Project Century Hides Clue Toward its Like a Dragon Canon in Plain Sight

by

As a longtime fan of the Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio and their masterful creations like the Like a Dragon series, I must say that 2025 is shaping up to be an extraordinary year for us enthusiasts. With the impending release of Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii and the tantalizing glimpses of both Virtua Fighter and Project Century at The Game Awards 2024, I can hardly contain my excitement!

2025 seems to be a busy year for Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio, the developers behind the Like a Dragon series. Not only are they releasing Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii, the sequel to Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, but two new RGG games were announced at The Game Awards 2024. Of these, the one that might pique the interest of Like a Dragon fans is Project Century, which appears to channel the series’ action-brawler origins. However, it could potentially carry even more importance for the franchise as a whole.

With limited details provided, it’s uncertain if Project Century ties into the Like a Dragon series or operates independently as its own intellectual property. While scant information about the game was disclosed during its TGA trailer, the one revelation made was that it takes place in 1915 Japan. Devotees acquainted with the in-universe history of the Like a Dragon franchise may discern the relevance of this time period and how it could hint at Project Century‘s position within the franchise’s chronology.

Project Century’s 1915 Setting Aligns with the Founding of the Omi Alliance

Yakuza: Like a Dragon Puts the Omi Alliance’s Founding 100 Years Ago

As I delve deeper into Project Century, it feels like uncovering a piece of the puzzle that could help fit it seamlessly into the expansive Like a Dragon universe. You see, none of the canonical entries have explored a timeframe earlier than 1988, the setting of Yakuza 0, and there’s scant information about the history of the series’ main adversaries, the Tojo Clan and Omi Alliance, before this period. However, during the unfolding events of Yakuza: Like a Dragon set in 2019, Captain Masaru Watase of the Omi Alliance casually mentioned that their organization was about a century old at the time, which roughly translates to its inception around 1915. This intriguing tidbit might just be the key to unearthing more details about our favorite gaming world!

While games like “Like a Dragon: Ishin!” and “Like a Dragon: Kenzan!” take place during historical eras of Japan, they do not form part of the main series’ continuity.

The series known as “Like a Dragon” has delved deeply into the leadership changes of the Tojo Clan and Omi Alliance, but the story of their creation remains untold. This omission leaves a void in the lore of the series. With spin-off games like “Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name”, “Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii”, and even the “Judgment” series, which are set within the same universe, it seems reasonable for Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio to delve into the origins of these fundamental organizations within the “Like a Dragon” world.

Project Century Could Be Setting Up the Original Clash Between the Tojo and the Omi

In the captivating year of 1915, when the Omi Alliance was born, it feels almost too serendipitous not to be a deliberate move. As a devoted fan, I can’t help but speculate that the origins of these iconic organizations, namely the Omi Alliance and the Tojo Clan, might be unfolded in the narrative of Project Century. This revelation could potentially complete the circle of their storied history within the series, following the dramatic fall of their criminal empire in Yakuza: Like a Dragon. Given the raw violence portrayed in the reveal trailer of Project Century, it’s intriguing to imagine disarrayed criminals banding together to form structured clans.

In a more casual and accessible manner: The Yamaguchi-gumi, one of the biggest real-life crime syndicates, was established back in 1915. Since the Omi Alliance is depicted as the largest yakuza group in the “Like a Dragon” video game series, it’s possible that Project Century took inspiration from this event and chose to portray its origins in a similar way.

In the game “Project Century” from the “Like a Dragon” series, the identity of the main character remains uncertain. The figure seen in the trailer is not explicitly named and could potentially be Makoto Tojo, the founder and first chairman of the Tojo Clan, or the anonymous founder of the Omi Alliance. Alternatively, this character might be someone on the fringe of these clans whose history we’ll uncover from an outsider’s perspective. The year 1915 appears to play a crucial role in both real-life yakuza history and the backstory of the series’ clans, suggesting that “Project Century” may serve as an origin tale for either the Omi Alliance, Tojo Clan, or both.

Read More

2024-12-16 20:44