Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name
MSRP $50.00
“Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name satisfyingly ties up several loose ends in Kiryu’s story, but it remains one of the franchise’s most difficult adventures.”
Pros
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Kiryu gets a strong arc
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some very emotional scenes
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Agent’s fighting style is a blast
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amusing anecdotes
Shortcoming
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Repetitive plot beats
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war lacks innovation
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exhausting akame network
within the first few hours of Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name, Kiryu and his friends are ambushed or cornered by attackers while minding their own business at least three times. I’m always happy to see Kiryu defeat some of the people who fought the wrong fight, but as it happened again and again, these moments began to wear thin. There’s only so many times you can play through a scene before it turns into a surprise, especially considering how often conflicts start out the same way in the Like a Dragon series.
it is symbolic like dragon gaiden Overall: This is a side story that reprises the series’ greatest hits to varying degrees of success. The main purpose of this game is to serve as a short, action-focused interquel to 2020 Yakuza: like a dragon, It explains what Kiryu was going through during the events of that game and serves as a message for his personal struggles before his final appearance in 2024. Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth,
Those who enjoy more action-focused Like a Dragon titles and are heavily invested in Kiryu’s journey will find plenty of compelling narrative in this Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name, But despite its short length, the narrative structure and gameplay like dragon gaiden Can feel quite repetitive and can be played out at times.
Kiryu’s quest
Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name That long title depicts Kiryu’s main conflict. After the events of Yakuza 6: Song of LifeThe protagonist of the series has given up his identity to protect an orphanage in Okinawa. He now works as an agent for a secret Japanese government organization with the code name Joru. His situation becomes more complicated when some Yakuza discover that Kiryu is still alive and want to bring him back for a plan to completely eliminate the organized crime scene in Japan.
You may recognize that last plot beat if you’ve played Yakuza: like a dragon, and that’s because most of the game takes place alongside that adventure. Kiryu’s adventure provides more insight into what it takes to carry out that disruption plan. If Yakuza: like a dragon To be adapted into one season of television, like dragon gaiden It seems like this will be a B-plot for that season.
Although it is technically a side story in the grand narrative of the Like a Dragon franchise, it ties up many of the loose ends of Kiryu’s journey. Developer RGG Studios writes some of the most compelling characters in games, and it’s no different here. like dragon gaiden It explores what drives one to crime, how power corrupts, and what keeps one going even after making the ultimate sacrifice while living to tell the tale.
in behaviour, like dragon gaiden It feels like a band playing their greatest hits before releasing a new album. It refers to some of the franchise’s most important narrative constructs, characters, and moments. While this makes the game excellent in terms of fan service and character development, it also results in a repetitive story. It’s full of ambushes, shocking betrayals, or revelations that surprise players. These are the kinds of twists that helped establish the Like a Dragon franchise as gaming’s greatest soap opera, so it’s not surprising that RGG Studios introduces them in this “best of” genre adventure. .
It’s a numbers-based conclusion to Kiryu’s journey rather than a revelatory new chapter…
As someone who has played many games in the series and knows how things go Yakuza: like a dragon, these overused moments feel stale at this point in the series’ long life. This could mean like dragon gaiden Better for newcomers, but its fan service focus means that players won’t get as much benefit from those aspects of the story. This puts it in an awkward position. Gaiden There are some great moments; One particular scene near the end almost made me cry because it felt like Kiryu’s long, arduous journey was leading up to that moment. There’s a lot of inauthentic setup to get to that point.
It’s a by-the-numbers conclusion to Kiryu’s journey rather than a revelatory new chapter in the Like a Dragon saga. And while RGG has positioned this release as Gaiden (which means side story in the title), doesn’t mean there wasn’t an opportunity to try some new ideas here. It’s a shame, like Gaiden It features some of the best written characters and scenes of the year.
like jacob
like dragon gaiden It’s an action game, not an RPG like the upcoming Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, It is a combo-based brawler where players can switch between styles mid-battle while constantly building up “heat” to perform powerful heat action attacks. If you’ve played any Like a Dragon games starring Kiryu, you’ll be familiar with this gameplay style. like dragon gaiden No one takes drastic steps to change it. In fact, it reuses most of its Heat action animations and only has two fighting styles.
There are no changes or improvements to the combat compared to previous games in the series.
