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Like A Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name (PS4/5, Xbox, PC - 09/11/2023)


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Posted

Earlier this week I saw the end of Chapter 4 play out, and then cleared out everything at The Castle, the rest of the Akame Requests, and of course Amon. 

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The Castle was interesting, there's definitely a lot of busy work and running around which was definitely a bit of a pain up until the fast travel around the place unlocked. Generally had an okay time as I was going through, though one or two team events had me grinding things out for certain characters to be of a higher level/bond, and the weird lack of strategy beyond this with characters feels a bit odd – would love future Coliseums to build on this with team outfits or something just so that you can assign/have shared resistances in a very simple way to add a bit more depth, but also to help lessen the currently necessary need to grind. And I say this as someone who likes grinding, it just didn't feel fulfilling because there's little depth added by levelling up :p

The Justice fight seemed pretty dumb up until I changed to Chicken Head and shot him and the others up, very weird that that's the only one I found myself needing to change characters for, but didn't take long once I found the right character to play as ::shrug:

Loved the Four Kings stuff story-wise and some of their 1v1 fights, Ugajin was definitely the highlight. I find the fights in these games definitely feel best when it's not just a Square + Triangle mash-fest, but instead goes back to the feel of PS2 bosses, with basic patterns to learn and funny AI to take advantage of. For Ugajin I remember it was to sprint away from his drones until they fell away, mash X to escape his lasso, dodge once to the side while he charges up his attack, then wail on him until his drones have turned back up, and rinse and repeat. It's good stuff and is one of the few times I've found the combat in this game has been really rewarding. 

As for that final Coliseum fight...

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Eventually I ended up facing off against Amon, and that is by far the best Amon fight I've experienced in these games (other times I've faced off against an Amon have been in 6, Judgment, and LAD). Once you get what the deal is, again, it feels like an old PS2 boss, and that second phase turning out to be a war of attrition with his ability to gain health on successful hits is just :bowdown: 

Gave up on the rest of the Stroll 'n Patrol missions once I saw the stupid amount that unlocked later on, turns out I did enough in Chapter 2 to see me through the rest of the level gates the game had to throw my way anyways, thankfully :laughing: 

I'll likely finish this up in my next session with the game, and I'm really excited to see how the rest plays out. I say this but knowing how 6 and LAD had me at times towards the end, I'm probably in for an emotional gut punch or two I'd imagine :D

  • Like 2
Posted (edited)

Finished this off earlier tonight. 

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Alright, firstly, seems like now Nagoshi's left it's clear that someone else at RGG is responsible for the craziness that is the hostess clubs, because it was seriously dialled up to eleven here with some of those dates :p definitely felt a bit more awkward having IRL footage with ring lights reflecting on the hostesses eyes, especially the glances at the really awkwardly placed script (the bottom centre of the screen...really?!) and them all seemingly wanting to rest their hand in the same spot (just out of frame, again at the bottom centre of the screen...really?!?!). It's been an interesting year for horny AAA games (Zelda fan art, XVI, Armored Core VI fan art, Baldur's Gate III) , and this might just be the horniest and most depraved of the bunch :laughing: very cultured lot over there at RGG, that's for sure :p

Anyways, as for the actual story events of the final chapter...

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Spent a good chunk of my final session at the arcade, by the way, and damn - as ever in these virtual arcades - was that some good fun :D loved Virtua Fighter (again, as I always do), using Charlie and kick juggling in Viper Fighters 2 kicking people through the side of the arena was coooooooool, Sonic the Fighters was neat and so was SEGA RACING CLASSIC 2, but Motor Raid might be the highlight for me this time around! An entire racing game which basically has the motorcycle FF VII chase mechanics is perfect :p

Something I noticed throughout the game but thought I'd wait to comment on until I'd finished up is the narrative QTEs in this game: there are surprisingly few, it feels like, compared to other games in the series...but it also seems like there were a whole bunch of them cut? Throughout the game there are certainly moments of slowdown, for example someone jumping you from behind a door, which in other games is 100% a QTE, but wasn't here. I know this was developed in six months, so maybe they had some outlined and just forgot to cut the slowdown when they got to it? Seemed very strange, whatever the reason ::shrug:

For those who have finished the game, let's get to speculating about something...

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Overall, while a bit rough around the edges at times, Gaiden is yet another fantastic entry into the Yakuza/Like A Dragon tapestry. It's shorter, much shorter (I think it's the first time I've spent less than 40 hours with an RGG game since...4?), and so much of the content here is propped up in side content, but it maintained all the same stupid, fun, hilarious and tearjerking melodrama that this series has come to be known and loved for. It's amazing what they achieved in such a short period with this game, and they've added a great roster of new characters we could potentially see return in the future. 

