Like a Dragon 8 has finally been officially announced by Sega with a release window. The Yakuza series' last outing was with 2020's Yakuza: Like a Dragon, the game that acted as a soft reboot for the franchise, introduced new protagonist Ichiban Kasuga, alongside a new setting, and a new JRPG influenced combat system. Now, after two years since its release, Sega has revealed the next mainline entry in the series alongside two new spin-offs, and a renaming of the series with Like a Dragon 8.
The Yakuza series first debuted on PlayStation 2 in 2005 and despite receiving major success in Japan, the franchise failed to find its audience in the west despite localizations for all mainline entries and the post-apocalyptic spin-off, Yakuza: Dead Souls. Two Japanese history inspired titles known as Yakuza: Kenzan and Yakuza: Ishin did not receive localizations due to fears that western audiences would fail to engage with them. In 2017, the release of Yakuza 0, a prequel set 20 years before the first game, released to surprise success for the west, and this carried through to 2020's Yakuza: Like a Dragon, which quickly became the franchise's biggest success yet.
Given Like a Dragon's popularity, it's not much of a surprise that developer Ryu Ga Gotoku Studios announced three new entries in the series today, one of which is a fully localized remake of Yakuza Ishin, one of the perviously Japan-only games. The biggest of these three announcements was the reveal of Yakuza 8, now known as Like a Dragon 8, alongside news that the game will star the last game's protagonist Ichiban Kasuga and returning series protagonist Kazuma Kiryu. Kiryu is even sporting a somewhat uncanny new hairstyle, likely indicating he has taken on a new identity following the events of Yakuza 6: The Song of Life.
It was confirmed during today's RGG Digest stream that both Kasuga and Kiryu will be the protagonists of the game, similar to Kiryu and Goro Majima in Yakuza 0. The game will also see the return of the turn-based RPG combat from Yakuza: Like a Dragon, with the developers even implying that Kiryu will form his own party similar to Ichiban's in the last game. Furthermore, it was revealed that the game will release as a cross-gen release in 2024.
Fans wanting to learn how Kiryu has returned won't be left in the dark for long however, as the final announcement from today's stream was Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name. This canonical spin-off will take place between the events of Yakuza 6 and Yakuza: Like a Dragon, and lead into the events of Like a Dragon 8. This will be a shorter entry in the series similar to Ubisoft's upcoming Assassin's Creed: Mirage, and will release in 2023.
Like a Dragon 8 will release on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S in 2024.