Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name

I would call it “Yakuza Lite.” It is not even close to Yakuza 0 in terms of gameplay or story, but overall, it is still an enjoyable experience. It is probably the easiest “Platinum” in the series. I would recommend it, but with some caveats. [Style] 3.5 out of 5 The game looks good, feels smooth enough, and is paced adequately. The soundtrack is as decent as it needs to be. Akame, played by First Summer Uika, is a real treasure. There is still a bunch of typical Dragon Engine junk, like overexposure. Also, for such a short and comparatively low-budget game, there is only one real new map, and it is very small. Sotenbori looks great at night, though. There is really nothing exceptional in terms of style. It is modern Dragon Engine Yakuza, but smaller and shorter. [Substance] 3 out of 5 The story is short and pretty self-contained. It can be followed without previous knowledge of the Yakuza franchise, but you risk some significant spoilers, and many moments may lack their proper impact. There are a couple of great emotional scenes and fight sequences. Side stories, as always, vary in quality, but a couple of them made me chuckle. Unfortunately, there is not a lot of classic “Kiryu gets scammed again” content. The minigames are mostly refurbished from previous titles. Come on, it’s Yakuza. The fighting mechanics here are somewhat shallow compared to Yakuza 0 or Kiwami 1, not to mention the Judgment series. Agent Style is mostly useless, except for a couple of moments when it is required (Wink-wink, Amon). I also find it a very controversial decision to lock all Heat Actions behind "Rage Mode”. In almost all aspects, it is average. Not a great story, although the ending really does hit hard. Not great gameplay compared to previous titles. Not a lot of variety. For the life of me, I could not give it anything above 3 out of 5. Total score: 6.5 out of 10 Slightly above average.

[h1] Like a Dragon: Gaiden is without a doubt within my top 3 RGG games. It most likely is even my favorite. [/h1] Despite being a spin-off that's much shorter than most of the games in the series, this game gave me just as much enjoyment if not more than a lot of them, and the fact that RGG were able to create such a fantastic game in the time they did is astonishing. [h2] To start: The Story [/h2] Like a Dragon: Gaiden is a lower scale story than what most games in the series present. It's a side game that is meant to bridge the gap between Yakuza 6's ending and Yakuza: Like a Dragon and contextualize the events that happen between and during those two games. The word Gaiden [外伝] quite literally meaning "side story". That being said, the story is done wonderfully here. There is some filler, however when the game picks up, it gets good, really good. The characters introduced in this game fill their roles well and I left really enjoying each of them. The characterization in this game is done very well in general, as expected from RGG. The antagonist in specific is one of my favorites in the series and I honestly didn't expect things to go the way they did with him. Kiryu or "Joryu" is as always fantastic. As you'd expect him to be. While I enjoyed the entirety of the story [b] a lot [/b] the ending is really what stole the show, if for nothing else, I'd honestly say that playing the game is worth it for it alone. Incredible climax, action, characterization, and a satisfying tie-in with Yakuza: Like a Dragon's own story, and the final boss is without a doubt MY favorite in the series thus far. The ending cutscene destroyed me as someone who loves Kiryu's character but it also left me incredibly satisfied. Takaya Kuroda's performance in the series is at its best in this scene and it just feels so real and it ties in with Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, the next game on my list. [h2] The Gameplay [/h2] This is the best a Kiryu game has felt, period. People may disagree and say Yakuza 0 has better combat (even though I'd argue Kiwami 1's combat clears Yakuza 0's, but that's a different conversation), however Kiryu's combat in this game feels so fluid and fun to play. Both Yakuza and Agent style are a blast to use, and the mechanics used in the Judgment games such as the Juggling and Ultimate Counter are brought in here which are always fun and very satisfying to pull off. The fights in the game are very crowd-heavy, likely to compensate for Agent's insane crowd-clearing abilities, which makes even the random encounters very fun. The boss fights are also a blast and very cinematic. One aspect of the game that I didn't expect to love as much as I did was The Coliseum. In most Yakuza games, playing the Coliseum was simply a need for the 100% most of the time, rarely ever did I care enough to play the Coliseum on my own time. Yes, an excuse for more combat is better, and yes some of the rewards you got were cool, but there was something missing that ever truly compelled me to sink any amount of time of my own into it. It doesn't help that many of the games didn't make much effort to make the Coliseums stand out from one another in any interesting way. Gaiden fixed this by adding what is by far the [b] BEST [/b] Coliseum the series has seen. Tournament fights, giant army fights where you and your own team take on hordes of enemies, weapon battles, etc. with timed rankings and big money payouts to help towards upgrading abilities. There's A LOT to love here, I spent about 10 hours or more alone just doing stuff for the Coliseum, which is a testament of not only how fun the combat is, but also how well designed it is. I truly hope we get a Coliseum like this again for the series. [h2] Side Content [/h2] Despite the fact that this game is a spin-off, this game is packed full to the brim with extra content as to be expected with RGG. Most typical minigames such as gambling games, Karaoke Darts, Mahjong, etc. are here, with the return of some older ones such as Pocket Circuit Racing and Pool. Substories are here as well but work a bit differently, you actually get to choose which one's you do from a list and are "sent" out on those missions. This obviously ruins the "Kiryu just randomly walks into a situation" vibe that substories usually give off, but I actually really enjoy how this system works. There's a system introduced called the Akame Network as well, which are not only what the substories run through, but also act as the second form of currency you get towards upgrading abilities, which I think is great and gives you a reason to interact with the game outside of speed-running the main story. [h2] Visuals and OST [/h2] This game has the prettiest visuals in the series and has an absolutely banging soundtrack. A lot of Yakuza games have a sort of "color tone" they use for their games' visuals, for Gaiden, there's a lot of blue's and red's present and they work together to look great. The Castle is a huge standout and looks absolutely stunning. Cutscenes are also animated very well. The OST is full of amazing compositions and there genuinely isn't a miss. Some standout tracks being Obedience, Bring It On, In Full Blast, Soul of the Ogre, Treachery, ONSYU, Dead Struggle, and obviously I'm Fading Away. [h2] Criticisms [/h2] There aren't many, but if I did have to critique anything with this game: - Hitboxes can be a bit weird sometimes. I'll hit an enemy every now and then and they sometimes just don't take any damage - The games balancing in general can be a bit strange, with a lot of really powerful heat actions being rather easy to pull off, and some weaker ones having strange conditions you have to meet to use them - Bosses can occasionally be annoying due to hyper armor - Gun wielding enemies are REALLY annoying - The game is on the shorter side, which annoys me because it was so good - No New Game+ [h1] Conclusion [/h1] Like a Dragon: Gaiden is an absolutely amazing game and is to me, damn near flawless. Outside of being a shorter game and having a few very mild grievances. It is to me, the best Kiryu game we're going to get for quite some time. If it wasn't probably the worst starting point in the franchise, I would absolutely recommend this game to anyone. This game was made in 6 months btw. 10/10 experience.

