Initially launched as a PlayStation 2 recreation in 2005, Yakuza (Ryu ga Gotoku in Japan) spawned a prolonged, sprawling, and now-beloved online game collection that primarily follows Kazuma Kiryu, a member of one in all the most essential yakuza households (the Dojima household, beneath the Tojo Clan), in the recreation’s fictional metropolis of Kamurocho, Tokyo, as he and his huge community of pals and allies navigate the conflicts and schemes that roil all through society’s underbelly.
The video games are notably tense, motion packed, melodramatic, cinematic, and deliberately tremendous goofy abruptly. It took years for the Yakuza franchise to begin receiving the renown it is lastly achieved outdoors of Japan, and its repute solely grows over time thanks to a number of localized re-releases and spinoffs, new video games – together with the subsequent entry that RGG Studio will announce at Toyko Recreation Present in late September – and, now, an Amazon Prime TV collection adaptation titled Like a Dragon: Yakuza coming to the streaming service in late October. (Notably, the collection was renamed to Like a Dragon, the English translation of Ryu ga Gotoku, in 2022.)
On this article, you’ll discover the correct collection chronology when you’re in dropping in from the very starting of the story.
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How Many Yakuza Games Are There?
Sega and Ryu Ga Gotoku studio have launched nine main Yakuza/Like a Dragon games and two remakes – Yakuza Kiwami (2016) and Yakuza Kiwami 2 (2017), with a 3rd promised down the street – since the collection’ debut in 2005. They had been initially PlayStation exclusives, however they had been later ported to Xbox and PC, with each new recreation since Yakuza: Like a Dragon releasing concurrently for each system with the exception of Nintendo Swap.
As well as to the mainline video games, Like a Dragon has a number of and broadly completely different spinoffs. Kurohyō: Ryu ga Gotoku Shinsho (2010) and its sequel Kurohyō 2: Ryu ga Gotoku Ashura Hen (2012) are two video games unique to the PlayStation Moveable that includes Tatsuya Ukyo, a totally new character. The Judgement (2018 and 2021) collection, whereby lawyer-turned-detective Takayuki Yagami investigates mysterious murders in Kamurocho, consists of characters peripherally in the similar world as Kiryu and the others.
Then there’s the zombie-infested spinoff Yakuza: Lifeless Souls (2011), which options the basic forged of characters in a dystopic setting. Yakuza On-line (2018) is a free-to-play TCG accessible on cell and PC which soft-launched Ichiban Kasuga, the protagonist of Yakuza: Like a Dragon. The favored Japanese collection Fist of the North Star obtained the Yakuza remedy when the studio developed the online game Fist of the North Star: Misplaced Paradise (2018), which shares Kiryu’s video games’ construction and gameplay parts.
Two spin-off video games are set in older Japanese eras and have historic figures as their primary protagonists: Ryu ga Gotoku Kenzan! (2008) and Ryu ga Gotoku Ishin! (2014). The latter has been launched in the west as Like a Dragon: Ishin! in 2023.
Lastly (for now, at the least), RGG launched Like a Dragon: The Man Who Erased His Title (2023), which takes place at the similar time as Yakuza: Like a Dragon and explains what occurred to Kiryu following the dramatic ending of Yakuza 6: The Tune of Life.
Yakuza Games in Chronological Order
Beware: Spoilers for the plots, characters, and a few main related occasions of every recreation comply with.
1. Yakuza 0 (2014)
The sixth recreation launched is definitely the first chronological Yakuza recreation. In Yakuza 0, we play as a two protagonists throughout the financial growth in the late Eighties: The primary, a younger Kazuma Kiryu who’s being framed for a homicide arrange by one in all his lieutenants in the Dojima household. The explanation behind this has to do with an ‘Empty Lot,’ a key piece of land that can be an important asset for the individual and group who owns it and the place the obvious homicide befell.
As Kiryu turns into a goal by his personal yakuza household, former Shimano member of the family Goro Majima is working in a cabaret as a punishment for being a part of an assassination some years in the past. He’s tasked by his ex-patriarch, Futoshi Shimano, to kill a blind lady named Makoto for unknown causes. (It’s later revealed that she’s the reputable proprietor of the Empty Lot.)
By the finish of the recreation, Kiryu will get again to the Dojima household after defeating all the lieutenants, Majima leaves Makoto to reside her life, and the Empty Lot is destroyed; the Millennium Tower, a key location in the collection, is erected on the land.
2. Yakuza (2005)
The primary Yakuza recreation stars Kazuma Kiryu as its solely protagonist after he goes to jail for taking the blame for a homicide he didn’t commit in 1995. The sufferer was Sohei Dojima, Kiryu’s boss, who was murdered by Akira Nishikiyama, Kiryu’s greatest good friend. The explanation behind this crime was that Sohei tried to rape Yumi Sawamura, a good friend of each Kiryu and Nishikiyama.
