Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name Reviews
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
Having now completed every side mission, substory, and objective in a little over 25 hours, I can only hope Ryu Ga Gotoku learns from this game and works on more bite-sized spin-offs fleshing out the rest of this universe roster of loveable weirdos, gallant heroes, and snarling villains.
Like A Dragon Gaiden has one of the better stories of the series, acting as a love letter to Kiryu that fans are going to fall in love with.
Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name is another excellent entry in the Yakuza/Like a Dragon series, one that's packed to the gills with crime drama, oddball humor, and many mini-games.
RGG Studio's latest action-brawler is a captivating and emotional look at Kiryu's life that offers a 'greatest hits' of the series' gameplay.
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
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 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 has games, laughs, tears, and brawls where characters dramatically reveal their resplendent back tattoos. It does what a new Like a Dragon entry needs to do, and tees up some big emotional moments for its longtime series lead along the way. If you want a deep story with twists and turns, this may not be all you hope for. But if you run off the beaten path to get a model AiAi out of the UFO Catcher, this should more than tide you over to Infinite Wealth.
While short and lacking in side content, Like A Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name is a good entry point for curious players and a nostalgic throwback for longtime fans. (Review Policy)
Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name is a great interlude before Infinite Wealth comes out next year, with its throwback to the franchise's classic real time beat 'em up combat in the shoes of Kiryu. The narrative does take a step back, and the new characters aren't as memorable, but there's plenty of bizarre and addicting side activities to partake in on the streets of Sotonbori or at the Castle.
Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name satisfyingly ties up many loose ends in Kiryu's story, but it's one of the franchise's most tedious adventures.
A much smaller Like A Dragon game, that offers everything fans love about the series, but one that doesn't quite justify its own existence.
Like a Dragon Gaiden: The man who erased his name was originally born as a DLC for the eighth chapter in the mainline saga, and it shows in its shorter length and in the reuse of assets, locations and character models. Still, exploring Sotenbori in the shoes of Kazuma Kiryu is a lot of fun like it's always been up to now.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Like a Dragon Gaiden: The man who erased his name serves as chapter 0.5, a title that brings back the figure of Kazuma Kiryu and serves as a connection between Yakuza 6: Song of Life and the next great adventure with Kasuga Ichiban in Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
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.
It may be short, but it still packs a punch. Like a Dragon: Gaiden does little new, but its story is fascinating and heartbreaking in equal measure.
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: 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.