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Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name is a short entry into the Yakuza franchise, as the developers warned players. While this is certainly true, it is still a game worth spending time on. It has plenty of charming side stories to complete, mini-games to play, and challenging trophies to unlock. However, if you’re just trying to get through the game only for the story, you might be disappointed at the overall length of the game.
When judging the time it takes to beat the game, I’m using our own experiences in Like a Dragon Gaiden. It is an excellent entry into the series, but do remember that it’s a Gaiden, a side story. It only exists to connect the events of Yakuza 6: The Song of Life and Yakuza: Like a Dragon together. It also gives a reason as to why Kiryu Kazuma is in Hawaii during Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth.
How long is Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name?
- Our playthrough: 14 hours, 18 minutes
- Basic playthrough: 10-11 hours
- Completionist playthrough: 25-30+ hours
Like a Dragon Gaiden is about half the length of a normal entry into this franchise, maybe smaller. Clocking in at five chapters, it took us just over 14 hours to complete this game from start to finish. This was also on the Standard difficulty (instead of Beginner or Professional). Most of the game was simply going through the main story, though I did complete all the sidestories except three.
Since all the sidestories in Like a Dragon Gaiden come from the same person ( Akame, runner of the Akame Information Network), you don’t have to go hunting them down. This takes a lot of the guesswork out of when/where you find them. As you level up her network, more and more quests become available.
However, if you want to do just the bare bones enough to beat the game, you’re looking at spending anywhere from 10-11 hours. That will get you through the main story and just enough side stories to level up the Akame Network and go through just enough Coliseum battles.
Naturally, it will be shorter if you skip cutscenes, but those are the majority of the reasons why people are going to want to pick up Like a Dragon Gaiden in the first place. If you’re seeking to complete the game: All sidestories, all missions at the Coliseum, Platinum trophy, and things of that nature, you will see at least 30 hours of gameplay.
Most of the side stories are straightforward in their nature, but then there are missions like Gotta Catch ‘em Balls!, which requires you to find seven golden balls scattered throughout Sotenbori. This also accounts for the time it will take to farm up enough money for your combat skills, recruiting everyone for the coliseum, and 100% completing all mini-games.
Like a Dragon Gaiden is now available and ties together Yakuza 6 and Yakuza: Like a Dragon. If you want to know our thoughts, you can read our in-depth review of Kiryu’s latest adventure here.
