like a dragon gaiden: the man who erased his name - 9/10
my partners had to try to console me for genuinely two hours as i manically sobbed my eyes out after the ending of this game
be warned! spoilers ahead.
when i heard we were receiving a yakuza (freshly titled like a dragon in the west!) spinoff to bridge the gap between the absolute dreck that was yakuza 6, and the far higher quality yakuza: like a dragon, i was very curious to see this new perspective, and just how in the hell rgg studio were going to attempt to explain themselves out of the corner they painted themselves into with the bodge job of 6's conclusion, and kiryu's surprise re-appearance in like a dragon.
as it turns out, this game bridges that gap quite excellently, even featuring you playing through the section in like a dragon where kiryu shows up from his perspective, which made me pop the fuck off when i saw it the first time, it was so crazy.
uh, but just on the side, they happened to also deliver one of the most emotional beats in any of these games, like, ever? obviously the spoiler warning on this review is in place for a reason, and it's because i need to talk about this scene.
kiryu seeing his kids through the camera was genuinely the most i have cried at a piece of media in a while. i might be a sap, i might be autistic with easy emotional overload, but god, it was just so perfect. i went from posting kiryu crying as a gif as a joke to now every time i see the gif i feel a little pit in my stomach because i remember this scene.
takaya kuroda put his whole kurodussy into kiryu in this scene, as he always does, but the way that he snivvels and cries surpasses any emotion we have seen from this character prior to this moment. we have seen kiryu cry, yes, but he is so genuinely destroyed and distraught, and yet happy that his kids are okay and that would try to get a message out to him after all this time, and it's just such a beautiful scene.
the gameplay is to die for, as well, featuring the refinements and pace of combat from lost judgment without having to deal with yagami as a protagonist because god do i ever hate yagami.
super fun, super emotional. genuinely a rival to 0 and 5 now, this shit is fire.
