Like A Dragon’s Kiryu Continues To Break An Odd JRPG Convention
Despite being one of the longest-running action RPG series from Japan, the franchise avoids one of the iconic JRPG tropes with its hero Kazuma Kiryu. Typical JRPG protagonists are very young, often teenagers thrust into dangerous situations, where their heroic growth doubles as a coming-of-age story. Sega also publishes the series, which takes place in the modern era, like the games, but centers on high schoolers battling supernatural threats. avoids science fiction and supernatural elements, but it is more noteworthy for its hero being a mature adult, as Kiryu is currently in his 50s in the game’s timeline.
The recently released game brilliantly bridges the gap between the mainline and the upcoming. In the original, later remade as, Kiryu is introduced as a 27-year-old member of the Dojima crime family, but circumstances force him to spend ten years in prison; thus he is age 37 for the majority of the game. Kiryu was born in 1968, and the games advanced their timeline to roughly correspond with their release years. This places Kiryu at about age 50 during, and 55 in .
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Since introduced both a new turn-based JRPG battle format and a new protagonist, some might have seen it as a chance for the series to add a much younger hero, but does not conform to many JRPG norms. The new hero Ichiban Kasuga, is 24 in the earliest chapter of, but he endures an 18-year prison sentence and is age 42 for the bulk of the game. Ichiban is five years older in his debut game than Kiryu was in the original, showing the series eschews the stereotypical youthful protagonist.
As confirmed in the demo provided with, characters include both Ichiban and Kiryu, the
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