Silver Dragon

warning: this shrine writeup contains spoilers for all Yakuza games.

The Man, the Legend

Kiryu Kazuma is the notorious protagonist from the Yakuza series, now renamed Like a Dragon, and you most likely already know at least something about him, seeing how he's been turned into a viral meme in the last decade. I'm not gonna be your judge on whether that's a good thing or not...

If you've actually played the games or know something about Yakuza in general, you'll quickly learn how well loved he is by the community (and dev team since they really don't want this guy retiring! Isn't he turning 56 soon...?) and rightfully so! Kiryu is portrayed as a cooltough guy™ initally, someone you look at and know you don't want to mess with! (though he'll only resort to violence if instigated). His status as a legendary yakuza made his name known on the streets of Kamurocho, just hearing the name makes heads turn and actually seeing the guy on the streets would be akin to seeing an apparition for some. But, as the player, we know Kiryu isn't always exactly the big bad guy the game wants you believe he is. On the inside, Kiryu is someone who deeply cares about protecting his those dear to him and is altruistic and kind towards people in need, even complete strangers. Whether you consider substories canon or not, these quests make Kiryu's cute and goofy site really come out, all in a pursuit of helping another while being accidentaly roped in weird and quirky business. Substories might be something fun to kill time in game, but they're still a testament to the fact that Kiryu really has done it all, from being a model, voice acting in a BL game, being a substitute actor in a movie and the list goes on and on! (This guy would have a killer resume if it weren't for the fact that he's literally blacklisted from normal social life...)

First Meeting: The Bakamitai Ringtone

Now, with a title like that you can probably guess what my first exposure to Yakuza and this man who defined a whole period of my life involved. I don't remember when this happened, I don't even remember the year this took place, but I was still in high school, either my fourth or fifth year. My friend was incredibly elated to make me listen to her new ringtone so I put my headphones on. I hear the chorus of Baka Mitai, and my expression shifts from neutral to mildly annoyed. For some reason, I can still remember how I felt at the moment and the exact expression I had. Maybe it's because whenever I think about Kiryu and how I even got to meet him, this immediately comes to mind. It literally was my first real encounter with him and god, what a legacy it gave birth to... But yeah, I was barely familiar with Yakuza at all at the time, I knew of this dumbass meme and I can clearly remember thinking "Oh. It's just that Kiryu guy" while it started playing when I put my headphones on. Little did I know...

Breaking news: Guy Plays Yakuza, Loves It So Much it becomes his personality for the next two years

Some months later, for a reason or another, my youtube recommended is FILLED with Yakuza 0 Majima memes, or Majima saying Kiryu-Chan compilations (I also remember the 'this is my male fantasy' meme being my first Yakuza meme). So yeah, knowing absolutely nothing about the plot, the idea I had of this game at the time was literally buff men who are criminals are also part time idols, chaos ensues. Oh, also none of them are straight, yipee! A game like this sounds perfect for someone like me!

So I bought Yakuza 0, initially chasing Majima instead of Kiryu, which is honestly fair. Majima is kind of a major attractor for many people, and I don't blame them. His part of the story in Yakuza 0 was what captured my interest the most too, at that time. Add in the 24-Hour Cinderella clips going viral and he achieves celebrity status basically. And I didn't want to come off as someone who's playing it just for the Baka Mitai meme, because that really wasn't the reason. (but playing it for 24H Cinderella and all the Majima memes is okay and completely socially acceptable...?) My memories of playing the Yakuza games are a bit hazy. I played them all in a frenzy in the summer of 2020 (or 2021...?), still a Majima fan through all of those playthroughs. I even started getting gradually sadder as his role in the games became less and less prominent, which was completely understandable considering I started the orthodox way with Y0-YK1.

Back then, my feelings about Kiryu were very unsure. After playing through YK2's finale and absolutely hating it, Kiryu's character left a sour taste in my mouth, thinking the decisions he took in that game were dumb as hell (though, in retrospective are totally comprehensible. Still dumb as hell attempting to unalive yourself in a bombing and abandoning your adopted daughter you promised to take care of!). I wasn't sure whether I wanted to keep on playing or not, I thought I had the shittiest 18th birthday playing this game (which was a bad thing at the time but now, at present time, I'm always really happy to remember that Kiryu was with me on my coming of age, lol) and I needed to fix that. I heard Yakuza 3 was good, so I gave it a try.

