Yakuza: Like a Dragon

=== Setting and characters ===

Yakuza: Like a Dragon is set in 2019, three years after the events of Yakuza 6: The Song of Life. For the first time in the Yakuza series, the focus shifts away from Tokyo and the game's fictional recreation of Kabukichō, called Kamurochō. Instead, most of the gameplay takes place in the Yokohama district of Isezaki Ijincho, which is based on Yokohama's real-life Isezakichō district. However, Kamurochō and the Osaka district Sotenbori (another area from previous Yakuza games, based on the real-life Dōtonbori district) are featured in the game. Yokohama's criminal underworld consists of three interconnected factions known as the Ijin Three: the Chinese-Japanese gang Yokohama Liumang, the Korean-Japanese Geomijul mafia, an offshoot of the Jingweon Mafia, and the local yakuza organization, the Seiryu Clan.
Yakuza: Like a Dragon is also the first main series game not to have Kazuma Kiryu (Takaya Kuroda/Darryl Kurylo) as its protagonist, though he appears in a supporting capacity. Its lead character is Ichiban Kasuga (Kazuhiro Nakaya/Kaiji Tang), a low-ranking member of the Arakawa Family, a subsidiary of the Kanto-based Tojo Clan. Mandatory playable characters who join Kasuga's party include Yu Nanba (Ken Yasuda/Greg Chun), a homeless ex-nurse; Koichi Adachi (Akio Otsuka/Andrew Morgado), a former police officer; Saeko Mukoda (Sumire Uesaka/Elizabeth Maxwell), a hostess bar manager; Joongi Han (Yuichi Nakamura/Keong Sim), a Geomijul operative and the body double of the Jingweon Mafia leader of the same name from Yakuza 6; and Tianyou Zhao (Nobuhiko Okamoto/Robbie Daymond), leader of the Liumang. A fictionalized version of Japanese actress Eri Kamataki appears as a character of the same name (voiced in Japanese by herself and in English by Eden Riegel), as the chief executive officer of Ichiban Confections who recruits Kasuga to help turn her company around as part of the business management minigame. She may be recruited as an optional party member once the player reaches the first milestone objective within the minigame.
Important non-player characters include Masumi Arakawa (Kiichi Nakai/George Takei), the patriarch of the Arakawa Family; Masato Arakawa (Kohsuke Toriumi/Will Yun Lee), Arakawa's son who falsified his identity to become Ryo Aoki, the upstart Governor of Tokyo; Jo Sawashiro (Shinichi Tsutsumi/Brian Bloom), Arakawa's long serving right-hand man and the captain of the Arakawa Family; Sota Kume (Daisuke Hirakawa/Zach Aguilar), a fanatical member of Bleach Japan, a political movement that seeks to cleanse Japan of its 'grey zones' (e.g. prostitution, illegal immigration, organized crime etc.) and protégé of Aoki; Seonhee (Hana Takeda/Fiona Rene), the head of the Geomijul; Ryuhei Hoshino (Tetsuo Kanao/JB Blanc), chairman of the Seiryu Clan; Akira Mabuchi (Masanori Takeda/Ed Bosco), the second-in-command of the Liumang; Reiji Ishioda (Show Hayami/Rino Romano), a lieutenant of the Osaka-based Omi Alliance; and Yosuke Tendo (Miou Tanaka/John Eric Bentley), an opportunistic Omi Alliance member and disgraced former professional boxer. Other characters include: Mitsuo Yasumura (Satoshi Tsuruoka/SungWon Cho), Kasuga's oath brother in the Arakawa Family; Nick Ogata (Kazumasa Nakamura/Ray Chase), a wealthy businessman who befriends Kasuga and occasionally provides him financial support; Isao Nonomiya (Yōhei Tadano/William Salyers), the owner of a soapland in Ijincho who hires Kasuga and his party to investigate a conspiracy involving his employee; and Mamoru Takabe (Daichi Endo/Darin De Paul), captain of the Seiryu Clan.
