The release date of "Ryu ga Gotoku 8" was announced! Report on "RGG SUMMIT FALL 2023" with Takaya Kuroda, Osamu Iguchi (King Gnu), Akio Otsuka, Sumire Uesaka and other main cast members on stage.

On Wednesday, September 20, 2023, the "RGG SUMMIT FALL 2023" was held to present the latest information on the popular "Yakuza" game series.

The event began with comments from Yojiro Noda of RADWIMPS. The opening movie was then shown with the theme song "Katajiki" from "Yakuza7 Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name," which will be released on November 9, 2023 (Thursday). This song was written with the rapper J.I.D., whom he admires.

In the video interview with Mr. Noda that follows, he talks about how he wrote the song with the essence of jazz that flows through him, although he has not expressed it much in the band. Furthermore, Mr. Noda passionately describes how he came to know J.I.D. and the inspiration he received from him through remote collaboration. The passion he put into this song could be felt in the content.

After the movie, Mr. Masayoshi Yokoyama, representative of Yakuza Studio and executive producer, took the stage. He announced the opening of the summit. First, he expressed his gratitude to Mr. Noda for providing music that matches the world view of "Yakuza7 Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name," and declared that this summit would focus on information about "Yakuza8," the latest in the long-awaited series of numbered titles coming next.

First, it is announced that the release date for "Yakuza8" has been set for January 26, 2024 (Friday). This was greeted with many comments of delight on the video feed, saying that the release date was "much earlier than expected." Without a moment's pause, a 10-minute trailer for "Yakuza8" was shown for the first time. The trailer also revealed the shocking fact that Kazuma Kiryu had been battling cancer, and the "Yakuza" fans were excited by the sheer volume of information that they could not process right away. We encourage you to check out the video as many times as you like.

Mr. Yokoyama said of the current work, "This is a story with a double protagonist, Kasuga Ichiban and Kiryu Kazuma. Roughly speaking, from Kasuga's point of view, it is a journey to find his mother," he said. He goes to Hawaii, where his mother is said to be, but is tricked by various people and finds himself lying naked on the beach.

As for the game part of the game, he explained that the "Live Command RPG" system is the best suited to portray the story of Kiryu, who lives his life not alone but supported by his friends, and that the same game system was adopted following "7". He also passionately stated, "I definitely want fans who loved Kazuma Kiryu to see what Kiryu can do in "Yakuza8.

There was still much more to say about the game, but at this point, he called the splendid cast members who had been waiting offstage to join him on stage. The seven people playing the party members, Kazuhiro Nakatani (playing Kasuga Ichiban), Takaya Kuroda (playing Kazuma Kiryu), Ken Yasuda (playing Yu Namba), Osamu Iguchi of King Gnu (playing Eric Tomizawa), Akio Otsuka (playing Koichi Adachi), Sumire Uesaka (playing Saeko Mukoda), and Anju Iha (playing Chitose Fujimiya) When they took the stage, the audience applauded loudly.

What an interesting game to play in a talk session! and the two who play the double heroes first talked about their impressions of the trailer. Mr. Kuroda, who plays Kiryu, commented on this game, "I think Kiryu's view of life and death and his preparedness for it are much more unique than that of most people, and I thought he would be prepared to fight whatever disease comes his way. When asked how he played the role of the sick Kiryu, he replied that he had almost died from illness many times in his life, so he played the role while remembering that.

Yasuda, who had participated in the previous "Yakuza7," when asked what people thought of his performance, replied, "It exceeded my expectations. I have been acting for about 28 years, and I have never seen a character that I played in a live-action film walk on its own. I am very happy to have been able to realize it for the first time in this work. I am happy that I was able to realize that for the first time in this film. ...... Well, it's a pain and an itch (laughs)," he says, eliciting laughter.

Iguchi-san, who had played the "Yakuza" series as a student, also said that she was grateful for the many cigarette breaks during the long recording period, and Yokoyama revealed an episode in which she had become so familiar with the site that she talked with employees in the company's smoking area. Many people may have been surprised by his acting ability when they saw the trailer.

Akio Otsuka said of his character Adachi, "Adachi is full of bad parts. But when you play a role in a story, you are not allowed to play the bad parts. However, the character becomes three-dimensional by having the audience see the bad parts. I was allowed to do that a lot, so I love the character.

Uesaka said that two of the women are big fans of the "Yakuza" series, and that they kept getting spoilers in the scripts. Uesaka said that two of the female players were big fans of the "Yakuza" series, and that they were constantly being spoiled by the scripts. He said enthusiastically, "If you are playing the movie, make sure to use the restroom before the movie starts. Iba, who won the role in an audition and is participating for the first time, even said, "Being invited to this event is a treasure of my life. Chitose is a key character in this production, so please pay attention to her.

The contents of the game were also introduced. 8" is set in Hawaii and features a more powerful battle system!　A number of new jobs have been added in the job change after experiencing the activities!　There are also karaoke rooms and an overwhelming lineup of mini-games to choose from!

Yokoyama said that the battle action has been improved compared to "Yakuza7" in terms of operability and real-time performance, and that everyone should look forward to it. I think it's a great point for those of you who liked Kiryu's battle style in the past, and it's a good fusion of RPG and action, and I felt it made the game much more interesting.

As for Hawaii, the setting of the event, he also shared a story about the difficulties he had to go through while remotely communicating with a local production company, as location scouting was not possible due to the Corona Disaster. When the restrictions were eased, the art staff was finally able to go to Hawaii to confirm the location. The stage is so large that I don't think we will be able to play it all," he said. The volume of the game is huge, and I have no doubt that it will be the best of all time," he said confidently.

Nakatani also commented on the karaoke performance, "I'm already in the groove!　My abdominal muscles and back muscles were tight during the recording. I was so excited that I was shouting with all my might, so please press the button and get into the groove.

The "RGG SUMMIT FALL 2023" was a talk-filled event. Next year is the year of the dragon, so I think we will have the best dragon year ever. The best story awaits us, so please look forward to it! Nakatani said, and Yokoyama concluded, "The theme of this year's festival is travel. The idea started when I wondered how Kasuga Ichiban and Kiryu Kazuma would live their lives if they were to travel outside of Japan. As we were making the film, I thought that RGG Studio was also on a journey in a sense. I hope that this series will be the first step in taking the world by storm as we set the story overseas for the first time and create a story based on various themes. I am so pleased with the response that I want to release it tomorrow, so I want to deliver something good to people all over the world! I would like to deliver good products to people all over the world!