Ramblings of an Englishman

 Spoilers from throughout the Like a Dragon/Yakuza franchise Man 25th January 2024 was a fun one. Both Like a Dragon 8 & Tekken 8 both releasing on the same date I had to make a decision on what one to play first. Deciding narrative over fighting I started Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth and now just making the final preperations for the final bosses of the game I feel I made a good choice in what game to start (full disclosure I think Tekken 8 is good and the small amount I played I really enjoyed). Being at the end of the game and unfortunately the ending spoilt in some capacity I end up looking to the future. Becomming the series fastest-selling game to date with over 1 million units in the first week we can expect Like a Dragon 9 at some point in the future. So I wanted to go over Like a Dragon 8, what I felt and what I hope for in the future.  With an expanded map and roster of party members I expect us to be visting both Hawaii and Isezaki Ijincho again for ...

On a previous post I mentioned about spin offs for the Yakuza series. After some deliberation I wanted to take a spin of writing up what I felt would be a good idea for a Yakuza spin off. I wanted to go over how the game would work, what combat would be used, some of the characters and a brief overview of the plot.  One thing I wanted to do with this was use elements from both the Yakuza and Judgement series be it setting or characters there's a lot of things that can be used in the series we haven't seen or used for a while which can really help not create everything from scratch (plus some good old nostalgia bait to boost sales never hurt). While I will go over the plot a bit later I would want this spin off to focus around Tianyou Zhao and the Yokohama Liumang. This was mainly due to Zhao being one of my favourite characters in Like a Dragon and the Liumang being an interesting group one with enough depth behind the scenes and what we haven't seen to develop into a game ...

Whether fans of Ryu Ga Gotoku (RGG) Studios know it or not Judgement broke a lot of ground for the Yakuza franchise as a whole. It is the only canon spin off to get a western release. While Dead Souls has it isn't exactly canon to the rest of the series with Kenzan, Ishin and the 2 games of the Kurohyou: Ryū ga Gotoku series never saw release outside of Japan. Yagami and co have shown something in that the appeal for games in this universe are wanted.  This has got me thinking after finishing Lost Judgement what if RGG looked to the franchise to see if there was room in the world they have created for more? Kiryu & Ichiban as characters and stories vary a lot from Yagami and while both deal with the Tojo Clan and various criminal enterprises and schemes they are very much different characters (well all three of them are). Kiryu is a legendary figure who's stature is built up to that of legend, Ichiban is a caring individual not afraid to express emotion who feels the stren...