Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name Reviews
Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name is a throwback and a step forward, putting a potential end to what came before on the way to something new. As it does so, it is a shorter, but still truly excellent example of everything that has made the Like a Dragon series so great for so many years.
Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name is a success. With just five chapters total, it tells a compelling story that maintains interest throughout. It's also a neat summary of Kiryu's storied past, serving as a solid introduction to him for those who found the franchise through Yakuza: Like A Dragon and Ichiban.
Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name is a fantastic new entry to the series and bridges the gap between the most recent mainline releases. It's an absolute delight to play as Kazuma Kiryu again with his new skillset and tools. With a plethora of new additions to the franchise, this is one that fans won't want to miss out on until Infinite Wealth in 2024. It's a game packed with rich content for story enthusiasts, and fans of the known and new side activities in the series. Like a Dragon Gaiden is a great package that offers a lot of variety to different ranges of fans.
Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name more than justifies its existence. It creates fantastic points of tension and a real constant threat in Kiryu's attempts at anonymity as he butts head with the Yakuza and some mysterious, shadowy figures. Always keeping me on the edge of my seat, it's a heavy-hitter in the narrative, having me actively weep at the conclusion. This kind of magnificence is the payoff of years upon years of hard franchise work, entirely rewarding for longtime fans though boldly unapologetic and unforgiving to the newcomers. Slamming enemy's heads into walls and getting emotional over the franchise-long angst and baggage our beloved protagonist holds has truly never felt this good. Despite now hosting more than a dozen entries, Gaiden proves the Like a Dragon name is still endlessly valuable to this day. Bring on the next dozen, I say.
It's hard to evaluate Gaiden as a standalone game. And that's because it isn't? Sega took what could have been a flashback chapter in Infinite Wealth and tacked on some extras.
Like A Dragon Gaiden should tide fans over until Infinite Wealth drops as a shorter yet still enjoyable romp, but this is hardly a series highlight.
Like a Dragon Gaiden uses brevity to tell an important in-between chapter in Kazama Kiryu's life. Gaiden is the penultimate chapter before The Dragon of Dojima is fully unleashed in Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth.
Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name delivers an impactful story through the perspective of Kazuma Kiryu, the beloved protagonist of the Yakuza/Like a Dragon series. In preparation for Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, Gaiden bridges an important gap in the timeline while providing additional context with new characters that enter the fold. Meanwhile, Gaiden introduces various improvements to the signature combat system and many hours of compelling content as a can't-miss entry in the series.
Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name offers the usual high class story, which demands some knowledge from the previous Yakuza entries. The agent abilities insert themselves perfectly into the combat and there are also again, a lot of sidequests to do, sadly without much new elements. This short trip to Sotenbori is a must have for fans of the series but will be difficult for Newcomers to get into.
Review in German | Read full review
As an intermission or appetizer before the next big installment of the series, the Ryu ga Gotoku Studio Studio pays tribute to Kazuma Kiryu with a minor but hard to resist installment.
Review in Spanish | Read full review