Awesome / Like a Dragon

Like a Dragon is known for two things:

1) Being incredibly fucking Japanese

2) Being incredibly fucking awesome

Games with their own pages:

• Yakuza / Yakuza Kiwami
• Yakuza 2 / Yakuza Kiwami 2
• Yakuza 3
• Yakuza 4
• Yakuza 5
• Yakuza 0
• Yakuza 6
• Judgment
  • Lost Judgment
• Yakuza: Like a Dragon
• Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name
• Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth

All Games

• Holy. Freaking. Unbelievably. AWESOME. The HEAT moves in the Yakuza series are brutal, incredibly well shot, deal LOADS of damage, and just look freaking cool. Special note goes to Kiryu's, who seems to have a natural affinity for beating people within an inch of their life.
  • Akiyama's involve kicks that crush opponents' faces in a mangled, bloody display of awesome kickpower.
  • Some of Kiryu's in the fifth game are hilarious, such as gluing two unfortunate saps together.
• Kiryu does these with alarming frequency, as does most of the cast. A few good examples include, surviving numerous gun battles with limited or no access to firearms, defeating well over a dozen elite enforcers, assassins and government agents, and finally, killing two tigers with a punch to the skull and a hammer blow to the groin respectively.
  • He can also take on lions in the arena, for Christ's sake.
• This HEAT action from Kenzan!... while it can be used in any fight after learning it from a Revelation, the timing, setting and music are just perfect; the only downer is that it wasn't the killing blow.
  • If the HEAT action above was perfect, than this HEAT action from the same game is transcendent!
• The Battle Aura most characters have. It's quite awe-inspiring to see seemingly mundane gangsters radiating with intense heat energy during a fight. Especially with bosses during their last phases, and they become even stronger.
  • Baba and Kanai especially get a mention with their golden heat aura. Their strikes literally seem like they're made of fire.
• Karaoke becomes this when you realize that the songs are sung by their actual voice actors. You'll find more arguments about who is the better singer as opposed to who is the strongest character!
• The iconic Dynamic Intros to Boss Fights are a much beloved hallmark of the series with good reason. Any time a flashy, stylistic, cinematic animation introduces a boss fight as their Boss Title pops up is guaranteed to get your blood pumped for another intense brawl, especially when its the Final Boss.
• If you see the current player character and his opponent take off their shirts, which also makes for a good opportunity to show off their big yakuza tattoos, you know it's the last boss fight of the game, or at least a pretty damn awesome boss fight that's about to ensue.

Dead Souls

• When Kiryu finally comes to Kamuroucho to do something about this Zombie Apocalypse nonsense, what's his first plan of action for dealing with the undead? The same solution as everything else: beat the living shit out of them with his bare hands! Granted, it doesn't work, but it takes some serious balls to go up against zombies with nothing but your fists.
• Dead Souls features some awesome HEAT attacks of its own, centered around using Improbable Aiming Skills for maximum damage. This ranges from simple things like shooting mutants in the head moments before they attack, to shooting exploding barrels, to shooting gas lines and fuse boxes and letting flames and electricity do the work for you, all the way up to shooting gas tanker trucks for big explosions and cranes to drop steel beams on the deadheads below.

Yakuza Online

• A special trailer reveals that some familiar faces will be joining Ichiban to restore passion and justice to Kamurocho, who receive some dynamic introductions and Big Damn Heroes moments. Akiyama flies out of nowhere and kicks an armed thug in the face, and a Mr. Shakedown-sized yakuza gets taken out with a baseball to the teeth courtesy of Majima with Saejima at his side. And perhaps the big shocker is Haruka, who is actually fighting some thugs in her idol uniform and shows that she's just as capable as kicking as much ass as any of the others (and boy, do they look shocked). Not to be upstaged, a man in the shadows appears and announces that he won't let anything big happen in Kamurocho without his involvement. A sleeping dragon awakens once again to everyone's surprise, particularly Haruka, who thought he was dead.
  • The Passing the Torch moment from Kiryu to Ichiban, having none other than Nishiki's seiyuu voicing him is also a crowning moment of Awesome. It is as if Nishiki has finally become a dragon at long last.