While it many specialise in showcasing the spectacular relationships Kazuma Kiryu’s fists can form with the faces of everything from underworld goons to actual tigers, one of the main draws of the Yakuza/Like A Dragon series is the manner in which its tales regularly centre around the deep bonds between different characters.
From the aforementioned Dragon of Dojima’s unbreakable connection with Goro Majima to the wholesome friendships that form the backbone of Ichiban Kasuga’s party, forming alliances and working together to defeat the bad guys has become a staple of RGG Studio’s adventures.
That said, the games have rarely treated romantic bonds with the same kind of reverence, an attitude that fans are hoping a revelation from yesterday’s RGG Summer Summit proves is on the way out.
Were you surprised to learn that Like A Dragon protagonist Ichiban Kasuga got turned down by Saeko?
Potential spoilers for the Yakuza/Like A Dragon series and the Judgement series may lie ahead
The reveal in question can be found in a cutscene from the series’ upcoming next entry, Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth (previously announced as Like A Dragon 8) shared during RGG’s presentation, following the unforgettable teaser for the game we got at last week’s Xbox showcase.
As you can watch above, this scene sees Kiryu and Kasuga having a serious rooftop chat, which sees the latter reveal that, seemingly at some point between the new game and its predecessor, he proposed to fellow Yakuza: Like a Dragon character Saeko and got rejected in what sounds like a fairly explosive manner.
Naturally, this bit of hot gossip has led fans of the series to enthusiastically speculate about exactly what might have gone down and share how they might have reacted in the characters’ shoes, while some on Reddit seem to be hoping it could mean a continuation of a change in how the games approach portraying romance.
One thread has seen a number of fans wish that the reveal will mean Like A Dragon’s girlfriend mechanic is “now dead and buried,” while another features potential players rejoicing at the idea that the treatment of romance in Lost Judgment’s Kaito Files DLC might not be a one-off.
Many fans in the latter thread also seem to have interpreted Kiryu’s comments in the cutscene as a potential teaser for the return to the series of Kaoru Sayama, the character’s romantic interest from Yakuza 2, who subsequently disappears off to America in the next game and isn’t seen again.
Regardless of whether you’d have turned down a proposal from Ichiban, make sure to follow us for more coverage of Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth when it arrives in early 2024.