“…Sometimes there’s a man; won’t say a hero, because what’s a hero? But sometimes there’s a man… Well, he’s the man for his time and place. He fits right in there.”
-The Big Lebowski, dir. Joel & Ethan Coen, 1998
Spanning eight mainline games and numerous spin offs since 2005, the Yakuza (Ryū ga Gotoku or Like a Dragon in Japan) series is unique within the genre of open world RPGs. Telling a saga of Yakuza crime dramas heavily inspired by the film genre across various Japanese cities, rendered with intimate detail and interactivity, the virtual space itself is just as important to the narrative as its characters and various gameplay systems.
The primary location prior to the series’ most recent entry has been Kamurocho, a fictionalized version of Kabukicho, Tokyo’s red light district. The sequel takes the player to Sōtenbori, an in game version of Osaka’s Dōtenbori district, and the subsequent sequels go to Okinawa, Fukuoka, Nagoya, Sapporo, Onomichi, Hiroshima, and, most recently, Yokohama. In comparison to other modern open world games, the in-game areas are rather small, the player being able to walk the distance of the maps relatively quickly. There is no driving for the purpose of getting from point A to B, rather taxis that act as a fast travel system. Unlike many other open world games, the cities in the Yakuza series are brimming with detail, a wide variety of different shops, and activities to partake in throughout the entirety of the map. While other open world games may have massive and detailed renderings of real life cities, such as the Grand Theft Auto series’ (which is often mistakenly compared to the Yakuza) version of Los Angeles, the detail resides mainly in broad strokes. The massive maps are impressive overall, but they lack the intimate detail present throughout the Yakuza series. A player is mainly traversing these spaces merely to get from one mission to the next, the scope of the map mainly for the purpose of incorporating different locations for its story beats to take place. Driving, or in some cases swinging, flying, or leaping around maps, as in games such as Spider-Man (2018) or Saints Row IV (2013), the player is more likely to ignore the space itself, opting to get where they’re trying to go as quickly as possible. The Yakuza series’ smaller but content filled maps encourage a player to take the time to explore, the lack of being able to speed through the space giving the player more time to take in the sights.
Restaurants and shops are often explorable spaces, even if very small, and packed with details breathing life into the space. Restaurants allow players to heal any damage their health has taken, and while they could use purchased energy drinks that instantly restore health, it makes more sense for a player to save those for the many battle sequences throughout any game in the series. Each restaurant has a distinct menu, each item given a detailed description. The player character takes the time to sit down, give thanks for their meal and gives a satisfactory reaction for each and every item ordered, before once again giving thanks and standing up to exit. Players are rewarded for eating at restaurants and synergizing menu items in Yakuza 5 (2012) and 6 (2016) with stat and experience bonuses. The Yakuza series wants players to spend as much time as possible within its cities, soaking in as much of the sights and side content as possible. In this aspect, the series can be viewed as a form of virtual tourism, a trek through a dramatized version of various Japanese cities, filled with a variety of cuisine, karaoke, arcade games and other activities one might’ve found in that region at that time period. This level of detail in the series’ game design can be especially insightful to a non Japanese audience, providing a window into Japanese culture, be it through the hostess mini games, karaoke clubs, arcades, or board games. Mahjong, Shogi, Koi-koi, Cho-han, and Cee-lo are all featured in Yakuza 0 (2015), which, according to Polygon article “Learning Japanese board game culture from Yakuza 0” by JC Fletcher, has revised instructions in its Western release to provide a base level of understanding and clarity for players who may not have even heard of these games in the first place (Fletcher). A core gameplay element of Yakuza 5 is training one of its 5 playable characters to become a pop idol. Yakuza 6’s Onomichi recreates the real world town’s poem stones. According to SEGA’s Associate Localization Producer and “Captain of the Yakuza Localization Family” Jon Riesenbach, the stones are inscribed with poems by famous Japanese poets who “…traveled to Onomichi and fell in love with the stunning natural scenery and peaceful town atmosphere.” Yakuza 6 also marks the first time the stones were ever translated (Riesenbach), potentially enhancing the experience of a non Japanese speaker hoping to see the stones in person.
