Video Game / Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name

Spoilers for all preceding Like a Dragon entries will be left unmarked. You Have Been Warned!

The legend of the Dragon of Dojima is over, but the legend of the nameless dragon is about to begin...

I've given up my past, my life...and even my name. But if you're going to stand in my way, I'm going to have to make you step aside.

— Kazuma Kiryu, A.K.A. "Joryu"

Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name, released in Japan as 龍が如く７外伝 名を消した男 (Ryū Ga Gotoku 7 Gaiden - Na wo Keshita Otoko, lit. Like a Dragon 7 Side Story: The Man Who Erased His Name) is a Gaiden Game in Sega's venerated Like a Dragon series. It was released on November 9, 2023, for Playstation 4, Playstation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam.

Taking place concurrently with the events of Yakuza: Like a Dragon, the game once again places players in the role of Kazuma Kiryu, who faked his death at the end of Yakuza 6 to protect his family and now lives in hiding. His quiet life as a simple man in a monastery is threatened, however, when outside forces push him back into the criminal underworld that he has been desperate to escape from. Now, under the codename of "Joryu", he finds himself thrust back into the fray as forces from his past threaten to undo the sacrifice he made for the ones he loves.

As opposed to Yakuza: Like a Dragon, which introduced Turn-Based Combat as befitting its JRPG-loving new hero Ichiban Kasuga, Like a Dragon Gaiden returns to the series' classic action-brawler combat, as Kiryu once more faces down his foes. In addition to his tried-and-true "Yakuza" style of combat, which sees him overwhelm his foes with powerful blows, Kiryu has a brand-new "Agent" fighting style which favors speed, precision, and the use of high-tech gadgets, including electrically-charged wires to bind enemies and snatch weapons from across a distance. Outside of combat, the Like a Dragon series' famous sidequests and minigames also make a return, including karaoke, Pocket Circuit racing, and chatting it up at hostess clubs (now with full-motion video of the hostesses!).

Previews: Announcement Trailer, Overview Trailer, Opening Cinematic Theme Song, Meet Kazuma Kiryu, Launch Trailer, English Dub Story Trailer

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Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name provides examples of:

• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: The substory "Looking for Advice" revolves around Kiryu trying to help a man infatuated with a chatbot named "ChotDDT", a software that generally gives decent but unhelpfully vague advice, at least until it suggests jumping off a bridge as a valid way of demonstrating your love for someone. For what it's worth, it does warn users that it's not 100% reliable and that users should do their own research.
• Actor Allusion:
  • One of the outfits Kiryu can wear is a dead-ringer for an ensemble his Japanese voice actor, Takaya Kuroda tends to wear, particularly his fedora and sunglasses.
  • The task on the Activities List for maxing out Kei's affection at Club Heavenly is named "Kei's Husbando". The actress behind her, Kson On Air, is a huge Like a Dragon fangirl, and is infatuated with Kiryu, calling him her boyfriend.
• Adaptational Wimp: In-Universe example. During the coliseum gauntlet that reenacts famous events throughout Yakuza history, the fake Ryuji will drop Kiryu into a pit of tigers after the first stage of his fight. After Kiryu beats him for good, he points out that the real Ryuji would never let someone else fight for him.
• Amazing Freaking Grace: At the end credits, a rearrangement of Amazing Grace plays, being a Call-Back to Yakuza.
• And Now for Someone Completely Different: Up to Eleven in the game's coliseum, as you can actually play as the various crew members you can gather for the Castle's coliseum (albeit in a limited capacity compared to Joryu's moveset). Ranging from key players like Majima, Saejima, or even Daigo, to familiar faces from Judgment like Kaito, Sugiura, and Higashi, to even minor NPCs like Gary "Buster" Holmes, Kamiyama, or Mr. Try and Hit Me, and so on.
• Animal Theme Naming: Joryu's spy gadgets are all named after animals: Spider (a retractable grappling wire), Hornet (a swarm of mini-drones), Firefly (an exploding cigarette), and Serpent (jet boosters hidden in shoes).
• Anti-Frustration Features:
  • Like Yagami and Ichiban before him, Kiryu can now bask in the glory that is unlimited stamina for sprinting whenever free-roaming around Sotenbori, Ijincho, or the Castle.
  • This is also Kiryu's first game to implement the "Taxi App" on the smartphone, allowing travel from any part of Sotenbori. Kiryu can also eventually use the app to quickly travel to the Castle in lieu of needing to speak to Akame directly. On top of that, the Castle itself has fast-travel points that are conveniently placed and easy to reach owing to your Smartphone being disabled there.
