As games continue to grow in size and scale, it's not uncommon to hear that a AAA title has been in development for five or more years. This is seemingly far from the case with Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio's Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name.
Speaking in an interview with Automaton, RGG Studio studio director, Masayoshi Yokoyama, revealed how long the game has been in development for, and simply put, it's a surprisingly short amount of time.
Specifically, Yokoyama states that "it took us about half a year to make it." As for why the timeline was so short, the game was originally planned to be a DLC for Like a Dragon 8, but the team decided to flesh it out and tell the latest chapter in Kazuma Kiryu's story in its own title instead.
"We could have just told of Kiryu's past through a thirty-minute interlude as part of Like a Dragon 8, but we decided it would be a lot more interesting as a game of its own, which is how the project came to be. Though this meant having a whole extra game to make, it still uses the same engine, so we thought "It's not like we have to make it from scratch".
Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name launches on November 8 on PC and consoles.
