I’m Sad the Like a Dragon Creator’s New Studio Is Closing, But Its Cancelled Debut, Gang of Dragon, Felt Too Much Like a Repeat

The end of denial

Less than a year after the announcement of its first game, and just four years after the studio’s founding, Gang of Dragon developers Nagoshi Studio have been dissolved by a shareholders’ resolution (thanks, Gematsu). This also spells a premature end for Gang of Dragon, which was unveiled at last year’s Game Awards with a flashy trailer showcasing Like a Dragon-esque realistic visuals, combat and exploration through Kabukicho, alongside a couple of new elements such as actual gunplay and car chases, as well as the star power of actor Ma Dong-seok (a.k.a. Don Lee). Following reports in March that NetEase, the studio’s source of funding, would be withdrawing that funding in May due to ballooning costs reaching around seven billion yen, the time has sadly come for Nagoshi Studio, which has not found any alternative funding sources since.

Gang of Dragon looked very much to be ‘just Like a Dragon again’, which I find to be something of a depressing fate for a studio headed by the original series’ creator. Having left Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio following Judgment and Yakuza: Like a Dragon, two of its most innovative games both with new protagonists and one entirely new turn-based gameplay style, it feels indicative of the industry that Nagoshi was granted funding seemingly on the condition that the studio makes something that just looks like the rest of the Like a Dragon series. I love Ma Dong-seok as an actor, but his presence was one of the more blatant, ‘look, we got that guy!’ castings of the LAD archetype, which is saying something considering Infinite Wealth had fucking Danny Trejo in a prominent role. The trailer closing with a shot of Dong-seok framed by Kabukicho’s torii gate, maybe the most famous image from the Like a Dragon series, put a sour taste in my mouth as being just more of the same brand recognition (yet, for a new IP!) to prioritise safe return on investment.

I’m unfortunately not that surprised to see Gang of Dragon and Nagoshi Studio lost to time, though I am sad about it. I have some conflicted feelings on Nagoshi as a person/auteur, but I don’t think he, or his studio, deserves to have funding pulled before they could even release anything as a result of NetEase deciding to pull investments out of non-Chinese companies over time. It’s unknown what Nagoshi and the team will be attempting next, but I truly hope they can eventually make something. No Více Heroes studio Grasshopper Manufacture was able to detach themselves from NetEase very recently and possibly avoid a similar fate, so it might not be impossible.