The Grand Theft Auto V “next-gen" update finally dropped recently, and though some impressions were positive, overall it still felt a little underwhelming.
GTA5 is still, at its heart, a PS3/Xbox 360 game that has been ported up to more powerful hardware, now several times over. While the Online section has seen a swathe of updates over the years, the single player aspect of Rockstars golden goose remains unchanged in what will be a decade next year.
Back when GTA5 first released, there were rumours, even an expectation, of a single player expansion, but it never materialised.
What's interesting about these rumours is that the supposed add on would overhaul the map. This seems completely unnecessary to me, considering the size of Los Santos as a playground. Surely a new story in the same map would have been well received.
This was exactly the case for the Grand Theft Auto IV expansions The Lost and Damn and The Ballad of Gay Tony. Both used the existing map with some small aesthetic changes, like lighting, and both launched to critical acclaim.
And it’s almost exactly the approach Sega's Yakuza games take.
Since the very first Yakuza game on PlayStation 2, the Yakuza series has featured fictional Tokyo district Kamurocho as it’s setting and playground. The map itself does change, albeit in ways that don’t impact the world map in a significant way. Playing each successive game from 0 to 6, as well as Judgement and Lost Judgement, you get the feeling of a world evolving over time. Landmarks may change, usually for in-story reasons, but the world stays largely the same. Yes, it will add areas like Osaka inspired Sotenburi or the sleepy Okinawa area, but Kumurocho would always feature.
For a series that starts, chronologically, in the 1980’s, this is all part of Yakuza’s appeal. If you’ve lived anywhere for a couple of decades or more, or have made those revisits to your hometown after a similar amount of time, you’ll know that feeling of quiet evolution, the more things change the more they stay the same.
That sort of quaintness might not quite fit the GTA mould, but a further single player adventures in the same city-based sandbox definitely would. It’s already been evidenced by the aforementioned GTA 4 expansions, and GTA 5 has had players running around the same map for nearly a decade now.
It’s maddening then that any further single player content is held back for a full sequel on what will be on an entirely new map. I won’t argue that none of GTA 5’s protagonists are as likeable as Kamuza Kiryu, so extensions on their story may not be as well received, but a change in protagonists worked with The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Tony, surely it would work for GTA 5 as well?
Games are undoubtedly becoming more complex and expensive to produce, That’s certainly part of the reason why it’s been nine years since the last entry to the Grand Theft Auto series. But surely offsetting some of the overhead by re-purposing the existing map would keep us GTA fans who aren’t interested in the online mode satiated.
And like Yakuza introduces other areas to explore with each entry while maintaining Kamurocho (until Like a Dragon), Grand Theft Auto could do the same if they fear the main map getting stale.
There are obvious differences between the two series, Yakuza’s world though is much smaller and takes place entirely on foot, but you would think the recycling of the map would work less in the favour of Sega’s series than it does. GTA meanwhile has one of the largest virtual playgrounds around, making additional campaigns well suited to its existing design.
But they share commonality too. Both are crime drama’s which veer between the serious and the absurd. If Sega can keep Yakuza fans satisfied with its script, surely Rockstar with its blockbuster budgets and pull of Hollywood talent can do the same?
I, and I imagine many other GTA fans, just feel frustrated at the lack of single player updates and sequels, while Yakuza has been frequently delivering, especially as of late. I can’t help but think that if Rockstar took inspiration from Rya Ga Gotoku, we might all be a little happier.
Comments