  • Despite not unlocking the "Activity Log" until midway through Chapter 2, any side content progress Kiryu has done before that point will be retroactively applied.
  • While Kiryu cannot travel back to Ijincho after Chapter 1, all minigames present there (Mahjong, Shogi, Arcade Games) are also available in Sotenbori, and progress made in Ijincho side content applies to the Sotenbori versions as well. Premium Adventure allows Kiryu to travel back to Ijincho if for any reason he needs to.
  • Unlike in Lost Judgment, enemies can no longer inflict Agony (which prevents the use of the Quickstep, severely hampering one's mobility) on Kiryu, as it is now an enemy-exclusive status effect.
  • In the likely event you're anywhere near the Firefly's explosion radius, Joryu won't take any damage from the explosive at all... but he will get flung around like a ragdoll, to amusing results.
• Attack Drone: Agent style gives Kiryu access to remote-controlled drones known as "Hornets" that can harass and distract enemies.
• As You Know: In the final chapter, we're given a brief recap of the events of Yakuza: Like a Dragon that ran concurrently with this game leading up to the Omi Alliance Feast. To wit:
  • The Geomijul's headquarters (and thus any evidence of their forgery scheme) is burned to the ground.
  • Yutaka Ogikubo is ousted as the Citizens' Liberal Party Chair, and Ryo Aoki is appointed as his successor.
  • With the above in mind, Aoki strongarmed his way to the top thanks in part to the muscle provided by the Omi Alliance.
  • Masumi Arakawa comes to Osaka to aid in disbanding the Omi Alliance, not too long after Ichiban and his crew took on Majima and Saejima.
• Badass in a Nice Suit: Instead of his signature grey suit and maroon shirt, Kiryu now rocks a black suit, white shirt, and glasses to fit in with the agent lifestyle.
• Bag of Spilling:
  • Played With. On one hand, Kiryu has an all-new fighting style that he spent the better part of three years to get used to, and it's the default fighting style that's used in the first half-hour of the game's tutorials. On the other hand, the Yakuza style, while losing most of its hallmark skills like the Knock Back or the Tiger Drop and need to be unlocked yet again, is much more effective from the start, as Kiryu has access to charged finishing blows the moment he gains access to the style, something he didn't have in 6 or Kiwami 2. On top of that, the Yakuza style has the least amount of upgrades available when compared to the Agent style, given how much Kiryu has used it extensively in the aforementioned games.
  • Lampshaded in the description for the Tiger Drop in particular:
    I do tend to forget this if I don't use it. Couldn't hurt to revisit the basics.
• Barehanded Blade Block: During the final battle against Shishido, Kiryu blocks a katana strike with his bare hands, grabbing it mid-swing before much momentum can be put into it, halving its cutting ability. But not only does he end up cutting his palms doing this, he can't stop the blade from burying itself in his shoulder slightly. Not that he notices — or cares — about it that much.
• Batman Cold Open: The game opens with Joryu on a bodyguarding job for the granddaughter of Yutaka Ogikubo, a politician featured in Yakuza Like a Dragon, but none of the prologue has anything to do with the game's main plot. It merely serves as a combat tutorial.
• The Big Bad Shuffle: The game's initial primary antagonist is Yuki Tsuruno, a Captain of the Watase Family, initiating conflict against the Daidoji and abducting Hanawa to blackmail Kiryu into helping him dissolve the Tojo Clan and the Omi Alliance. He ultimately ends up allying with Kiryu and buying his services from the Daidoji, upon which the villainous focus shifts to Homare Nishitani III, the patriarch of the Kijin clan, who must be dealt with to ensure the dissolved Omi members don't just reorganize under him. The game's final villain ultimately ends up being Kosei Shishido, Tsuruno's right-hand man, who betrays the protagonists on the day of the dissolution, rallying the Omi to fight back in an effort to become the Alliance's new leader and keep the yakuza dream alive.
• Bittersweet Ending: In the end, Kiryu chooses to remain in the Daidoji Faction, no matter how much he wants to see the orphanage of the Morning Glory once more, the bitterness of his situation made clear by the tears he shed seeing his children living happily without him, and as Like A Dragon mandates, the end of the old days of Yakuza has come with the disbandment of the Tojo Clan and Omi Alliance, with Kiryu even admitting it's not an easy thing for him to accept with how long he had spent protecting the Tojo Clan. That said, his work as one of the Daidoji has still earned an astonishing degree of appreciation, he's got two firm friends in the organization in the form of Hanawa and Head Priest, and the Boss seems willing to grant him more freedom than he did before. The post-credits scene has Kiryu make his way to Hawaii and leave the ring Yumi wanted to use to propose to him in the church she wanted to go to, giving him a degree of solace in that while he never got to have a romantic relationship with his childhood love, he still manages to fulfill Yumi's wish of seeing Hawaii for the both of them. As well, the game ends with the strong implication that Kiryu's stay in Hawaii will lead him back to a certain mop-headded hero...
