Like a Dragon games are many things. From heartwarmingly hilarious to as dramatic as a content creator apology video, the franchise formerly known as Yakuza has always offered a complete experience with each entry, from mainline releases to spin-offs. But above all, they are very, very silly, and that's a big reason behind why these games are so beloved.
Since the original Yakuza launched in 2005, we've seen primary protagonist Kazuma Kiryu undertake all manner of hijinks in the name of fun. He's fought tigers, ruined a baseball match by brawling with opposition players, and hired a chicken as a real estate manager, all while keeping a (mostly) straight face, just as any good comic lead should. And yet, there's a game that eclipses all of these events for sheer ludicrousness.
Dawn of the dead
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Enter Yakuza: Dead Souls, arguably the silliest installment in developer Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio's action-adventure series. This 2011 title puts Kiryu, along with a host of other playable characters, into a zombie outbreak. The familiar streets of Kamurocho (a fictional version of Kabukicho, Tokyo), once teeming with thugs and goons looking for a scrap, is now littered with reanimated corpses – all desperate to nibble on our heroes.
Due to this bitey behavior, the combat turns away from the franchise's traditional beat 'em up action and instead embraces a third-person shooter design. Seeing well-known brawlers like Kiryu, Goro Majima, Shun Akiyama and Ryuji Goda (all playable at various points) trade in their fists for firepower is a novel change, but one that's easy to get behind, even if the controls aren't the smoothest of the PS3 era. Handguns, shotguns, sniper rifles and more are present as you combat the undead threat rampaging in Tokyo's pleasure district. But, despite the severity of Kiryu's situation, there's a lot to giggle about.
Firstly, the series' signature chaotic humor is still present. Majima, for example, is known for his excessive violence. He was introduced in the original title by knocking seven colors of sorry out a subordinate who disrespects Kiryu, but his larger than life personality shines through in eccentric flourishes. It would be easy to dislike someone so aggressive, but when he is spinning around like a Beyblade, knife in hand, it's hard not to chuckle. Yakuza: Dead Souls further celebrates this, featuring an iconic moment when Majima uses the back end of a shotgun to strike a live grenade like a baseball, launching it directly into a monstrous enemy's maw.
Then we have the surprising return of Ryuji Goda, an antagonist from Yakuza 2. Despite dying in Yakuza 2, he's present and playable in Dead Souls thanks to the zombie shooter being set after an alternate (non-canon, believe it or not) ending. Now expelled from the world of organized crime and working in a takoyaki shop, the blond brute sports a prosthetic arm that can transform into a gatling gun. And you thought hitting a grenade like a baseball was too much?
I could go on and on about how hilarious Yakuza: Dead Souls is – particularly the fact it still has a karaoke minigame despite the apparent end of the world taking place – but I'll restrain myself, adding only that it's incredibly funny to see Kiryu, the infamous Dragon of Dojima, shooting his way through a game. Our boy does rock a handgun from time to time in the mainline series, with the most notable example being when he shoots a helicopter pilot in Yakuza 0, forcing it to crash to the ground and explode (remember, Kiryu never kills people), but Dead Souls takes it to a whole other level. Mowing down countless corpses with any firearm he can find, this is the Kiryu of your most feverish hallucinations, and it never stops feeling as amusing as it does wrong. For this reason alone he deserves to be in Fortnite, but that's an argument for another time.
What Yakuza: Dead Souls offers isn't available from any other game in the franchise. The series' expert blend of violence and humor is front-and-center, combining the skin-crawling threat of reanimated cadavers with the absurdity we love characters like Majima for. It deserves another release, whether as a port, remaster or remake, but if you have a PS3 then I urge you to dive into Kamurocho this Halloween. Sing some songs, shoot some zombies, and enjoy the silliest Like a Dragon game money can buy.
Looking for more games to play this Halloween? Here's our list of the best horror games you can play right now.
