Continuing its development of video game series, Amazon’s latest adaptation is Like a Dragon: Yakuza. The Yakuza games aren’t the most popular titles over here in the West, but with the release of Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, we have seen the audience grow and it’s safe to say the fans that do exist are diehard.
However, it seems that the cast of the upcoming show aren’t fans of the source material, and haven’t played the games. It’s even explained in their interview with GamesRadar that they were told by the show’s creators to avoid playing the games.
“I know these games – everybody in the world knows these games. But I haven’t played them,” said Kiryu actor Ryoma Takeuchi. “I’d like to try them but they had to stop me because they wanted to – for the character in the script – explore from scratch. That’s why I decided not to play.”
Kento Kaku, who will play Akira Nishikiyama, added that “We decided we would make sure we would do our own version, relive the characters, take their spiritual elements, and embody them on our own. There was a clear line we wanted to draw but everything on the bottom was respect.”
We have seen successful video game adaptations without people playing the games. Take a look at Fallout, for example, but considering the actors in Like a Dragon: Yakuza are playing pre-established characters, it might have done some good to get to know them.
What do you think of this?