This aspect of “virtual tourism” is pushed even further in the series’ two samurai spin off games, Ryū ga Gotoku Kenzan! (2008) and Ryū ga Gotoku Ishin! (2014). According to the youtube channel Yakuza Fan and Did You Know Gaming? hosted show Region Locked, these games take the series back to the 1500s and 1800s to tell the series’ own version of the lives of Musashi Miyamoto and Ryōma Sakamoto, respectively, with detailed recreations of Edo and Bakumatsu period Japan with mini games befitting the respective eras, Ishin going so far as to have an entire in-game dictionary for terminology distinct to the era. However, the Yakuza series has always been aimed specifically at a Japanese audience, series creator Toshihiro Nagoshi having never expected the series to make it to the West. These games both released at a time before the series had garnered any large amount of popularity in the West, and it was assumed that the specific Japanese figures depicted wouldn’t be recognized by a Western audience. Much of the content from Yakuza 3 was cut for similar reasons, and the zombie spin off Yakuza: Dead Souls (2011) had sold poorly in the West, which has resulted in both Kenzan! and Ishin!, in addition to the two PSP Kurohyō games never getting localized (Yakuza Fan).
Among the most unique aspects of the Yakuza series’ open world game design is the manner in which its primary city Kamurocho evolves throughout the series. Where other open world sequels will utilize an existing map without changing anything or build a new map altogether, the Yakuza games add cities as additional locations to travel to and from Kamurocho. Across each installment, the player can watch the city change, the purposes of different buildings changing with each entry. There are activities and SEGA arcade games that only show up in a single game, making the experience of each game distinct and adding to the idea that Kamurocho is a living, breathing space that changes and evolves over the years. Yakuza 0 introduced a disco mini game which never returned, retroactively attaching meaning to a building that serves no function in the other games, creating a kind of nostalgia for the player. From Yakuza 0 to 6, the player can view the evolution of arcade crane games. At the center of Yakuza 0’s 80s bubble era plot is a battle for the one empty plot of land in Kamurocho, a plot that is revealed to be the building site for the Millenium Tower, the staging ground for the original Yakuza’s (2005) climax and the tallest building in the city, visible and explorable throughout the series, the most prominent example of the onset of modernity.
Perhaps most central to the entire Yakuza series up until this point has been its main protagonist, Kazuma Kiryu. From 2005 to 2016, Kiryu has been the face of the series, and as a character represents practically everything the series is about. He is an unstoppable force, a yakuza of legend who will stop at nothing to do what is right, and will fight to the death to protect his family. His constant adversary throughout the series is modernity. There are many, many antagonists in the Yakuza series, however the true villains of nearly every game are men without honor, men driven by greed and power, who have abandoned the old ways of the yakuza, utilizing underhanded techniques without fighting their own battles to get what they want. As the series goes on and modernity creeps forward more and more, the more conniving and scheming the villains are. One can expect betrayals and twists in the yakuza subgenre, however in this series one man, who is technically behind the times, continues to be unwavering as an honorable yakuza.
Kiryu is always driven to do the right thing, particularly for his family, taking the blame for the murder of the clan patriarch to protect his sworn brother (and essentially literal brother) Akira Nishikiyama in the original Yakuza. When Kiryu returns to Kamurocho out of prison, the city is somehow both unchanged and wholly foreign. This is where Kamurocho’s changes, despite its ingame map having an identical layout throughout the series, becomes meaningful from a story perspective. The bar Kiryu regulars, Serena, goes in and out of operation throughout the series, yet still acts as a hideout/meeting space throughout the series. Serena has a history in the first game, but by Yakuza 6 it will be a place of nostalgia for the player just as much as it is for Kiryu. Kiryu returns to his city in Yakuza, still the legendary “Dragon of Dojima,” yet called an old man by every punk who doesn’t know better. His clan, the Tojo, is in disarray, a power struggle over a missing 10 billion yen. Being seduced by a desire for power as a means to prove himself, Nishiki is the final boss of Yakuza, but ultimately not the villain, ultimately being a pawn to men above him. When Kiryu suddenly finds himself with an adopted daughter, Haruka, he is fully prepared to walk away from the tragedies of his life as a yakuza and start anew. However he is constantly pulled back into the fray, because the yakuza still need him, and the ones he cares about are more often than not pulled into the conflict as well. Yakuza 2 (2006) sees Kiryu trying to secure his clan’s future in the midst of a turf war, battling against a worthy adversary, Ryuji Goda, who also bears a dragon tattoo. The true conflict is revealed to be the remnants of a gang all but wiped out years before the series began seeking vengeance on the Tojo and attempting to take over Kamurocho. Even Yakuza 0’s villain, while manipulative and scheming, is a beast of a man, earning Kiryu his title of “The Dragon of Dojima.” Beyond this, however, the driving force in the conflicts throughout the series is money and power.