• Breaking Old Trends:
  • This is the first game in the mainline series to not feature Kamurocho as an explorable city, breaking a grand 10 game streak (13 if you count the Kiwami remakes and the original games separately as well as the The Kaito Files). As such, the game primarily takes place on an updated version of Sotenbori, along with part of the Ijincho map^note Its gameplay segments are all centered around the southern end of the map, making this the smallest incarnation of the city thus far compared to either Like a Dragon or Lost Judgment. Fully justified though, as not only is Kiryu recognizable on sight around those streets, but by the time of the game they are swarming with Omi Alliance members, who would not take kindly to the sight of the 4th Tojo Chairman alive and well.
  • Relating to the above, this is also the first time since Yakuza 0^note  Being a prequel, of course the tower itself wasn't built yet. The lot that it would be built on top of, however, is a different matter entirely. that the Millennium Tower isn't involved during a pivotal moment in the game's story.
  • This is also the first mainline game in the series whose Final Boss takes place at sunset^note  Lost Judgment technically also counts, but the fight is set indoors inside a warehouse and never goes outside at any point. , as all of the other Bosses fought in the series are usually fought at night.
• Break the Badass: A rare heroic example. Normally this would be used against the heroes, but this time Kiryu and the gang suggest doing this to finish off Shishido and the remaining yakuza.
• The Bus Came Back:
  • Gameplay variant, but Pocket Circuit returns as a minigame, after being absent ever since Yakuza Kiwami in 2016.
  • A few minor characters, such as Kamiyama, Minamida, and Sodachi, all return after having last been seen in Yakuza 5. Also: see below in Not Quite Dead for another major character who has also returned from said game.
• Call-Back:
  • In the Coliseum's re-enactment of past moments in the history of the yakuza, you take part in Kiryu's defence of Kamurocho against the Nishikiyama family and Kiryu and Ryuji's final duel (bizarrely mixed with Sengoku's pair of tigers!).
  • The entire finale is essentially a parallel to that of Yakuza 5. Only replace Aizawa and the Tojo Clan HQ with Shishido and the Omi Alliance and the result is almost one-to-one. And yes, Shishido has a massive health bar just as Aizawa did then...and he also mentions "dreams".
  • Speaking of Y5, the name that Hanawa gives to Joryu at the end when he departs for Hawaii? Taichi Suzuki.
  • In the final boss fight, Shishido cuts down the chandelier in the Omi Alliance HQ's lobby in an attempt to crush Kiryu, reminiscent of a HEAT Action in Yakuza 2 that involved Kiryu doing the same to a group of yakuza.
  • A twofor in the final chapter. Just like in Y0, someone Drives Like Crazy in a Big Damn Heroes moment to come to Joryu's aid at the last minute. In this case, it was Hanawa and Akame, who swiftly run Nishitani III over after he had just stabbed Watase. And much like in Y5, the latter ends up surviving a near-fatal injury and is none the worse for wear.
  • The substory "Ghost of Sotenbori" mentions Ryuji being quite massive even when he was still in elementary school and often extorted and bullied other people. Both of which Majima can attest to.
• Call-Forward:
  • The ending has Kiryu leaving to go on his vacation. One of his destinations will be Hawaii, where he states he is saving "the best for last". This is a not-so-subtle nod to his adventures with Ichiban Kasuga, who also has ended up in Hawaii, for Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth.
  • An odd example since this game runs in parallel with the events of Yakuza: Like a Dragon, but when an Omi Alliance goon puffs up his chest about their reputation, Kiryu shuts the guy right up just as Ichiban did to Zheng when he tried to fleece the homeless: by reminding him that the Omi brass have better things to do than back up small-time thugs who couldn't even handle some homeless bums. Though given that this is Kir-er, Joryu (someone who does have history with the Omi Alliance) we're talking about here, it ended as badly as you'd expect.
  • In Sotenbori, the player can pass by the under construction mall that serves as a dungeon for the area in Like a Dragon. Tucked away near the entrance is the Yappi robot that runs the dungeon itself for Ichiban and his party.
