Per wiki policy, Spoilers Off applies here and all spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned.
The Dragon of Rock Bottom and the Dragon of Dojima both team up (for the first and only time, sadly) in the ultimate luau of an adventure.
And if you know anything about Like a Dragon, you know things are gonna be hype.
Gameplay
- Kiryu may have his age (and cancer) going against him, but despite being Brought Down to Badass, the man's still got it well into his mid-50s. Hell, the few skills he has available to him in the demo showcase that he's clearly an Old Master by the time Infinite Wealth takes place, as evidenced by his Essence of Komaki Arts skill.
- Dragon's Resurgence - Kiryu's willing to humor Ichiban's fantasies to a certain point, but since this is the Dragon of Dojima we're talking about here, when he wants to get serious he'll be sure to cave your face in no matter what. Even if it means breaking the conventions of turn-based combat in doing so. How he gets this ability is awesome too. Jo Amon curb stomps him with little effort and tells him he's weak, but he goads him to stand back up, knowing he can do better. Kiryu obliges, and throws hands like he used to all those years ago. It's framed as Kiryu breaking his own limits to protect his friends, not letting his cancer stop him from doing so.
- Kiryu's Essence of Remembrance has his channel the moves and auras of his greatest rivals to use on the enemies. In order, there's Mine's flurry punches, Ryuji's uppercut, and finally Nishiki's roundhouse kick. For bonus points, images of their respective irezumi's are shown as Kiryu lands the blows.
- During the fight against three other yakuza legends (Daigo, Majima, and Saejima), you generally fight them alongside a party. However, once any one of them drop to one HP, the one who got dropped proceeds to use his own unique version of Dragon's Resurgence on his next turn, with Kiryu being forced to unleash his own version in kind. What follows is them regaining a good chunk of health right before a beautiful, traditional, 1v1 beat-'em-up slugfest surrounded by memories from the previous games.
- Chitose being a weaponized Dance Battler is all kinds of hilarious as it is awesome. Being able to kick plenty of ass and look great doing it; especially if Essence of Ballroom Blitz is anything to go by.
- Like before, the summons when they're not hilarious are absolutely awesome, especially for the returning characters:
- The Revolve Bartender's (aka Andre Richardson) summon, Eviscerating Enka, is both this and funny as he treats the mooks to a performance of "Kamurcho Lullaby"... while gunning them down.
- Befitting for Kiryu's master, Komaki's summon, Komaki Finisher: Heaven's Gate, has him unleashing his fighting skills on his opponents.
- Kaoru's summon, Yakuza Crackdown, has her walloping enemies with nothing but a wooden sword.
- Akiyama's summon, Millionaire Strike, is him kicking up waves of cash bills to cut up the enemies. He then finish things up with a Diving Kick that would make any Kamen Rider proud. For bonus points, his old theme from Yakuza 4, "Speed Star" plays.
Main Game
- A flashback shows Masumi Arakawa taking on the entirety of the Hikawa family by himself. It starts with him covered in blood surrounded by the bodies of the men he's defeated, only to run into another group. He brutally dispatches them with their own weapons, killing several of them. He uses one of the mooks as a Bulletproof Human Shield to take out the final member of the family before torturing the Patriarch to try and get him to call off the assassins he's hired to kill Akane. Unfortunately, the Patriarch refuses and simply laughs through his torture until he dies.
- Ichiban’s first bout with Dwight Mendez, The boss of the barracudas, who wields dual machete as he faced him and his friends. The fight begins with Mendez swinging his machetes maniacally towards Ichi, who swiftly (and awkwardly) dodges it before Chitose counters him with a kick that sends one of his machetes flying. However, the mob boss is quick enough to catch it mid air and would have sliced Chitose’s skull open if Ichiban hadn’t pushed her aside, grab both of Dwight’s hand, blocking the attack, and finishing the dynamic intro.
- The mid battle sequence is also worth mentioning. Mendez, having been overwhelmed by Ichi and crew, kicks him hard enough that Ichi hits a golden bull head mount on the wall, which Ichi used to block Mendez’s incoming attack. Both men then initiate a battle of strenght, where Ichi shows off his own physical prowess by not only overpowering the physicially bigger Mendez, but also slamming said bull head on to him hard, taking him off of his feet and throwing him to the ground.
- When Ichiban doesn't bite when Roman Reynolds requests a bribe, the Dirty Cop pulls a gun and starts making all manner of smug threats. Ichiban isn't fazed, but Kiryu takes it one step further by calmly laying out his demands despite the gun aimed at them, then making his disgust with Roman clear as he strides towards him without any fear at all. When Roman tries to fire, Kiryu gets there first and shoves the gun away from him and the party, making Roman shoot a wall. Nerves of Steel, thy name is Kazuma Kiryu.Kiryu: Roman. If all you're after is money, you'll have to try someone else. Now I suggest you take us to District Five before things get out of hand.