I would love to see more Gaiden games if it props the series up between entries at a time when game dev seems to be getting longer and more taxing across the board, but the question is, who do we get a side story of next? Majima? Saejima? Akiyama? Heck, do we fill out the stories of some major players from earlier games, like Dojima, Ryuji Goda...or heck, throw it way back and experience a completely different era of Kamurocho through the lens of a rising Kazama? That would be really interesting! 

Last but not least, I have to get this off my chest: I think it's a shame that this game released when it did in the year, and in a series as long as this one where so many people won't get to Gaiden while they procrastinate on playing the rest of the games, because I feel Takaya Kurada should have been recognised here for his work as Kiryu's VA. He knocks it out of the park in every game - has done for a long time - but he crushed this opportunity to show off greater range and subtle differences here, which really meant no punches were pulled when it came to some of the heavier moments in the game. 

Kudos to him and to RGG, and roll on Infinite Wealth! :peace:

Edited by Julius
  • Like 2
Posted
  On 12/4/2023 at 1:51 AM, Julius said:

For those who have finished the game, let's get to speculating about something...

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Yeah, this seems to be the general feeling from other people online as well. The voice acting seems to be a major clue and I would be surprised if this wasn't the case.

  On 12/4/2023 at 1:51 AM, Julius said:

 I feel Takaya Kurada should have been recognised here for his work as Kiryu's VA. He knocks it out of the park in every game - has done for a long time - but he crushed this opportunity to show off greater range and subtle differences here, which really meant no punches were pulled when it came to some of the heavier moments in the game. 

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I think a lot of the VA work from the Japanese side of things often gets overlooked, especially in these games. It shows just how powerful their performances can be when you've had a bunch of us on here you get so drawn into the narratives that we end up shedding tears, despite not being able to understand what they are saying. 

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  • 2 weeks later...
Posted (edited)

Bloody hell, Daytona USA 2 SEGA Racing Classic 2 is a corker isn’t it! :D
 

I still prefer Daytona 1 over its sequel, but man! It’s so surreal to finally have a home version of Daytona 2! Awesome stuff!

Speaking of awesome stuff… Motor Raid is really a very pleasant surprise.  Never played it before, but it’s a really fun Road Rash alike! Have been finding myself coming back to it quite a bit.

The versions of Fighting Vipers 2, Sonic The Fighters and Virtua Fighter 2 are also excellent.  Really, SEGA could’ve (and probably should’ve) just released these all standalone, but what’s here is phenomenal.

I’m gonna have to pick up a physical copy of this game at some point just to have these games on a disc (and I’m gonna have to pick it up on Steam too so I can play it on the Steam Deck).  Thankfully it doesn’t take that long to unlock the arcade games (about an hour while skipping every cutscene and button mashing myself through the beat ‘em ‘up combat sequences), so I strongly recommend picking up the game or playing it on Game Pass for that sweet, sweet arcade goodness :D

Edited by Dcubed
  • 1 year later...
Posted (edited)
  On 1/22/2025 at 8:13 AM, drahkon said:

Reached chapter 2 last night and I basically only did busy work for Akame.

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After a while I progressed the story and now I'm still in chapter 2 but doing non-stop fighting in the coliseum :D

Edited by drahkon
  • Like 1
Posted

These games are so hype :D
And now that Kiryu Joryu
is Spider-Man, it's even better!

I'm fighting my way through Chapter 3 now!

Haven't looked at the trophy list, yet. I really hope it's a Yakuza 6 situation :p

Posted

Spent quite some time with this over the weekend.

Just need to defeat Amon, throw one enemy into a river and finish the story and I'm done.

The coliseum was pretty annoying, at times...

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Posted

Defeated Amon just now.

Eh ::shrug: Even with his cheap ability to heal, you are so OP that it doesn't really matter. No challenge whatsoever :p

Anyways, might try and finish the story tonight after work (and finally throw someone into a river)

  • Haha 1
Posted
  On 1/30/2025 at 11:04 AM, drahkon said:

Defeated Amon just now.

Eh ::shrug: Even with his cheap ability to heal, you are so OP that it doesn't really matter. No challenge whatsoever :p

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Yeah, definitely one of the easier Amon fights in my opinion, at least of the ones I've done. 

Felt very PS2 to me for some reason, maybe it was just being in the middle of all those shipping containers :laughing:

  On 1/30/2025 at 11:04 AM, drahkon said:

(and finally throw someone into a river)

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How many people did you throw into a river in the end? 

  On 1/30/2025 at 3:50 PM, drahkon said:

Coliseum was a bit too long, though :p

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It really was.

I'm curious to see if Pirate Yakuza has a similar issue, what with the case in Gaiden being that side content is such a large part of the game if you do everything, perhaps just given how much shorter Gaiden was. 

Chicken Man ruled though, and that final set of fights was pretty awesome :D

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