Yakuza: Like a Dragon Will Have a Number of Returning Faces

The next Yakuza game might be starring a new protagonist, but it looks like we'll still get to check in on Kamurocho's stars. A number of characters from the previous Yakuza games will be making cameo appearances in Yakuza: Like a Dragon, the new game in the off-the-wall Japanese crime-life simulator.

A recent story trailer has already revealed the return of one very famous face from the Kamurocho era of Yakuza. If you want to stay relatively spoiler-free, just know that you'll be seeing some faces reappear and bounce out.

In the latest Sega Nama broadcast (via Gematsu), series general director Toshihiro Nagoshi confirmed that several famous characters would be making a reappearance, including Goro Majima, Taiga Saejima, and Daigo Dojima.

"The timeline goes on, so no matter what we have to tell stories such as, 'What happened after the Tojo Clan?' or 'What happened to Kamurocho?' Those parts become connected stories, and even though Kiryu will obviously have a smaller role since there is a new protagonist, we thought it was important to show how he's doing for fans," Nagoshi says. "Pretending the story up until now didn't happen just because there is a new protagonist wouldn't be right, so that's not the case."

Longtime series protagonist Kazuma Kiryu has already been shown in a trailer, seemingly gearing up for a fight with the new protagonist of Yakuza, Kasuga Ichiban. (Fun fact: both have a dragon tattoo on their backs.)

Yakuza: Like a Dragon arrives next January in Japan, though no Western release has been confirmed yet. A demo is currently live on the Japanese PlayStation Store, so if you're relatively fluent and have a Japanese PSN account, you can check out what changes are in store for the series. Like a Dragon is ditching the wild brawling of Kiryu's era for RPG-style combat. It looks strange, but if any team has garnered enough good will to try something new, it's Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio.