Like A Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name Review

gameinformer.com:

As far as pitches go, Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name, the next game in what used to be called the Yakuza series, is hard to beat: Find out what happened to series protagonist Kiryu Kazuma between Yakuza 6: The Song of Life and Yakuza: Like a Dragon. The former ended with Kiryu faking his death to keep his adopted family of orphans safe. The idea was his story was over – he was moving on to the next chapter of his life. Developer Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio pitched it as such. Until the latter, when he showed back up, playing a large part in a game that was supposed to, and somewhat did, launch new series protagonist Ichiban Kasuga into the limelight. For the most part, Gaiden is an interesting bridge between those two games – even if it doesn't always go as deep into Kiryu's character as I hoped.

As it turns out, Kiryu was a secret agent for all those years. Following the events of Yakuza 6, Kiryu, now called Joryu, made a deal with the Daidoji, a secret organization with its hands seemingly in every part of Japan – from the underworld to the upper echelons of the government. Because the Daidoji helped stage Kiryu's death, he's now the group's errand boy, acting as muscle by beating the holy hell out of anyone he's instructed to. Until he gets involved in a hodgepodge of various conspiracies that ultimately lead to him helping disband the Omi and Tojo yakuza groups – a plot point Like a Dragon players may remember.  

Gaiden's story is in line with the quality we've come to expect from RGG's titles, which is to say, it's very well-told and gripping. I like the noir slant on what is often fantastical crime dramas, and Daidoji's role in Japan makes it easy to buy into the plot's more spectacular moments. And I