Like a Dragon Gaiden is my end-of-year treat to myself | Kaser Focus

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We’re pulling into the final days of 2023, and I’ve been trying to wrap up and try out any games that I haven’t gotten to already. I’ve accepted there are a lot of games from 2023 that I’m not going to be able to play before the end of the year, so any game I play now is more of a personal thing. I thought my final treat of the year was going to be Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora — but we know how well that turned out. Instead, I’ve been putting some time into a different game that came out in the post-October glut, namely Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name.

I haven’t played enough to do a full review, and this is more of a tribute to a game that’s brought me some joy over the last few days. I don’t think RGG Studios has ever made a game I didn’t like, and TMWEHN is just as good as any other in the series. Having become invested in the life of Kazuma Kiryu over the course of about seven-and-a-half games, I was already invested in Gaiden’s story when it started. Without spoiling, it’s a touching tale about life after calamity and heartache, and how to cope with the aftermath of difficult choices.

That’s not to say it’s a perfect game: It’s shorter and leaner than other games in the series (probably fitting for a gaiden title), and the minigames and substories make up a greater portion of this game than they do the others. It’s nothing new by Like a Dragon standards, and certainly not the best game in the series, but it’s comforting and familiar. It’s just nice to return to the back-alley beatdowns that were part of Kiryu’s adventure for so long, even if the series itself is slowly