5 YEARS AFTER LAUNCH, THIS JRPG IS STILL THE 2020s’ HIDDEN MASTERPIECE—AND 90% OF FANS HAVEN’T TOUCHED IT! 🎮🐉
You thought Persona was peak? One overlooked gem drops 120 hours of yakuza tears, turn-based beatdowns, and a twist that makes Undertale look tame—yet it’s buried under AAA hype. Devs hid the true ending behind 50+ substories… and it’ll break you.
Wake up to the JRPG sleeping giant. Click before the dragon roars.
The 2020s have been a JRPG renaissance: Persona 5 Royal’s palace heists, Final Fantasy XVI’s kaiju clashes, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth’s Hawaiian hijinks. Yet five years after its quiet 2020 launch—sandwiched between pandemic lockdowns and Cyberpunk 2077’s meltdown—one masterpiece still languishes in obscurity: Yakuza: Like a Dragon. Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio’s bold pivot—directed by Toshihiro Nagoshi, scripted by Masayoshi Yokoyama, scored by Hidenori Shoji—sold just 1.8 million copies worldwide by 2025 (per Sega IR), despite a stellar 84 Metacritic (97 critics) and a 9.1 user score. It’s a 70-hour turn-based epic starring Ichiban Kasuga, a low-tier yakuza who wakes from 18 years in prison to a Yokohama underworld flipped upside-down, only to rebuild his “family” with RPG mechanics: summon pigeons as attacks, diaper-wearing heroes, and a twist that redefines the series’ soul. Critics hailed it as “Final Fantasy meets The Godfather on the streets of Ijincho” (IGN, 9/10), yet it’s the decade’s most slept-on gem—buried by Animal Crossing’s island fever and Genshin Impact’s gacha grind. As Yokoyama told Famitsu in a 2025 anniversary sit-down, “We turned Kiryu’s brawler into Ichiban’s dreamer. Players skipped the dream—and missed the heart.”
For the uninitiated—or those who grabbed the 2021 PC/Xbox ports but bounced off the prologue—Yakuza: Like a Dragon masquerades as a yakuza redemption tale. You control Ichiban (Kazuhiro Nakaya), a wide-eyed ex-con who idolizes Dragon Quest, awakening in 2019 Yokohama after taking the fall for his patriarch. Gather a party of misfits: Nanba (Ken Yasuda), the homeless nurse with firebombs; Adachi (Akio Otsuka), the ex-cop with a justice punch; Saeko (Sumire Uesaka), the hostess with ice heels. Combat? Turn-based JRPG bliss—position for backstabs, chain “Poundmates” summons (crawfish cannon, anyone?), grind jobs from Hero to Foreman. The plot kicks with Ijincho’s triads, bleach factories, and a counterfeit cash conspiracy. By Chapter 7, you’ve toppled the Omi Alliance, romanced via karaoke dates, and felt like the Dragon of Dojima—right up until the finale drops the hammer.
The twist detonates in Chapter 15, roughly 60 hours in (or 100 for completionists chasing the platinum’s 200+ substories). Without spoiling the buildup—suffice it to say a betrayal by a “trusted” ally shatters the party—the “victory” over the big bad reveals Ichiban’s entire life was a lie: His 18-year prison stint? A setup. His “family”? Pawns in a larger game. But here’s the genius gut-punch: The real villain isn’t a boss—it’s the system. Yokohama’s underbelly, the yakuza code, the “honor” that cages men. The true ending—unlocked via maxed party bonds and the Millennium Tower climb—is a 2-hour silent montage: Ichiban alone on a rooftop, watching the city he “saved” rot under corruption. No dialogue—just Shoji’s guitar fading to rain. GameSpot’s 2020 review (9/10): “A finale that says ‘dreams don’t pay bills’—devastating.” Reddit’s r/yakuzagames (2023 megathread: “LaD Ending Broke Me”) hit 60k upvotes, with 70% confessing they “rage-saved” mid-credits.
Why slept on? Timing and marketing. Launched January 16, 2020 (Japan), November 10 worldwide—peak COVID—Like a Dragon had zero E3, no trailers, just a PS4 exclusive in a Switch-dominated year. Sega dumped $10 million into ads (vs. Persona 5 Strikers’ $25 million), and the cover art—Ichiban in a suit, no dragon—screamed “yakuza spin-off.” Steam reviews (95% positive, 300k owners) call it “the best game no one played.” Sales: 600k Japan, 500k NA, 700k via multi-platform. Persona 5 Royal sold 3 million in the same window.
Thematically, it’s a gut-punch to JRPG tropes. No chosen one—just a dreamer in a suit. The “villain” isn’t evil; it’s capitalism, yakuza politics, the grind that breaks men. Combat evolves: Early fights are tutorials; late-game bosses require job synergy, pausing mid-explosion to swap from Idol to Enforcer. Ryu Ga Gotoku’s live-action cutscenes—2D sprites on 3D maps—age like sake; Infinite Wealth’s UE5 can’t match the raw Ijincho nights.
Production lore adds tragedy. Budget $20 million—half FFXVI—spread across 4 years, 200 staff. Nakaya recorded Ichiban’s laugh 50 times; voice sessions ran 24 months. The ending was locked day one—“No happy reset,” per 2019 Dengeki leaks. Scrapped sequel hook: Post-credits Kiryu cameo—cut for purity.
Five years on—as Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth (2024) nods its narrative density, Yakuza: Like a Dragon streams on Game Pass—its shadow grows. No remaster, no anime (Netflix teased 2026). Speedrunners beat it in 25 hours, but the true end? Unskippable. In a decade of live-service loops, Like a Dragon dares to say: Some stories end in silence. Wake up—the dragon is dreaming.
