Like a Dragon Gaiden guide: Which combat style is better?

Like a Dragon Gaiden features two combat styles: Agent and Dragon. You start with only access to the Agent stance. However, you’ll unlock the moves you are perhaps more familiar with a bit later in the main story. Once you have access to both, you can use whichever one you see fit whenever you want. There are no stories that require you to use one or the other I found - other than the initial gimmick unlock for Agent tools.

So, I will go over these styles in brief and what makes them tick. In the end, I’ll determine which I thought was better, but don’t let that stain your opinion. If you happen to prefer the gadgets over raw physical force, that’s entirely up to you. Here’s what you have access to in Like a Dragon Gaiden’s combat styles.

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Exploring Kiryu Kazuma’s combat styles in Like a Dragon Gaiden

1) Agent Style

The Spider is easily the most useful agent gimmick (Image via SEGA)

During the SEGA Summer Festival, I previewed Like a Dragon Gaiden - specifically the new Agent Stance. In this style, Kiryu Kazuma is more of a martial artist. His moves are fluid and sharp. His attacks are faster, and he can even do impressive moves like roll forward and deliver incredible strikes with his fists.

Additionally, this style has a series of gadgets that Kiryu unlocks throughout the course of the game. He’ll start with just Spider but will unlock Hornet and Firefly in Chapter 2. Later, he’ll receive the final tool: Serpent. Each of these has a particular function and requires a button charge to pull off in Like a Dragon Gaiden’s combat.

• Spider: Throws a wire to grapple objects or enemies. Can throw enemies with it as well.
• Hornet: Summons a drone to assist Kiryu in combat. Can be briefly commanded with a button press.
• Firefly: A simple gadget, this is a cigarette bomb that explodes after a brief delay.
• Serpent: Dash in a direction quickly to evade harm or set up combos with these powerful shoes.

When you’re in Heat Mode in Like a Dragon Gaiden, these gimmicks have additional effects, such as a swarm of drones instead of a singular drone. While I like this concept immensely, it falls on its face in its inception. You have to hold the button to get these gimmicks going.

At least for me, more often than not, it would fire off in the wrong direction, except Spider. Spider is amazing. If you can manage to charge between strikes, it can be very useful.

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2) Dragon Style

Tiger Drops, Uppercuts, and more (Image via SEGA)

The Dragon Style is slower but so much more devastating. It’s the kind of combat you’re used to getting from Kiryu Kazuma. Like a Dragon, Gaiden’s Dragon style is all about huge punches, headbutts, and dropkicks.

While both styles have awesome heat actions, Dragon Style has some of my personal favorites, such as throwing people into the river. Kiryu Kazuma doesn’t have special gimmicks in this form, but he can use Quickstep Strike, Twisting Ultimate Counter, and lots of additional strikes.

Most of the best heat actions show up in Dragon Style: Essence of Raging Dragon, Essence of Double Crush, Ultimate Essence, and Essence of the Dragon God. He even has access to the powerful Tiger Drop from previous games.

The whole Dragon Style in Like a Dragon Gaiden is Kiryu’s greatest (and most painful hits). It also allows you to charge your Punch and Heat buttons to either deliver a trio of devastating knockdown strikes or an uppercut/crescent kick, depending on the situation.

The best part of the uppercut, though, is that it has the potential to do a near-infinite combo in Like a Dragon Gaiden. If you can pin an enemy against a building or other geometry, you can do a series of timed normal punches to juggle a foe in the air. It’s hard to do, but so satisfying.

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Like a Dragon Gaiden’s combat styles are good, without a doubt. However, while both are neat, I think the Dragon style is far more reliable. I used it for nearly the entire game after I got frustrated at whiffing so many Firefly attacks - or blowing myself up in them. The game is available now, and you can read our in-depth review here.