• Car Fu: In the final showdown with Nishitani III, Hanawa shows up driving a limo, saving Kiryu and his allies by plowing their aggressor down at speed.
• Casting Gag:
  • Yoshiyuki Yamaguchi and Yasukaze Motomiya both play members of a Kansai-Based Yakuza Organization, just like in the Nihon Touitsu series. Both the actors themselves and the developers have noted that their characters in-game are inverses of their usual roles.
  • Hiroto Honda, Takeshi Kitadai, Miyabi Koteyama, and Yoshimi Tachi (playing the Watase Family members Kurata, Ochi, Yasui, and Inada respectively) are all cast as subordinates to characters played by Yamaguchi and Motomiya, just as they were in the Nihon Touitsu franchise.
• Celebrity Paradox: An album cover with Takuya Kimura (Judgment's Takayuki Yagami) on the front can be spotted in Akame's hideout.
• Character Customization: Kiryu can be outfitted in a variety of different clothes and suits.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: As with previous entries featuring multiple fighting styles, each one has its own signature color - red for the Yakuza style, and blue for the Agent style.
• Continuity Cameo: Kaito, Sugiura and Higashi from the Judgment series show up in a sidequest and can be recruited for the coliseum.
• Continuity Nod:
  • The CIA is mentioned as having taken the bait in Tsuruno's ruse to draw out Kiryu, leading to them to send the Daidoji Faction to smuggle bouillons of gold (which, again, turned out to be false).
  • During his first encounter with Tsuruno and Shishido, Joryu ends up right near the same homeless camp where Ichiban would start his adventure in Like a Dragon. Joryu and Ichiban even come narrowly close to meeting each other since Ichiban was just a few feet away asleep from where Joryu was patched up.
  • Joryu and Tsuruno both also meet at Club Survive, where Ichiban and his friends would later hang out. The owner, described as an imposing man with a scar across his face, is mentioned, but is absent from the bar that evening. Said owner looks exactly like Kashiwagi, Kiryu's former senior in the Tojo Clan, who is supposed to be dead.
  • The warehouse that once served as Odyssey's storage back in Yakuza 0 is now Akame's office in Sotenbori.
  • Joryu still has Yumi's ring, and later on he reflects on how he never got to properly propose to her before her death.
  • During his first fight at the Castle's coliseum, Kiryu fights someone who looks, and even fights, like Ryuji Goda. The fight even forces Kiryu to contend with tigers. Furthermore, Kiryu also has to contend with his own imposter in the remake of their "fight" who not only dresses in Kiryu's classic attire, but wields a katana and a handgun in combat together, evoking the Wild Dance fighting style from Like a Dragon: Ishin!.
  • The final unlockable fight in the Arena is presented by Dr. Minamida (himself absent since Yakuza 5), where you fight 6 robots who are Moveset Clones of the Final Bosses from Kiryu's saga sans Yakuza 0 (Tsuneo Iwami, Masato Aizawa, Daigo Dojima, Yoshitaka Mine, Ryuji Goda and Akira Nishikiyama), complete with their respective battle themes and crude art of their faces on the robots' visors.
  • Kiryu can inform a hostess that he was a host at one point, which references content that was only in the original version of Yakuza 2. A Stroll'n'Patrol mission also has a character imply they're friends with Yuki, and another side mission involves the Obatarian, both of whom Kiryu recognizes, implying the mutually exclusive side content of both the original and remake are canon.
• Cool Boat: One of the new location is "The Castle", a cargo ship that also happens to house a massive casino complete with various bonus activities such as gambling, a host club and a coliseum.
• Cutting the Knot: When faced with a locked door, Kiryu is able to simply rip the lock out with his bare hands.
• Disproportionate Retribution: The nice old lady that runs the smoke shop in Sotenbori introduces Joryu to the Firefly by testing it on an unsuspecting yakuza litterbug. Luckily he survived, but was no less shocked at getting his explosive comeuppance.
• Downer Beginning: The opening cinematic is quite somber and lonely, as it focuses on Kiryu standing alone in a bar on call for his next assignment with the Daidoji Faction. The musical number it's set to, "Katatoki" by J.I.D and Yojiro Noda, further cements it. Kiryu is not only cut from his friends but is now a shadowy government lapdog under surveillance.
• Dueling Player Characters:
  • Averted in the Main Story. Gaiden ends at the latter part of Like a Dragon, specifically during the dissolution of the Omi Alliance and the Tojo Clan. Thus, Kiryu never gets to fight Ichiban and his crew, as that moment only gets referenced in the game's epilogue. He fights alongside them at Omi HQ, but not against them, at least.
