Video games are expensive, but the same can be said for video game development. Making games can be a costly and time-consuming process, which is why developers often try to cut costs by cutting corners, and that includes reusing their old work. While this practice may sound lazy, many games are better because of it.
What Is Asset Recycling?
If you’ve ever seen a large open world game filled with hundreds of identical buildings or realized a series was reusing the same animations across multiple games, you might already be familiar with the practice of asset recycling. In the context of game development, “recycling” is a common practice that involves reusing pre-made assets for multiple purposes. This can include 2D sprites, 3D models, textures, animations, audio files, and just about anything else that comprises a game’s presentation.
Every game uses some form of recycling, whether it’s by reusing the same character model for multiple NPCs or placing the same tree in thousands of different places on a map. Recycling is also used for minor environmental objects that you probably won’t be paying much attention to, such as random boxes or furniture. It’s even more common in game sequels, which typically reuse visual elements and game mechanics from previous entries. It’s an efficient practice that helps developers save both time and money without sacrificing quality—at least, that’s what it does in theory.
While asset recycling is an ordinary part of game development, it can also be a problem when it’s overused. Many open-world games pad out their maps with copy-pasted locations and overused assets—just think of the countless caves in Skyrim or endless enemy bases in the recent Assassin’s Creed games. In more linear games, certain levels might be repeated with small changes to the enemy layout and story events. Some games like Halo: Combat Evolved and Devil May Cry 4 are notorious for using this method of blatant padding to hide their budgetary constraints or replace cut content. If handled poorly, these recycled levels can end up being a low point in their otherwise exciting campaigns.
Because of this, asset recycling has become a controversial practice among gamers. Not everyone minds it, but an overabundance of asset reuse can easily break your immersion. Nothing snaps you out of a game like seeing the same NPC appear multiple times in a crowd or trudging through miles of near-identical locations. At worst, this over-reliance on recycled assets can turn any game into a mind-numbingly boring exercise in repetition, and it’s especially bad for games that desperately try to immerse you in their worlds.
Asset Recycling Isn’t Lazy, It’s Resourceful
While asset recycling is often seen as a flaw in many games, it isn’t inherently terrible. I’ve already mentioned some of the advantages it has for developers, but there’s a bit more to these benefits than meets the eye.
One reason you often see games regularly reuse textures, environmental objects, and character models is because every unique asset in a game’s data adds to its file size. More detailed assets take up more storage, and you can expect most modern games to be filled to the brim with thousands of high-quality assets. If you’ve ever wondered why games with photorealistic graphics like Red Dead Redemption 2 or Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 require hundreds of gigabytes to install, that absurd file size can be partially blamed on their abundance of detailed assets.
Most games on smaller budgets don’t have the luxury of pushing their file sizes to the limit with unique assets, so they attempt to make the most of the resources they already have. The Like a Dragon/Yakuza series is a masterclass in the art of constantly repurposing old assets without ever becoming repetitive, to the point that I’m not exactly sure where to start with its endless examples of efficient game design.
Nearly every game in the series takes place in the same fictional districts of Kamurocho and Sotenbori, making only small changes to their landmarks and layouts in each game. The series’ combat has also undergone numerous iterations across its 20-year-history—even changing genres with Yakuza: Like a Dragon—but some of the franchise’s most iconic attacks and finishers date back to its first two entries. Possibly the most blatant examples of asset reuse are the series’ Kiwami remakes, which revive the PS2-era Yakuza games with graphics and mechanics lifted directly from other games in the series.
Yakuza Kiwami
- Released
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August 29, 2017
- ESRB
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M For Mature 17+ // Blood, Intense Violence, Partial Nudity, Sexual Themes, Strong Language, Use of Alcohol
- Developer(s)
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Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio
- Publisher(s)
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Sega, Deep Silver
Despite its insistence on bringing back the same cities, same characters, and same mini-games for nearly every entry, Like a Dragon never fails to make these revisits feel exciting. Every mainline Like a Dragon game takes place during the year of its release, and the series reflects the passage of time by having the city and its residents mature in your absence. Parts of the city thrive year after year, while others, like the homeless camp and mysterious empty lot, eventually make way for grandiose shopping malls and towering skyscrapers. People you meet in the early games reappear throughout the series in different stages of their lives. Kamurocho is a character in itself, carrying a rich history that only grows deeper with each passing year.
