➤ Like a Dragon Gaiden, the review of the game that marks the return of Kazuma Kiryu 🕹

Parallel to the events of Yakuza: Like a Dragon, Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio's new game brings Kazuma Kiryu back to life in the review of Like a Dragon Gaiden.

What happened to Kazuma Kiryu? Forced to renounce his name and fake his death at the end of Yakuza 6: The Song of Life, the Dragon of Dojima never left the universe created by SEGA: anyone who has completed the Yakuza campaign knows this well: Like a Dragon, where The charismatic former member of the Tojo Clan surprisingly reappears dressed as a bodyguard.

If the words you just read seem new to you, we will tell you right away, you should take a step back; because this new chapter of the saga developed by Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio develops simultaneously with the events of the adventure starring Ichiban Kasuga and openly reveals the (sensational) background, obviously assuming that you already know them.

However, it is a different story, the one we are going to tell you in Review of Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name: composed of intrigues, violence, betrayals but above all of feelings and sacrifices; and which, although not always brilliantly, eloquently answers the initial question: what happened to Kazuma Kiryu?

Special Agent Joryu

Like a Dragon Gaiden, the review of the game that marks the return of Kazuma Kiryu — As a Dragon Gaiden, Special Agent Joryu appears for the first time

As mentioned, at the end of the last chapter in which he was the protagonist (here is the review of Yakuza 6: The Song of Life), Kazuma Kiryu is forced to pretend to be dead to protect Haruka, Haruto, and the Morning Glory orphans. The Daidoji family is responsible for staging his disappearance, but has no intention of giving up the extraordinary abilities of the ancient Dragon Dojima and thus provides the man with a new identity and a new role.

Under Joryu's fictitious name, Kazuma. Therefore, he is trained in the use of technological devices. assigned to Daidoji's agents while hiding within the walls of a temple. From time to time, his supervisor, Kihei Hanawa, asks him to take on especially sensitive tasks. However, when the latter is kidnapped by a group of masked men who seem to know Kiryu's identity, the situation worsens.

If you are a fan of Yakuza, you will know well how it works in the series. the story and its characters play an absolutely central role, and from this point of view Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name is no exception, despite suffering the limitations of a deliberately more compact campaign than usual, composed of only five chapters, which has somehow prevented the authors from packing their bags. the phenomenal crescendo we are used to.

The narration in Japanese productions is usually characterized by a deliberately relaxed pace in the construction phase of the plot and its protagonists, with scenes and phrases that are allowed to settle to be well impressed, and then accelerate and explode when these elements are questioned, thus obtaining an extraordinary involvement on the part of the user.

In this case, unfortunately, a broader introductory phase is missing, so the relationship between Kiryu and Hanawa, a key element of much of the adventure, looks hastily built, mostly implicit, with the result of being a bit forced. Fortunately, the main villain, hiding in plain sight, gains character along the way and saves the situation at least in the finale, which closes this chapter in tears (literally).

Naturally, one is quick to think that it was the lack of Toshihiro Nagoshi that weighed in such carelessness, but the inevitable narrative short circuits dictated by the "ethical code" of the protagonist of Yakuza, who despite being basically a criminal absolutely refuses to kill, as if his blows neutralized any desire for revenge, in reality they have always been a constant in the saga.

Structure and setting: Sotenbori and little else

The aforementioned compactness of the Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name campaign is also reflected in structure and environment, the latter basically limited to the Sotenbori stage, which as you know is inspired by the Dotonbori neighborhood in Osaka. We hoped that the Yokohama map could have a more significant role in the game, but unfortunately Kiryu limits itself to those parts, just in time to clarify that the plot develops in parallel to what we told you in the review of Yakuza: Like a Continue.

The reduced sales price (€49,99 only in digital format, which however becomes zero if you are an Xbox Game Pass subscriber) somehow justifies this choice and, in general, a less rich content offer on a narrative level usual. . The duration of the campaign is approximately twelve hours. where you focus on the main story, while completing all of Akame's tasks, the Arena battles and the rest you can suck at for maybe twenty hours.

Akame is a new character, whom we meet in Like a Dragon Gaiden: she is a girl who plays a role similar to that of the dear old Florist on the streets of Osaka, thanks to her network of informants among the ranks of the homeless, whom however he swore to protect. It is she who leads us to the Castle, which we will talk about shortly, in addition to offering us a series of tasks that act as side missions, with more or less complex and interesting plots.

In this case a management minigame is missing, while the focus was on a more... lascivious interpretation of cabaret clubs, with live images of the hostesses with whom we can chat and possibly conquer by hitting the right topics and answers, unlocking at the end of the tour a clip with vague erotic content, different for each girl.

The thickness between extra activities It is guaranteed by the return of the Pocket Circuit, with its increasingly complex races and the strategic component of improvements to improve the performance of our car on the track, but there is no shortage of classic mini-games (golf, billiards, poker, darts, karaoke) . , Black Jack, Shogi, Mahjong), the SEGA Clubs (with the coin-ops of Sonic the Fighters, SEGA Racing Classic 2, Fighting Vipers 2 and Virtua Fighter 2.1) and even a SEGA Master System like Judgment.

In the streets of Sotenbori we can obviously access a whole series of restaurants, where we can consume delicious dishes thanks to which we can recover our health and gain some experience points, the inevitable convenience stores of the fictitious Poppo chain where we can stock up on food and supplements and the pawn shops where we can also buy new equipment. .

