Charting a historical past of dramatic shirt-off moments

There are few moments as blood-pumpingly dramatic in a Yakuza/Like a Dragon sport as when somebody rips their shirt off and unveils their tattoos. It’s the peak of a battle, typically reserved for particular showdowns or the peak of the story’s arc.

Sega—for a purpose I can’t actually discern at this second—not too long ago posted a compilation celebrating simply that: the epic again tattoo reveal moments of Ryu Ga Gotoku’s Like a Dragon sequence. From the unique Yakuza video games up via Like a Dragon, there are lots of. And so they’re all spectacular.

After all, we see most of the regular suspects right here: Kazuma Kiryu, Goro Majima, Taiga Saejima, and newcomer Ichiban Kasuga. Loads of villains too, together with Akira Nishikiyama and one in all my favorites, Daisaku Kuze. All of them baring their extremely detailed and lovely again tattoos.

Artwork in movement

A part of my motivation for writing about this was simply the strangeness of Sega posting this on a seemingly random Friday, as if somebody was bored and chopping collectively footage that somebody, someplace, gave it a inexperienced gentle. Possibly it’s sowing some groundswell. Like a Dragon: Ishin! simply got here out, however there are nonetheless a number of fashionable Like a Dragon video games within the works, too. That’s simply my red-strings-on-corkboard principle, although it may simply as simply be a enjoyable video to fireplace off on a Friday.

However much more than that, I simply love highlighting what I feel is a wonderful character improvement software for Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio. The tattoos these characters bear typically replicate who they’re as an individual: their values, their drives, and their ambitions. Nishikiyama’s koi tattoo is a ravishing foil to Kiryu’s dragon. And when Kiryu reveals his tattoo in Yakuza 0, it’s stenciled and uncolored; he’s nonetheless changing into the Dragon we see him as in later video games. Kotaku ran a function across the launch of Yakuza 0, delving into this and extra across the imagery used for these tattoos.

So sure, it’s not simply a blood-pumping second of hype, however these artwork items additionally add incredible touches of character work to the memorable forged Yakuza and Like a Dragon has had through the years. So sure, we’ll take a while to have fun that right now.