The developers at Yakuza studio Ryu Ga Gotoku keep having to explain the whys and hows of putting Tupac in their next game, Stranger Than Heaven. After explaining that it was Snoop Dogg’s idea, that they’ve sought the approval and participation of Tupac’s family and rights holders, and that no generative AI was used for his voice or likeness, there’s a new piece of information that’s come out. In an interview with Game Informer, RGG studio head Masayoshi Yokoyama said that Tupac’s character won’t be a replication of the man as he was. Rather, it will reflect their attempts to determine who Tupac might be, if he were alive today.
“We wanted to not kind of recreate who Tupac was when he passed away,” Yokoyama said. “We wanted to try to envision who Tupac might be now.” Yokoyama said his family was involved every step of the way for Tupac’s character creation. “We wanted to say, ‘Okay, if he was still alive now, thirty years later, how would he act? How would he express himself in that way?” Yokoyama said.
It’s admirable that RGG has tried to be respectful of Tupac’s legacy and living family. But trying to prognosticate who a man would be 30 years after his death, even in a fictional setting like a video game, doesn’t feel like the correct way to honor him. His character will be a digital puppet animated by people who very likely have not met this man. The developers are projecting words and actions and emotions onto him that he cannot make his own.
RGG’s stated purpose for digitally resurrecting Tupac was to have a character that would play well off of Snoop’s character, Orpheus. So they essentially made up a guy in their head, guessing at what he might do or say or feel, then stuck a dead man’s face on him and claimed, “It’s Tupac!” But it’s not. It can’t be. We will see Snoop Dogg do his best with Orpheus. We will see him take what RGG has written for that character and how he puts his own Snoop-y spin on it. That categorically cannot happen with Tupac. He’s dead, you see. It would make more sense to just create a wholly new character, because that’s essentially what has already been done.
But Tupac is a notable name. It gets the people going and Yokoyama has said as much. In an interview with IGN he said the decision was “something that would add value to our game.” And while I have no respect for the zombification of a Black legend (especially when you understand that the very concept of a “zombie” is from Haitian folklore and expresses the existential dread of being compelled to labor even after death), I do respect that he plainly lays out the why. It very much sounds like Yokoyama’s essentially saying, ‘We want the caché of Tupac and we think that’ll drum up the attention we need to make this game a hit.’ You don’t get that very often from developers who’ve made controversial choices like this. It just sucks that this kind of honesty is coming at Tupac’s expense.