  • Masaharu Kaito from the Judgment games (who is playable in his self-titled DLC in the game's sequel) is fought twice in a one-on-one encounter with Kiryu as part of a substory.
• End of an Age: The climax of this game is the Tojo Clan and Omi Alliance's simultaneous dissolution, which marks the definitive end of the age of yakuza. Since many in the Omi, including Shishido and Nishitani, aren't willing to see their organization dissolve without a fight, Kiryu joins forces with his old friends from the Tojo one last time to see the dissolution through.
• Fantastic Fighting Style: The "Daidoji Arts" is the fighting style used by agents of the Daidoji Faction, which combines martial arts with hi-tech gadgets.
• Fluffy the Terrible: During the battle with the Ryuji Goda lookalike in Chapter 2, he drops Kiryu down to a lower level to fight a pair of tigers with the innocuous names of "Cream" and "Sugar".
• Foreshadowing: In Like a Dragon, following Arakawa's death, it was mentioned in conversation with Ichiban that in the aftermath of the dissolution of the clans, Omi loyalists still pissed about events had tried and failed to kill Watase and Daigo in Sotenbori later on, only to be foiled by the efforts of Majima, Saejima and Kiryu on the scene. Sure enough, Shishido shows up to intercept the group after the meeting and rallies what Omi can still stand to make a final attempt on their lives. It also makes the outcome of his Final Boss fight with Kiryu a Foregone Conclusion, lending it a further air of sombreness, as Shishido's determined efforts to avoid losing the life he's fought so hard for are obviously doomed within the context of both games.
• Funny Background Event: The Heroes of Tomorrow show up at the very end of the game, during the Omi Alliance Feast from Yakuza: Like a Dragon, and can be seen beating on some thugs in the background among them...
  • Ichiban holds a thug by the collar... his bat nowhere to be seen.
  • Adachi is choking the life out of a poor Omi grunt on the ground.
  • Nanba is tackling an Omi grunt to the ground. Or trying, rather.
  • Saeko and Zhao are tucked away in the corner, holding a mook there.
  • Joon-gi Han is just standing there... menacingly.
  • What makes this all the more hilarious is if the player remembers how the turn-based battles in Like a Dragon are depicted: primarily as Dragon Quest-inspired hallucinations Ichiban has. Since Gaiden uses the more down-to-earth real-time combat the series was known for prior to the Genre Shift, you're actually seeing what those fights seemingly look like to the average person.
• Gaiden Game: It's in the title, with the game serving as an interquel between 6 and Infinite Wealth, with the time period of about 3 years after 6.
• Game Within a Game: As per series tradition, retro Sega games are available, including Virtua Fighter 2.1, Fighting Vipers 2, Sonic the Fighters, Sega Racing Classic 2, and Motor Raid. Like in Lost Judgment, there's Master System games as well.
• The Gloves Come Off: Kiryu starts with the Agent style, something Hanawa comments is much more technical and aim to subdue opponent instead ofe beating them into submission. The Yakuza style, which is Kiryu regular stance, is unlocked when Shishido dares Kiryu to fight like it's a matter of death.
• Grappling-Hook Pistol: Kiryu now has access to grappling wires which can bind enemies and collect useable weapons from range. Outside of combat he can use them to get out-of-reach items. He makes noticeable use of this during the Final Boss fight against Shishido, briefly holding him down before Shishido uses the line to toss him upwards onto a balcony overseeing the entrance hall they're brawling in. Not to be outdone, Kiryu uses the same wire to pull Shishido up to him to continue with the final part of their fist-fight.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Though he doesn't personally make an appearance, Ryo Aoki casts a huge shadow over the narrative, his actions ultimately forcing Daigo and Watase to dissolve the Tojo Clan and the Omi Alliance to avoid becoming his puppets.
• Hero of Another Story: Gaiden explores the dissolution of the Tojo and Omi from Kiryu's perspective. While Kasuga and his new friends are having their adventure in Yokohama, Kiryu is busy helping the Watase family ensure the dissolutions goes off without a hitch, fighting against hardline traditionalists in the Omi's ranks before, during, and immediately after Watase and Daigo's announcements.
• I Have Your Wife: Kiryu and Tsuruno pull this on Nishitani to lure him out of hiding by taking over the Castle and leaking grainy footage of it to the press. It would be an awful shame if the coast guard seized it...
