Hands-on report – Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name and exploring the Castle

blog.playstation.com:

Kazuma Kiryu, the Dragon of Dojima, is no more. At least, in the eyes of the world at large. But true legends never die… they just get a massive image change, a new career, and a new name. Enter the new dragon: Joryu, a secret agent with a fighting prowess that betrays years of experience on the meanest of streets, packing an extra rocket-powered punch with a bevy of new hi-tech gadgetry in tow.

We sat down to play Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name at a special Sega preview event, where we spent half an hour exploring some of the over-the-top sights, sounds, couture, and brawls the game has to offer in one of its signature locales: the Castle.

The Castle is a massive, neon-lit den of indulgence floating off the shores of Japan and modeledvery loosely after the real-life Osaka Castle. Here, patrons can enjoy a variety of activities under the neon-lit night sky, ranging from fairly innocuous to extremely illicit. Joryu… er, Kiryu arrives on the island via helicopter, where he’s immediately greeted by some low-level Yakuza grunts eager to toss this newcomer overboard.

In this fight, we got to test out some of the new fighting skills you’ll be able to utilize in his Agent fighting style. You’ve got plenty of face-crushing fist strikes, of course, but now Kiryu also has a whole slew of unique, outlandish gadgetry to enhance his already elite combat prowess. Ever wanted to turn on some rocket-powered shoes and glide around as a human battering ram? How about turning enemies to toast with one of those exploding cigarettes you’d see in old-school spy thrillers? You’ll even be able to use homing drones and high-tech wire to put enemies in a real bind.

As cool as these new skills are, they require some strategy to