Per wiki policy, Spoilers Off applies here and all spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned.
It's the definitive Grand Finale for the Dragon of Dojima himself. The Hero of the series since 2005.You bet the waterworks are gonna be running.
Pre-Release & Trailers
- After having been with him for just over 18 years (and 35 from a canon standpoint), Kiryu having cancer might just be the single-biggest gut punch on both fronts. After pouring a couple of drinks to celebrate a victory, Kiryu is quietly staring out the window the whole time Ichiban and Tomizawa are getting to know each other better. The next clue that something is wrong is that Kiryu's drink is barely full, without any ice, when he usually has a full glass on the rocks. That moment is where he breaks the news, and tells them that he only has half a year left to live. This happens in Chapter 3, the one where Ichiban barely gets himself situated in Hawaii. To see the Dragon of Dojima himself succumb to cancer is a grim reminder that, despite every time he cheated death, even legends have to face their own mortality sooner or later. Majima's reaction says it all:Majima: Hmph. If the Dragon can't beat it, no one can. English Dub
- Ichiban's reaction to the news likely mirrors that of many fans when they heard the line in the trailer. He absolutely can't believe his ears, and practically goes through the five stages of grief in the span of a few minutes. First, he is visibly in denial that Kiryu, a man who once easily beat him and all of his friends, is now dying out of cancer with only half a year left to live, spending half of Kiryu's explanation being pretty much numbly talking back to Kiryu, as though he just can't comprehend the truth. Once the truth sets into him, he falls into a brief depression, briefly struggling to accept the reality until he finally does, at which point he absolutely explodes in a mixture of anger and bargaining, demanding Kiryu to see a doctor and insisting that Kiryu get some rest rather than fighting alongside them when Kiryu states the cancer has metastasized and spread beyond the point of medical intervention doing any good. He demands that Kiryu gets some rest, and falls decisively into the state of anger once Kiryu just says that retirement's not in the cards for him, accusing Kiryu of running away from reality. Ultimately, Ichiban can do nothing but solemnly accept that the Dragon of Dojima is as good as doomed.
- What makes it even worse? He's being reminded of him not being there to protect Arakawa, acknowledging the similarity of how they both were determined to see this through despite the danger of death, meaning it's essentially a case of History Repeats, except it's even crueler. At least Ichiban can be excused for not being there when Arakawa was killed by Tendo, but here, Ichiban is actually aware of the danger that lies ahead, and unlike before, where he could be confident that Arakawa would live through, considering that he would have if only Tendo had not betrayed them, Kiryu has no such chance because what he is fighting is something no amount of strength can help him live through. And yet, there is nothing he can do but watch as Kiryu goes down the same path as his father and unable to do anything but be there for the man as he slowly, but surely, faces a painful death at the hands of cancer.
- The scene of Kiryu gripping Ichiban's hand, pulling him over from the car window as Ichiban looks on with surprise, we see the Dragon of Dojima looking vulnerable through his usual stoic stare. It's rare to see but Kiryu is clearly scared for the future he may well not be around to see and is almost pleading with Ichiban for peace of mind that he can look after the future for him. Ichiban's expression adds to it as even he can see the weight of what Kiryu is suggesting with merely a hand grip and a stare.
- The same scene where Majima talks about Kiryu's illness is accompanied in the trailer by scenes of Majima, Saejima, and Daigo Dojima, who don't look nearly as young and energetic as they had in their prime (or even in the previous game): all of them appear more haggard and weary, further driving home the point that for these men, once considered titans among their contemporaries, their time has passed, all of them reduced to relics of a bygone era. The fact they're found in a shack in a snowy area (Majima and Daigo are wearing rather thick jackets) suggests something happened to cause the security consolidation venture to fail. As it turns out, due to their background as ex-yakuza, it made it far more difficult to network for funding, and eventually their ability to make connections got stopped cold thanks to Tatara Channel outing them. They all had no choice but to disappear into the shadows.
