Ryu ga Gotoku [Model SLPM-66168]

The game was first hinted at in August 2005 as Project J. Later that month, details were announced. Producer Toshihiro Nagoshi explained "For a while now, I've wanted to create a powerful, gritty drama where you feel the sense of humanity," Nagoshi explained. "After a lot of thought, this is the product that we've arrived at." The budget of the game was 2.4 billion yen (approx. $21 million). Nagoshi chose the focus on yakuzas due to the amount of violence the subject tends to incorporate. This was also done in order to attract more gamers with this theme, believing there were less gamers during the time the game was made.

Most of the team members are from different backgrounds, such as developers that have their roots in the arcade with titles such as Virtua Fighter 3 and Super Monkey Ball, as well as team members having experience in novel console titles like Panzer Dragoon and Jet Set Radio. The team members all felt that they went against their careers considering that the new game didn't match anything they had previously done. Nagoshi felt that this was an advantage, making them all play on even playing field. Anything that was done had to go through Nagoshi first, since only he had a concrete idea of how the game is going to end up.

During development, the team researched hostess clubs, which are prominently featured in the story, even attending hostess clubs themselves, including Roppongi and Kabukicho. The fictional setting of Kamurocho in the game was closely based on the red-light district of Kabukicho in Tokyo. The development team wanted to accurately portray yakuza, especially such as their obsession with jingi, their code of honor. Originally the game had scenes where pinky fingers were cut off, a traditional punishment, but these scenes were removed so that CERO would give Ryu ga Gotoku a favorable rating. Though using the gameplay schematics of one of Nagoshi's earlier titles, Spikeout, as basis for the combat, Ryu ga Gotoku utilized an entirely new engine crafted for the game.

The game's development team was divided into two groups: one writing the main plot and the other writing the subplots. Novelist Hase Seishu was the lead writer of the central plot. Seishu was brought on board two years before the game development started. Seishu had been a gamer since the days of Space Invaders, but over the past four or five years, he had lost interest, as he was less concerned with 3D visuals and gameplay than he was with story. Ryu ga Gotoku caught his attention, and he decided to accept the project even though it came at the busiest point of his professional writing career. Nagoshi wanted players to get enjoyment from merely walking through Kamurocho. Nagoshi reveals that the game's title, which translates to "Like a Dragon," was his creation; Nagoshi felt that dragons have a strong image, which would evoke Kazuma's strength and manliness.

Although Sega did have a plot in mind when they approached Seishu, they hoped that he could add realism and emotional weight to the scenes. Under Seishu's direction, the ages of Makoto Date and Kazuma Kiryu were modified. Writing the subplots did not prove challenging, as there was not a strict pattern to follow. The team wanted all subplots to keep the feeling from the main storyline. Several ideas did not make it into the game because the staff members found them silly. One subplot that made the final cut, which involves a man who tried to commit suicide when he was rejected by a girl, was nearly removed from this game for this reason.

In order to both support the game's expensive production, including making Kamurocho a realistic recreation of Tokyo's Kabukicho, Sega contracted a tie-in campaign with famous Japanese companies. As a result, some in-game locations, such as the Don Quijote discount store and the Club Sega game centers are modeled after the real life buildings.

Sega also used product placement, and introduced ads within the game. This includes a collaboration with the Japanese Suntory group which advertises in-game with ad banners, Boss Coffee ads and vending machines are also visible in Kamurocho; cans are purchasable within Kamurocho stores. Since the group produces local drinks and is a distributor of foreign alcohols, all brands appearing in Kamurocho's bars and pubs, being Whiskey, Jack Daniel's Bourbon or Carlsberg Beer, are real brands of Suntory. In promoting the game, Sega hired Takashi Miike. A member from the team had previously worked with Toei Company on V-cinema. Sega approached many companies to try to secure product placement, like car companies and fashion companies. But because of the mature nature of the Yakuza game, they were rejected by most of them. The whiskey distributor Suntory accepted, however, since they felt the game's demographic meshed nicely with the whiskey-drinking demographic.

Other product placements include Shogakukan's Sabra magazine, Fujisankei Communications Group's SPA! magazine and Panini Group's World Club Cup stickers. The latter appears in a TV ad, together with a Suntory drink and a Sega mahjong game, which is displayed in the Kamurocho theater wall screen. Sega's UFO Catcher crane game machines are included as a minigame, and arcade cabinets of Virtua Fighter 4 and SpikeOut can be seen in the Club Sega game centers.

The game was heavily acclaimed in Japan for combining innovative gameplay with cinema-like story telling and character development on the back of Japan's criminal underground. The game sold 232,650 units in Japan during 2005. In 2006 it shipped 345,323 units.

Re-Editions:
[JP] "Ryu ga Gotoku [Model SLPM-74234]" (2006)
[JP] "Ryu ga Gotoku [Model SLPM-74253]" (2007)

Export releases:
[KO] "Ryu ga Gotoku [Model SLKA-25342]"
[US] "Yakuza [Model SLUS-21348]"
[EU] "Yakuza [Model SLES-54171]"

A movie called Ryu ga Gotoku was based on the game, following the storyline pretty close with all the locations, characters, and even the fighting effects from the game.