Other reviews have already said everything I would want to say but I just want to add that I adore how the final boss of the final ending completely invalidates all of the progress you've made as a player by 1. completely disregarding how you've developed your character (since your level is ignored, weapons aren't used, etc) and 2. completely disregarding how you've improved as a player by randomly making you play a janky rhythm game. Perfect irony for the game to make you perform the most Pointless Video Game Task of all time by collecting every single weapon just to turn around and say "that was a waste of time and you're a moron for doing it. Fuck you." I don't think any of Yoko Taro's games (many of which are trying to do a similar thing to Drakengard) pull it off nearly as well because most of them are at least trying to be fun.

Trim it down, to the best parts

Gaiden is essentially what they advertised, a small Kiryu...I mean Joryu adventure after the events of Yakuza 6 and during Yakuza: Like a Dragon story.

The story in this bite-sized adventure can very much rival mainline entries if you ask me. I'd recommend you to play Yakuza 6 to really understand what is going and why Kiryu ended up making deals to dissapear from his past life since it's pretty much a continuation of the latter. Unlike previous games it's not that convoluted and is pretty straightforward, it knows it's scope and plays with it nicely. At least, do it for the ending. Hits so much harder once you know who are those kids.

Don't think this game will have a lot of content on it's shoulders, in fact only the basics remain while some of the rest gets ditched or removed. And that's perfectly fine, this means this game has it's focus on the story first, content second. And while there is side-content to be enjoyed it's as basic as it gets. An excuse to level up, basically. During the story we'll meet this red haired chick "Akame" that gives us some missions to complete, this is how Gaiden handles substories and it mixes it with a completion tab. After completing a mission, we'll be gifted with both points and cash. To unlock new abilities you'll need both of them; Cash and Points. As I said before, it mixes both the completion tab and substories under one simple label "The Akame Network".

In case you have played The Kaito Files, the Lost Judgment story expansion you'll get a very similar feeling regarding it's scope, which differs from the main game. While in Gaiden we don't have clearly a game to be based on unlike The Kaito Files and Lost Judgment, it mannages to stand on it's own, even with a Frankestein-like structure. Technically speaking, Gaiden uses the latest rendition of the Dragon Engine which has seen several improvement over the years since it's debut with Yakuza 6. It takes elements from a lot of RGG games, like a ton and they're not afraid to say it so. Most of these assets went up being used in "The Castle", which if you have played previous Yakuza games you may recognize it as "The Colliseum".

"The Castle" is a free-for-all battle showdown where you can recruit fighter that can help you to overcome challenges. Familiar faces avaible as troops are definitely present in this mode. It's as complete as any Yakuza side-mode is and I wish they could expand more on this concept. Basically Mugen in a Yakuza game. It's the definitive timesink of this title and arguably the most fun I had with this game.

Combat takes huge inspiration from a lot of past Yakuza games, and it doesn't try to reinvent the wheel. Even some Judgment and Lost Judgment mechanics makes it's first appereance on a mainline title. "Yakuza Style" is the signature style Kiryu has been using since the series began. Heavy charges, strong punches. It's somewhat close to Kiwami 2 combat system. And then we have "Agent Style", think of "Crane Style" from the Judgment games but with a few extra "Gadgets" added on top. The Gadgets are the key in this fighting style and it makes fighting hordes of enemies much easier to manage, while on bosses is ineffective at best, useless at worst. I'll be honest, the combat is not as good as Lost Judgment even if it releasesed two years after it. It's not as polish as you may expect and there is a lot of bullshit moments to occur, specially on boss fights. That's why I say "The Castle" is great, it doesn't requiere precision in the amount of chaos that is hapenning there and combat generally favours going against hordes of enemies rather than a simple oponent.

Gaiden feels like the series "Greatest Hits" album, carefully selecting the elements that makes this series unique. It does come at the cost of not feeling fully-fletched and having a unique "something" that makes each title special, but for a small sized adventure is a perfectly serviceable title to have while waiting for Infinite Wealth.

