With development coming to an end and the game due to hit shelves in Japan on December 8, Yakuza series creator Toshihiro Nagoshi has told IGN Japan that he hopes fans will appreciate loading-free gameplay in the next Yakuza game, titled Ryu ga Gotoku 6: Inochi no Uta for its Japanese release, the most ambitious entry in the series to date.

“We’ve worked hard to make this game completely seamless,” he said. “You can engage in the central adventure, get into battles, watch drama scenes, and go back to the adventure, all without any loading screens. Go into any building or any room or any floor without loading.”

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While recent entries in the series have been released on both PS3 and PS4, Yakuza 6 (which is not yet an official title for the game, as it does not have an announced Western release) will be released exclusively on PS4, running on a brand new engine that was built to make the most of current-gen technology. Nagoshi said that this seamless approach would not have been possible on PS3, and that it will afford players more freedom to explore and to play at their own pace.

“ "Loading is problematic for lots of reasons, including its effect on the realism of the story."

“Loading is problematic for lots of reasons, including its effect on the realism of the story — let’s say you have a 60-second countdown to reach a location and stop an explosion, but when loading screens come in, how do we account for those seconds? How do we keep the pressure on? So we really pushed to make it seamless this time. That’s where a lot of the budget went, and it’s also the reason we did not make a version for PS3. The effect is that the player has the freedom to solve problems as they like, and the sub-quests themselves are presented in a seamless way.”

Yakuza 6 has not yet been announced for release in the West, though a traditional Chinese localization has been confirmed for a December 2016 release.

Daniel Robson is Chief Editor of IGN Japan and Esra Krabbe is a writer, video guy and presenter at IGN Japan.