Yakuza 3 quickly became one of my favorite games ever and I think it's the first one that made me feel some deeper sentiment for Kiryu, made me feel like we were connecting a little bit more. Apparently dumb men that play games tend to dislike Y3's start because it only involves parenting, but it might be one of my favorite parts ever in any Yakuza game. Kiryu's parenting in those first chapters (and the rest of Y3 too) is so heartwarming and it really shows how tender he can really be, how he channels the love he's given by his former surrogate family through this new one he's built for himself. From Yakuza 1/Kiwami forward, Kiryu's family is always a challenging subject, it's a family that is always changing and never feels like a static thing. It's always tentative, there's always people coming in and out of his life. But, in the end, his kids are his world and we see him making countless sacrifices to keep them safe, even in the new Yakuza Gaiden. It really shows how willing Kiryu is to protect those he loves and those who have the misfortune of being connected to him. While he knows connecting with people puts them at risk, he doesn't abandon them to their destiny and he's always ready to sacrifice part of him to keep those people safe. This aspect of his character, his selfless altruism that shines through even when he feels like he's at the limit of his own life ready to throw it all away, will never stop being fascinating to me.

My favorite game to simply experience, separating it from the plot completely, is the much controversial Yakuza "BOAT GAME" 6. Controversial for many aspects but mostly because of very unexpected plot turns in family business, a really bizzare lore involving warships and secrets that ABSOLUTELY (don't) need to be kept and general male friendship that isn't excessively prominent or something you should care about, because all the side characters are so one-off. Probably the fact that this game focuses so much on Kiryu and his family he can't reunite with, instead of well defined and characterized background characters, is what makes me like it so much and what makes it one of my most replayed Yakuza games. There's gonna be a quick spoiler here, but why do people find the baby minigame annoying? It's literally there for an EXTREMELY BRIEF section of a SINGLE CHAPTER, and if you do it well you get rewarded with Kiryu making cute voices and being a good grandparent! Other than that, Kiryu is just overall really cute in this game, the substories where he helps out people in Onomichi always put a smile on my face, along with some of the minigames, like the cat cafe one. I get to see Kiryu petting cats and loving it? It's a dream come true! Combine that with the beautiful landscape of this little suburb in Hiroshima and you get a very healing experience, although Kiryu is dying inside a little (but he always is so don't think about it too much). Cute old man! I like very much.

Together, Always...

Yakuza 6 to me, is the big deal because it ultimately made me realize once and for all how much I was in love with Kiryu as a character. Finishing the (AT THE TIME) final chapter of his saga, seeing him walking away from the Morning Glory Orphanage, leaving the kids to a hopefully more peaceful life without him, made my heart break. It felt in a way like he was walking away from me, too, getting more and more distant, making it more clear that I'd never play another Yakuza game featuring him ever again. Then Yakuza Gaiden came out, get fucked! dumbass player thinks they're really gonna let Kiryu retire! This extremely dumb detail aside (which honestly doesn't even make me feel stupid because I was happy when Gaiden got announced! I got so giddy and let all of my friends know, of course I want another Kiryu game!), I'm still glad Kiryu was by my side all this time. Right now I'm playing Yakuza Gaiden and it feels like it hasn't been three years at all. Time really flew from when I first met him and I hope I'll still love him this much even in the future. What makes me feel close to him other than the fact that he accompanied me through the year 2021, one where all of my disorders were at their worst, is that time spent with him feels like real time. Which sounds like an extremely parasocial thing but it isn't, I promise! The fact that Yakuza is a series that takes place in real time means that Kiryu's birthdays are actually real birthdays and that he ages with time! And for some reason that makes me feel connected to him, the fact that he's aging along with me. Though I'm literally at the age where I could be his son... Returning to him is always so easy and my screenshots folder for Gaiden is already full...

Still, it's not really easy to whip up an essay in a few hours when I literally reunited with him once again only a few days ago, so consider this a very brief and tentative summary of my relationship with him! This will definitely get a review whenever I get to replay all Yakuza games in full. I couldn't even do a fun fact section because I know I have too many stored in this little noggin and doing it hastily would just make me forget what those are! Like the exact position of his moles in his Yakuza 3 model! What, you've had enough? You wanna stop reading now, right? Go on, then. You deserved it.