The announcement of Project Century at The Game Awards was one of the most surprising parts of the event, with Ryu Ga Gotoku demonstrating a remarkable work-rate in terms of the frequency in which it can develop high-quality projects. The recently showcased game seems like one of the most ambitious projects the studio has taken on in quite some time, with its setting, gameplay, and themes being quite far removed from many modern Like a Dragon projects.
While the announcement of Project Century definitely caught the attention of fans, many of its most important details are still unknown, with a huge question mark currently existing over whether the game will belong to the studio’s flagship Like a Dragon franchise. Players only have the brief reveal trailer for Project Century to help debate this fact, with it seeming just as likely that Project Century could be a completely new IP, in what would be quite an ambitious move for Ryu Ga Gotoku.
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Project Century Seems Like a Bold New Venture For Ryu Ga Gotoku
Fans of Ryu Ga Gotoku and the Like a Dragon/Yakuza franchise have had non-stop content to look forward to recently, with a huge amount of anticipation building around the upcoming February release of Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii, which will finally see beloved franchise character Goro Majima once again take on a protagonist role for the series. This alone impressed fans due to the expansive mainline Infinite Wealth only having been released in January of this year, and Ryu Ga Gotoku took this a step further at The Game Awards by announcing two other upcoming projects.
Alongside the reveal of a brand-new Virtua Fighter title, Ryu Ga Gotoku shocked the industry by offering a sneak peek at Project Century, a gritty open-world experience set in 1915 Japan. Adopting the same third-person perspective as all Like a Dragon titles, the trailer for Project Century showcased the game’s hardened protagonist patrolling the dangerous industrial streets of turn-of-the-century Japan, in what appears to be an exaggerated and almost alternate history gameworld.
One of the main elements of Project Century that immediately sets it apart from the modern identity of the Like a Dragon franchise is its gritty and brutal gameplay, with the trailer detailing gore-filled combat in which the protagonist hacks and slashes using weapons and the environment to kill his enemies. This is a big departure from a lot of the cutesy JRPG gameplay elements of modern mainline LaD titles, but there is still a case to be made that Project Century could be a spin-off title for the franchise.
Project Century’s Vision Seems To Go Beyond Like a Dragon
Past franchise spin-offs like Ishin have explored historical settings such as Feudal Japan, with the Judgment series of games also possessing a much grittier, albeit not as directly bloody, set of themes that are echoed in Project Century. Spin-offs like this have been a great way to supplement the main story of Like a Dragon for some time now, with some fans suggesting that Project Century could be an origin story showcasing the formation of the franchise’s powerful Omi Alliance, which was founded around the time in which Century is set. Fans were also quick to note the similarities between Century‘s protagonist and Judgment‘s lead character, Takayuki Yagami, with Century maybe being an alternate-history project for the Judgment cast like Ishin was for the original Yakuza characters.
It seems extremely unlikely that Project Century will belong to Like a Dragon‘s mainline story in any massive capacity, with the game better fitting the bill of a spin-off. With that being said, the lack of any reference to the Like a Dragon franchise in the game’s trailer seems like a massive hint towards Ryu Ga Gotoku’s intentions with the game. Considering the unique setting and gameworld of Project Century, as well as its protagonist’s lack of hesitation behind killing, all signs seem to point towards Project Century being a standalone experience removed from the Like a Dragon world.