When Kiryu is launched from jail after a 10-year sentence, he’s expelled from the Tojo Clan, somebody has stolen ¥10 billion from the clan’s account, and Yumi is nowhere to be discovered. In the center of this, Kiryu meets Haruka, the daughter of a girl named Mizuki. Haruka has a pendant that appears to be a key component associated to the misplaced cash. Additionally, Nishikiyama shoots Kiryu’s former captain and adoptive father, turning into an antagonistic pressure.
Throughout the climax, Kiryu finds Yumi and the misplaced cash, and fights Nishikiyama. Kiryu is requested to be the Fourth Chairman of the Tojo Clan, which he accepts. Nevertheless, moments later he names Yukio Terada, a former Omi Alliance yakuza, as the new chairman, and he decides to cease being a yakuza to increase Haruka as his adopted daughter.
3. Yakuza 2 (2006)
Yakuza 2 begins with Terada, the Fifth Chairman of the Tojo Clan, asking Kiryu to assist him forestall a struggle between his clan and the Omi Alliance, their everlasting rivals. After being shot in an ambush, Terada appears to be lifeless and Kiryu appears to be like for Daigo Dojima, son of Sohei Dojima, to make him the new chairman of the clan.
Whereas serving to Daigo, Kiryu meets Ryuji Goda, the son of the Omi chairman, and so they change into enemies as a result of Ryuji refuses a truce with the Tojo Clan. One other character, detective Kaoru Sayama, comes into play and tries to assist Kiryu whereas studying about her dad and mom, who disappeared when she was younger.
4. Yakuza 3 (2009)
The primary recreation in the collection launched on PlayStation 3, Yakuza 3 presents an uncommon starting with Kiryu far-off from the yakuza way of life. As an alternative, in 2007, he’s taking good care of the Morning Glory Orphanage in Okinawa. He’s assisted by Haruka, and he takes care of many new youngsters residing there.
Sadly, peace doesn’t final for lengthy. Our protagonist has to face a number of troubles with completely different characters, involving new yakuza households, a number of assassinations, shootings, betrayals, an arms smuggling group, and even the CIA.
5. Yakuza 4 (2010)
One 12 months after the occasions of the earlier recreation, Yakuza 4 raises the stakes in a story of households, betrayals, and crime from the eyes of 4 protagonists.
Aside from Kiryu, three different new faces be part of the streets of Kamurocho. The primary one, Shun Akiyama is a mortgage shark who works in his personal agency, Sky Finance, and finds himself in the center of a battle between the Tojo Clan and the Ueno Seiwa Clan. He’s additionally requested for a ¥100 million mortgage from a mysterious lady named Lily.
Taiga Saejima, Goro Majima’s buddy, went to jail after performing successful in opposition to the Ueno Seiwa Clan in 1985. Twenty years later, after efficiently escaping, he appears to be like for Majima, who deserted him after they had to carry out the hit.
Detective Masayoshi Tanimura, one other new protagonist, is investigating one in all the latest murders in the Tojo Clan. Whereas doing so, he meets Lily, who is definitely Saejima’s sister, and she or he’s being attacked by the Shibata household. Tanimura later finds out that the patriarch of that household was associated to the hit Saejima participated all these years in the past.
Finally, Kiryu meets his new companions and finds out what occurred to all the characters concerned in the ongoing conflicts.
6. Yakuza 5 (2012)
If Yakuza 4’s story acquired sophisticated with a number of protagonists’ factors of view, Yakuza 5 went even additional in the similar route. This time, you play as 5 protagonists in completely different situations in 2012, making this one in all the greatest and most bold video games in the collection.
First you comply with Kiryu, who left Kamurocho and moved to Fukuoka with out Haruka, leaving his orphanage behind. As typical, he gained’t get pleasure from the calm for lengthy earlier than he learns that Daigo is lacking, and the peace between the Tojo Clan and the Omi Alliance is about to break.
Saejima is in jail as soon as once more, however he’s wanting to escape together with his cellmate Shigeki Baba when he hears that his buddy Majima is lifeless. (After they escape, they study Majima had really faked his loss of life.) In the meantime, Haruka is already a teen and she or he’s following her dream of turning into a J-pop idol. Issues get sophisticated when the president of her expertise company, Mirei Park, is discovered lifeless in what looks like a staged suicide. Returning protagonist Akiyama seems to assist Haruka study who was actually behind Park’s loss of life.
The final piece of the puzzle is the model new character Tatsuo Shinada, a former skilled baseball participant who was banned after being framed for fixing an essential match. A mysterious man, who’s really Daigo, will meet Shinada and ask him to discover out what actually occurred all these years in the past.
7. Yakuza 6: The Tune of Life (2016)
Yakuza 6: The Tune of Life is offered as the ultimate beat in Kazuma Kiryu’s life in the Yakuza collection. Our protagonist spends three years in jail, however this time it is for his personal previous crimes. At the finish of the earlier recreation, Haruka revealed in a live performance broadcast that Kiryu was her father and that he was an ex-yakuza member.
