How to Play the Yakuza Games in Chronological Order

Estimated reading time: 14 minutes

Originally released as a PlayStation 2 game in 2005, Yakuza (Ryu ga Gotoku in Japan) spawned a lengthy, sprawling, and now-beloved video game series that primarily follows Kazuma Kiryu, a member of one of the most important yakuza families (the Dojima family, under the Tojo Clan), in the game’s fictional city of Kamurocho, Tokyo, as he and his vast network of friends and allies navigate the conflicts and schemes that roil throughout society’s underbelly.

The games are notably tense, action packed, melodramatic, cinematic, and intentionally super goofy all at once. It took years for the Yakuza franchise to start receiving the renown it’s finally achieved outside of Japan, and its reputation only grows over time thanks to multiple localized re-releases and spinoffs, new games – including the next entry that RGG Studio will announce at Toyko Game Show in late September – and, now, an Amazon Prime TV series adaptation titled Like a Dragon: Yakuza coming to the streaming service in late October. (Notably, the series was renamed to Like a Dragon, the English translation of Ryu ga Gotoku, in 2022.)

In this article, you’ll find the proper series chronology if you’re interested in dropping in from the very beginning of the story.

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How to play in chronological order How to play by release date

How Many Yakuza Games Are There?

Sega and Ryu Ga Gotoku studio have released nine main Yakuza/Like a Dragon games and two remakes – Yakuza Kiwami (2016) and Yakuza Kiwami 2 (2017), with a third promised down the road – since the series’ debut in 2005. They were originally PlayStation exclusives, but they were later ported to Xbox and PC, with every new game since Yakuza: Like a Dragon releasing simultaneously for every system with the exception of Nintendo Switch.

In addition to the mainline games, Like a Dragon has multiple and widely different spinoffs. Kurohyō: Ryu ga Gotoku Shinsho (2010) and its sequel Kurohyō 2: Ryu ga Gotoku Ashura Hen (2012) are two games exclusive to the PlayStation Portable featuring Tatsuya Ukyo, a completely new character. The Judgement (2018 and 2021) series, wherein lawyer-turned-detective Takayuki Yagami investigates mysterious murders in Kamurocho, includes characters peripherally in the same world as Kiryu and the others.

Then there’s the zombie-infested spinoff Yakuza: Dead Souls (2011), which features the classic cast of characters in a dystopic setting. Yakuza Online (2018) is a free-to-play TCG available on mobile and PC which soft-launched Ichiban Kasuga, the protagonist of Yakuza: Like a Dragon. The popular Japanese series Fist of the North Star received the Yakuza treatment when the studio developed the video game Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise (2018), which shares Kiryu’s games’ structure and gameplay elements.

Two spin-off games are set in older Japanese eras and feature historic figures as their main protagonists: Ryu ga Gotoku Kenzan! (2008) and Ryu ga Gotoku Ishin! (2014). The latter has been released in the west as Like a Dragon: Ishin! in 2023.

Lastly (for now, at least), RGG released Like a Dragon: The Man Who Erased His Name (2023), which takes place at the same time as Yakuza: Like a Dragon and explains what happened to Kiryu following the dramatic ending of Yakuza 6: The Song of Life.

Yakuza Games in Chronological Order

Beware: Spoilers for the plots, characters, and some major relevant events of each game follow.

1. Yakuza 0 (2014)

The sixth game released is actually the first chronological Yakuza game. In Yakuza 0, we play as a two protagonists during the economic boom in the late 1980s: The first, a young Kazuma Kiryu who is being framed for a murder set up by one of his lieutenants in the Dojima family. The reason behind this has to do with an ‘Empty Lot,’ a key piece of land that will be a crucial asset for the person and group who owns it and where the apparent murder took place.

As Kiryu becomes a target by his own yakuza family, former Shimano family member Goro Majima is working in a cabaret as a punishment for being part of an assassination some years ago. He’s tasked by his ex-patriarch, Futoshi Shimano, to kill a blind woman named Makoto for unknown reasons. (It’s later revealed that she’s the legitimate owner of the Empty Lot.)

By the end of the game, Kiryu gets back to the Dojima family after defeating all the lieutenants, Majima leaves Makoto to live her life, and the Empty Lot is destroyed; the Millennium Tower, a key location in the series, is erected on the land.

Available on: PS4, Xbox One, PC | IGN’s Yakuza 0 Review

2. Yakuza (2005)

The first Yakuza game stars Kazuma Kiryu as its only protagonist after he goes to prison for taking the blame for a murder he didn’t commit in 1995. The victim was Sohei Dojima, Kiryu’s boss, who was murdered by Akira Nishikiyama, Kiryu’s best friend. The reason behind this crime was that Sohei tried to rape Yumi Sawamura, a friend of both Kiryu and Nishikiyama.

When Kiryu is released from jail after a 10-year sentence, he’s expelled from the Tojo Clan, someone has stolen ¥10 billion from the clan’s account, and Yumi is nowhere to be found. In the middle of this, Kiryu meets Haruka, the daughter of a woman named Mizuki. Haruka has a pendant that seems to be a key element related to the lost money. Also, Nishikiyama shoots Kiryu’s former captain and adoptive father, becoming an antagonistic force.

