This game truly feels like a culmination and celebration of every single Yakuza game to come before it. I can’t express how much I love these characters. Ichiban and Kiryu are, quite simply, the perfect protagonists. Taking a trip down memory lane with Kiryu and seeing all of the people he’s affected throughout his life was such a special experience and had me on the verge of tears multiple times. Ichiban has once again proven how much of an amazing protagonist he is. The Like a Dragon series is in the right hands. As Kiryu said “I'll take on the Yakuza's past. But you... I want you to handle their future.”

I wasn’t as huge on the story in this game compared to Yakuza: Like a Dragon, which felt way more personal. Overall, it had much better pacing and a more compelling villain. Everything else though? Unmatched. The combat in this game is spectacular. It takes what was built previously in Yakuza: Like a Dragon and expands on it tenfold. Simply being able to move opens so many more opportunities for dealing with different enemies. Whether it be combos, weapons, or lineups; it lets you be more tactical with your moves. The amount of jobs to choose from adds even more crazy and outlandish attacks that had me dying when I first used them. I literally cooked these Japanese men in a giant wok and then served them on a plate as a move. What other game is doing this? Also, being able to say “fuck this” and break free of the turn-based shackles as Kiryu with Dragons Resurgence is S-tier.

This series holds a special place in my heart and I know whatever RGG cooks up next is going to absolutely destroy me.

Now that I’ve had a day to sit on my thoughts of the game I will make an actual non-shitpost review.

This game is a mess. I wasn’t kidding when I said this is the MGS4 of the series. An extremely ambitious, earnest, heartfelt celebration of the series that has extremely high highs but also constantly falls on its face with extremely stupid writing.

The pacing is some of the worst we’ve seen from RGG. For a game that can easily be 100+ hours long it is both too long but also too short in areas. It constantly pulls you away from the main story to do very involved mini game/sub system tutorials but then has no time in the final hours to wrap up most of the story. At least 4 of the main characters this game is about don’t show up in the final cutscene. You just have to be told about what they are doing from a mouth piece so we can wrap shit up. Kiryu is just kinda left in this weird limbo as they don’t explain what the fuck got them to this point with an achievement titles “man who reclaimed his name”. It genuinely feels like there is either an entire chapter or at least a huge segment of one missing from the end. One of the main villains just stops showing up for 10+ hours only to be seen again in a cut away and is completely unrecognizable for at least another few hours. They then try to do the coin locker scene again with them and it feels completely unearned because they haven’t done anything. The two main villains you do fight are extremely forgettable and underwhelming. One is given what you’d imagine to be a super important connection to Ichiban but it never comes up. The two share a single cutscene at the start of the game and that’s it. Why was it even a plot point to begin with then???? So many plot threads just go no where or are left extremely unsatisfying as they hand wave them away so it can’t be viewed as “a plot hole”. I seriously think how they structure their stories needs to change because I don’t think the Yakuza writing formula they’ve had for 2 decades translates to a 100 hour JRPG. Imo the best way to enjoy the main story of these games is when you can just progress the plot freely and not be bogged down by side content or busy work. I usually save that stuff for premium adventure so the story isn’t so “start and stop”. But you can’t do that in these games because of the rpg leveling and just how the story constantly blocks you to do other shit I am currently not interested in. No RGG I don’t give a fuck about your Pokémon clone and it’s 30 minute+ forced tutorial I just want to get on with chapter 4 please.

Most of the cast has nothing to do in this game which would be fine if they didn’t force them to have boring ass drink links you need to do to make them objectively better in gameplay.

The gameplay needs massive changes going forward because Jesus Christ was I sick of the multiple grinds it imposes. The long battles they do in this game are terrible. In previous entries you’d have a long gauntlet where you’d have to fight to a location and they do this here but they constantly make you take the most out of the way route and block off better ones with excuses like “there are dudes over there!” Only to send you down an alley with 7 fights. If 9 does the same formula 8 repeated from 7 I might just drop the series. I do not want to go back to scrounging for money and being locked out of jobs till chapter 5 again. I do not want to have to do massive material grinds for good gear. I do not want to have 80% of the moves you get to be fucking useless because they aren’t an AOE and don’t deal elemental damage.

Highlights of this game is everything they do with Kiryu outside of the final chapter. Life links are overall goated outside of some implications of how no one reacting to Kiryu being alive despite you are only able to see them after Kiryu is broadcasted on national news to be alive.

There is honestly too much to talk about with this game So I’m just gonna end it by saying this: I’ll look back on the good in this game as some of the best but I never want to replay this game ever again. Also this game only makes Gaiden look even dumber and further cements it at as a $50 scam. Yokoyama fucking lied Hanawa is not important and he fucking knew that.

Mark my words that this game while currently being hailed as the best game in the series, that its perfect and other things like that will be looked back on a lot more negatively once the honeymoon phase is over, once hypebeasts move onto the next thing, once people won't freakout if you have anything negative to say about it. It won't be a hot take or "being contrarian" to think that the game is mid, super front loaded and falls apart in the end. It's fine if you do think its perfect and its your favorite game or whatever but the amount of people who lose their shit when you have anything negative to say about this game or gaiden is seriously annoying.

This game also made me get into a car accident so fuck it lol

Red Dead Redemption 2 took years to be made
Baldur's Gate 3 took at least 4 years to make
The Titanic Movie took over an year
YOU had 9 months to be made

Like a Dragon Gaiden took 6 months, and yet it is better than rdr2, bg3, titanic and you! Long live RGG

Like a Dragon: Gaiden

At one point it becomes kind of obvious that this was supposed to be a DLC, but that doesn't stop it from being amazing. Last scene completely broke me.

9/10