‘Yakuza: Like A Dragon’s hero is a giant himbo who needs to be saved from himself

Yakuza: Like A Dragon may advertise itself with gang wars, police corruption, and murder. But at its heart, it’s the simple, timeless tale of a himbo seeking paternal love and a second braincell.

A himbo is a man who is not terribly bright, but at the same time uncommonly kind and respectful. He is the kind of man who prompts others to say things like “bless him” and “oh honey” — a big dumb sweetheart with the best intentions and the worst brain capacity.

Japanese role-playing game Yakuza: Like A Dragon follows one such man: Ichiban Kasuga, a softhearted idiot who is metaphorically stuck in the early 2000s. Having just served an 18-year jail sentence after taking the fall for a murder, the low-level yakuza grunt is eager to return to the side of his beloved boss and father-figure Masumi Arakawa.

Unfortunately gang politics have changed significantly since Kasuga was locked in the prison time capsule in 2001, and nobody is waiting on the outside to welcome him back. Instead, he finds himself forgotten, betrayed, shot, dumped in the garbage, homeless, and sporting a hairstyle that looks like he stuck a fork in a power socket.

Most people would find this shock difficult to recover from, both physically and emotionally. At the very least they’d shave their head. Kasuga, however, sees all of this misfortune as more of a baffling setback than a debilitating one. Despite his status as a career criminal, he’s charmingly inept enough to lack the self-preservation skills needed to take the L. 

Instead, Kasuga uses the opportunity of hitting rock bottom to reframe himself as the video game-style hero he’s always wanted to be, gathering a party of fellow misfits to help him grind up from zero and figure out why his dad doesn’t love him anymore.

It’s all very meta, providing an in-universe justification for Yakuza: Like A Dragon’s new turn-based combat and the bizarre fantasy appearances of its enemies. It’s also the exact sort of ridiculous, wholesome, melodramatic fare the Yakuza series thrives on — fitting the ridiculous, wholesome, melodramatic character Ichiban Kasuga is.

Up until Like A Dragon’s soft reboot, the Yakuza series followed Kazuma Kiryu, a stoic gangster with a heart of gold who conveyed his emotions through micro-expressions and punching. In contrast, new player character Kasuga is the biggest baby loudmouth in Yokohama, incapable of self-restraint even when it would be in his best interests and there are firearms involved. He has a good heart too, only he wears his way out on his sleeve.

I will fully admit that I myself am guilty of putting too much faith in the honor and good intentions of others. Yet if I were as blindly naive and trusting as large child Ichiban Kasuga I’d probably be dead by now, and I’m not even involved in violent crime.

Kasuga is an irrationally optimistic anime protagonist who believes in justice, loyalty, his friends, and his family, and he should absolutely not be able to survive in the Japanese criminal underworld. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad he is, but it’s a minor miracle considering his terminal inability to keep quiet or competently weigh up risk and reward. This hotheaded himbo will not hesitate to take on one of the most powerful gangs in the city for 5,000 yen, simply because they’re victimising a struggling bar owner he’s only just met.

It’s honourable and endearing of him, as well as a good indication of his strong sense of justice. But Kasuga, my man, you are literally risking an agonising death for less than 50 bucks and an unreasonably sunny belief that a homeless man in an outdated suit can stop a citywide criminal organisation. Justice may be its own reward, but this is like hacking at the Berlin Wall with a hand trowel. There are better ways to go about it.

You’d think Kasuga’s hardships would teach him to be a little more cynical, yet his neurons continue to stubbornly refuse to fire. Fortunately the world of Like A Dragon accommodates his himbo tendencies, using his innocently optimistic love of video games to blend his hero fantasy with the game’s reality and disguise his desolate situation as a weird adventure (even by Yakuza‘s bizarre, diapered gangster standards).

Aside from Kasuga himself, the new combat system is one of the most notable departures from previous Yakuza games, and works to reframe the world through Kasuga’s wide eyes. His ragtag team of losers become noble adventuring companions and street brawls become turn-based battles, complete with tag-team moves powered by friendship. 

But if Yakuza: Like A Dragon was more realistic, Kasuga’s “justice before brain cells” philosophy would truncate this game by its third chapter and leave him dead on the side of the road. 

It’s only due to the simple, strange positivity that underpins the whole Yakuza series that events usually work out for Kasuga. Yes, he does catch a bullet and end up technically homeless, far apart from his surrogate dad. But it doesn’t kill him, and in fact puts him on a path to making new friends and finding answers. 

It’s an important lesson that every pile of garbage has a silver lining, as long as you believe in yourself and never give up. Though to be fair, Kasuga’s persistence isn’t because he won’t admit when he’s beaten. It’s because he’s a giant himbo who can’t recognise when he is.

Yakuza: Like a Dragon arrives in the West on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC on Nov. 10, as well as PlayStation 5 on Mar. 2.