• Inelegant Blubbering: While Kiryu has shed Manly Tears before, seeing a recording of Taichi and Ayako recounting what everyone in Morning Glory has been up to after 6 and knowing that he couldn't be there to watch them grow up causes him to cry the ugliest he ever has in the entire series.
• I Never Told You My Name: A variation. As Hanawa hands over Kiryu's papers for his trip at the end of the game, Hanawa tells him that the name he was given for them is Taichi Suzuki; the same name Kiryu used during his time as a taxi driver in Fukuoka. When Kiryu notes this, Hanawa says that he knows, despite Kiryu never having told him. This, combined with Hanawa's next words, strongly imply that he's none other than Yu Morinaga, who was around during those events in Kiryu's life.
• The Last Dance: The grand finale of the game is a final throwdown between the legends of the Tojo Clan and hardline traditionalists in the Omi Alliance after both organizations officially disband.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: Should go without saying, but Kiryu Faking the Dead is a direct consequence of the events of Yakuza 6, as is his involvement with the Daidoji Faction.
• Legacy Boss Battle: One of the final Coliseum challenges is the Minamida Grand Prix, which is six rounds of Kiryu taking on robots with the exact movesets of each of the Final Bosses Kiryu has faced throughout the games: Iwami, Aizawa, Daigo, Mine, Goda, and Nishiki, in that order. As a bonus, each battle plays the final boss track of the game the moveset is lifted from.
  • Purchasing the Legendary Warriors DLC pack not only allows you to recruit Majima, Saejima and Daigo to the Colleseum as part of the Kiryu clan, but also unlocks special one-on-one rematches against each of them. Each of their themes are directly taken from 4.
• Linear Warriors, Quadratic Wizards: The difference between "Yakuza" and "Agent" is based on this. "Yakuza" is much more fully-formed right out the gate, and represents a very straightforward and classic style of fighting. "Agent" takes a lot more skill upgrades and ability unlocks to reach its full potential, but is ultimately much flashier and skill-dependent when you do.
• Live-Action Cutscene:
  • The hostesses interact with Kiryu via live-action cutscenes from his perspective, similar to the chat minigame from Yakuza 6.
  • The intro briefly opens to an average night in Japan in live-action, before transitioning to the rest of the cinematic, which is rendered in-engine.
• Meaningful Rename: After going into hiding and living as a disciple of the Daidoji Temple, Kiryu renounces his own name and becomes "Joryu", ^Kanji 浄龍 which literally means, "Purified Dragon".
• Mirror Boss:
  • A rather surreal example. Masaharu Kaito returns from the Judgment games and brings along Kiryu's old Brawler style with him. While not available to use as Joryu himself he still counts by virtue of his passing resemblance and the fact that it was Kiryu's style originally before being passed on to Kaito.
  • Akira Yamaoka returns after having been last seen in Kiwami 2. This go around, he combines moves from the Kiwami and 0 iterations of Kiryu's classic Dragon of Dojima moveset (such as the Twist Counter and a combination counter-attack consisting of an Iron Fist Counter into the Tiger Drop).
  • The usual Amon Clan encounter also counts. While Gai Amon uses Kiryu's original Dragon of Dojima style from the original game to Kiwami as opposed to his current Yakuza style, he also makes use of drones to a much greater degree than Joryu is able to while in the Agent style, as well as throwing out his own equivalent of Joryu's Firefly.
• Money Is Experience Points: Played With. Just like in Yakuza 0, you have to spend money to unlock new skills in this game, but early on, you also have Akame Points on top of that to contend with. Most skills are bought with money and Akame Points, but some of the earlier unlocks do cost a pretty penny to buy.
• Monster Arena: The Coliseum is the main attraction of the Castle, where aspiring urban warriors gather to compete for grand prizes, or die trying. Advancing through the ranks of the Coliseum is also a requirement for accessing more of the Castle's facilities and features, including VIP lounges, expanded shop lineups, and high-stakes casino games.
• Mundane Utility:
  • Kiryu uses the Spider gadget to good effect outside of combat to pull in distant objects that are out of reach, or to help a kid whose ball got stuck in a tree.
  • It's entirely possible to start using random battles in conjunction with the Serpent gadget to travel the map faster. Just pick a fight with someone to allow Kiryu to use Serpent and then constantly boost away from the fight until your pursuers give up. Repeat with any other nearby goons if necessary.
• Musical Nod: "appassionato" from Like a Dragon gets remixed as "Un altro appassionato", tying in with Once More, with Clarity below.
• Nothing Is the Same Anymore: Same as in Y:LAD, this game marks the definitive end of the Tojo Clan and Omi Alliance as we knew them from the very first game, with Infinite Wealth being billed as the end of the yakuza as a whole.