- The "Bucket List" trailer
further hammers home that Kiryu is slowly dying. Nanba suggests putting together a bucket list — a list of all the things he wants to do before he dies. Over the course of the trailer, old faces and names abound: Kiryu pays a visit to Kazama's grave, located close to graves for Nishiki and Yumi. Kiryu and Date share drinks with one another for the first time in years, at Survive in Yokohama no less — the same bar run by the similarly thought-to-be-dead Kashiwagi. Stardust is still doing well in Kamurocho, and Yuya's still holding down the fort, moving back in after the Jingweon Mafia bought it out. Kaoru Sayama still pines for Kiryu to this day. Kiryu reunites with Yuki and the Four Shine girls. Kiryu and Komaki share one last fist bump. And the trailer ends with a Kiryu saying his farewells to Date, possibly for the last time. In the game proper, it's essentially one gigantic retrospective of Kiryu's journey, revisiting numerous locations and reminiscing all the events that got him to where he is in life. It's drives home the finality of journey's end, and is one somber sendoff to the Dragon of Dojima.Kiryu: Goodbye, Date-san... stay safe.
Main Game
- A musical example, but even the main menu makes it abundantly clear that the End of an Age is upon us. That this is very definitely The Last Dance for our Dragon of Dojima after almost 20 years since the very first game's inception. And that this is where Ichiban's journey truly begins. The end of one chapter, and the beginning of another.
- Ichiban being fired from his job at Hello Work after having spent the gap between LAD and Infinite Wealth getting his life together is already enough, but the circumstances of it are all the more painful because it's a very real thing that can happen to anyone for any reason. All it takes is a mere accusation - not a verdict or even indictment, a simple accusation with next to no plausible evidence - and/or some Manipulative Editing to frame someone in a negative light and effectively ruin their life just as Tatara Hisoka did. To make matters worse, Chitose, the person behind Tatara was genuinely sweet-hearted and thus was coerced into ruining Ichiban's life, ruining hers at the same time.
- Tomizawa’s backstory. He was a Happily Married man with a baby on the way before he was framed by the Barracudas, forcing him to plead guilty in order to avoid an even harsher sentence. While he was in prison, his wife miscarried from the stress and stopped visiting him, leaving him utterly alone and forced to work for Yamai in order to eke out a meager existence after he was finally released. He even admits that he planned to kill Dwight but he feared for his own life even after he lost almost everything.
- This continues into his Drink Links, which mainly focus on his relationship with his ex-wife. He does eventually find her again, but she's moved on to somebody new and has plans to leave the country with him, so all Tomizawa can do is watch and hope she can find happiness away from Hawaii and away from the negative memories she has of him. At least he and his wife get to have one final conversation to grant them closure, even if it is offscreen.
- Kiryu will help you a lot in the early game, but the game will still waste little time reminding you that Kiryu's time is getting shorter - in District 5, Kiryu kneels down from exhaustion, forcing Ichiban and Tomizawa to drag him to a safe room. And he will apologize each time a similar situation happens.
- It gets worse after Yamai finds them trying to flee the Nirvana Hotel. It seems like everything's going to be OK as Tomizawa comes back with a car just in the nick of time to get everyone out of the burning woods... and then Kiryu suffers a major flare-up that leaves him yacking up blood. He can't get into the car without slowing everyone down, so he demands they go on without him, despite everyone's protests. Ichiban is beside himself with worry, desperately calling his name as they're are forced to leave Kiryu at Yamai's mercy.
- When Nanba finally gets Kiryu back to Japan and into a hospital, the doctor's prognosis is grim indeed. His recommendations of rest and care have all been shot down even before he reported back to Nanba. Worse is that the doctor says that Kiryu seems to have given up on recovery, and is hurrying towards his death. It's a sobering reminder that underneath, after all his years of suffering, Kiryu may well be a Death Seeker.
- Kiryu's status as a lone wolf who's spent his life living for others and putting everyone else's needs above his own gets put under the microscope in this game. It all starts when Seonhee asks Kiryu what his favourite food is. After a pause, they realise that Kiryu can't answer her. Kiryu has so little self-worth that he can't even answer an incredibly-simple question such as that, and he sees little point in doing anything other than working, even after his cancer flaring up put his life at risk. Heartwarmingly enough, Nanba and company are on-hand to give Kiryu a dose of The Power of Friendship, which turns out to be exactly what he needed to reignite his fighting spirit.
- After their meeting with Ebina and Sawashiro at the old Tojo Headquarters, Kiryu decides to take the others to pay respects to the graves of Nishikiyama, Yumi, and Kazama. He has a quiet moment where he admits he always thought he'd be the first of them to die given his Hot-Blooded and sometimes reckless approach to problems, yet here he is having outlived them all; yet another regret the Dragon of Dojima carries with him in his final days.
- Yamai insists that Ichiban and Akane have a private conversation. They do, and Akane tells Ichiban that it killed her to have to leave him, and how much he reminds her of Masumi. Ichi, on that point, hands her the necklace that contains Masumi's ashes, and Akane breaks down in tears over it, clutching it to her chest and declaring that she's finally reunited with her love, as Ichiban cries right with her.
- Yamai reuniting with the matriarch of his old yakuza family, a woman he loved and who betrayed him. Yet he finds the proud and cunning woman he once knew is suffering from Alzheimer's, and doesn't even recognise him. Whatever he may have wanted to say or do, he can't bring himself to. And so he simply resigns to give her his coat before turning himself in to the police.
- Kiryu’s reunion with Daigo, Saejima, and Majima. The three are in self imposed exile and forced to live out a meager existence in a remote village away from civilization. In that scene, all four Yakuza legends are nothing more than tired old men who failed in their goals. And then Kiryu reveals he has cancer, causing Majima to quip that even the Dragon of Dojima’s finally losing too. Daigo’s clearly heartbroken to find out and even begs Kiryu after their fight to not involve himself any more due to how terrible his situation already is.
- Majima is almost completely broken when Kiryu finds him. Rather than his normal madcap personality, he’s extremely dour and reacts to Kiryu’s cancer diagnosis with resignation and that they should share a drink since Kiryu won’t have the chance in hell. A far cry from his joyous reaction to seeing Kiryu again in 7 and Gaiden. Even him agreeing to fight Kiryu shows that he’s more irritated than happy to be fighting his old friend again and, like Daigo, begs Kiryu not to just throw his life away on yet another pointless conflict.
- Kiryu’s stoic, but obviously saddened reaction to Tojo HQ being destroyed for good. Although not all memories of it were positive, the HQ still was a part of Kiryu’s life. And having the symbol of what he fought for and represented burn down leaves a heavy heart for him.
- Kiryu gives damn near everything he has to take down Ebina, and he finally collapses from the strain of both that effort and the cancer ravaging his body. When he goes down, his friends surround him and plead with him to Please Wake Up. Especially Daigo, who's cradling his body and demanding for him to stay alive.note
- And before this, Kiryu weakly and tearfully asks Ebina for forgiveness and pleads with him to give the former yakuza a chance to redeem themselves - in his mind, he could have reformed things to avoid what happened to Ebina when he was the Tojo chairman, but resigned instead, so he takes the blame all of the hurt and vengefulness that Ebina feels.
- The ending montage, set to the emotional Ariamaru Tomi -The Invaluable- (which the title can be roughly translated into Infinite Wealth) by Shiina Ringo is sure to bring many tears to many long-time fans, as Ichiban and Eiji are harassed and in the former's case, beaten by the unforgiving public on their way to the police station while an unconscious Kiryu is whisked away by helicopter and rushed into the E.R. to an uncertain fate.
- Ichiban still considering "Ei-chan" a friend even after all the shit Mitamura put him through really sells the incredible purity of Ichiban's heart. Even if you don't think Mitamura deserves redemption, that Ichiban managed to convince Mitamura to turn himself in with only a heartfelt talk feels like something of a personal victory for Ichiban, no doubt making up for when he almost did the same for Masato before Kume came along. They may be bastards, but it's hard not to feel a bit choked up witnessing Ichiban's ability to believe that these villains still have the potential to change.
