Toomanywires

Death, taxes and a Yakuza at Tokyo Game Show. It's a comfort knowing that there's always a Yakuza, or a Like a Dragon, waiting for me at TGS. Yakuza 4 was probably my first, back in 2009. They had a throne photo-spot at the booth, where you could pose for pictures with hosts and hostesses and, if you were lucky, some of the dev staff. A year or two later, zombies were running amok on the show floor for the Dead Souls spin off. For the Yakuza 4-6 era, there was usually a theatre presentation pre-demo, where you'd sit in a dark room and watch a 10-15 minute video that highlighted the talent and brands that would feature in the latest entry, before getting your hands-on time. The Yakuza 6 demo came with a branded box of tissues (!) and the giant Last Supper panorama for Infinite Wealth, stretching across a gigantic screen, was a highlight of more recent shows. Nagoshi-san was a staple in the past, and now it's Yokoyama-san you'll spot in and around the booth. Death, t...

You can find all of my Tokyo Game Show 2024 coverage here We knew it was coming. Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio had already confirmed that it would be announcing the next Like a Dragon in time for Tokyo Game Show, and the RGG Summit, streamed just a few days before TGS, seemed like the logical time to do it. It was reasonable to expect that this would be a Gaiden-like spin-off, as delivering a full Yakuza experience so soon after Infinite Wealth would surely be an impossible task, event for a studio as prolific as RGG. We knew it was coming, but we didn't know it would be this. In Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii, Goro Majima, the Mad Dog, has amnesia, and has decided to become a pirate captain. He's got a ship and everything - he brought his own eye patch. Having washed ashore in Hawaii, Majima makes friends with some kind souls who take him in, protects them from some ruffians, gets a boat and becomes a marine menace. Beyond that, the story is a mystery. We don't know when it...

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth has finished with me, but I'm far from finished with it.  I spent sixty glorious hours with Ichiban, Kiryu and crew, and I have an overwhelming number things I want to tell you about it. So here's a collection of musings, which I'll keep spoiler-free at first. I'll give you plenty of warning when it's about to get spoiler-y. 1. A Mini-Review It'd been a while since I'd played anything worthy of disturbing my GOAT list.  Infinite Wealth, however, had me scrambling to nail down the precise order of my all-time favourite games, so that I could decide whether or not I needed to make room for a new entry. I still haven't quite decided, as it's still too early to say; I need to let it sit for a while longer. However, the fact that I'm even considering this should let you know just how much I enjoyed Infinite Wealth. A lot. I enjoyed it a lot. I took to Hawaii far quicker and more completely than I thought I would, and the...

The doors are locked and they'll never open for me. On the street opposite the park, on the ground floor of a nondescript building in a covered shopping street, there's a clothes store where time stands still. One customer, an elderly gentleman, peruses sweaters. I stare through the shop window, but he's oblivious to my presence. In the other corner, a school boy waits patiently, perhaps for his mother to emerge from the changing rooms. He is static; bored rigid? And behind the counter there's a store clerk who will stand there all day and never interact with a paying customer. The easiest and loneliest job in the world. I can look but I'll never set foot inside. No matter how many hours I spend in this town, and no matter how hard Joryu (formerly Kazuma Kiryu) learns to punch, we will never gain access. Off limits forever. This is one of many forbidden spaces you'll come across when wandering the streets of Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name, or ...

You can find all of my Tokyo Game Show 2023 coverage  here Like a Dragon (nee Yakuza), Tokyo Game Show and I have a long history.  I've been playing since Yakuza 3, and in the years I've been attending TGS, it has always been a highlight. Theatre presentations, playable demos, photo-ops, devs walking the show floor, marauding zombies bothering hostesses - Yakuza has been a part of TGS as long as I can remember. And this year's show was no different, with both Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name and Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth sharing top billing at SEGA's absolutely heaving booth. There was a shared queue for the demos, which maintained a considerable wait time on both industry days. Once you hit the halfway point, you peeled off to the left to play Gaiden. Fifteen minutes later, you rejoined the line and waited for your turn with Infinite Wealth on the right. A nice set-up, complete with near-constant entertainment provided by Sonic and Persona stage...