one day, eh? A girl can dream.