Then there is the Castle, not the one seen in Yakuza Kiwami 2 but a clandestine reproduction placed on a ship off the coast of Japan, domain of the Kijin Clan and place of unbridled depravity For the exclusive use of very rich people. This is demonstrated by the casinos and cabarets, but above all the Arena: a place where the strongest fighters in the world compete at the cost of their lives to entertain the public.

At a certain point in the campaign we will find ourselves visiting the Castle and obviously we will have to prevail in the Arena, defeating emulators of some legendary warriors up to the Four Kings, or hiring increasingly stronger teammates to create spectacular group fights in which action and strategy mix in an exciting way.

Gameplay: Classic Yakuza

Unlike the RPG approach with turn-based combat introduced with Yakuza: Like a Dragon, which we will also find in Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, Like a Dragon Gaiden resumes the classic action formula of the SEGA series, with its strengths and weaknesses, the latter however made evident by the lack of a truly layered plot, which even forces a couple of moments of pure grinding.

They are back fighting styles for Kazuma Kiryu, two to be exact: Agent and Yakuza. The first represents the great novelty of this chapter, taking advantage of the electronic devices supplied to Daidoji's agents to introduce fun and strident mechanics: the protagonist can shoot a watch wire to tie and project opponents, call drones, throw explosive cigarettes and even fire propellants under their shoes.

The Yakuza style is, however, the classic Kiryu, with the character firmly planted on the ground and focused on power and counterattacks, enriched this time by a spectacular and devastating maneuver without precedents which you can perform when you perfectly dodge an unstoppable attack. Otherwise, the very painful finishers return but Extreme Heat Mode takes on different connotations, becoming more useful and versatile.

Generally Both styles are reminiscent of Takayuki Yagami. in the aforementioned Judgment: Agent is more dynamic and dedicated to crowd control (which in Like a Dragon Gaiden takes on a literal meaning, since we will find ourselves facing up to a hundred enemies at the same time) but less effective in general, while The Yakuza style is dedicated to one-on-one battles, in all boss fights.

The system is traditional., in the sense that you find yourself going from point A to point B on the map (this time almost without encountering the classic substories of the series, which is frankly strange) and meanwhile fighting against the henchmen that you find along the way. , with the possibility of using a wide range of objects as improper weapons, as well as destroying glass and furniture in the unfortunate surrounding businesses.

The impact performance is excellent and the game It's still a lot of fun, especially using the Agent style that's fresher in its dynamic; however, asset recycling is now too evident and some balance distortions persist, which, particularly during boss fights, becomes a race to see who has the fullest inventory of food for instant recovery of energy.

Technical implementation: the 2000 engine.

Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio is also aware that Dragon Engine is a bit old, and it is no coincidence that it is evaluating the transition to Unreal Engine (already made in the case of the remake of Like a Dragon: Ishin!), but for now it is still pushing its own engine, trying to make the most of it and enhance the things that it still manages to do quite well, such as the representation of Japanese neighborhoods at night.

Well, we've been talking for years about what the settings of the Yakuza series are like. As fascinating and evocative at night as they are dull and boring during the day., and Like a Dragon Gaiden is clearly no exception. The decision to set the different episodes in real settings has allowed a constant reuse of assets and the progressive improvement of the maps, and the glimpse of Osaka that we see in this chapter does not fail to offer a great vision of its most commercial streets.

However, it seems that at a technological level the representation is less sophisticated than that seen in Yakuza: Like a Dragon, and this becomes evident when some sequences of the game in question and its characters are shown, more detailed and better illuminated. Are these differences real or just a feeling? It's not easy to say, but in terms of the scenarios, fatigue is now evident and the careful direction does not always manage to hide certain errors, although here too there are truly spectacular interlude sequences.

On PS5 there are no graphics modes: the game just runs 60 fps with little uncertainty, probably using a 1440p reconstructed to 4K, as some artifacts seem to reveal. Stylistically, the choice of full motion video for the cabaret club hostesses didn't drive us crazy, while otherwise it's still a big shame not to have included the Yokohama setting in the campaign.

Finally, as far as the audio sector is concerned, the soundtrack knows how to impose itself here too, in a mix of old and new songs perfectly capable of enhancing what is happening on the screen, while the Japanese interpretations seem, as usual, , intense and convinced, especially in the final with a judicial benefit from Takaya Kuroda.

In addition, we are facing the first episode starring Kazuma Kiryu that has Spanish subtitles since the first Yakuza for PS2, which is no small feat.

Conclusions

Tested version PlayStation 5 digital delivery Steam, playstation store, Xbox Store Price 49,99 € Holygamerz.com 7.5 Readers (34) 7.8 your vote

Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name is a must-see chapter for all fans of Kazuma Kiryu and the classic Yakuza formula, which is revived in the game without variations beyond the Agent's new fighting style, very dynamic and fun easy to use thanks to the cable (no surprise that it is called "Spider"...) and the protagonist's other gadgets. It's unfortunate that the story takes place almost exclusively on the streets of Sotenbori, that the compactness of the campaign affects some important characterizations, and that on a technical level everything is quite dated: if SEGA decides to continue with this "nostalgic" system, we hope to do so at the light of some important news.