How one can Play the Yakuza Video games in Chronological Order

Yakuza Kiwami

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Newcomers or these whose Yakuza expertise began with Yakuza 0 could have acquainted, exacting controls, top-notch SEGA localization, and a strong start line for getting into the Yakuza franchise recent.

Mainline Yakuza/Like a Dragon Video games in Chronological Order:

Beware: Delicate spoilers for the plots, characters, and a few main occasions of every sport comply with.

1. Yakuza 0 (2014) / Yakuza 0 Director’s Reduce (2025)

The sixth sport launched is definitely the primary chronological Yakuza sport. In Yakuza 0, you play as two protagonists in the course of the financial growth within the late Nineteen Eighties. The primary: a younger Kazuma Kiryu, member of the Dojima household, who was arrange for a homicide that befell on the Empty Lot, a tiny undeveloped piece of land that can be an important asset for whoever owns it.

The second is former Shimano member of the family Goro Majima, who’s working in a cabaret as a punishment for being a part of an assassination years in the past. He’s tasked by his ex-patriarch, Futoshi Shimano, to kill a blind lady named Makoto for unknown causes. (It’s later revealed that she’s the reliable proprietor of the Empty Lot.)

By the tip of the sport, Kiryu will get again to the Dojima household after defeating all of the lieutenants, Majima leaves Makoto to stay her life, and the Empty Lot is destroyed; the Millennium Tower, a key location within the sequence, is constructed on the land.

2. Yakuza (2005) / Yakuza Kiwami (2016)

The primary Yakuza sport stars Kazuma Kiryu after he goes to jail for taking the blame for a homicide he didn’t commit in 1995. The sufferer was Sohei Dojima, Kiryu’s boss, who was murdered by Akira Nishikiyama, Kiryu’s finest buddy (who, enjoyable reality, is voiced by the identical individual as Ichiban Kasuga). The explanation behind this crime was that Sohei tried to rape Yumi Sawamura, a buddy of each Kiryu and Nishikiyama.

When Kiryu is launched from jail after a 10-year sentence, he’s expelled from the Tojo Clan, somebody has stolen ¥10 billion from the clan’s account, and Yumi is nowhere to be discovered. In the course of this, Kiryu meets Haruka, the daughter of a girl named Mizuki. Haruka has a pendant that appears to be a key component associated to the misplaced cash. Additionally, Nishikiyama shoots Kiryu’s former captain and adoptive father, changing into an antagonistic power.

Through the climax, Kiryu finds Yumi and the misplaced cash, and fights Nishikiyama. Kiryu is requested to be the Fourth Chairman of the Tojo Clan, which he accepts. Moments later, nonetheless, he names Yukio Terada, a former Omi Alliance yakuza, as the brand new chairman, and he quits the yakuza to boost Haruka as his adopted daughter.

3. Yakuza 2 (2006) / Yakuza Kiwami 2 (2017)

Yakuza 2 begins with Terada, the Fifth Chairman of the Tojo Clan, asking Kiryu to assist him forestall a warfare between his clan and the Omi Alliance, their everlasting rivals. After being shot in an ambush, Terada appears to be lifeless and Kiryu seems to be for Daigo Dojima, son of Sohei Dojima, to nominate him as the brand new chairman of the clan.

Whereas serving to Daigo, Kiryu meets Ryuji Goda, the son of the Omi chairman, they usually turn into enemies as a result of Ryuji refuses a truce with the Tojo Clan. One other character, detective Kaoru Sayama, comes into play and tries to assist Kiryu whereas studying about her dad and mom, who disappeared when she was younger.

4. Yakuza 3 (2009)

The primary sport within the sequence launched on PlayStation 3, Yakuza 3 begins with Kiryu far-off from the yakuza way of life. As an alternative, in 2007, he’s caring for the Morning Glory Orphanage in Okinawa. He’s assisted by Haruka, and he takes care of many new children residing there.

Sadly, his peace doesn’t final for lengthy. Kiryu has to face a number of troubles with totally different characters, involving new yakuza households, a number of assassinations, shootings, betrayals, an arms smuggling group, and even the CIA.

5. Yakuza 4 (2010)

One yr after the occasions of the earlier sport, Yakuza 4 raises the stakes in a story of households, betrayals, and crime from the eyes of 4 protagonists.

Other than Kiryu, three different new faces be a part of the streets of Kamurocho. The primary one, Shun Akiyama, is a mortgage shark who runs his personal agency, Sky Finance, and finds himself in the course of a battle between the Tojo Clan and the Ueno Seiwa Clan. He’s additionally requested for a ¥100 million mortgage from a mysterious lady named Lily.

Taiga Saejima, Goro Majima’s buddy, went to jail after performing successful towards the Ueno Seiwa Clan in 1985. Twenty years later, after efficiently escaping, he seems to be for Majima, who deserted him once they did the hit.

Detective Masayoshi Tanimura, one other new protagonist, is investigating one of many latest murders within the Tojo Clan. Whereas doing so, he meets Lily, who is definitely Saejima’s sister, and she or he’s being attacked by the Shibata household. Tanimura later finds out that the patriarch of that household was associated to the hit Saejima participated all these years in the past.

In the end, Kiryu meets his new companions and finds out what occurred to all of the characters concerned within the ongoing conflicts.

6. Yakuza 5 (2012)

If Yakuza 4’s story bought sophisticated with a number of protagonists’ factors of view, Yakuza 5 went even additional. This time, you play as 5 protagonists in several eventualities in 2012, making this one of many largest and most formidable video games within the sequence.

First you comply with Kiryu, who left Kamurocho and moved to Fukuoka with out Haruka, leaving his orphanage behind. As common, he gained’t get pleasure from calm for lengthy earlier than he learns that Daigo is lacking, and the peace between the Tojo Clan and the Omi Alliance is about to interrupt.

