Yakuza: Like a Dragon is currently the latest entry in the long-running and highly praised action-adventure beat 'em up RPG franchise. Taking quite a departure from all previous series entries, Like a Dragon’s producer has now revealed that the game was heavily inspired by the worldwide anime phenomenon One Piece.

Started all the way back in 1997, One Piece is one of the longest-running and most popular anime of all time – going stronger than ever after a quarter of a century. The manga/anime has inspired many over these decades, and according to RGG Studio producer Masayoshi Yokoyama Like a Dragon was highly influenced by One Piece, saying in a recent interview with Crunchyroll:

“I've never really talked about this before, so I'm not sure if I should just go for it now, but for [Yakuza] 7 I was really, really inspired by One Piece. To me, Ichiban is basically Luffy. And around him there's Zoro and Nami and basically the rest of the party, you know? One Piece's party composition was on my mind so much during writing that it was a massive influence.”

With this knowledge in mind, the inspirations are clear – with Ichiban’s tendency to do good and help others for little gain leading to him drawing a crowd of friends mirroring Luffy’s character in One Piece.

With another Like a Dragon game on its way, it will be interesting to see whether more One Piece parallels are put into place.

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KitGuru says: Do you watch One Piece? Can you see the inspiration in Like a Dragon? What else would you like to see RGG Studio take inspiration from? Let us know down below.

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