Review - Like A Dragon Gaiden : The Man Who Erased It's Name

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Welcome to a new installment for the reviews of our page.

This time we have a game that I have been expecting since the announcement a long ago, so let's get to it.

Chronicles Conclusion:

Highly Recommended

Pros:

Great story

Quality side content

Good gameplay

Beautiful graphics

Coliseum

A nice bag of references to older games of the saga

Cons:

Short story

Cabaret is pretty basic

Not new notable additions to minigames

The Prelude:

Here we are, the new "last Kiryu adventure".

Don't get me wrong, I have a special place for Kiryu as the protagonist and coming back is nice to hear but this game is pretty short.

I absolutely not recommend starting from here if you're new to the saga, only if you want to jump straight to 8 then be my guest but you're losing some interesting parts of Kiryu life, also the length don't help at all.

You can get a great immersion in the story and then ends by the next hour or so, the development team said that this game was originally a little dlc for Like A Dragon 8 but had a potential for a sole entry so here we are.

Classic old Kiryu, outdated but well informed

The Story:

We start right away after the ending of 6 with some cutscenes explaining what happened after that and also the ending itself, all to make a context for why is Kiryu in the position he is.

We are a Dandoji agent, and a very special one because we have very slim and specific works every now and then, but all changes after a fight on the port, and here we are on a mission to rescue a certain friend and slowly unravel a bigger plot "Codename Joryu on the job"

I can't say much about the story because I never spoil on a review but the game takes part between what will be 6 and 7, with the ending itself jumping all the way to connect to 8 in a vague way to maintain the secretive atmosphere.

Now we fight a bigger number of enemies a while after we start, instead of the classic 3 or 4 in the other entries

We have 5 chapters and the length of every one of them is a rollercoaster, 2 chapters are tremendously long and the others are pretty much done after a couple of cutscenes so we have a strange way of advancing the plot.

The story is pretty cool and we have some classic old Yakuza epic moments, some old characters reunion and some interesting interactions with new ones so it absolutely worth the run.

Also we can point that after you beat the story, a special demo of Like A Dragon 8 is unlocked for s taste of the game, you can play like 10 minutes of the story and some minigames including karaoke so I hope you find it interesting.

You can change your clothes through the story for your personal likeness

Akame Network & Coliseum:

Our "principal minigame" is the coliseum, no doubt about it, we have to create the ultimate clan to beat every fight, also we have 1v1 fights, a 1 vs army mode and some special matches, also a mini story and some other things here and there.

In the end the coliseum helps to catch some extra hours of fun but it's a combat after another so nothing much special, the clan vs clan fights are fun but the last ones are a spam certain broken abilities to win because there's ridiculous quantities of health.

Also the mini story has some funny moments and some fights that worth the run so when you reach the point, don't hesitate to play it and finish it.

Oh yeah, trust me, there's a reason why Joryu is using this mask

The Akame network is another story, we have to do the common things of the other games like helping folks or defending them against thugs, plus getting the reward, the network grow stronger and you unlock some interesting rewards or perks.

The most interesting parts are the "Requests" or the common sub stories of the other entries, and trust me, gems are here, the quality of the substories don't let down, we have a lot of variety here but sadly there's few of them, since we are in a "bridge" between principal entries but every one of them is nice.

If you're familiar with "Judgment" then you will appreciate a specific sub-story

The meat of the game as always, is the story yeah, but for me the heart lies here, on the substories because the situations where Joryu is involved are fun and the personality that Kiryu have shows us how complex a person can be.

We have some paranormal activity, mysteries, gangs attacking the city, scams and some shady people after the sunflower orphanage, don't worry, that is on the side content, just showing some events and the diversity behind.

My only concern was the low quantity of those but as a game that works towards 8 I take it.

For context play one of the first substories (requests)

In Conclusion:

I won't be talking about the map or the combat because I have planned to cover the Judgment series too, but as a fast coverage, the combat is fluid and fun with certain limitations that doesn't feel as right, so we better talk about the Judgment and LJ on it's respective post.

The map is Sotenbori in almost all the game so if you already has seen my Yakuza 0 review then the map isn't that different.

To end this review, let me explain my stand point.

I really like the door to make more "Gaiden" games about other important characters but the story is pretty small for my taste, some chapters can last 20 minutes or so and others 2 hours so it's strange.

The gameplay is nice and the quality is undeniable so I hope we see more of this "bridge games" in the future just I hope that they are a bit bigger than this one.