More Studios Should Re-Use Assets Like Ryu Ga Gotoku Does In The Yakuza Series
gamerant
Mon, Jan 13, 2025
In my opinion, there's really nothing wrong with re-using assets as long as the end result game is still something unique and different. Games take absolutely forever to develop nowadays, but studios like Ryu Ga Gotoku and From Software are able to put out titles at a relatively rapid pace because these studios aren't averse to re-using their old assets to save development time. I hardly ever notice it, and sometimes re-using assets can be a huge benefit for a game – like how the Like a Dragon series reuses previous locations (Hawaii, Kamurocho, etc) but it feels like returning to a familiar, lived-in place rather than a lazily slapped-together asset flip. And it lets devs take more risks and be more creative with other facets of the game, like how Elden Ring: Nightreign will be a major departure from traditional Souls gameplay, but the studio can put out this wildly different game quickly because it doesn't require an entire game's worth of assets to be created.
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