Highlights

  • Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth hints at the potential for spin-off games in the series, giving characters like Masumi Arakawa a chance to have their backstories further explored as protagonists.
  • Masumi Arakawa's backstory is intriguing and deserves its own game. A prequel set when Arakawa was younger would allow players to experience his rise to notoriety, including his involvement with the Hikawa Family and his pursuit of his true love, Akane.
  • A game featuring Arakawa as the protagonist would also offer the opportunity to explore a new location, such as the Philippines. This would add fresh elements to the series and introduce local crime organizations as antagonists, similar to previous games in the franchise.

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth shows that the series has a lot of great characters who deserve a chance to have their backstories fleshed out a bit more. Following Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Show Erased His Name's example, there is the potential for other smaller titles in the series to take on the Like a Dragon Gaiden name and showcase these characters as the protagonists of their respective games. After Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, it's clear that Masumi Arakawa is the perfect candidate for his own Like a Dragon Gaiden entry.

Masumi Arakawa is a legendary figure of the Tojo Clan's old guard in the Like a Dragon series and is a prominent character in both Yakuza: Like a Dragon and Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth. While he is mainly known in these titles for being Ichiban Kasuga's biological father and one of the architects behind the Great Dissolution of the Tojo Clan and Omi Alliance, his backstory includes tales of ruthlessness and romance as he fights to protect the woman he loves, Akane. Since most of the information about Arakawa comes from second-hand sources in the series, he deserves the chance to be the protagonist of a future Like a Dragon Gaiden game.

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Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth features many fan-favorite aspects of the series, but one hidden reference might foreshadow an early-game plot point.

Masumi Arakawa Deserves His Own Game

With Arakawa being an old man by the time Yakuza: Like a Dragon takes place, it would make sense for a Like a Dragon Gaiden game starring the character to be a prequel set when he was a younger man. When he first joined the Tojo Clan, Arakawa was involved with the Hikawa Family and was favored by its patriarch until he refused to marry the patriarch's daughter to pursue his true love, Akane. After massacring the Hikawa Family following their patriarch's hit on Akane, Arakawa himself became a hitman for the Tojo Clan, earning the nickname "Arawaka the Assassin" and rapidly rising through the Tojo Clan's ranks thanks to this notoriety.

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth details the perfect plot for this potential Arakawa-led Like a Dragon Gaiden game, as it tells of the events that led up to Arakawa's rise to notoriety. Players could get to take on the role of Arakawa as he hunts down the Hikawa Family and interrogates them for information on Akane's whereabouts before finally confronting the family's patriarch in a brutal showdown. Gameplay could also be more action-oriented, with Arakawa being a calculated assassin compared to the street fighting styles of Kasuga and Kiryu, allowing the game to develop its own identity.

A Like a Dragon Gaiden Game Featuring Arakawa Would Allow the Series to Explore a New Location

Another big reason why a Like a Dragon Gaiden game featuring Masumi Arakawa as its protagonist makes a lot of sense is the potential for it to introduce a new location for players to explore. In Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, former Arakawa Family Captain Jo Sawashiro tells Kasuga that Akane survived the hit put on her by the Hikawa Family by stowing away on a ship bound for the Philippines before eventually returning to her birthplace in Hawaii. As a part of his search for Akane, Arakawa spent time in the Philippines looking for her, meaning the primary setting of this Like a Dragon Gaiden game could be in the Philippines.

The Like a Dragon series has a history of setting its games on tropical islands, with Yakuza 3 set on the island of Okinawa and Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth taking players to Hawaii. As such, there is a lot Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio could do with a game set in the Philippines based on elements included in those previous titles. This game could even feature some of the local crime organizations native to the Philippines as antagonists alongside the Hikawa Family, like both Yakuza 3 and Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth do with their respective settings.