Saejima is in jail as soon as once more, however he’s seeking to escape together with his cellmate Shigeki Baba when he hears that Majima is lifeless. (After they escape, they be taught Majima had really faked his demise.) Within the meantime, Haruka is already an adolescent and she or he’s following her dream of changing into a J-pop idol. Issues get sophisticated when the president of her expertise company, Mirei Park, is discovered lifeless in what looks as if a staged suicide. Returning protagonist Akiyama seems to assist Haruka be taught who was actually behind Park’s demise.

The final piece of the puzzle is the brand-new character Tatsuo Shinada, a former skilled baseball participant who was banned after being framed for fixing an vital match. A mysterious man, who’s really Daigo, will meet Shinada and ask him to search out out the reality of what occurred.

7. Yakuza 6: The Track of Life (2016)

Yakuza 6: The Track of Life is introduced as the ultimate beat in Kiryu’s highlight within the Yakuza sequence. Our protagonist spends three years in jail, however this time it is for his previous crimes he really did. On the finish of the earlier sport, Haruka revealed in a live performance broadcast that Kiryu was her father and that he was an ex-yakuza member.

After getting out of jail in 2016, Kiryu returns to Kamurocho, however just for a short while. He learns that Haruka is in a coma after a automotive accident, and she or he has a baby named Haruto. Haruka was in Onomichi, Hiroshima (sure, hometown of of the Ono Michio mascot) for a very long time earlier than the accident, so Kiryu goes there to analyze what occurred and who Haruto’s father is.

Whereas discovering clues, vital characters like Daigo, Saejima, and Majima are imprisoned, and rival teams, the Chinese language Saio Triad and the Korean Jingweon Mafia, wish to make their strikes in Kamurocho.

8. Yakuza: Like a Dragon (2020)

A significant turning level for the sequence, Yakuza: Like a Dragon begins the transition away from the Yakuza title. It additionally introduces a brand new turn-based fight system and a brand-new principal character: Ichiban Kasuga, one other Tojo Clan member who begins his journey by agreeing to take the hit on a felony cost for his yakuza household and go to jail for a homicide he didn’t commit. On his launch 18 years later, Kasuga rapidly learns that main modifications have occurred whereas he was away, mainly that the Omi Alliance defeated the Tojo Clan.

Kasuga goes to confront Masumi Arakawa, his former patriarch and father-like determine who seemingly offered out the Tojo Clan, about what occurred and is greeted by his former compatriats with hostility. Arakawa shoots Kasuga and dumps his physique close to a homeless encampment in Yohokama’s Isezaki Ijincho. (New metropolis unlocked!)

Ichiban wakes up and finds himself within the care of Yu Nanba, a former nurse who handled his gunshot wound. That is the start line for Kasuga, who will meet a number of new faces for the Yakuza sequence to spherical out his preventing social gathering, together with members from space felony teams the Yokohama Liumang, the Geomijul Mafia, and the Seiryu Clan. Collectively, they dig round Yokohama, Sotenbori in Osaka, and Kamurocho to uncover the larger technique behind Arakawa’s play.

9. Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth (2024)

The most important Like a Dragon sport to-date groups up the previous and new guard – Kiryu and Kasuga – in a real two-protagonist saga that takes the crew from Japan to Hawaii and again. Leaping forward to 2024 after the occasions of Yakuza: Like a Dragon (when you had been curious, the pandemic additionally exists within the Like a Dragon universe), Kasuga and mates are attempting to stay above-board lives in Ijincho till a preferred VTuber posts a viral video that upends every part. Quickly after, Kasuga learns that his mom, who he thought was lifeless, is alive and hops on a airplane to Honolulu to search out her.

After instantly stepping into some bother after touchdown (traditional), Kasuga runs into Kiryu, who can also be in Hawaii to search out Kasuga’s mom on behalf of the Daidoji faction that agreed to provide him sanctuary and hold him in hiding (play Like a Dragon: The Man Who Erased His Identify for the complete backstory there). Kiryu additionally reveals that he is been recognized with most cancers from publicity to nuclear waste (which is related to the Huge Dangerous of the sport). That is simply the very tip of the setup to the huge story that embarks on new Hawaiian adventures, sentimentally displays on Kiryu’s previous, and builds a dramatic arc that includes a number of worldwide mob teams, a spiritual cult, stay streamers, a nationwide conglomerate, and world governments, simply to call just a few gamers on this cleaning soap opera.

The entire the Yakuza/Like a Dragon Video games and Spin-Offs in Launch Order

Mainline Yakuza video games are marked in daring with an asterisk.

What’s Subsequent for Yakuza/Like a Dragon?

The Like a Dragon story is way from over. Although Infinite Wealth, which rapidly grew to become the fastest-selling sport within the franchise, closed the loop by itself story, it nonetheless ended on what felt like an enormous cliffhanger that leaves the door huge open for the following installment. We’re positive to listen to about one other mainline Yakuza sport sooner or later, particularly after the discharge of the spin-off Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii, which had Majima traipsing round Honolulu.

On the 2024 Sport Awards in December, RGG revealed it was reviving Virtua Fighter, and the studio introduced a new open world sport beneath “Venture Century” on the February 2025 State of Play. Throughout this yr’s Summer season Video games Fest, RGG lastly revealed the title of that sport – Stranger Than Heaven – in a teaser introducing us to its protagonist (presumably Mako Daito) and the brutal fight in 1943 Japan. And, uh, Snoop Dogg may make an look.

Leanne Butkovic is an Editorial Venture Supervisor at IGN who needs they may befriend Seonhee.