‘Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name’ Review: I Heard You Paint Castles

Kazuma Kiryu, the aloof, honorable hero of over a half-dozen Yakuza and Like a Dragon games, is believed to be dead. And he must let the world think that he is until he can find a way to control the raging spirit that dwells within him. Of course, that doesn’t stop almost everyone from seeing through the ruse—and him from doing Kazuma Kiryu-like things in full view of the general public whenever he sees fit. Still, every time he’s asked, he’ll say that his name is Joryu. As it turns out, being dead is the one thing that Kazuma Kiryu is terrible at.

As Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name shows us, though, it’s not entirely his fault. Kiryu’s at least managed to stay somewhat low profile for a couple of years following the convoluted non-ending of Yakuza 6, keeping busy by doing occasional favors for the Daidoji faction—basically, yakuza with one foot in the world of Japanese politics. Before long, though, the more orthodox yakuza comes calling, trying to coerce Kiryu back into the life as the two major Japanese crime families start negotiating their surprise dissolution.

There’s plenty of political maneuvering and familial bickering in this story, much of it maintaining developer Ryu Ga Gotoku’s baseline level of melodramatic quality. Gaiden’s B story concerns a cool, streetwise redhead named Akame who uses her criminal underworld connections—including Kiryu—to help the homeless and downtrodden of her city. But the game isn’t coy about frequently pushing all that to the side to zero in on Kiryu himself. Being stuck again trying to do good in the middle of a yakuza organization in transition is nothing new for Kiryu, but here he’s forced to do it with so many of his sins all coming back to haunt him. Just about everyone affected by one of Kiryu’s hard decisions over the year gets their own special “where are they now” catch-up mission here, and very few of them turn out how Kiryu expected.

That’s not necessarily to say that Gaiden is all gloom and doom. It’s still a Like a Dragon game, after all, and some of those past deeds result in ridiculous, laugh-out-loud hilarious turns of events, punctuated by protracted bouts of hard-hitting melee combat. That said, Gaiden’s origins as a planned DLC pack for Yakuza: Like a Dragon are obvious, with a campaign through the streets of Sotenbori that runs maybe a third of the length of your average Like a Dragon title—though that still means that the game is about 20-to-25 hours long—and it gives the player far less time to breathe in between major plot points once they decide to further the story.

The condensed combat system is a perfect example of that truncated nature working in the game’s favor. Instead of having to master five distinct fighting styles throughout the campaign, players get two extremely versatile ways to combat foes: the Yakuza style based on his standard moveset, which is hard-hitting but slow when it comes to punches and kicks, and the brand-new Agent style, which allows for quicker hits and is aided by James Bond-esque gadgets. Though much of the game’s opening chapters is about introducing all the various ways that Kiryu can earn money and abilities, once the training wheels are off, tailoring the way one plays and earning an absolute fortune through side hustles happens lightning fast.

Still, those who decide to sip and not gulp their way through the game will find that it’s more than accommodating to players who’re mostly in it for Like a Dragon’s famous side activities. The old standbys—arcade games, bars, car racing—are bolstered here by a floating, amorally decadent, and graphically breathtaking casino called The Castle that hosts death matches, multi-person coliseum skirmishes, a tailor, and a cabaret minigame involving gorgeous, curvy, full-motion video models that many a player is going to have to explain to their significant other at some point. It’s a comparatively smaller buffet of activities than usual, but satisfying regardless.

Still, at the center of it all remains Kazuma Kiryu, a genuinely good man caught in the throes of a vicious career. Even with the series ready to move on without him as protagonist—no disrespect to everybody’s new favorite himbo, Ichiban Kasuga, who’s positioned to be our hero going forward—Gaiden makes a stronger than expected case for why and how he’s endured so much, and deserves a better ending than the old life has been willing to give him.

This game was reviewed with code provided by fortyseven communications.