Yakuza 3’s (2009) conflict surrounds a land development plan in the Ryukyu islands of Okinawa, where Kiryu has started an orphanage with Haruka. He’s dragged into the fray when members of his yakuza family are attacked in the ensuing conspiracy. It’s also in Yakuza 3, 5, and 6 that Kiryu’s status as an outsider is most prominent. As a yakuza, despite being of a generation gradually being forgotten, Kiryu is still a legend inside and out of Kamurocho. But while Kamurocho is a place of familiarity for Kiryu, in Okinawa, Fukuoka, and Onomichi he is a foreigner, and it’s in these locations that the aforementioned virtual tourism steps into the forefront. Kiryu is a tourist just as much as a player might be, and in these locations the game takes the time to teach Kiryu (and subsequently the player) about the regional culture, be it through the food Kiryu eats, the substories he completes, or the various other side activities he can partake in. Yakuza 5 features celebrity chef Tatsuya Kawagoe, who will give the player the ability to gain stat bonuses for eating at restaurants as a reward for showing him region specific cuisine across the game’s five cities. There are substories in Yakuza 6 that reference the films of famed director Nobuhiko Ōbayashi, who was born in Onomichi.
The series is filled with references and celebrity cameos such as these, which add a level of authenticity to each game. Even with some of the more ridiculous references, they all add to the aesthetics of the era and popular culture depicted in each game. Yakuza Kiwami 2 (2017) features a sub story involving a haunted VHS tape, a clear reference to the J-Horror classic Ringu (1998). Throughout the series wrestlers and models play themselves and can be interacted with through side activities and substories, and with the use of facial capture, these celebrities quite literally are in the game. The series is riddled with references to and starring actors from the yakuza film genre, which not only accentuate the influences the creators draw from, but heighten the characterization and thematic undertones throughout the series.
Chapter 11 of the original Yakuza is titled “Honor and Humanity,” a clear reference to Kinji Fukasaku’s highly influential Battles without Honor and Humanity series. A substory in Yakuza Kiwami 2 titled “Yakuza Sunset” involves a retired yakuza film director named “Fukatsu,” another reference to Fukasaku’s legacy. Kiryu’s ally throughout the series, officer Makoto Date, bears a resemblance to legendary actor Shin’ichi “Sonny” Chiba, most notably his appearance in Fukasaku’s Doberman Cop (1977). Kiryu’s character design likely draws influence from Fukasaku regular Bunta Sugawara, down to Kiryu’s iconic suit. Kiryu’s adopted father Shintaro Kazama is played by Tetsuya Watari, a prominent leading man in the 60s and 70s, starring in Seijun Suzuki’s Tokyo Drifter (1966). Being in his 60s when voice acting in Yakuza, a great deal of authenticity is added to Kazama’s character. Tatsuya Watari might as well be a yakuza from a previous generation, and even though Sagawa and Chiba were from the very same generation, their visual influence illustrates that Kiryu and Date are men still holding on to values gradually dissipating. Actors Hitoshi Ozawa, Riki Takeuchi, and Shingo Tsurumi from Takashi Miike’s Dead or Alive (1999) are all in Yakuza 0, the influence from Miike’s work being his signature bombast and comedic sensibilities amid hyper violence and chaos. Miike adapted the original Yakuza in 2007, which maintained its Japanese title of Like a Dragon. As a testament of how vital the open, living space of Kamurocho is to the Yakuza series, this adaptation makes Kiryu’s storyline only one of several plot lines occurring within Kamurocho during the film. Shô Aikawa, Takeuchi’s Dead or Alive co-star, also makes an appearance in the film as well as in Yakuza 5. Tetsu Tachibana, a key player in Yakuza 0 just as driven by family as Kiryu, is played by Arata Iura, who has appeared in multiple films by Hirokazu Kore-eda. While not a director of yakuza films, ties to his filmography underscore the series’ most prominent theme: the importance of family. But perhaps most influential on the Yakuza series is the filmography of Takeshi Kitano; from the beachside locations of Yakuza 3 (Sonatine involves yakuza hiding out in Okinawa) and 6, to the fusion of intimate drama with pulpy crime action and thrills. Susumu Terajima, who’s Yakuza 2 character was redesigned to match his actual appearance in the Kiwami rerelease, has appeared in a plethora of Kitano, Miike, and Kore-eda films alike. The use of facial capture to render celebrity actors in game physically not only provides a recognizable face and celebrity talent, but, as with Tetsuya Watari’s voice, adds a level of authenticity to the character and the actor’s performance. The connections to Kitano’s work is most prevalent with his Outrage trilogy, which is specifically about the death of the old yakuza way, men using whatever means necessary, be it orchestrating in-fighting or simple back stabbing. The death of the old ways of the yakuza comes to a climax in Yakuza 6, and befitting of the series’ journey thus far, Kitano himself is a major player.