- The final post-credit scene has Haruka and Haruto approaching a neatly made bed, making it look like Kiryu has passed on. Thankfully, he hasn't, but seeing a thin and sickly Kazuma Kiryu in a wheelchair, is probably worse. The once proud Dragon of Dojima wasting away, going out not with a bang, but a whimper. The only ray of hope in this is that Kiryu is getting treatment for his cancer, and he's clearly willing to keep on fighting with the time he has instead of wasting away but it's only prolonging the inevitable.
Side Content
- The karaoke selection in this game is one of the largest in the series. So it stands to reason there'd be a few sad songs in there.
- Despite the cheerful sounds of the track itself (and Ichiban’s goofy, energetic interjections), the visuals that accompany “Honolulu City Lights” are rather bittersweet, showing Chitose and Ichiban playing on the beach in daylight before fading to sunset to show Chitose by herself. The lyrics themselves are about the singer’s attempts to make her love known, only to fail in the end. The final shot of the video is Chitose’s message in the sand, “I Love You”, being washed away by the sea.
- The visuals accompanying "Baka Darou" are an utter gut-punch considering what Kiryu has been through. It shows Kiryu sitting alone in a movie theater, being shown a reel of "Kazuma's Soul Friends". Starting with none other than Nishiki. Then showing Date, Majima, Saejima, and Daigo. It almost feels like Kiryu is being taunted with images of what he was forced to leave behind. And right after a picture of him stood with Ichiban and the crew, he's shown footage of Mame, the resident dog at the Morning Glory Orphanage. This ends up making Kiryu cry. The song itself is certainly no slouch either, being an outright sequel to "Baka Mitai" and continuing from where that song left off. The lyrics now describe the singer, after a Time Skip, being depressed and remorseful for having pushed his lover away, now realizing he's just as much of a fool as she was, and can't even muster the courage to tell her that he's thankful and still loves her regardless, believing it's too late now. Very fitting considering Kiryu's state in this game.
- If you ignore Kiryu/Ichiban rambling about dishwashers with their interjections, "If I Could Love the One I Love" is one of the sadder songs on offer in karaoke, given that it deals with the singer's sadness stemming from a breakup, and despite how empty he feels, he still hopes he might get back together with the object of his affections someday. The visuals aren't much better, with the singer going to give their crush an umbrella in the rain, only to find her in the arms of another man and just standing there defeated.
- The side story "Let it Snow"; once you get past the Mood Whiplash of the Gondawara Family being involved, the plot is about a desperate old man trying to make it seem like it's snowing for his bedridden wife, who's on death's door and wanted to see snow again like they did on their honeymoon to Japan. Ichiban and the Gondawara men ultimately come through, and the woman dies at peace with her husband at her side.Old Man: (as tears splash onto his hand) I think...the snow is melting...
- Given that they're about Kiryu reminiscing about all his experiences across each game before his end, all of the Memoirs of a Dragon are this. Obviously longtime players who've been with Kiryu throughout multiple games will be hit hardest by the reminders of past accomplishments all across the series (even Dead Souls, Ishin and Kenzan are mentioned, albeit retconned to be All Just a Dream). But in some of them, such as the ones for New Serena and the Millennium Tower, Kiryu almost sounds despondent as he reflects on his past. Not helped by the soft, sad music that plays for each one.
- The Serena one, in particular, hits hard when he thinks back on his carefree days with Nishiki, Yumi, and Reina... and realizes he's the only one left from those old days.
- The one where Kiryu is reminded of Haruto upon seeing a woman with her grandson is another emotional gut-punch, summed up best by Kiryu's description:
Haruto... Haruka and Yuta sure made a precious little boy. If only I wasn't such a pathetic grandfather... I can't even give him his New Year's money, and what else are grandparents good for? Forgive me, Haruto. I'd be there for you if I could.- The Pocket Circuit Fighter memory, of all things, ended up making many fans cry as Pocket Circuit President (the original Pocket Circuit Fighter) says out loud that he hops he and Kiryu meet together one last time all while holding his old photo from 0.