总体评价：9/10（整体其实不错，体量在这就小扣一分） 如龙系列第二部全部白金，白金难度系列最低，最后一部桐生一马即时战斗，再爽一把。 剧情总体比较满意，接如龙6的结尾，与如龙7平行叙事，填了一些坑，结尾很感动。

How long are we going to play on the same maps, with the same systems and with a similar story, just with progressively worse combat systems?

extremely tuff game, runs very well on max graphics

能玩到这一作的基本都是情怀粉了，如果这是非如龙系列作品那还算一款不错的动作游戏，但作为一款系列变革最大的一作——7的外传，需要在6代和7代之间起到承上启下的作用的存在来说，这一代的剧情只能用8个字来形容—— [h1]反转有余，精彩不足。[/h1]

必玩的外傳之一，內容感到滿足 雖然章節很短，可是有把淨龍過去的點點滴滴串在一起很棒 最後一章劇情最長...我她媽還閃退....傻眼重打.......

非常像7代本体的dlc，从桐生一马的视角来经历7代的故事（从这个角度来说类似于生化危机4，本体是里昂视角，dlc逆命殊途是王阿姨视角。），不肝成就11小时通关。 和本体不同，外传的战斗延续了老如龙那一套，没有采取回合制的模式,而是实时动作。依然是用金币升级，各种技能还是挺丰富的，其中特工风格放大了如龙的恶搞气氛？ ]故事的大舞台依然是神室町、苍天堀，作为外传，整个游戏偏粉丝向，有很多给老玩家闪回。如龙系列倒也是神奇，你说它地图素材复用，它确实是。但是这么多部游戏下来，神室町、苍天堀这两个地方竟然有了沉淀。路过瑟蕾娜酒吧，那里以前是桐生一马和锦山嶂聚会的地方，曾经的女老板丽奈暗恋着锦山，也看着他误入歧途。从苍天堀的桥上路过，河底下有个竞技场，真岛五郎曾今在下面为爱情奋斗过，那时候他还是个正常人。在苍天堀还有一家叫gland的夜总会，真岛曾今经营着那里，那时候他还是个正常人。神室町的千禧塔之前还是空白的一坪，在那里真岛埋藏自己的过去和爱情，那时候他还是个正常人。 从零代一路走到现在的八代，风间组、堂岛宗兵、锦山彰、狮子堂……一直到春日一番带着他的“勇者斗恶龙”小队闯进来，东城会、近江联盟两大势力三十年河东，三十年河西，各路角色粉墨登场，之后又随着时代发展悄然离去，天下一番大街的霓虹灯牌始终在头顶闪烁，这种物是人非的感觉或许只有系列作品才有。

Bought to play as Kiryu but got some bum-ass nobody named Joryu instead. Tears were falling down my cheeks at the end. Bought it only because I wanted to continue Like a Dragon, but its a great self contained game in itself. Recommend.

Os cara ficou o jogo inteiro duvidando da identidade do Kiryu, sendo que ele só trocou o nome para Joryu e meteu um óculos na cara, simplesmente cinema.