The Next Like A Dragon Game Will Have a Bonus Demo

Oliver Brandt
·2 min read

Like A Dragon Gaiden combat

With every passing day, we get one step closer to the release of the next game in the Like A Dragon series, formerly known as the Yakuza series. Like A Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name, despite being a bit of a mouthful, is a highly anticipated game that bridges the story of Yakuza 6, Yakuza: Like A Dragon, and Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth, the next main game in the series.

The game follows the story of Kazuma Kiryu, the main protagonist of most of the games prior to Yakuza: Like A Dragon. At the end of Yakuza 6, Kiryu had to go into hiding, but we don’t really know what happened to him after that, until he made a brief appearance in Like A Dragon. Until now.

Turns out Kiryu became a secret agent, using his ridiculously strong powers to complete super secret missions. How, exactly, that led to him turning up in Like A Dragon and subsequently getting a boy band haircut and teaming up with Like A Dragon protagonist Ichiban in Infinite Wealth remains to be seen, but that’s what Gaiden is all about.

But that’s not all Gaiden will have. In a recent developer update about the game, alongside a new trailer showing off a new story trailer and gameplay details for Gaiden, RGG Studios and Sega revealed that Gaiden will also feature a playable demo for the next big thing: Infinite Wealth.

We don’t really know how long the demo will be, or what exactly it will entail, but it does look like both Kiryu and Ichiban will feature. Much like Like A Dragon, Infinite Wealth will have a turn-based RPG battle system, a departure from prior games in the series, which were arcade-y action beat-em-ups. Gaiden is also a beat-em-up in the same style, as were two prior spin-off games, Judgment and Lost Judgment, so it seems like there’s space for both combat styles in the series.

Like A Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name will be released on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC on November 9, 2023. Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth on the other hand will be released on the same platforms sometime in 2024.