As a reminder:
Do not play this before completing Yakuza 0-7
This game is a conclusion of all the Yakuza games released to this day. Playing this first would be the same as watching the final Season of Attack on Titan or any other good series before Season 1-4. You would ruin your experience.

Now for the review:
Kazuma Kiryu is back, for better or worse, depending on how you see it, but on a technical level, this game takes everything that made Yakuza 6 and Kiwami 2 amazing and improves it quite a bit:

Kiryu keeps his Dragon of Dojima style, which is now called the Yakuza style, but it’s slightly nerved in comparison to Y6 and K2. They made it slightly slower and took away two of the side-steps, you can only do one now (and you get a roll upgrade later) otherwise the moveset is mostly unchanged.

The star of the show is the new Agent style. It’s mixture of Yagamis Crane and Kiryus old rush style with some new gadgets, which are really fun to use.

Gameplay wise Agent style is superior, especially on harder difficulties, due the nerving of Yakuza style and it generally being faster.

One of the biggest changes in terms of combat is the number of enemies you can fight at once. Some battles (mostly in the Colliseum) makes you fight up to 20 enemies at once.
After this game, One Man Army Kiryu definitely deserves his title.

The main story might be shorter but in terms of minigames and side content, Gaiden has almost as much content as a normal Yakuza game:

• Improved Pocket Circuit Racing
  
• Improved Colliseum with it’s own Subplot including Team Battles and the opportunity to control and fight with different characters other than Kiryu.
  
• A mixture of Judgment side cases and and the classic Substories. It’s presented in a similar way as in Judgment but play out like the classic funny substories we know from Yakuza.
  
• New and old Karaoke songs, including Bakamitai
  
• Billiard for the first time in the Dragon Engine
  
• Hostess Club (They made it worse and more creepy by using real actresses, but it’s there for the people who like it).

Additionally, something, that doesn’t really fit into any of the Subcategories:
You change the appearance of Kiryu now.
Some outfits from older games return or you can just dress him up as a clown, and it will affect almost every cutscene!


Now for the most important part of the game:
In terms of story writing, it's kind of amazing to think that the entire situation of Kiryu, where everything started to go downhill for him, begun in Yakuza 5 or more specifically it's ending.
Before that, all Yakuza games had it's of own concluded stories without any big impact for it's successors, but with Yakuza 5 and successor Yakuza 6, everything changed:

1. Kiryu ends up in prison due the aftermaths of Yakuza 5 (2012)
   
2. Haruka leaves Morning Glory Orphanage due unwanted attention by media (sometime between 2012-2014)
   
3. Haruka meets Yuta (2014)
   
4. Haruka gets hospitalized due her involvement with Yuta (2016)
   
5. Kiryu fakes his death to protects his family (2016)
   
6. Which leads to Gaiden (2019-2020)
   
7. Which then leads to Infinite Wealth, due the affairs in Gaiden and Yakuza 7. (2023)

The entirety of Yakuza 6 and Gaiden could have been prevented, if Kiryu would have been there to protect Haruka. The decision Kiryu made at the end of Yakuza 5 to go into prison were the trigger for everything that took place afterwards. You could even go further back and say that Kiryus decision to let Haruka pursue her dream of becoming an Idol let to all of this, which is impressive to think about.

You could say, that this is all an one big arc and it's still ongoing for 11/12 years now.

If the writers of Yakuza, or Like a Dragon, how it’s called now, planned this from the start, it’s actually really good story writing. Now we will have to see how it continues in Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth

The sum it up, without spoiling the game, this game has definitely the most emotional scene in the entire franchise with one of the best voice acting pieces I’ve ever heard, which would even make the toughest Yakuza cry.


Please RGG give this man a happy ending, he has suffered enough.

[h1] Gaiden is the new peak of Yakuza[/h1] As a reminder: [b]Do not play this before completing Yakuza 0-7[/b] This game is a conclusion of all the Yakuza games released to this day. Playing this first would be the same as watching the final Season of Attack on Titan or any other good series before Season 1-4. You would ruin your experience. Now for the review: Kazuma Kiryu is back, for better or worse, depending on how you see it, but on a technical level, this game takes everything that made Yakuza 6 and Kiwami 2 amazing and improves it quite a bit: [h3] Combat [/h3] Kiryu keeps his Dragon of Dojima style, which is now called the Yakuza style, but it’s slightly nerved in comparison to Y6 and K2. They made it slightly slower and took away two of the side-steps, you can only do one now (and you get a roll upgrade later) otherwise the moveset is mostly unchanged. The star of the show is the new Agent style. It’s mixture of Yagamis Crane and Kiryus old rush style with some new gadgets, which are really fun to use. Gameplay wise Agent style is superior, especially on harder difficulties, due the nerving of Yakuza style and it generally being faster. One of the biggest changes in terms of combat is the number of enemies you can fight at once. Some battles (mostly in the Colliseum) makes you fight up to 20 enemies at once. After this game, One Man Army Kiryu definitely deserves his title. [h3] Minigames [/h3] The main story might be shorter but in terms of minigames and side content, Gaiden has almost as much content as a normal Yakuza game: [list] [*]Improved Pocket Circuit Racing [*]Improved Colliseum with it’s own Subplot including Team Battles and the opportunity to control and fight with different characters other than Kiryu. [*]A mixture of Judgment side cases and and the classic Substories. It’s presented in a similar way as in Judgment but play out like the classic funny substories we know from Yakuza. [*]New and old Karaoke songs, including Bakamitai [*]Billiard for the first time in the Dragon Engine [*]Hostess Club (They made it worse and more creepy by using real actresses, but it’s there for the people who like it). [/list] Additionally, something, that doesn’t really fit into any of the Subcategories: [b]You change the appearance of Kiryu now.[/b] Some outfits from older games return or you can just dress him up as a clown, and it will affect almost every cutscene! Now for the most important part of the game: [h3] The Plot[/h3] In terms of story writing, it's kind of amazing to think that the entire situation of Kiryu, where everything started to go downhill for him, begun in Yakuza 5 or more specifically it's ending. Before that, all Yakuza games had it's of own concluded stories without any big impact for it's successors, but with Yakuza 5 and successor Yakuza 6, everything changed: [olist] [*]Kiryu ends up in prison due the aftermaths of Yakuza 5 (2012) [*]Haruka leaves Morning Glory Orphanage due unwanted attention by media (sometime between 2012-2014) [*]Haruka meets Yuta (2014) [*]Haruka gets hospitalized due her involvement with Yuta (2016) [*]Kiryu fakes his death to protects his family (2016) [*]Which leads to Gaiden (2019-2020) [*]Which then leads to Infinite Wealth, due the affairs in Gaiden and Yakuza 7. (2023) [/olist] The entirety of Yakuza 6 and Gaiden could have been prevented, if Kiryu would have been there to protect Haruka. The decision Kiryu made at the end of Yakuza 5 to go into prison were the trigger for everything that took place afterwards. You could even go further back and say that Kiryus decision to let Haruka pursue her dream of becoming an Idol let to all of this, which is impressive to think about. You could say, that this is all an one big arc and it's still ongoing for 11/12 years now. If the writers of Yakuza, or Like a Dragon, how it’s called now, planned this from the start, it’s actually really good story writing. Now we will have to see how it continues in Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth The sum it up, without spoiling the game, this game has definitely the most emotional scene in the entire franchise with one of the best voice acting pieces I’ve ever heard, which would even make the toughest Yakuza cry. [b]Please RGG give this man a happy ending, he has suffered enough.[/b]