In addition to Kiryu, several characters from previous Yakuza titles also return in supporting roles: Osamu Kashiwagi (Shunsuke Sakuya/David Hayter), a former senior Tojo Clan member who survived the events of Yakuza 3 and became proprietor of the Survive bar in Ijincho; Daigo Dojima (Satoshi Tokushige/Roger Craig Smith), sixth chairman of the Tojo Clan; Goro Majima (Hidenari Ugaki/Matthew Mercer) and Taiga Saejima (Rikiya Koyama/Ron Yuan), senior Tojo Clan members who accompany Daigo; Masaru Watase (Rintarō Nishi/James C. Burns), captain of the Omi Alliance; and Makoto Date (Kazuhiro Yamaji/Bill Farmer), a Kamurochō police detective and long-time friend of Adachi.

Plot

In 2001, Masumi Arakawa persuades Ichiban Kasuga to confess to a murder that his captain, Jo Sawashiro, allegedly committed, to protect the latter's reputation. Kasuga, feeling indebted to Arakawa, agrees to shoulder the blame for the crime. Arakawa promises to greet Kasuga upon his release. 18 years later, after serving his sentencing, Kasuga is released from jail, but Arakawa is nowhere to be seen. He is picked up by police officer Koichi Adachi, who reveals that the Tojo Clan has perished, and in its place, Kamurocho has become the territory of its rival, the Omi Alliance. Adachi also informs Kasuga that Arakawa was responsible as he betrayed the clan to join the Omi, while Arakawa's son Masato, whom Kasuga once chauffeured, has died due to his deteriorating health. Seeking to expose the truth together, they crash an Omi Alliance meeting held by Arakawa. Adachi is arrested for trespassing whilst Arakawa shoots Kasuga.
Three days later, a homeless man named Yu Nanba heals Kasuga's wounds after discovering his body in Isezaki Ijincho. Nanba sees a counterfeit bill in Kasuga's pocket and tells him that he is safe from the Omi Alliance because Ijincho is hostile territory. Kasuga and Nanba meet Adachi, where they agree to work for soapland owner Isao Nonomiya to make extra money. After uncovering a conspiracy plot at the city's retirement home, the gang discovers that Nonomiya is murdered, which alerts Saeko Mukoda, one of his employees. Determined to find Nonomiya's murderer, Saeko joins Kasuga's team. The party discovers that his killer is Akira Mabuchi, a lieutenant of the Yokohama Liumang. They also uncover the Liumang's collaboration with the Geomijul Mafia and Seiryu Clan in running a money counterfeiting scheme. This money is used by Yutaka Ogikubo, a high-profile politician, to bribe the local police into effectively preserving peace.
The Liumang catch the group investigating the scheme and turns them over to Mabuchi. Mabuchi reveals that he deliberately engineered the prior events so that he could frame the party as warmongering Seiryu Clan members. Joongi Han, the second-in-command of the Geomijul, saves the party from Mabuchi. Mabuchi nonetheless executes two Seiryu Clan members to provoke further retaliation. Kasuga's party heads to the Geomijul HQ so that they can find proof of Mabuchi's guilt and convince the other Ijincho gangs to not war against each other. Seonhee, the leader of Geomijul, reveals to everyone that Nanba pretended to be homeless so that he could investigate his brother's disappearance after the latter tried to expose the money counterfeiting scheme. She rallies the Geomijul and the Liumang into executing Nanba, prompting him to seek refuge in the HQ of Bleach Japan, co-founded by Tokyo's governor Ryo Aoki. Kasuga eventually deduces that Aoki is Masato, who took on a new identity and used Bleach Japan to cleanse Kamurocho of the Tojo Clan's influence. However, as the police were afraid of a power vacuum, Aoki ordered the Omi Alliance to take over Kamurocho with Arakawa's help. Aoki seeks to win the support of Ijincho by undermining the Yokohama underworld by bribing Mabuchi into provoking a civil war.
