For the first time ever (for Western audiences), the folks at Studio RGG did a preview of their latest Yakuza/Ryu ga Gotoku/Like A Dragon titles coming out soon. Because I have some spare time, I thought why not make a post recapping the highlights of the video?

WARNING: this stream spoiled like 80% of the plot of Like A Dragon 8, so you may want to pass the video if you wish to go in blind. I'll try to mark the bigger spoilers in this post where I can, but can't be held accountable if you click anyways.

Like A Dragon Gaiden

Side-story that serves as a prequel to both Yakuza 7 and 8. Kiryu tries to leave his past behind to become a Buddhist monk under the name Joryu, but the temple is owned by the Daidouji clan, who drags him out of (another) retirement to do One Last Job, serving as a bodyguard to someone. Story length will allegedly be similar to The Kaito Files (Lost Judgment expansion).

Features:

• Atlanta rapper JID on the soundtrack.
• Kiryu with two fighting styles: Yakuza (more classic moveset focusing on power) and Agent (uses new gadgets to focus on speed and clearing multiple enemies).
• Minigames centered around a container ship called The Castle, from the classic gambling games to a 12v12 brawl mode.
  • Classic Yakuza characters for the latter mode like Daigo and Goro are pre-order DLC, of course.
• There is reportedly a digital and physical release for Japan. Unknown if that option will exist in other territories.

Like A Dragon 8

Main story returning to Ichiban, the MC from the last game. He has left his criminal past behind to become a normal sarariman in Tokyo. But after something involving a vTuber and his (faked?) history surfaces, he gets fired from that job. Thankfully, his ex-Yakuza buddies are there to give him a flight to Hawaii, where his long-lost real mother, Akane, supposedly lives now. So Ichiban jets off to Honolulu, but shortly after landing, gets mugged at gunpoint and/or drugged by a woman posing as Akane's maid, and then wakes up naked on a beach in Honolulu. He gets arrested for exposure, manages to break out before being taken to jail, and gets his handcuffs removed thanks to Kiryu, who's also come to Honolulu on a mission.

Turns out Akane is important somehow to various criminal gangs in the area, including the Japanese Daidouji clan (who Kiryu now works for), an unnamed Chinese group (Snake Flower Triad, maybe?), and the local Barracudas run by Dwight (played by Danny Trejo himself). So Ichiban and Kiryu team up to take them down. Also, Kiryu has cancer, so he wants to do one last job before the series finally kills him off for good. Older Goro Majima and Saiga Taejima appear here too for some reason, though it's unknown what role they play in Kiryu's story.

Features:

• Most of Ichiban's party from the previous game will return, except Eri. Among the new party members are Seonhee (the Korean boss from the last game, apparently incorrectly localized as Seong-hui there), Tomizawa (a thief who holds up Ichiban at the start of his trip), and Chitose (Akane's maid who is not quite what she seems).
• There will be dynamic weather and day/night cycle while exploring Honolulu, instead of sticking with either day or night as the plot demands.
• Ichiban can ride a segway, a bus, and a surfboard in different parts of Honolulu.
• The main character can be moved around in combat before launching their attack/skill, unlike the previous game where the positioning was wherever the AI felt like it.
• By taking different themed tours of Hawaii, Ichiban and his party can learn different Jobs (as Hello Work and the US unemployment system won't help Ichiban here).
  • New Jobs include Samurai, Desparado, Geo/Pyro-Dancer, Housekeeper, Action Star, Sujimancer. Linebacker [DLC], Tennis Ace [DLC]
• Poundmates has a mix of new and old summonable characters, including what appears to be Gary Buster Holmes twin sister?
• The Personality (social link) system makes another appearance.
• Nugget might be here too.
• Can-collecting minigame replaced with Crazy Eats, or UberEats done in Crazy Taxi style on a bicycle.
• Sujimon Battles: notPokemon using the enemies you've collected (beaten up) in the game.
• Miss Match: hit the correct buttons to chat with ladies on notTinder and romance them. There's also a strip club minigame, not sure if they're the same.
• Sega Arcade in Honolulu now has Sega Bass Fishing and SpikeOut.
• Most of the classic minigames return, including karaoke, mahjong, darts, Virtua Fighter (3?), golf, shogi, crane game, and more.

As someone who finally caught up with the series recently, I can honestly say that Like a Dragon 8 is my most anticipated game right now.