One is the Yakuza style, which primarily involves slow, strong attacks against an opponent. The second one, which is more fun to play with, is the agent style. Fast-paced and used against large groups of enemies, this fighting style takes advantage of plenty of James Bond-style gadgets, which Kiryu can use to perform tasks such as engaging multiple enemies or summoning drones for offensive and defensive support. Can to do. Whenever I would enter a fight, my strategy would almost always be to thin out the swarm and wear down every enemy’s health with Agent attacks before delivering the final blow with Yakuza combos and Heat Actions.
It’s enjoyable, but not exactly new. Although Agent Gadget makes for some refreshing moments, the battles don’t change or improve much compared to previous games in the series. It’s actually a bit more limited, with only two styles instead of four. like dragon gaiden This doesn’t feel like a grand farewell to this old gameplay style; It seems like RPG Studios does one more iteration before moving on to turn-based RPGs permanently.
While Sega said so like dragon gaiden It’s supposed to be a short game, yet it took me about 12 hours to beat it. It’s a bit shorter than other games in this franchise, but still not a laughable playtime for a single-player adventure. There’s still a lot here that you can dive into, especially if you’re willing to put up with all the extra content like I am.
lateral movement
As is the case with all Like a Dragon games, Gaiden It does a great job of creating a living, breathing Japanese city with lots of things to do. Most of the adventures take place in Sotenbori; In fact, this may be the only Like a Dragon game that does not feature Kamurocho at all. While the series’ most iconic town isn’t here, I’ve learned to love the historically less-explored Sotenbori. By the end of the adventure I was familiar with almost every corner of the city.
There are lots of minigames to get involved in. These range from more standard games like Go and Blackjack to strange games like a live-action cabaret minigame where Kiryu has to choose the right option to woo the cabaret girl he’s talking to. like dragon gaiden Also lets players visit The Castle, a luxurious, boat-based theme park for the rich that is filled with more minigames like the Coliseum.
With the Coliseum mode, players can perform various one-on-one challenge battles or team-based brawls with Kiryu or characters recruited during the adventure. It essentially serves as the end game. like dragon gaiden, While I had enough of its battle systems by the game’s conclusion, those who enjoy these brawls may have wasted a lot of time dealing with all of these coliseum battles and leveling up every possible individual fighter.
The side stories are unexpected and humorous…
However, the content that always fascinates me most in Like a Dragon games is the strange and fantastical sub-stories. like dragon gaiden There are quite a few features among them. An extraordinary person pokes fun at ChatGPT as Kiryu tries to help someone who uses an AI chatbot to help him woo a girl. As always, the side stories are unexpected and humorous, balancing the more serious crime epic at the center of the series.
What’s less exciting is how players actually get caught up in those stories. In previous games, players could dynamically drop into side stories while exploring the city, which boosted the already fantastic world design and made RGG’s cities fascinating places that people like me eagerly visit with each new game. Would like to return together. In like dragon gaidenAlmost all sub-stories are activated through a disappointing new feature: the Akame Network.
Akame is a major player in the story and a well-connected figure in Sotenbori’s underground and homeless scenes. arrogance in most like dragon gaiden It’s that people have come to Akame with requests, and she’s making Kiryu fulfill them. As rewards, Kiryu receives money and Akame Points, which can be spent on character ability upgrades or items in his shop. It adds a surprising amount of tedium to a previously elegant exploration formula. To begin the story, players must run back to Akame’s hideout and accept the mission, starting a briefing. It’s easy to zone out when 10 sub-missions appear at once and a few long minutes are spent on setup. This is a time-consuming process, and it leads to other areas of design, including clunky inventory management.
Instead of creating serendipitous moments, it feels like I’m here checking items off a to-do list. Many of the smaller encounters that boost Akame Network’s ranking are also scattered throughout Sotenbori, but these lack the depth or personality of full sub-stories. Most of them are short quests that usually boil down to giving someone an item, taking a picture of something, or having a quick fight.
These may seem like small problems, but like the constant ambush attacks that frustrated me early on, they speak to the most important issue like dragon gaiden, Although the story features a satisfying solo moment for the series’ most iconic character, there isn’t as much creativity here as the series usually delivers. Those who have already played every Like a Dragon game probably won’t mind, but those who aren’t as familiar might be better off seeing a recap of the story and waiting for a longer RPG. Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth Will be released next year.
Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name Tested on Xbox Series
