What really makes someone a hero? That's the question at the heart of Yakuza: Like a Dragon, a game in which you'll fight men slathered in lube, ride go-karts through the city streets, and ultimately battle to protect the legal 'gray zone' that serves as a home for society's cast-offs.
The latest in the long-running Yakuza series, Like a Dragon trades in the usual beat 'em up battle system for the turn-based battles of Dragon Quest, and while the transition isn't entirely smooth, the result is one of the most charming and heartwarming games I've played in years.
Following his release from prison after serving 18 years in place of one of his small yakuza clan's lieutenants, new protagonist Ichiban Kasuga finds himself in 2019 Yokohama as a man out of time. His attempts to reconnect with his former yakuza family result in him being shot and left for dead in a pile of garbage next to a homeless camp in the city of Isezaki Ijincho, with nothing but a blood-stained counterfeit bill and a disastrous Dragon Quest-style hairdo to his name.
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