Summary
If you must know one thing about TheGamer, it’s that weloveYakuza. New games incite lively chatter across our work channels, and when debating the best doors in gaming, the infamousYakuza kicknaturally made the cut. I expressed that I wasn’t familiar with the series, and one of my colleagues pitched the games to me as, “Kiryu got confused during career day at school and has spent the rest of his life bending reality to his iron will.”
I laughed, but when I sat down to playLike a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Nameat Sega’s Summer Showcase in New York City, I learned very quickly that this was not a joke. Protagonist Kazuma Kiryu really can, and has spent the last two decades doing it all.
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The demo began with Kiryu on a helicopter bound for a location known only as The Castle, which information broker Akame explains is on a ship floating just far enough outside of Japan’s waters to not fall under its laws and jurisdiction. And when there’s no governing body looking over your shoulder, anything and everything goes – especially if millions of yen is on the line.
They approach what looks like a cargo ship, but a neon den of sin awaits inside once they land. Akame tells Kiryu that The Coliseum, the ship’s looming main attraction at the opposite end of the area, hosts a variety of deathmatch fights, leaving to go sign me up for one before I could protest.
I’d barely taken my first few steps onto the Las Vegas Strip-style street to catch up with her when a number of folks got in my way. There was very little banter before I was fighting maybe a dozen angry men in suits, learning the Agent style of combat in the most hands-on way. In this mode, Kiryu’s status as a secret agent comes into play as he deploys a number of spy gadgets to dispatch enemies en masse.
The Spider wraps a thread around a group of foes, allowing you to pull them in close for a forceful one-two punch. Jet shoes saw me rocketing through the crowd, carving a path through walls of enemies wherever I went. When I felt surrounded, I could light a small bomb cleverly disguised as a cigarette, flicking it into the crowd and watching enemies explode into the neon night sky. I even had a drone I could call to come assist me with some serious on-demand mobile firepower in a pinch.
Agent style feels best suited to handling a crowd, which you’ll find plenty of at The Castle as you get closer and closer to The Coliseum. Our demo showed off the Hell Rumble event, a 100-man deathmatch where every 25 combatants or so, I’d face a tougher batch of opponents, introduced with an imposing cutscene as they entered the arena determined to end my winning streak.
Costumed characters approached me unflinchingly, but switching to the Brawler combat style got me through these one-to-one fights. Like previous games in the series starring Kazuma Kiryu, the Dragon of Dojima has a variety of combat styles to switch between on the fly.
Brawler combat is more akin to a regular fighting style, and it saw Kiryu stack hand-to-hand melee combos as I kicked ass and took names. I made it through all 100 enemies by flipping between them both, using Agent style to take out hordes with my gadgets before challenging the tougher, individual fighters as a Brawler. I was bruised and bloody by the end, but I was victorious.
I’d chosen Kiryu when I entered The Coliseum, but you’re able to choose from a selection of more than a dozen fighters with the Legendary Fighters Pack (available by pre-ordering the game), a list littered with familiar faces from the series. Everyone has their own fighting styles, stats, and special moves, offering a number of options for how to approach your coming fights. I imagine this will be a wider, more fully-featured aspect in the full game.
There were a few difficulty levels to the combat itself, too, with tougher battles naturally offering much higher prizes. But, with so much else to see at The Castle, I quit while I was ahead and took my modest prize money over to the nearby boutique. Here, you’re able to spend that hard-earned yen on new outfits and accessories for Kiryu and the roster of fighters, with options for both formalwear for around The Castle, as well as stylized garb for all your Coliseum deathmatches.
After treating myself to a new set of threads, I sauntered confidently over to theCabaret Club. The entryway featured only a man at a podium, asking me to choose one of three real-life women to spend my evening with. Only one was available in the demo, but after the animated lobby faded to black, the game cut back in with FMV footage of this actual, human woman waiting to interact with me.
My hostess was adorably kind as I scrolled through my dialogue options, the majority of them forthcoming or flirty. When it came time for drinks, I chose the alcohol we’d be enjoying together that night – top-shelf black champagne, to flex my Coliseum winnings. I was even able to spring for an expensive gold watch as a gift for my companion, too. Each selection raised or lowered an affection meter that stayed permanently at the top of the screen, and when the time with my date was up, my expensive lifestyle had her swooning.
On the tails of winning at both combat and love, I made a quick pass through the casino, which offers a selection of games with gradually steepening bets to be made. Other writers demoing the game at the Showcase were embroiled in high-stakes cards games on their screens, but after spending my money on fabulous suits and beautiful women, I didn’t have much yen left to gamble with.
I left The Castle riding the high of my various victories within, even if they didn’t include casino chips. I’d still won in a street fightanda literal deathmatch with odds stacked wildly against me, and then modeled a full line of diamonds and designer goods that broadcast my victory in style. I enjoyed an evening with a woman that definitely liked Kiryu for who he is and not for the luxury goods I had brought to the room for her, too – I didn’t need poker to feel like I’d won.
Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name was every bit as chaotic as I was hoping for after my one-sentence introduction to the series. The Coliseum is the main focus, and the beat-em-up combat feels fun and natural, with variation in fighting styles leaving room for careful strategy to pack the hardest punch, and tearing through so many foes in so many ways was just outright fun to play.
I truly felt like a high-roller as I enjoyed the various side activities around The Castle, bathing in the confidence of a winner. You get a sense that you may become anyone in Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name, and I damn sure enjoyed my time becoming a fashionable, ass-kicking victor.
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