Like a Dragon‘s asset reuse is essential to its story. The series is as much about heroic gangsters and criminal conspiracies as it is the story of Kamurocho, and it’s not the only franchise to use this correlation between story and setting. Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 initially caught some flak for returning to New York City. In spite of the criticism, its decision to reuse the previous game’s recreation of the Big Apple pays off by giving the sequel a chance to revisit characters from the first entry while bringing in more iconic villains from Spider-Man’s rogues’ gallery.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom also reused its predecessor’s map, but radically expanded the world with the midair sky islands and expansive underground depths—all to tell a story that recontextualizes much of what we already knew about its incarnation of Hyrule Kingdom.
Each of these stories might just be an excuse to remain in the same exact location. If that’s the case, they’re still pretty good excuses. If a game can get me excited to revisit the same place over and over again, then there’s no problem with developers saving time by reusing old maps. Asset reuse is only an issue when it starts to feel like a lazy shortcut rather than a creative decision, or when it rehashes too much of what came before without meaningfully transforming its old assets into something excitingly new.
Recycled Assets Bring Attention to the Essentials
Even when it’s handled poorly, asset recycling leaves developers with more time and resources to improve other parts of a game. Going back to some of the earlier examples, most sequels that reuse content from a previous game are able to make drastic changes and overhauls to other elements. The Like a Dragon series was developed on a AA-budget until its most recent releases, yet even the older games boast stunningly lifelike graphics, shockingly deep mini-games, and satisfying combat that evolved with each installment. Both Spider-Man 2 and Tears of the Kingdom made similarly drastic improvements to their gameplay, with the latter dramatically shaking up its open-world exploration with the added ability to build platforms and vehicles.
In the same way, asset recycling has also been used to create sequels that are essentially updated versions of their predecessors. Again, that may sound like a recipe for low-effort sequels (it certainly is for many sports games), but it can also lead to games that perfect everything fans love about the originals.
One of the best examples of this comes from the Assassin’s Creed series. While the franchise is no stranger to reusing old features across multiple entries, its love for recycling has never been more obvious than in Assassin’s Creed: Rogue—and I mean that in the best way possible.
Rogue brings back the naval combat and open-world sailing of Assassin’s Creed IV, and improves it in just about every way. Ship battles became more varied and intense with the introduction of new weapons, the broader range of ship upgrades provided more freedom to adopt different playstyles, and even the on-foot gameplay received numerous significant improvements. If you’ve already played Assassin’s Creed IV, Rogue will feel incredibly familiar, but its reuse and refinement of IV‘s swashbuckling ship battles make it a fantastic update to what was already one of the franchise’s greatest games.
Assassin’s Creed Rogue
- Released
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November 11, 2014
- ESRB
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M For Mature 17+ due to Blood, Strong Language, Violence
- Developer(s)
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Ubisoft
- Publisher(s)
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Ubisoft
In addition to delivering more of the same (but better), asset recycling also provides an easy way for developers to take long-running franchises into refreshingly unexpected directions. The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask lifted character models, enemies, and many other elements from Ocarina of Time to craft a bizarre, apocalyptic-horror re-imagining of the Zelda series. Another famously experimental asset-flip is Final Fantasy X-2, which returns to the melancholic world and fearsome monsters of Final Fantasy X through the lens of a lighthearted, Charlie’s Angels-inspired adventure. More recently, the Like a Dragon series returned to Infinite Wealth‘s recreation of Honololu for the wacky, sea-faring spin-off: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii.
Experimental games are always a risk, and most companies are hesitant to give unconventional ideas the same treatment as safer, mainline installments. Thankfully, lower-budget, asset-flip spin-offs allow developers to turn these risky ideas into reality. As games become more expensive to produce and studios continue to be discouraged from taking a chance on unique concepts, time-saving and cost-cutting measures like asset recycling are becoming more important to keeping creativity alive in games.