• Not Quite Dead: As it turns out, Kihei Hanawa isn't exactly who he seems... Because per series writer and RGG Studio head Masayoshi Yokoyama, he is in fact Yuu Morinaga, who was believed to have perished offscreen seven years prior.
• Once More, with Clarity: The bout with the Omi Alliance that the Heroes of Tomorrow are a part of in Y:LAD is replayed in the final chapter of game, this time from Joryu's point of view. It also explains that the reason Watase wasn't active during the brawl despite being a Blood Knight is because he was stabbed already.
• One-Steve Limit: Subverted; One of the new characters is Homare Nishitani, though it explains it is not the same character from Yakuza 0 and is instead a Legacy Character, with the name passed down to the Patriarchs of the Kijin Clan. The game also introduces Yuki Tsuruno, the second male character to bear that first name after Yuki Sato (one of the Mr. Shakedowns from 0), and the third "Yuki" overall (counting a certain club hostess).
• Paper-Thin Disguise: Kiryu's disguise consists only of a pair of sunglasses and a black suit. Played with in that, while the average citizen is not likely to suss out that this big burly guy is actually a legend in the criminal underworld, some within the Omi quickly realize that "Joryu" is actually Kiryu once they get a good look at him, on account of the whole "legend in the criminal underworld" thing.
• Pretender Diss: After defeating the fake Ryuji Goda and his two tigers, Kiryu has this to say:
  Joryu: You got the looks down, but nothing else. He’d never trust a tiger over his own hands. He’d much sooner die than pull that.
• Plot Tunnel: The final sequence of Chapter 3 kicks off with a warning that you will not be able to access the Castle for a while after that point; it remains inaccessible for all of Chapter 4.
• Promoted to Playable: Zig-zagged in that it's limited only to the game's coliseum, but several major characters from previous entries (notably the Sixth Chairman of the Tojo Clan himself, Daigo) can be controlled in the game's coliseum in place of Kiryu. The same goes for Judgment staples like Sugiura and Higashi (as Kaito got his own expansion in Lost Judgment), who haven't been playable until this game.
• P.O.V. Sequel: The story is set between 6 and Infinite Wealth, so part of it shows the events of Yakuza: Like a Dragon that Kiryu was involved in, complete with Ichiban and his party making cameos.
• Punch Parry: Just before the last QTE against the Final Boss, he and Kiryu end up intercepting one another's attacks until Kiryu can land one final decisive blow.
• Quirky Miniboss Squad: Kiryu runs a gauntlet through four elite Daidoji agents while escaping the temple.
  • One Smug Snake with a Static Stun Gun disguised as an unbrella.
  • One Apologetic Attacker with a blade hidden in his shoe and fearsome kicks.
  • One Blood Knight who wields a combat knife and throws knives and Caltrops.
  • One calm and confident Big Guy who wears a bracer that fires rockets and is surprisingly agile.
• Refuge in Audacity: Kiryu's plan to get Nishitani III away from the Castle, in short. He asks Tsuruno to gather as much money as he can find (which adds up to 30 million yen), before bringing him, Shishido, and some low-ranking grunts on a night out across Sotenbori, splashing the cash on expensive food, clothes, booze and women. Given that Kiryu ranks highly on the Kijin Clan's shit list, and that they're hunting him down constantly, this demonstrates that Kiryu is not afraid of Nishitani III, along with making the latter look foolish for being unable to kill him. And it works!
• Ripped from the Headlines: One of Akame's Requests involve speaking to a man named Kusano, who has become infatuated with a chatbot named "ChotDDT", a very obvious nod to ChatGPT and the discussions around it. Though given the game is supposed to run in parallel with Like a Dragon (set in 2019), this is somewhat anachronistic as ChatGPT wouldn't become high profile for another four years.
• Seeking Ultimate Strength: Kiyoshi Ugajin is the leader of The Castle's Four Kings of the Coliseum. When Kazuma Kiryu disturbs The Castle's hierarchy, instead of getting offended like the other fighters, he offers Kiryu to challenge him to get the answer he wants. The side-quest shows his journey to become the strongest underground fighter ever, disinterested in Kijin Clan's politics, and testing incorporating Mizorogi's gadgets with his fighting style.
• Shoe Phone: Agent style gives Kiryu access to a variety of gadgets disguised as ordinary objects, such as a wristwatch that fires grappling wires, shoes with rocket thrusters in the heels, and bombs disguised as cigarettes.