The Omi Alliance, under the guise of Bleach Japan, and Nanba invade the Geomijul HQ, though they are defeated by Kasuga's party. The Geomijul burns evidence of the entire money counterfeiting scheme so that Ogikubo's reputation is not damaged during the election season. Tianyou Zhao, the leader of the Liumang, enraged by Mabuchi's betrayal, vows to spare Nanba if they can save the Geomijul from the Omi. Touched by Zhao's solidarity, the Geomijul warm up to Kasuga's party, with Han and Zhao joining them, the latter also relinquishing his leadership of the Liumang to Seonhee. Nanba, having realized the error of his ways, rejoins the team to expose Aoki.
Meanwhile, Aoki employs his right-hand man Sota Kume to run for candidacy as Yokohama's regional representative. At the advice of Seiryu Clan chairman Ryuhei Hoshino, Kasuga runs as an independent candidate to stop Aoki's plans. Hoshino also tells Kasuga that Arakawa never intended to kill him; after the shooting, Arakawa placed the counterfeit bill in his pocket, given to him by Hoshino, so that Kasuga could visit Hoshino on his behalf. Hoshino had previously killed Arakawa's father for stealing the counterfeit money, with Arakawa eventually forgiving him; his decision to hand the bill back to Hoshino even though Arakawa had the power to expose it was evidence.
Tipped off by his former oath brother Mitsuo Yasumura, Kasuga learns that Arakawa pretended to work for the Omi Alliance the entire time. Kasuga and his party travel to Sotenbori, Osaka, and attend an Omi Alliance meeting, where Arakawa, along with Tojo Clan's sixth chairman Daigo Dojima, and Omi Alliance Captain Masaru Watase, formally disband both organizations to stop Aoki from using them as pawns. Kasuga and his party, joined by Omi lieutenant Yosuke Tendo and Tojo officers Goro Majima and Taiga Saejima, battle the rioting Omi members; they are later joined by former Tojo Clan chairman Kazuma Kiryu, who reveals himself as Watase's anonymous bodyguard. After the battle, Kasuga reconciles with Arakawa and learns that Aoki was the one who committed the murder 18 years ago. The next day, however, Arakawa is assassinated on Aoki's orders. Aoki also discovers the circumstances behind Kasuga's candidacy and, as such, orders Sawashiro to kill Hoshino.
Kasuga arrives at the Seiryu Clan HQ, albeit too late as Hoshino is killed. Kasuga defeats Sawashiro, prompting him to reveal the truth: Aoki is actually Sawashiro's biological son, while Kasuga is Arakawa's legitimate son; As Arakawa's girlfriend Akane was hunted down by the yakuza, Arakawa told Akane to put the baby inside one of the coin lockers to ensure the baby's safety. At the same time, Sawashiro and his confidante, having birthed a son, decided to abandon their baby at the coin lockers. Arakawa eventually took Sawashiro's baby, while his actual baby was adopted by Kasuga's father, Jiro. Sawashiro eventually turned himself in to the police.
Kiryu later meets Kasuga's party and reveals to them, based on intel provided by the Daidoji faction, that Aoki has dispatched assassins after Sawashiro as the latter planned to expose Aoki's guilt. Kasuga's party stops the assassins and then returns to Kamurocho, where they arrange a hoax using incriminating evidence to lure out both Aoki and Tendo, the latter being responsible for Arakawa's murder. Kasuga defeats Tendo in combat, then the group secretly feigns defeat to trick Aoki into verbally revealing his intent to murder. Kasuga's party publicly leaks the video as Aoki escapes. Kasuga eventually finds him at the coin lockers. As Kasuga tearfully begs Aoki to turn himself in, Kume fatally stabs Aoki, outraged by his hypocrisy.
Sometime later, the evidence found in Arakawa's headquarters leads to the arrest of all Kamurochō officials who accepted his bribe money. Kasuga attends the funeral for Arakawa and Aoki, and decides to remain in Ijincho after turning down Daigo's job offer for a security firm staffed by ex-yakuza in Osaka.