Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name

as a newbie yakuza fan this is my first time playing one on launch day

And man the combat feels way improved. Its so slick and powerful feeling especially yakuza style

And the story is definitely one of the best

Probably the most well-tuned brawler produced by RGG using the Dragon engine I have personally seen. Runs exceptionally well on AMD hardware. The story is a little faster paced compared to other Like a Dragon fare, though this isn't a bad thing since the story itself is said to be shorter, and it doesn't bog the player with exposition that they either should already know or be able to ascertain themselves. The emotional beats are on point as always. It is very much a Like a Dragon game for Like a Dragon fans.
Special mention to go the music. Whether it is the 007 style jazz for "Agent Style", the amazing karaoke tracks (both old and new) or the creeping 80s synth when Kiryu wanders the neon streets of Sotenbori, the soundtrack lives up to the bar raised by its predecessors.
While if you are new I would recommend playing the other titles first in order to appreciate the full story of this game, if you are familiar or especially a fan, both young or old, Like a Dragon Gaiden is a masterful chapter in the saga of Kazuma Kiryu.

Game starting....Visual, Sound which fill the room, music, then intro song,
Wow wow wow. wow wow....
Outstanding! And then when You hear Kiryu voice all comes back.
All what we gone through with our Kiryu in Yakuza series.
We are back to this best of the best games series ever with new adventures.

K-inetic
A-wesome
Z-ealous
U-nstoppable
M-ajestic
A-dventurous

K-ind
I-ncredible
R-ememberable
Y-akuza
U-nbeliveable

ULTIMATE DRAGON is back for all of us! :-)

Honestly, great game so far. I'm only less than an hour in and I love it. Definitely giving me my Yakuza fix until the new Like A Dragon drops in January. The story of this even seems to have some connections to what transpired in the first Like A Dragon with Ichiban. The new Agent fighting style is pretty cool too.

He could've been Jo-amon instead of Jo-ryu.

Pre-ordered this as I am one of the very few fans of this incredible franchise. Overall, the game runs like butter because it's optimized to the max. The combat system felt fresh and new as well. The story takes place after Yakuza 6 song of life. cannot wait to dive into playing this game more :)

5 hours in and there are pros and cons.
pros :
- gives closure on what happened to kiryu in-between 6-7
-beautiful graphics. The world are so lived in
-enemies realistically swinging at you in numbers instead of standing around lol
-in later game you get to walk around in main story as your customized kiryu and that include him in pre-rendered cutscenes. Pretty neat
- fight in coliseum as daigo dojima

cons :
game optimization sucks ass. Its like LAD 7 all over again ( i have nvidia rtx 3060 and it should have run the game just fine ) . The game would lag whenever i encounter random fights
which did not happen in my judgment or not as frequent in my lost judgment playthrough. Lowering the quality didnt help ( i hope they fix this )

Overall im having fun just to give a small review to those wanting to get the game. While i feel like its a bit of a glorified DLC i dont regret pre-ordering the game. I take many screenshots..

So I've found this game to be a bit better optimized on PC than a lot of the earlier entries, which is a nice surprise. The gameplay's been pretty great so far too. If you like Yakuza/Judgment/Like A Dragon, you'll probably enjoy this one too. I don't really have anything bad to say about it aside from the size.

Went in with slightly tempered expectations as I heard it was the first in the series not by the old producer or something? Either way, enjoying it so far. General vibe is "If you like the rest of the yakuza series, this is more of that." (Albeit shorter, this is a side story)

It seems competently executed, although maybe not very experimental so far. Definitely looking forward to finishing and trying the trial of Infinite Wealth which unlocks at the end.

If you played and enjoyed Yakuza : Like A Dragon, this game is set during that time period so there is some overlap and you you'll recognise story beats from that game which is nice as I loved my time in the game.

Quality game that is quick and easy to beat if you're there for the story, while still having the insane amount of side content Yakuza is known for that WILL consume 30-40 hours of your life if you let it. I haven't even finished Chapter 2 and I've been playing for 10 hours.

Gameplay is great and the progression of skills are fun. Minigames are mostly the same asides from a few but are still fun. The visuals in cutscenes feel like a step up from previous games. Definitely worth playing if you are a fan of the series or wish to experience Kiryu's story between Song of Life and Like a Dragon.