• Shout-Out:
  • Nishitani III pulls off the famous bike sliding stop from AKIRA when meeting Kiryu.
  • One of the collection quests involves searching for seven 'Golden Balls' that can supposedly grant a wish once all are found. One of the wishes you can ask for is a pair of sexy panties, which is a reference to Oolong's wish from the original Dragon Ball.
  • As part of the Animal Theme Naming for Joryu's gadgets, the grappling wire with the power to restrain enemies, grab objects and swing around the environment is named "Spider".
  • An unintentional example, but Watase's outfit in the final chapter (just before the disbandment of the Tojo Clan and Omi Alliance) is near-identical to that of Peter Griffin's threads, down to the green trousers and brass belt buckle!
  • Chapter 3 is titled The Man Who Knew Too Much.
• Stance System: In this game, Kiryu has only two styles to work with:
  • Agent, a new style mandated by the Daidoji Faction. It focuses on precise strikes as well as utilizing spy gadgets, is described as a swift and deadly style inspired by different martial arts across the world.
  • Yakuza, the "final form" of Kiryu's original fighting style. It brings back Kiryu's classic combos with his Dragon Engine moveset as the basis; fusing both into one ultimate yakuza fighting style.
• The Stinger: A Flash Forward to 2023 shows Kiryu going to Hawaii as he mentioned wanting to in the final chapter, and he visits the church that Yumi had wanted to get married in. He leaves the ring with her name engraved on it at the altar, and walks away.
• Storming the Castle: As the final piece of a plan to lure Nishitani III out, Joryu organizes some of the Watase Family men on a raid to take over the Castle, then has Hanawa leak a grainy video of the ship to the press, threatening its secrecy and pissing Nishitani off to the point where he organizes an ambush on Joryu...which only alerts the Watase Family to the location of the Kijin Clan's office.
• Sword and Gun: The fake Kazuma Kiryu fought in the coliseum wields a katana and pistol.
• Take a Third Option: As Tsuruno and Watase explain, with Ryo Aoki's hardline laws against yakuza making it harder for them to operate, one can only see two paths ahead. Option A is to get in bed with government officials and become their lapdogs — something that the Omi Alliance is already beginning to suffer from. Option B is to resist the government's attempts to use them as extralegal muscle, and in so doing risk prison. However, Watase has decided on Option C: just fucking quit. By dissolving the Omi Alliance and the Tojo Clan with Daigo Dojima, he can keep his Omi men from being arrested to forced to bend their knee to Aoki, while also robbing Aoki of manpower and money through his alliance with the Omi.
• That Man Is Dead: Invoked by Kiryu, who faked his death in Yakuza 6, so as far as the general public is concerned, Kazuma Kiryu is dead. Now, he goes by the alias of "Joryu", and feigns ignorance whenever anyone appears to recognize him. Taken to extreme levels in the final battle when he does a suit rip to expose his unique and easily identifiable back tattoo, in front of an acquaintance he has known for 20 years (Majima) and a man who he described as being like a son to him (Daigo) - and still maintains he has has only just met them.
• Title Drop: The title for the final chapter is "The Man Who Erased His Name".
• Treacherous Questgiver: In the "Film Assistant Needed" storyline, Kiryu does a job for a streamer named Kitayama filming him sleeping in a "murder house" where a serial killer named Shingo Morimoto had killed someone and disposed the victim's body. When Akame calls Kiryu, it's revealed the streamer is Shingo Morimoto and picked the worst "victim" to bring home.
• Tuxedo and Martini: Kiryu's new status as a government agent complete with various gadgets is meant to be evocative of James Bond, according to the developers.
• Virtual Paper Doll: Rather than just being able to change his appearance as a post-game bonus, Kiryu's outfit can be customized so that he can wear various suits, pants, and even hats.
• Wake-Up Call Boss: Nishitani III's first bout is probably the point where the game hits a difficulty brick wall, especially on Professional difficulty. Simply put, if you don't have the proper equipment to be able to block his knife-based attacks, he will shred through your health bar like wet tissue paper. He earned his namesake, at least.
• You Can't Go Home Again: As part of his deal with the Daidoji, Kiryu cannot return to Okinawa and cannot have any contact with his children. This hits him especially hard in the ending, when Taichi and Ayako find one of the Daidoji's surveillance cameras watching his grave and parse that he might still be alive somewhere.
• You Have Researched Breathing: In a first for the series due to how much more powerful gear items are in this game you now have to unlock equipment slots via upgrades as opposed to being able to equip three different items right out of the gate.

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