“A Brilliant Reintroduction” – Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name Review

Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name does an incredible job of navigating two distinct narrative branches – the close of Kiryu’s (sorry, Joryu’s) narrative as main protagonist and the beginning of a new era for the world’s larger Yakuza affiliations. Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name is a game that does more with its 10-15 hour playtime than past games in developer RGG’s series did with double. With a slew of callbacks and a relatively straightforward tie-in to Yakuza: Like A Dragon, it’s also an important game to bridge the gap between Kiryu’s convoluted, decades-long backstory and Ichiban’s new journey.

That’s before considering the fact that Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name also introduces a new combat style that may be the series’ most fun. It’s a brilliant reintroduction to Kiryu’s stoic (but sometimes goofy) brand of justice, and given that it directly plays into the upcoming Infinite Wealth, is a promising sign that the series is headed towards its quirky, emotional best.

Storytelling With A Mindful Editor

Yakuza games tend to have a bit of a sprawling narrative from game to game, with a lot of complexity in their twists and turns. Yakuza: Like A Dragon had a bit of a smaller scope for most of its narrative and benefited greatly from it – rather than juggling the machinations of several yakuza clans and politics, those elements operated in the background while focusing on Ichiban’s emotional growth at the fore. Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name takes that and refines it even further, offering an extremely tight, jam-packed narrative with plenty of callbacks and a nuanced, dramatic story.

Kiryu – now Joryu, much to the amusement of pretty much every character who interacts with him for longer than two seconds – is supposed to be dead. He’s operating as something of a ghost of yakuza legends past, now working for the Daidoji. Through a series of unlikely and amusing events, Kiryu ends up working with the yakuza anyways, working to further a plot that will dissolve both the Omi and Tojo, bringing an end to the criminal world of Japan in its current form.

Naturally, plenty of invested parties don’t want that to happen. That’s where the source of much of the conflict in Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name stems from, but the story also follows Kiryu as he helps fixer Akame protect the homeless population of Sotenbori. Doing so sees Kiryu facing ghosts of his past at several different turns, sometimes in unexpected places. It’s both an homage to the journey that brought Kiryu to this point and tying up some loose ends in anticipation of Ichiban’s greater prominence, revisiting iconic characters and moments one more time.

Thankfully, Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name isn’t too infatuated with Kiryu’s past. It’s a story about moving on, after all, and for the actual narrative to fail to do so would be a little too on the nose. RGG’s saga gets a fitting send off after all is said and done, though we know Kiryu’s tale isn’t over just yet thanks to his involvement in Infinite Wealth. With a shorter-than-average playtime for an RGG game, Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name strongly benefits from a condensed adventure that never overstays its welcome at any point.

The Best Fighting Style For Kiryu Ever?

The other major selling point for Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name is the Agent battle style, which sees Kiryu use spy gadgets in battle. The best of these by far is Spider, which is basically a web-slinging tool that can tie up enemies briefly, pull weapons to Kiryu, or swing groups of foes across the battlefield. That’s accompanied by rocket shoes, exploding cigarettes, and drones. The Agent style is perhaps the most fun battle style that’s ever been available to Kiryu, and it didn’t get old over the many skirmishes that made up the game’s mission sequences.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a Kiryu game without the Dragon of Dojima’s signature brawling style, which also returns in something of an overpowered form. As a short game, upgrades tend to come fast and furious, and it feels like there’s less of them to acquire – instead, Kiryu simply has access to some of his tricks right out of the gate, and then begins to run through a greatest hits list of some of his past maneuvers while upgrading. Kiryu’s ability to upgrade with money also means it’s easy to scale power quickly, trivializing some early content if players get distracted by side quests.

RGG Shows Heart

Side quests in Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name are wonderful. Once again benefiting from a shorter playtime, the threads of smaller quests leading to bigger ones get picked up much faster than usual – a roaming enemy that recurs three times total in upgraded forms simply comes back once the first mission is done, and gang cleanups lead quickly into scaled up conflicts. Side characters get to come back in the Coliseum, which features team battles that function a little like the Majima Construction side-game. Players can upgrade their fighters and assemble teams to beat down the best the world has to offer for lush rewards, or go solo to prove that Joryu might be the successor to Kiryu.

Side content also has the same heart players have come to expect from RGG. Even if Kiryu’s stay is shorter this time, he’s able to instill confidence in an AI-obsessed teen, rekindle a pro wrestler’s love of fighting, rescue stray cats, solve a murder, and more. Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name doesn’t forget that some of the best elements of the Yakuza series are found in its less essential content. Even Akame gets some back story, though she’s also indicative of the one drawback of Gaiden‘s pacing – characters don’t quite get to develop the same way they have in the past, and feel like there could be more to them given some time. Perhaps they’ll get that time in Infinite Wealth, but if not, there’s definitely a sense of some missed opportunity with some fun, interesting new characters.

Final Thoughts & Review Score

Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name is a success. With just five chapters total, it tells a compelling story that maintains interest throughout. It’s also a neat summary of Kiryu’s storied past, serving as a solid introduction to him for those who found the franchise through Yakuza: Like A Dragon and Ichiban. Anyone interested in the Yakuza hype heading into Infinite Wealth should absolutely check out Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name, which stands on its own as a great entry that does so much with very little.

Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name releases on November 9, 2023 for PS5, PS4, XSX, Xbox One, and PC. Screen Rant was provided with a PS5 code for the purpose of this review.