Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name

I went into Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name half-expecting a filler chapter, a bridge title that exists to connect loose narrative threads before the next big mainline release. What I got instead was one of the tightest, most confident action brawlers the Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio has ever shipped, wrapped around an emotionally raw character study of a man trying hard to disappear and failing spectacularly at it. The setup follows Kazuma Kiryu operating undercover within the shadowy Daidoji faction under the alias Joryu. The story bridges the gap between the ending of Yakuza 6 and the events of Yakuza: Like a Dragon, filling in what Kiryu was actually doing while Ichiban Kasuga was stealing the spotlight. That connective tissue framing means new players will be lost without prior context, and this is genuinely not a starting point for the series. But for anyone who has been following Kiryu across multiple games, the payoff is real. The final chapters hit hard enough that reviewers and players alike have described the ending as genuinely moving, not something you expect from what was originally conceived as a DLC expansion. The gameplay is where Gaiden earns its keep regardless of your franchise investment. Kiryu fights with two switchable styles: the classic Yakuza stance, built on heavy fists, bone-rattling kicks, and improvised weapon use, and the new Agent style, which layers in four upgradeable spy gadgets. The Spider razor wire lets you snare groups of enemies and fling them into each other. The Hornet sends AI combat drones swarming in to distract and chip at foes. The Firefly is an explosive cigarette that works best in open crowd fights. The Serpent delivers rocket-powered boot dashes that close distance in an instant. Each gadget levels up through a weaponsmith, unlocking extra functions and higher output, and the design philosophy keeps hand-to-hand combat central rather than letting the gadgets replace it entirely. Agent style is wider and faster, better against crowds. Yakuza style hits harder in one-on-one exchanges. The game quietly nudges you to swap between them rather than camping one forever. Boss fights introduce an Ultimate Counter mechanic tied to well-timed dodges, and the Coliseum mode runs large Hell Team Rumble battles with dozens of enemies on screen simultaneously, which is the Dragon Engine showing off. The PC version holds 60fps without complaint, runs on Steam Deck with minimal tweaking, and ships with both English and Japanese voice options. The honest criticisms are worth naming. The story leans heavily on familiar yakuza soap opera tropes, with faction allegiances flipping often enough that a few critics found the plot messy rather than dramatic. The Sotenbori setting is a returning location from Yakuza 2, and the side activity pool, while fun, recycles mini-games the series has used for years: karaoke, mahjong, darts, pool, golf, and a new live-action cabaret hostess system that is exactly as charmingly weird as it sounds. Classic Sega arcade titles including Sonic the Fighters and Fighting Vipers 2 are playable inside the game. The Akame Network gates some story progress behind side content completion, which a portion of players found irritating as busywork padding. The runtime is shorter than a mainline entry, roughly 15 to 20 hours depending on how much side content you chase, and a vocal minority of critics felt it should have been DLC. Steam players overwhelmingly disagree: 95 percent positive across more than 12,000 reviews is a hard number to argue with. For series veterans, this is a lean, emotionally satisfying chapter that does one thing exceptionally well: it makes Kiryu matter again. For action-brawler fans who bounced off the older combat rhythm, the Agent gadget system is genuinely worth a look even without deep franchise context. Go in blind narratively and you will miss half the point, but catch up on Yakuza 6 and Like a Dragon first and Gaiden rewards that investment properly.

Alex · Scout Team

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