Per wiki policy, Spoilers Off applies here and all spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned.
Yakuza
- The deaths of Shinji and Reina. The fact that Kiryu was too late to save both of them from Kazuto Arase was just an extra punch in the gut.
- You can see how much they meant to Kiryu as they were an important part of his life that made him who he is. Moreover, the little ounce of friendship that Kiryu had with Nishiki was soon dissipated as we can hear his rage-filled scream.
- One memorable example is the death of Shintaro Kazama, who despite revealing his darkest secret to Kiryu, is forgiven and considered to be the only parent figure from the latter. Worst of all, Kazama likely passed before Kiryu finished telling him this.
- It was tragic enough that Kiryu and Nishiki, who grew up together, were like brothers to each other and would do anything for the other, ended up losing all of that after ten years, which culminated in a brutal final showdown between them in the first game. This became even more tragic after Yakuza 0 shows how loyal Nishiki was and how far he was willing to go for Kiryu, and for those who hadn't experienced the first game but played Kiwami after Yakuza 0, watching how two loyal lifelong companions became bitter enemies and fought each other with everything they had was heartbreaking.
- However, the biggest gut-punch (No pun intended) comes from Kiryu's devastating punch to Nishiki in Serena after realizing that he was the one who shot Kazama, a father figure to Nishiki and Kiryu. From there, you can really tell that Kiryu felt extremely betrayed and enraged by his blood brother and that their relationship was slowly deteriorating to the point of no return.
- Not to mention Kiryu and Nishiki sitting far away from each other to remind us that their relationships were already strained to begin with.
- Nishiki's sacrifice at the end of the game. Imagine this, your former best friend/brotherly figure is now one of your main adversaries, you're both clashing way more than you ever should, and that is already tragic. Then after you fight and beat him, he later gets back up, comes to his senses, and sacrifices his life as a way of redemption, after a decade of ambition and burning bridges. If that's not bad enough, Yumi, Kiryu's old friend thought to be missing dies from a gunshot wound, meaning both of your best and oldest friends died in the same night... and Haruka went into severe grief over her... Damn, dude.
- Yumi's death near the very end. It is clear that Kiryu loves her and she does in fact have similar feelings for him. Then she loses her memories of him after Nishiki's killing of Dojima (not to mention the events that led to it) which traumatizes her severely. When she does regain her memories years later, Kiryu is in jail, Nishiki has fallen to a much darker path, and she and her own daughter are being marked for death by said daughter's own father. Then she made personal sacrifices that involves lying to her own child for the sake of protecting the kid. Finally, she reunites with both Kiryu and Haruka, with the sense that finally things can calm down...only for her to witness Kiryu and Nishiki beating the crap out of each other and dying from a gunshot wound from Jingu (again, the father of her child). The only comfort as she dies was both Kiryu finally revealing his feelings for her and Haruka at her side. It's little wonder how this finally breaks Kiryu down after the many other deaths he had the misfortune of witnessing.
- The fact that once everything is said and done, you just realize that Kiryu has lost nearly just about everyone in his old life. From father figure, old friends, and the woman he loves. The fact that even Kiryu realizes this and went in a near total breakdown is enough to make tears flow. Thank god for Date reminding him that despite all the losses, he still has Haruka.
- As a final twist of the knife, the credits starts with a rendition of "Amazing Grace" by the late Eri Kawai, just as a reminder that Kiryu has lost nearly everyone he knew prior to his time in jail.
Yakuza Kiwami
- Nishiki's entire backstory once Kiryu goes to prison, as in absurdly short timings did he lose almost everyone he cared about, making Kiryu's entire reason for taking the fall for Nishiki pointless. Despite becoming a powerful and successful patriarch to a rather young family once Kiryu returns, anything that was the best friend Kiryu knew is all but gone.
- But the biggest offender is when Nishiki snapped and slapped Reina after she criticized him for not protecting Yumi, which made Nishiki misunderstand that Reina was calling him useless. This made Reina fall to the ground and cry hysterically, causing Nishiki to look at his hands in shock and disgust.
- Kiryu's karaoke song, TONIGHT ~restart from this night~
. It's about him remembering the good old days before the Dojima incident, and hoping that when he once again meets his best friend Nishiki, they could start over and get out of the yakuza lifestyle. Of course, this doesn't happen, and his best friend is now his sworn enemy.- The song later reappears in 6, with a more heartwarming but still sad meaning: even after Nishiki's death, even if he is never mentioned again by anyone after the dissolution of his family, Kiryu will never, ever forget his sworn brother, and hopes to reunite with him in the afterlife.
- Kiryu's other karaoke song is a stripped-back rendition of "Bakamitai", called Bakamitai -Sorrow-, which takes an already melancholy song and makes it even sadder. Even the cut-in sequence has been changed to make the song sadder. How? The picture Kiryu looks at this time is a picture of him and Pocket Circuit Fighter from all the way back in Yakuza 0. 10 long years have passed Kiryu by, and he can never get all that lost time back, nor can he return to his glory days during the bubble economy. Too much has changed, including his sworn brother Nishiki, so now he has no one to even reminisce fondly about his old memories with.
- In Kiwami's updated cinematic before Nishiki's Boss Subtitles, the camera does a close zoom on Nishiki and Kiryu's faces. Nishiki's eyes are open, his gaze sharp. When the camera shifts to Kiryu, his eyes are closed before meeting Nishiki's glare with one of his own. It's one thing when you're fighting someone you've known for all of a few minutes, a couple of days at most. It's another thing entirely to have to fight someone that you've grown up alongside, and consider closer than a brother. Kiryu has never had to compose himself before a fight until now.
- During the final fight against Nishiki, there's two certain quick-time events, starting with the two trading punches before it slows down, switching to a slideshow of previous story beats alongside the dialog spoken. In these moments, it's almost like Kiryu and Nishiki are thinking back to before; what they've done, what went wrong and what could've been. Alongside with the melancholic batle theme For Who's Sake, it makes for an incredibly heart-wrenching moment.
