Videogame Violence: Yakuza vs. GTA

It seems that Toshihiro Nagoshi, one of the creators of the Yakuza series, doesn't like Grand Theft Auto games. This is a perfectly fine position to have - I personally find the GTA games to be rather underwhelming. I must say, however, that the reason why Toshihiro finds the GTA games disagreeable is ridiculous.

"Of course, there are a lot of different tendencies in games. I once publicly stated that I hate Grand Theft Auto and got a lot of backlash from the internet. I still hate it. And if I were asked if I think it's a good game, I would say it's an excellent game."

That is an interesting perspective to have on a game. To say that it is an excellent game and yet still hate it seems contradictory. Unless, of course, this was because he, as a designer, recognizes that the game is well crafted, but he can't come to terms with the kind of rhetoric that the game proports. This seems to be the case. Even though he admires GTA's design, calling it an excellent game that is very well made, Toshihiro said "I just can't bring myself to promote the emotion that killing is fun and committing crimes is fun."

If we take these comments at face value, then that would be the end of the issue. However, Toshihio Nagoshi is the main driving force behind Sega's Yakuza games.


For those of you who are not familiar with this series, it looks like this:




To me, this seems a bit hypocritical. Hating GTA because it promotes the emotion that killing is fun while making Yakuza is like claiming that Pepsi is bad for the health while making Coca Cola. Both the GTA and Yakuza games are about criminals or ex criminals and both of these games glorify violence and violent acts. Not that I'm against this, mind you, I enjoy violent games as much as the next guy - and those making the argument of "oh but the kids" should be mindful of the ESRB ratings and how kids under the age of 17 should not be playing this games. But in all seriousness, despite the difference in design and gameplay, the themes presented in these games are remarkably similar - we just have a US and a Japanese perspective in each of them.

Now, I have already heard various arguments defending Toshihio. Online, various commentators have pointed out that GTA is famous for the open world rampages while Yakuza is better known for its story. I have also read comments regarding how in GTA it's the player who initiates violence, whereas in Yakuza the violence is mostly reactionary. This is to a large extent true. There are also people who have correctly pointed out that in GTA the player is the one who kills NPCs, while in Yakuza any deaths that happen are in cut-scenes which take away agency from the player. A good friend of mine even pointed out that in Yakuza players are not allowed to steal, whereas a lot of what happens in GTA is, well, theft.

These are all valid points, and they all do a great job of qualifying GTA as "more violent" and Yakuza as "less violent" in a scale of "violent video games".

However, the issue at hand is not "which of the two is more violent". The issue as hand is that the person who made the Yakuza games is against the GTA games because they promote violence and crime. And it would seem to me only too reasonable that the people who made the game depicted in the following video...



... the people who made that game don't get to say "I just can't bring myself to promote the emotion that killing is fun and committing crimes is fun."

Source