Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio successfully took the Yakuza franchise in a new direction with Yakuza 7: Like a Dragon, swapping out action combat with a new turn-based party system and introducing a new cast of characters. Now, it looks like Yakuza 8 is nearing a reveal, as the first screenshots of the game have been spotted.

Recently, Japanese YouTuber, Mikuru Asakura, went to the studio to interview Masayoshi Yokoyama. Some of the video is filmed on the main studio floor, with developers going about their days and working on Yakuza 8. Due to this, some monitors seen in the video are displaying scenes from the new game, giving us our first screenshots:

As reported by Famitsu, in one of the scenes seen in the video, we can see Namba and Adachi discussing something. In another screenshot, we see an afro-less Kasuga. This is off-screen footage, so we can't really draw many conclusions about graphical quality. The most interesting part about these screenshots is that it confirms a couple of returning characters for your party from the previous game.

Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio should reveal Yakuza 8 properly later this year, perhaps in September when the Tokyo Games Show takes place. Presumably, the game will release on Xbox, PC and PlayStation on day-one.

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KitGuru Says: Yakuza 7 is my favourite game in the series and even though we don't see much of Yakuza 8 in these screenshots, I am very pleased to see Namba and Adachi returning to the party in the next game. Hopefully some of the other party characters also return.

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