After getting out of jail in 2016, Kiryu returns to Kamurocho, however just for a short time. He learns that Haruka is in a coma due to an obvious automotive accident, and she or he has a toddler named Haruto. Haruka was in Onomichi, Hiroshima for a very long time earlier than the accident, so Kiryu goes there to examine what occurred and who Haruto’s father is.
Whereas discovering clues, essential characters like Daigo, Saejima, and Majima are imprisoned, and rival teams, the Chinese language Saio Triad and the Korean Jingweon Mafia, are wanting to make their strikes in Kamurocho.
8. Yakuza: Like a Dragon (2020)
A serious turning level for the collection, Yakuza: Like a Dragon begins the transition away from the Yakuza title. It additionally introduces a brand new turn-based fight system and a brand-new primary character: Ichiban Kasuga, one other Tojo Clan member who, like Kiryu, begins his journey by agreeing to take the hit on a prison cost for his household and go to jail for a homicide he didn’t commit, getting stripped of his yakuza affiliation in the course of. On his launch 18 years later, Kasuga shortly learns that main adjustments have occurred in the underworld whereas he was away, mainly that the Omi Alliance defeated the Tojo Clan.
Kasuga goes to confront Masumi Arakawa, his former patriarch and father-like determine who seemingly offered out the Tojo Clan, about what has occurred and is greeted by his former compatriats with hostility. Arakawa shoots Kasuga and dumps his physique close to a homeless encampment in Yohokama’s Isezaki Ijincho. (New metropolis unlocked!)
Ichiban wakes up and finds himself in the care of Yu Nanba, a now-homeless former nurse who has handled his gunshot wound. That is the place to begin for our new protagonist, who will meet a number of new faces for the Yakuza collection to spherical out his turn-based occasion, together with members from space prison teams the Yokohama Liumang, the Geomijul Mafia, and the Seiryu Clan. Collectively, they dig round Yokohama, Sotenbori in Osaka, and Kamurocho to uncover the larger image behind Arakawa’s play.
9. Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth (2024)
The most important Like a Dragon recreation to-date groups up the previous and new guard – Kiryu and Kasuga – in a real two-protagonist saga that takes the crew from Japan to Hawaii and again. Leaping forward to 2024 after the occasions of Yakuza: Like a Dragon (when you had been curious, the pandemic additionally exists in the Like a Dragon universe), Kasuga and pals try to reside above-board lives in Ijincho till a well-liked VTuber posts a viral video that upends their normalcy. Quickly after, Kasuga learns that his mom, who he thought was lifeless, is alive and has secretly been residing in Honolulu, and hops on a aircraft to discover her.
After instantly moving into some bother after touchdown (basic), Kasuga runs into Kiryu, who can be in Hawaii to discover Kasuga’s mom on behalf of the Daidoji faction that agreed to give him sanctuary and maintain him in hiding (play Like a Dragon: The Man Who Erased His Title for the full backstory there). Kiryu additionally reveals that he is been identified with most cancers from publicity to nuclear waste (which is related to the Large Unhealthy of the recreation). That is simply the very tip of the setup to the large story that embarks on new adventures, displays on Kiryu’s previous, and builds a dramatic arc that entails a number of worldwide mob teams, a non secular cult, reside streamers, and a nationwide conglomerate, simply to title a number of gamers in this cleaning soap opera.
How to Play the Yakuza Games by Launch Date
- Yakuza (2005)
- Yakuza 2 (2006)
- Yakuza 3 (2009)
- Yakuza 4 (2010)
- Yakuza 5 (2012)
- Yakuza 0 (2015)
- Yakuza 6: The Tune of Life (2016)
- Yakuza: Like a Dragon (2020)
- Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth (2024)
What’s Subsequent for Yakuza?
The Like a Dragon story is much from over. Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, launched this January, shortly turned the fastest-selling recreation in the franchise and is one in all our favourite video games of the 12 months thus far. The sport collection’ director, Masayoshi Yokoyama, has already confirmed one other recreation is in growth. All we all know at this level is that the subsequent recreation will not be Yakuza Kiwami 3, however we’ll get a full reveal throughout Toyko Games Present between September 26-29.
A live-action adaption collection loosely based mostly on the unique Yakuza recreation can be set to come out on Amazon Prime later this 12 months in two batches on October 25 and November 1. It is directed by Masaharu Take (The Bare Director) and stars Ryoma Takeuchi (Kamen Rider Drive) as Kiryu. “The sport builders at Sega instructed me the present is trustworthy to the video games and that my efficiency was trustworthy to Kiryu, in order that’s sufficient for me!” Takeuchi instructed IGN in July.
Leanne Butkovic is an Editorial Mission Supervisor at IGN who would love to someday befriend Seonhee.