Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name

Nuclear take alert: I think this might be my favourite game in the entire franchise?

I feel like the Yakuzaverse has been stumbling for a while now - Judgment [JUDGE EYES:死神の遺言] and Yakuza: Like a Dragon [龍が如く7　光と闇の行方] both had some pretty wonky moments, features that didn't quite work, and awkward design choices, and the woeful after-school special plot of Lost Judgment [LOST JUDGMENT: 裁かれざる記憶] was Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio's nadir - so a game that returns to Yakuza 6: The Song of Life [龍が如く6 命の詩。] in so many ways is just the tonic. That was the last time a completely new Yakuza game could be enjoyed without caveats and obstacles, and returning to it felt....comfortable. Honestly, it was like having Yakuza back. And I think that's quite deliberate; at this point, I have to imagine that Yakuza will never feel like this again, and The Man Who Erased His Name does feel like it's deliberately positioning itself as a kiss-off to Kiryu's story, one last runthrough of all the hits for a grand finale. It's the vibe of a big band playing their last ever stadium show before they break up captured in a video game.

And it's concise, too - not short, as was advertised (I got a solid thirty hours out of it), but tight and streamlined. Much of the appeal of this franchise ultimately comes down to excess, so dialling anything back comes with significant risk of losing the essential character of the series, but The Man Who Erased His Name balances this perfectly; it still feels like a game that holds nothing back, that embraces the cartoonishly ridiculous and plays at maximum volume wherever possible, but it packs everything into a breathless runtime. Yakuza 6 was the prior benchmark for that balancing act, and this has surpassed it by being every bit as tight, but packing in even more of that unique Yakuza spirit. If you think of your favourite story or sidestory moments from any previous Yakuza game, chances are high that they'll be reproduced here in some way, either directly (Pocket Circuit is back, baby!), or in spirit. The classic story beats, the stories or betrayal and subterfuge and sacrifice, are all here, landing harder simply because the payoff happens while the setup remains fresh in the memory. The Coliseum, offering both the series mainstay of a battle arena and a new twist on previous clan creator modes, is a blast to complete. The Akame Network is a welcome feature, organising the side stories neatly, and Akame herself is a great character to boot. And the combat gives the option of either tradition or innovation; Kiryu now has a bunch of gadgets that give him borderline superhero combat moves, allowing you to take the street fights into Saints Row or Marvel's Spider-Man territory if you really embrace them, but you can stick with the old familiar brute manoeuvres if you prefer. There's enough newness here to keep a sense of freshness about things, but the focus is clearly on wrapping up everything good about the previous Kiryu games into a single package.

And the ending.....wow. I was a mess. The number of things I've ever seen in a video game that have hit me that hard can be counted on one hand. Endings have always been RGG's major Achilles heel, but my god, all those recklessly ambitious and aggressively confusing final chapters in the previous game were worth it for this. That, really, is the moment that sends this over the top of Yakuza 5 [龍が如く5 夢、叶えし者] for me.

But there's a significant point to be made off the back of that statement: I, a relatively recent convert to this series, have played all of Kiryu's back story within the last two and a half years. This is a game that leans very heavily on knowledge of Kiryu's journey, and of Yakuza as a whole, for its emotional impact and humour, and that means I am basically the perfect target audience for it. Would this land as hard for somebody who played the older games longer ago and has hazier memories of them? Maybe not. Would it be as giddy and hard-hitting an experience for somebody who hasn't played them at all? Definitely not, let's be honest. But I, personally, cannot fault this. From where I stand, and for what I want from a Yakuza game, it's basically perfect.