Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name review: A short but sweet adventure with Kiryu Kazuma

When Like a Dragon Gaiden was announced, I was naturally over the moon. There’s a huge gap of information between Yakuza 6: The Song of Life and Yakuza: Like a Dragon. Kiryu Kazuma just disappears and is presumed dead. However, towards the end of Like a Dragon, he shows up again and once again is an important character. After all, he’s been the protagonist since the very first game. I imagine it’s hard to let go of one of the most popular characters in the series.

I want to say right from the outset that I adored the story in Like a Dragon Gaiden. It’s the emotional payoff that I think Kiryu Kazuma deserved, though I will not spoil the details in this review. There are one or two downsides, though, that have to be addressed. Even with those, I enjoyed the game, but they’re significant nonetheless.

What story takes place during Like a Dragon Gaiden?

This "Joryu" guy looks familiar and creates a very familiar type of violence (Image via SEGA)

Like a Dragon Gaiden takes place right after Yakuza 6: The Song of Life. There are some things worth sharing that aren’t going to be major spoilers. At the end of Yakuza 6, Kiryu decides to fake his own death and essentially go into hiding. This led him to get involved in a political group known as the Daidoji Faction.

In exchange for the protection of the Sunflower Orphanage, Kiryu Kazuma works for the Daidoji and trains in their combat style at a remote temple. He has a new code name, "Joryu". The main events of the game take place between Yakuza 6 and the ending of Yakuza: Like a Dragon. If you haven’t beaten either game, this title will assuredly contain major spoilers.

It will also explain how Kiryu Kazuma comes to be in Hawaii, as he’s one of the main protagonists of Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, alongside Kasuga Ichiban. Again, we won’t spoil that here, but will go over it in another article if you’re interested. Like a Dragon Gaiden naturally doesn’t take place in Kamurocho, though; too many people know him.

Not everyone believes that Kiryu is gone, however (Image via SEGA)

If he’s to remain anonymous, he has to go somewhere else. In this case, it’s Sotenbori, a town he hasn’t visited for many years.

I appreciate the nature of such a character trying to stay incognito. However, he’s made many allies and enemies over the years, and not everybody is convinced that Kiryu actually died ahead of Like a Dragon Gaiden. A few months back, I previewed just a tiny bit of the game, but now I’ve gone hands-on with the whole story.

Kiryu Kazuma has two combat styles in Like a Dragon Gaiden

While the story of Like a Dragon Gaiden is one of the most emotional in the franchise’s history, I’m less sold on the Agent style. Initially, I really enjoyed it, I won’t lie. However, I found in the full release of the game that I typically missed any gadget that wasn’t the Spider. I love the actual martial arts combat style. It’s more fluid and smooth than Kiryu Kazuma has ever been.

He has sharp, precise strikes and rolling attacks, and it just looks amazing to watch. However, the gadgets just weren’t for me. Too many times did I flick the cigarette bomb off in the wrong direction or win a fight before the drone could be useful.

You have to hold a button to make those abilities trigger, and while you also hold down attacks for the Dragon style, those are direct punches and kicks that were much easier to aim. That, and he just felt more powerful in Dragon style. The huge uppercuts, dropkicks, and headbutts were amazing.

There’s also a new counter system in place in Like a Dragon Gaiden. Occasionally, an enemy will enter Head Mode and deliver a powerful signature attack. You have a chance to counter this and then use your own devastating maneuver instead. Honestly, I just wound up spamming the counter button as soon as I saw this pop up. I could not master the timing.

Combat felt good, and I was glad to see the game go back to spending money to unlock traits instead of exp orbs or any of that silly nonsense. There were enough ways to make plenty of money to make this not feel like a burden, either. I felt like it was gated more or less right the way it should be.

The gameplay is good, but there’s more side content than main content

There's so much to do in Sotenbori (Image via SEGA)

This was really the major problem I had with Like a Dragon Gaiden; the game is short. Now, I know, it was already made quite clear that the game wasn’t going to be as long as a normal LAD title. I also know that it was originally going to be DLC. That, unfortunately, shows in the duration of the game.