Roman: What did you just say?
Kiryu: Also... we'll need [Ichiban's] record cleared of any and all false charges. You're hardly the first cop I've seen point a gun... but the ones I know only do it to save a life. To uphold the values they believe in. (Starts walking towards Roman)
Roman: Stay back!
Kiryu: Maybe I have no right to say this, but seeing scum like you hold a badge? It makes me sick. - The video Ichiban makes in order to have Akane find him definitely counts. He completely discards the text the group rehearsed and, with a nudge from Kiryu, lets his charisma do the talking. In pure Ichiban fashion, it does go over the top, but you can tell he is a natural at this. Doubly so when he reveals he is not only aware revealing he is Akane's son would paint a target on his back, but he was counting on it.Ichiban, slightly leaning forward, on open hand as greeting: Allow me to introduce myself. I come from Kamurocho- some would call it the armpit of Tokyo, Japan.
Ichiban, raising his hands: Born and raised from the suds of an inner-city soapland, the name's Ichiban Kasuga. Some even call me the Hero of Yokohama.
Ichiban: Separated from my mother at birth, I am now on a quest to find her.
Ichiban, doing a swimming motion then looking at the horizon: And so I've traveled across land and sea, only to find myself right here in Honolulu City.
Ichiban: Mom, if you're out there, I just wanna say I love ya! And to everyone else, aloha! - The dynamic intro to Wong Tou's shows some incredible skill on Ichiban, Kiryu, and even Wong Tou himself. It starts with Wong Tou deftly dodging and deflecting Ichi's wild swings before countering him and shoving him backwards into Kiryu. The two end up as Back-to-Back Badasses and take a few seconds to assess the situation. Then in complete wordless sync, they lock arms and Kiryu swings Ichi around for a flying roundhouse kick, followed by Kiryu leap frogging off of Ichi for another flying kick, both of which Wong Tou barely dodges. Finally the two dragons strike once more in a sandwiching kick, with Wong Tou blocking them both. The prospect of two dragons teaming up was already awesome on its own, but seeing these two fight together in total sync to blindside the Chinese mob boss is an incredible sight to behold
- Props to Wong himself for taking on the two dragons of the Japanese underworld and manage faced them on equal footing, even blocking both of their kicks at the same time.
- In a Yokohama hostess club, Date gets Kiryu as close to seeing Taichi as he possibly can. But eventually, several drunk bastards get impatient at the girls lavishing attention on Taichi thanks to Date-san tipping them well enough to keep him occupied. One even hits a hostess, prompting an angry Taichi to step in and perform a Punch Catch. He even starts fighting back! In that moment, he's acting almost exactly like his Uncle Kaz. Granted, he gets cheap-shotted by another asshole, forcing Kiryu to intervene, but not only is this proof positive that Taichi was raised right, but he may also have some of the Dragon within him.
- After giving Ichiban a tough fight at his fullest potential in the previous game, it's now Kiryu's turn to go up against Jo Sawashiro himself. And boy, does this fight not disappoint. Not only does Kiryu hold his own considerably better than Ichiban and his crew did, but he's the one to have him on the ropes instead! A feat that impresses and shocks Nanba, Zhao, and Saeko, who have experience with Sawashiro.
- The Dynamic Intro itself - a Seiryu grunt tosses a whole crate at Kiryu, who effortlessly shatters it to pieces. A loose knife flies towards Sawashiro, he catches it and throws it at Kiryu, but he dodges it cleanly. Sawashiro then grabs a cane and takes a swing at Kiryu, who blocks his strike... cue Title Card as the fight properly begins.
- The mid-battle Action Sequence has Jo take several swings at Kiryu, who dodges them all with ease. Sawashiro goes in for another strike from above, but misses. Now Kiryu takes swings at Sawashiro, but he too dodges his strikes. Sawashiro retaliates, but Kiryu catches his cane mid-swing and uses it to throw him onto the floor.
- Friendly reminder that even with the looming threat of cancer, the Dragon of Dojima's fangs are as dangerous as you'd expect. And Sawashiro, as far as Kiryu knows, isn't much better than the Yakuza captains he's faced previously, in spite of his Old Master status.
- Like Daisaku Kuze, Yutaka Yamai is a recurring boss who is fought not once, not twice, but FIVE times, with each confrontation being better than before.
- In his last battle, he chose to amp up his game in his last stand against Ichi and his crew. How? By using a crowbar… covered in flames.