With a small town conspiracy that is vast and convoluted enough to rival Princess Toyotomi (2011), the villain of Yakuza 6 couldn’t be more conniving and manipulating. However Yakuza 6 is also deserving of it’s subtitle The Song of Life as it is perhaps the most family focused entry in the entire series. Nearly every game in the Yakuza series deals with family, however none are as specifically focused on Kiryu and Haruka (excluding elements from Yakuza 5’s plot) as the original Yakuza and Yakuza 3. Having left his former clan in safe hands, Kiryu’s motivations are based entirely on his relationship with Haruka, for his final mission the game draws beats from Yakuza and Yakuza 3, reminding the player just how long the journey has been and giving a nostalgia for the time past.
Kiryu is once again a stranger in a small beachside town, teaming up with a small, relatively unknown yakuza clan, a member of which refers to him as his aniki after Kiryu beats him down. Actors Tatsuya Fujiwara and Hiroyuki Miyasako return from Yakuza 3 as new characters. Kiryu once again raids the Millennium Tower, just as he did in the original Yakuza during one of the final set pieces of the game, and the player is reminded one last time of the legend of “The Dragon of Dojima.” But, like his city, for as much as Kiryu is unwavering, change is inevitable, and he can’t go on forever. Even Kiryu’s rival turned ally, Goro Majima “The Mad Dog of Shimano,” at first a raving madman who thirsts for a bloody battle, is sobered by Yakuza 6. At the game’s final climax, just as Yuta is prepared to be shot to protect Haruka and their child Haruto, Kiryu is revealed to be standing in front of all of them, mirroring the sacrifice made by Haruka’s mother 11 years prior. Kiryu survives, but to protect his family he must vanish. In one of the game’s final scenes he reflects on the failings of fathers (himself included), and the fact that the villain who hungered after power enough to reject his humanity was really just trying to prove himself, just as Nishiki did so long ago. Yuta, the small-time yakuza revealed to be the father of Haruka’s child, is played by Tatsuya Fujiwara, known for his leading role in Kinji Fukasaku’s final film Battle Royale. He, like the current Chairman of the Tojo clan Daigo Dojima, represents the next generation, and, having risen to the task of putting his family before himself, Kiryu knows both his families are safe, and he is no longer needed.
For 11 years, Kazuma Kiryu was the man for his time and place. He, alongside Date and Majima, represent the old guard, along with the honor and values of a time long gone. They are men with honor and humanity. Ryū ga Gotoku Studio could have kept the spotlight on Kiryu, giving new conspiracies and conflicts to deal with. But their virtual spaces are proof that they understand the passage of time and the inevitability of change. Speaking about an older yakuza boss in his newest film First Love (2019), Takashi Miike said “He’s kind of saying,‘We Yakuza are not meant to walk in the daylight because we’re going to walk our path in the shadows.’ That’s the kind of thing that maybe a real Yakuza back in the day would have said. They had their own space cut out for them in the shadows. But those kinds of Yakuza are now gone, and that type of Yakuza character is also gone from film. At the end of the film, he knows that his life is basically over and drives off into the sunset and he knows that part of Japanese society, that world of its own, no longer exists. And that line represents the old ways, the old aesthetic and those old Yakuza values that are now completely gone” (Dudley). Kazuma Kiryu is stepping aside for the new generation, with new dragon tattooed yakuza Ichiban Kasuga stepping into the limelight. But, like Takashi Miike, perhaps the Yakuza series isn’t quite ready to let go of the old ways just yet.