Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name

A well-polished game with a great story. Since this is my first Yakuza game, though, I still need to go back and play the prequel to fully understand the story.

They absolutely did NOT have to go this hard for a spin-off side story game. This is basically what Kiryu was doing while Ichiban was on his journey in Yakuza 7: Like a dragon. The story is fire, the combat is great, the side games and spin off quests are decent. It has one of the best boss fights of all time in a Yakuza game as well. Akame is an absolute badass - I'd love to see her in a another game. Yes it's a shorter package than usual but it's also a tighter more polished experience that is definitely worth experiencing imho.

This is the cap to Kiryu's story as the main character, and it feels like a bit of a poor send-off in comparison to Yakuza 6. However, we'll always take a bit more of our favorite wooden board of a character. I'd say the bulk of this game takes place in Sotenbori, with Kiryu revisiting it for the first time since Yakuza 2, and this setting has a lot of fun stuff in it. the addition of Akame's Network adds fun side activities, including my personal favorite, the return of Pocket Circuit. Kiryu fakes his death after Yakuza 6, seeing it as the only way to keep Haruka and the kids at Morning Glory safe. In exchange, he takes on the name Joryu and begins working for a clandestine government organization. However, the ruse doesnt last long as members of the Omi Alliance pretty much immediately recognize the Dragon of Dojima and he gets pulled into a new scheme, a joint announcement by Daigo Dojima and Watase, the leader of the Omi, to dissolve both the Tojo Clan and the Omi. Short but fun and definitely a graphical showcase--but buy on sale, too short for its price when better games in the series are cheaper.