Despite the fact I finished this game two months ago and never wrote or really said much about it, it kind of stayed in the back of my head and would crawl to the forefront at random times. Just the sheer existence of it is so... odd. What even is this game? The plot becomes so mind boggling at points while also having many grounded elements to it. The almost crazy prediction of what the internet would become, or scenes like Tokio at the bar which are just so awkward, and yet they feel real. I remember hearing people were upset about the translation having so much swearing but adults are vulgar man, they talk like this in real life. There's no anime nonsense or corniness to this dialogue in the slightest, it's straight to the point and realistic.
The aesthetic is, quite possibly, one of the coolest in a video game ever, and yet it's unsettling. Every session my heart was beating so hard because there's this paranoia, this sort of dread and despair I felt from the mundane environments I was exploring. Masafumi Takada's masterful OST cements the atmosphere that the game is going for, it's eerie, funky, emotional, thoughful, and so many other things at once. The art style always shifts in some way, whether it be going from Transmitter or Placebo, or Parade having a vastly different style than the rest of the game (both on PlayStation and the remaster). Or whenever the game shows live action footage of something, or decides to whip out an anime styled FMV. It has this uncanny element to it that sort of creeps me out, but is extremely stylish and memorable.
I don't entirely "get" The Silver Case. Maybe I never will. But that doesn't mean I hated it. In fact, I didn't dislike it at all. I loved it, and Suda51 has gained my upmost respect as a director because of his ambition, creativity, writing, and most importantly, style.

Red Dead Redemption 2 took years to be made
Baldur's Gate 3 took at least 4 years to make
The Titanic Movie took over an year
YOU had 9 months to be made

Like a Dragon Gaiden took 6 months, and yet it is better than rdr2, bg3, titanic and you! Long live RGG

Just got ending E. I love this game to bits. There are minor flaws, pacing issues, weird difficulty spikes and stuff but it ultimately pales in comparison to the overall experience.

I love the themes, the story, the message. The main characters were all very well written and they had me invested.

The game is a slow burn at the start. The first 2 acts were good, but the third act is where it really becomes a great game, and then it becomes something even more.

Play the game, but do get some mods first. It helped a lot.
Here [www.nexusmods.com] is a guide.

This game is the 3rd worst game in the franchise and that says a lot considering it's still an 8/10 but my god this game is overhyped to the point where it feels like people are blatantly ignoring this game's flaws

The final antagonists for both protagonists are genuinely so boring that it takes away all the emotions from the final fight, especially for Majima. This is made worse when you consider that Majima is leagues better than Kiryu in this game, I'm guessing for a younger version of Kiryu they wanted to make him more "nuanced", that's why he beats up an innocent man in the beginning
But that nuance takes him nowhere and is quickly forgotten, he's so completely and utterly boring in the story whenever he's not with Nishiki. I love the dynamic those two have, but whenever Kiryu's not playing off of Nishiki, he just becomes so boring.

The game has glaring flaws, it's a really solid story but a few thing hamper it from reaching greatness

Yakuza 3 is better.

A great game that's unfairly treated by players who don't know that the tactic of spamming attacks does not work in this game, and instead of learning the moves (Komaki Parry and Tiger Drop) which will help them play better and not spam attacks, they instead criticise the game

I do agree Yakuza 3 has a boss AI problem, not combat. The bosses in Yakuza 3 do genuinely block a lot, even with the moves I listed, and they're so weirdly perfect at dodging your attacks that it gets annoying. But the combat itself is very solid

As for the story, this game is legitimately peak Kiryu Kazuma. The first few chapters are criticised because Kiryu's being a dad which people find odd for some reason. Also a few people don't like they made Kiryu a paragon in this game, which is completely untrue, he becomes a paragon over the course of Yakuza 1. And it's super odd that Kiryu being a "paragon" is seen as a legitimate criticism, when the other time Kiryu wasn't being a paragon was Yakuza 0, and he's mediocre as hell in that game

Peak fiction, learn Komaki Parry and Tiger Drop, Y3 better than 0 ez