Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is shaping up to be a monster of a game, and developer Yokoyama Masayoshi is worried that its length may turn off potential players. In an interview with Game Watch, Yokoyama expressed his concerns that Infinite Wealth’s monster-class play time could lead to players feeling overwhelmed and giving up on the game before they even have a chance to experience all it has to offer.
In the interview with Game Watch (translated by Automaton Media) Masayoshi went on about where Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth was going in terms of length. The idea is that it may be a bit too big for players.
“The games take a long time to clear, don’t they? Gaiden not so much, but Infinite Wealth is a monster-class game longer than anything we’ve made so far. If you go at it continuously, you’ll get sick, and it won’t end with just one or two all-nighters. This means that a lot of people are going to hesitate to play the game or will end up having it wait on their shelves. I found the possibility of that kind of outcome sad, so I thought, we have to get everyone hyped up enough to play it.”
Yokoyama Masayoshi
To combat this potential problem, Yokoyama and his team are working on creating a festival-like atmosphere around Infinite Wealth. This includes holding various PR events and generating excitement for the game through social media and other channels. Yokoyama hopes that by getting people excited about the game, they will be more likely to pick it up and give it a chance, even if they know it’s going to be a long commitment.
“We have to get people to play the game in about a week or a month, even at the cost of their health, which is why it’s our duty as creators to generate enough to be excited about. I’ve thought this way for the past year or two – for a game like Infinite Wealth, we have to get a festival going on. It would feel kind of rude to just drop such a long game and be done with it (laughs).”
Yokoyama Masayoshi
I’ve rarely seen a developer say there’s “too much” in their game as a bad thing because that sounds great to me. The Like a Dragon series hasn’t been known to inflate a game with unneeded quests. Honestly, I am really looking forward to seeing it all play out.
