A Like a Dragon memorial celebrating characters that died throughout the Yakuza series has fans donning their detective caps once again.
It’s been almost two decades since the first Yakuza game was released, and over the years, plenty of lovable and memorable characters have been bumped off. Series developer Ryu Ga Gotoku Studios recently held a Like a Dragon memorial event for all of those poor lost souls, celebrating the characters that have died, but there are some notable characters missing. If you haven’t guessed already, we’re heading into major spoiler territory for pretty much every Yakuza game.
An image of every character being celebrated at the event was shared by Twitter user Jack345, each one with their own picture frame and several flowers on a plate underneath them. The most notable absentee is Ryuji Goda, the main antagonist from Yakuza 2 that fans also recently noticed was missing from official merchandise being sold at the event.
So, here is the inside of the Yakuza memorial exhibition….you may proceed to ball your eyes out, because i know some of yall favorites are here. pic.twitter.com/RhEQNzgbT6
— Jack345 (Yakuza spoilers ahead) (@jack840A) December 29, 2023
While it was pretty clear to everyone that played Yakuza 2 or its remake that Goda died in the arms of his sister Samaya, the series itself has been playing coy with whether he actually died or not. In fact, there’s a sub-story in the recently released Like a Dragon Gaiden that has you searching for him after several people report sightings. The fact he’s missing from this event is only pouring fuel on that particular fire.
Fans have also noticed that Tachibana from Yakuza 0 and Arakawa from Yakuza: Like a Dragon are missing, though there’s good reason for that. Ryu Ga Gotoku recently stated that some characters would be missing due to “circumstances”, which in itself is very vague, but fans believe this is the developer explaining that the characters that share the same likeness as their real-life actors and voice actors couldn’t be featured.
Tetsu Ichibana shares a face with Japanese actor Arata Irua, and Mesumi Arakawa shares the same face as his voice actor Kiichi Nakai.
Another interesting absentee is Morinaga from Yakuza 5, who many believe to be Kihei Hanawa, Kiryu’s handler in Like a Dragon: Gaiden. It’s made clear at the end of the game that Hanawa knew Kiryu in the past and that he shed his former identity after faking his death. Morinaga is one of the few people that know of Kiryu’s alter ego “Taichi Suzuki”, has an original face, died mysteriously off-screen, and is absent from this event.
We also now have some confirmed deaths too, as fans were still slightly holding out hope that Ryo Aoki was still alive after being rushed off to the hospital at the end of Yakuza: Like a Dragon. His picture appearing there is a pretty clear indicator that he’s pushing up daisies now though, as is Mine from Yakuza 3, who also died off-screen, though that’s because he fell off a skyscraper. That’ll do it.
by JOSHUA ROBERTSON 30 Dec 2023