It’s roughly as long as The Kaito Files but with more emotional impact and stuff to do. On a personal level, I was more or less fine with the time it took to tell the story. I didn’t want it to be fluffed up with a bunch of filler content, after all. Sotenbori is a city with plenty of things to do: Karaoke, Golf, Cabaret, Pocket Circuit. While these activities are fun, it doesn't do anything to change how short the overall story is.

What's old is new again; POCKET CIRCUIT IS BACK (Image via SEGA)

There are breaks in the story where you can go and explore the city, gather keys for the lockers, play mini-games, go to arcades, and, in general, help the people of Sotenbori. I just wish, for the asking price, there was more story.

I felt like most of my time was spent grinding the Akame Information System, beating up people in the Coliseum, or just hanging out with the Cabaret girls. I enjoyed doing this content, but I wish I felt like I was taking part in the story more. Since it’s such a short game (around 10-12 hours), doing the side content is the best way to get the most for your money.

The Akame Information System was a major, important update to the LAD franchise

The side stories are, for the most part, incredible (Image via SEGA)

Maybe it’s all the Cyberpunk 2077 I’ve been playing lately, but the idea of having a Fixer is such a nice concept. Akame is a great character, and I found her to be incredibly charming. More importantly, having a Fixer in Like a Dragon Gaiden meant I didn’t have to run all over town, scrounging for side stories.

As you level up her information-gathering group, she offers more stories. Some of them are hilarious - like the Chat GPT side story. Some are tedious, like beating up the various gangs that have taken over Sotenbori. You can even hunt for totally not Dragon Balls. Leveling up the faction even made sense.

It's easy to find people in need while traveling Sotenbori (Image via SEGA)

Akame uses the homeless as her eyes and ears on the streets and, in exchange, protects and helps them. To level up this system, you need to go around town and help people in need. This means always carrying a ton of food on hand and being ready to beat people up. It was an easy system to level, and I always felt ahead of the curve. I think it was a wise addition to the game and made sense.

The graphics and audio for Like a Dragon Gaiden were superb

I took so many screenshots of uppercutting people in Like a Dragon Gaiden (Image via SEGA)

The visuals for Like a Dragon Gaiden were exactly as pretty as I hoped they’d be. It was nice to see the evolution of Sotenbori again, and all the main protagonists/antagonists stood out as they should. I only noticed a few tiny instances of weird backgrounds, where things got a tiny bit fuzzy. This only happened once or twice.

Combat looked cool, but the heat actions still looked devastating - I was so glad to see the “throw them over the bridge” heat action come back. Combat looked fluid and intense. The battle cutscenes were also stunning.

Other than the main theme of the game giving me a little copyright warning, I loved the music. Being able to sing karaoke again was a real treat for me. It’s one of the few things I dislike about Judgment - no karaoke. There was one change that I remembered from my preview that I thought was interesting: the change to cabaret.

The live-action cabaret scenes are also fantastic (Image via SEGA)

In previous games, these were all done via in-game cutscenes. Some titles even let you dress up the girls if you were running the business. I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about live-action cabaret, where the scenes were filmed, but it still felt wholesome and fun. While I wasn’t sure how I felt at first, I wound up loving this change.

The sound effects were crunchy, and the voice cast was terrific. All the familiar voices were there. The sights and sounds of Sotenbori (and briefly Yokohama) were amazing. It holds up against the other games in the franchise in the aesthetic and sound departments.

In Conclusion

It is a little short, but the Like a Dragon Gaiden experience was memorable, that's for sure (Image via SEGA)

I still want to be clear: I loved this game. The emotional payoff at the end, the combat, the side activities, it was all fun. I just wish there were more of it. 50 dollars for essentially a 15-hour game at most felt like an awful lot. I’m sure there are going to be fans who are willing to pay that - I certainly would have been one of them.

Part of me feels like this could have been DLC for Infinite Wealth or even for Yakuza: Like a Dragon, but I still find myself glad it isn’t. While it is short and a bit more expensive than I expected it to be, I was charmed all over again. I’m also not entirely convinced this is Kiryu’s final solo outing, but we’ll save that for another time.

If you’re a long-time, die-hard fan of the Yakuza franchise and want to know what happened between the last two titles, I still recommend picking up Like a Dragon Gaiden. It’s fun, it’s emotional, and the end won’t leave you disappointed.