When Like a Dragon Gaiden was announced I was a bit concerned that it would undercut the passing of the torch 1-2 punch that was LAD 6 and 7. Kiryu's character was sent off in such a final fashion, and the yakuza as a whole were set to fade into history, and yet here is a game that puts you back into Kiryu's shoes for one more adventure, with seemingly its only goal being to set up yet another game with Kiryu in it. I was surprised then at how utterly essential of a compliment this is to sending off both Kiryu and the yakuza, providing context and acknowledging truths about each party that are deeply necessary to understanding the evolving pathos of the franchise. This game is more than anything about what it means to move on from something while acknowledging the impact you've made, both good and bad. For Kiryu and the yakuza at large they have always kept the consequences of their actions at arms length, comfortably living as though their hands are clean, but Gaiden makes them directly confront those uncomfortable truths, which in a way seems metatextual for the direction the franchise is taking as well. The ending is a gut-wrenching reward to those of us who have followed Kiryu through his whole journey, but through the tears it forces you to acknowledge the things that we're leaving behind as we enter a new era.

It still makes me sad just how many kino ingredients there are in the finale of this game (and the og by extension) and it still manages to fumble it so hard thank god the later games stick the landing way better for the most part

Anyways, having actually played the og Yakuza 2 before this replay I can pretty definitively say that I prefer this remake, the removed content sucks but at the end of the day I like K2's more streamlined structure way more than Y2's cryptic bullshit and at least the new content is mostly pretty dope