- Chitose's Big Damn Heroes moment after she temporarily leaves the party. As Eiji taunts Ichiban by claiming Lani is already dead, a waitress hands Eiji a drink... except it's actually Chitose, who yanks the drink away as he tries to grab it and then puts him at gunpoint. Even better, she joins the party again right after this!
- A climactic battle happens between Kiryu's group in Japan and Daigo, Majima, and Saejima. Mid-battle, Kiryu gets winded due to his condition, and is on the ropes - and then Majima is promptly parried by Zhao, Saejima is restrained by Seonhee, and Daigo is blocked by Nanba while Saeko helps him back on his feet. Two Youngblood gangsters, a civilian nurse, and a civilian cabaret club owner took on three legendary yakuza one-on-one - and succeeded. The Heroes of Tomorrow, indeed.
- Once each boss is reduced to the last of their HP, they will use their own version of Dragon's Resurgence. The player is prompted to activate Kiryu's Dragon's Resurgence, regardless of the state of his Hype Meter. What follows is an Out-of-Genre Experience as Kiryu and his opponent BOTH throw the rules of a turn-based RPG battle system out the window and go at each other in real-time, exactly like Kiryu's previous adventures, as images of scenes they shared throughout the series swirl around them. It is every bit as incredible as it sounds.
- Saejima gets an understated Badass Boast before the fight begins: as Kiryu and the Heroes of Tomorrow square off with Daigo and Majima, he casually observes that five on two doesn't seem like a very fair fight... so he'll just have to step in as well. He absolutely backs it up.
- As Ichiban's party makes their way on boat to Nele Island for the final confrontation, their boat gets stopped along the way by one of Bryce's guard dogs for the island, which happens to a massive goddamn shark, which the party has to beat the shit out of the usual way to proceed. Kiryu may have had tigers, Saejima a bear, but the Heroes of Tomorrow may just have them both beat.
- The exchange during the giant shark fight also showed how much the returning heroes have grown since their adventure with Ichiban.
Tomizawa: (panics) You see that thing? What the hell are we gonna do with it?
Adachi: Well we can't smile at it, just whack its big damn head or something! - Midway through their raid on Nele Island, the party then has to tackle another guard dog, this time a massive goddamn squid. One of its attacks is to swallow one of your party members whole, which that member has to solve by destroying its ink sacs from inside. Our motley crew absolutely has Kiryu and Saejima beat when it comes to animal combat.
- Chitose going live for one last stream on the Tatara Channel as the ultimate "screw you" to Eiji and Ebina, in which she exposes the truth behind Bryce's plans for all the world to see and reveals her true identity as a way of atoning for all she did.
- Once Bryce is defeated once and for all, he attempts to throw himself over the railing and into the irradiated waters below, but Ichiban isn't having ANY of that as he runs over and grabs Bryce by the ankle, saying how Bryce isn't going anywhere and that he WILL pay for what he's done.Ichiban: You're not going anywhere! Not on my watch! I've had more than enough fishing for one day. Last thing I'm gonna do is pull your wrinkly ass outta the muck! You know we're gonna have to clear these drums out later. Think I want your freaky corpse starin' at me?! I'd rather eat my shoes! Know what else?! I made a promise! I can't just let you die and be done with it... You're not getting the last laugh. If you think you're going out in style, you got another thing comin'! Enjoy your flight, asshole!
- Just before the final chapter, Kiryu slicks his hair back and changes back into his trademark red shirt and white blazer. After beating the game, you unlock it as a special outfit named "Resurrected Dragon".
- The climax of Kiryu's story is a raid of Millennium Tower (as is fitting for Kiryu) alongside his half of the team. Midway up, they're accosted by a gunner in a helicopter... which is promptly intercepted by a rocket fired by Saejima. He, Majima, and Dojima changed their minds and came to help out. Sure enough, a bunch of grunts attack... and Kiryu joins his oldest friends in a massive dragout where they join the party for some absolute carnage.
Substories
- The first time Urban Hospitality is used. After four battles in Hawai, Asakura understands what makes a fight a good fight thanks to Ichiban. It culminates in the both of them taking on streamers who only seek to record fights for the sake of violence. Not only do you get to play with Asakura as a Support Character, but he also opens up the last wave with Urban Hospitality, which is basically a Tag Team with Ichiban.
Trailers/Pre-Release
- Frankly, just seeing Ichiban teaming up with Kiryu after having fought him in the last game is a treat in itself. After all, what's better than one dragon? Two dragons! And considering how Ichiban is a splitting reflection of Nishikiyama as Kiryu knew him in his heyday, it couldn't be any more appropriate.