Asset Recycling Isn’t Always a Limitation
In most cases, asset recycling is primarily meant to save time and lower development costs, with most other reasons for its use boiling down to various excuses or happy accidents. That’s not always the case, however, and some games have recycled assets baked into their premise.
Games like Elden Ring: Nightreign and Super Mario Maker 2 are almost entirely built on old assets, but that’s part of the point. Nightreign lifts familiar characters and bosses from Elden Ring (and a few other FromSoftware games), and drops them into a roguelike experience. A large part of Nightreign is playing iconic characters that were previously relegated to the roles of NPCs or enemies, and teaming up with a group of friends to face off against familiar foes. It’s a festival of fanservice for FromSoftware fans (try saying that three times fast) and a genius way of remixing old assets into exciting new challenges.
Elden Ring Nightreign
- Released
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May 30, 2025
- Developer(s)
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From Software
- Publisher(s)
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Bandai Namco Entertainment, From Software
- Multiplayer
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Online Co-Op
- Number of Players
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1-3
Super Mario Maker 2 is similarly built around recycled mechanics and old assets, putting players in charge of creating their own levels based on different eras of the 2D Super Mario games. Every level gimmick or game mechanic that the Mario Maker games reuse serves as another tool in the player’s creation kit. It’s thanks to their heavy use of recycling that every player-made level feels just like a classic Mario game, yet also provides you with plenty of tools to make your levels as inventive or sadistic as you can imagine.
Super Mario Maker 2
- Released
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June 28, 2019
- ESRB
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E For Everyone due to Mild Cartoon Violence
- Developer(s)
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Nintendo
- Publisher(s)
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Nintendo
While most games are upfront about their asset recycling, others turn reused assets into their biggest surprises. Both Red Dead Redemption 2 and Pokémon Gold and Silver (as well as its 2009 remakes) allow you to re-explore the maps of their predecessors after completing their main campaigns. Gold and Silver‘s return to the Kanto region is especially memorable, as it also means you can challenge every gym leader from Pokémon Red and Blue before taking on an optional battle against Red, the series’ original protagonist.
However, my favorite example of clever asset reuse comes from Earth Defense Force 6. While most EDF games are the gaming equivalent of junk food, Earth Defense Force 6 uses its limitations to deliver one of the most creatively absurd stories in any video game. For context, each game in the EDF series has you taking on a member of the titular “Earth Defense Force” as you shoot down giant insects, skyscraper-sized robots, and flying spaceships as part of a last-ditch effort to defend the Earth from an ongoing alien invasion.
After the near-total elimination of the human race at the end of Earth Defense Force 5, the sixth game has you continuing fending off the endless alien forces. Your battle takes an unexpected turn when you travel back in time to the events of the previous game, and begin replaying its levels in an effort to change their outcome in humanity’s favor.
You continue fighting across multiple timelines until you push the boundaries of time and space far enough to wind up in Earth Defense Force 7… then 8… then 9… and it only gets crazier from there. It’s a fantastic riff on the series’ sparse use of unique assets and elevates Earth Defense Force 6 into the most memorable, bizarre, and arguably best game in the series.
Earth Defense Force 6
- Released
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July 24, 2024
- ESRB
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M For Mature 17+ Due To Blood, Intense Violence
- Developer(s)
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Sandlot
- Publisher(s)
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D3Publisher
Not every game uses recycled assets as wisely as Like a Dragon or as creatively as Earth Defense Force 6, but that doesn’t always mean they should be criticized for being efficient. Recycled assets are a valuable tool for games, whether it’s to cut costs or revive old ideas with unexpected twists. Sure, some developers abuse it to churn out lazy sequels or asset-flip shovelware, but the majority of games are great because they’re made efficiently.
Expecting developers to create everything from scratch is not only impractical, but it can actively make games worse. With absurd budgets and endless crunch sadly becoming the norm for game development, I want to see more studios learn from Like a Dragon, and start pouring more sense than dollars into their work.