While each new entry stands by itself to a sure extent, the Like a Dragon sequence has all the time labored, too, as an ever-growing exploration of a solid of surprisingly pure-hearted gangsters and the flowery conspiracies wherein they’re concerned. Sakamoto says that is intentional. Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio makes a continuing effort to supply tales which are “fulfilling to those familiar and unfamiliar with the characters and previous arcs” each. In this sense, the earlier break from sequence custom established by Yakuza 7 and its new protagonist would possibly characterize, as Sakamoto places it, “a fresh start for Kasuga,” however it “still contains many high-context character appearances” that draw from the years and years of entries previous to its launch.

Kiryu’s return as one among Infinite Wealth’s fundamental characters isn’t as a lot of a departure from how Like a Dragon has all the time been written when checked out on this gentle. Rather, it’s a belated (and, at dozens of hours lengthy, grand) closing chapter in a single character’s story beforehand thought concluded.

The final fundamental recreation to star Kiryu didn’t finish with the character’s dying. Instead, it shifted the sequence’ focus away from him and onto a brand new solid. Sakamoto sees that period of the sequence because the completion of a bigger story arc adopted, with Yakuza 7, by the start of a brand new one. Infinite Wealth continues to star Kasuga as effectively, however the newer character’s journey doesn’t essentially must be divorced from what got here earlier than. “Kiryu is a necessary part of this story in many ways,” Sakamoto explains.

“For instance,” he continues, “Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth follows a theme about the question of what is to come for former yakuza members looking to start a new life as civilians, which reflects Kiryu’s own life [and the] history behind it.”

Though Kiryu first appeared onscreen in 2005 and appeared to have retired in 2016, “over the course of the series, [he], like the rest of us, has aged, encountered many problems, and met many people along the way that have changed him greatly.” That progress and its affect on these round him leaves room to proceed exploring the character.

Sakamoto says that his workforce wasn’t apprehensive that Kiryu’s character arc would take away from Kasuga’s personal. “Kiryu has a big personality backed by a big legacy, but the same is true for Kasuga,” he writes. By bringing these two characters collectively, contrasting their personalities and objectives, Infinite Wealth is ready to additional discover these figures and their standing within the sequence’ model of the Japanese underworld.

As Sakamoto mentions, one among Infinite Wealth’s main plotlines includes the voluntary break-up of the yakuza—Japan’s organized prison teams—and the issue of discovering a viable future for many who have spent their lives on the fringes of mainstream society. The previous reemerges and echoes into the current day all through the sport, manifesting in methods comparable to numerous characters’ relationship with their estranged dad and mom to the growing old, ailing Kiryu’s reflections on his youth. As in lots of plotlines from previous Like a Dragon video games, the fading yakuza depicted in Infinite Wealth are impressed by real-world events. Beyond this, although, and positioned beside different plot parts like those described above, the sport types a robust, usually dramatically potent message about discovering that means—and objective—in our histories, private and collective.

If the success of that message validates the inventive choice that led to Kiryu’s return, it additionally lends larger context to what Sakamoto means when he calls Infinite Wealth a type of bridge to “the beginning of a new age” for Like a Dragon—the type of step “necessary in order to continue the series in the future.”

Though Infinite Wealth has as a lot of a cause to look again over its legacy as Kiryu does, Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio can be enthusiastic about what comes subsequent. As Sakamoto places it: “There are many more stories for us to tell, beyond the lives of Kiryu and Kasuga.” It’s onerous to foretell what these tales is perhaps, and whether or not they’ll contain the solid of characters launched over the previous 19 years of Like a Dragon video games. What Sakamoto will say is that he’d like his workforce “to continue to tell stories of the human experience, its struggles and triumphs, that resonate with the everyday person.”