During the climax, Kiryu finds Yumi and the lost money, and fights Nishikiyama. Kiryu is asked to be the Fourth Chairman of the Tojo Clan, which he accepts. However, moments later he names Yukio Terada, a former Omi Alliance yakuza, as the new chairman, and he decides to stop being a yakuza to raise Haruka as his adopted daughter.

Available on: PS4, Xbox One, PC (Yakuza Kiwami), PS2 | IGN’s Yakuza Review | Yakuza Kiwami Review

3. Yakuza 2 (2006)

Yakuza 2 starts with Terada, the Fifth Chairman of the Tojo Clan, asking Kiryu to help him prevent a war between his clan and the Omi Alliance, their eternal rivals. After being shot in an ambush, Terada seems to be dead and Kiryu looks for Daigo Dojima, son of Sohei Dojima, to make him the new chairman of the clan.

While helping Daigo, Kiryu meets Ryuji Goda, the son of the Omi chairman, and they become enemies because Ryuji refuses a truce with the Tojo Clan. Another character, detective Kaoru Sayama, comes into play and tries to help Kiryu while learning about her parents, who disappeared when she was young.

Available on: PS4, Xbox One, PC (Yakuza Kiwami 2), PS3 | IGN’s Yakuza 2 Review | Yakuza Kiwami 2 Review

4. Yakuza 3 (2009)

The first game in the series released on PlayStation 3, Yakuza 3 presents an unusual beginning with Kiryu far away from the yakuza lifestyle. Instead, in 2007, he’s taking care of the Morning Glory Orphanage in Okinawa. He’s assisted by Haruka, and he looks after many new kids living there.

Unfortunately, peace doesn’t last for long. Our protagonist has to face multiple troubles with different characters, involving new yakuza families, multiple assassinations, shootings, betrayals, an arms smuggling group, and even the CIA.

Available on: PS4, Xbox One, PC (The Yakuza Remastered Collection), PS3 | IGN’s Yakuza 3 Review

5. Yakuza 4 (2010)

One year after the events of the previous game, Yakuza 4 raises the stakes in a tale of families, betrayals, and crime from the eyes of four protagonists.

Apart from Kiryu, three other new faces join the streets of Kamurocho. The first one, Shun Akiyama is a loan shark who works in his own firm, Sky Finance, and finds himself in the middle of a conflict between the Tojo Clan and the Ueno Seiwa Clan. He’s also asked for a ¥100 million loan from a mysterious woman named Lily.

Taiga Saejima, Goro Majima’s blood brother, went to prison after performing a hit against the Ueno Seiwa Clan in 1985. Twenty years later, after successfully escaping, he looks for Majima, who abandoned him when they had to perform the hit.

Detective Masayoshi Tanimura, another new protagonist, is investigating one of the recent murders in the Tojo Clan. While doing so, he meets Lily, who is actually Saejima’s sister, and she’s being attacked by the Shibata family. Tanimura later finds out that the patriarch of that family was related to the hit Saejima participated all those years ago.

Ultimately, Kiryu meets his new partners and finds out what happened to all the characters involved in the ongoing conflicts.

Available on: PS4, Xbox One, PC (The Yakuza Remastered Collection), PS3 | IGN’s Yakuza 4 Review

6. Yakuza 5 (2012)

If Yakuza 4’s story got complicated with multiple protagonists’ points of view, Yakuza 5 went even further in the same direction. This time, you play as five protagonists in different scenarios in 2012, making this one of the biggest and most ambitious games in the series.

First you follow Kiryu, who left Kamurocho and moved to Fukuoka without Haruka, leaving his orphanage behind. As usual, he won’t enjoy the calm for long before he learns that Daigo is missing, and the peace between the Tojo Clan and the Omi Alliance is about to break.

Saejima is in prison once again, but he’s looking to escape with his cellmate Shigeki Baba when he hears that his blood brother Majima is dead. (After they escape, they learn Majima had actually faked his death.) In the meantime, Haruka is already a teenager and she’s following her dream of becoming a J-pop idol. Things get complicated when the president of her talent agency, Mirei Park, is found dead in what seems like a staged suicide. Returning protagonist Akiyama appears to help Haruka learn who was really behind Park’s death.

The last piece of the puzzle is the brand new character Tatsuo Shinada, a former professional baseball player who was banned after being framed for fixing an important match. A mysterious man, who’s actually Daigo, will meet Shinada and ask him to find out what really happened all those years ago.

Available on: PS4, Xbox One, PC (The Yakuza Remastered Collection), PS3 | IGN’s Yakuza 5 Review

7. Yakuza 6: The Song of Life (2016)

Yakuza 6: The Song of Life is presented as the final beat in Kazuma Kiryu’s life in the Yakuza series. Our protagonist spends three years in prison, but this time it’s for his own past crimes. At the end of the previous game, Haruka revealed in a concert broadcast that Kiryu was her father and that he was an ex-yakuza member.

After getting out of prison in 2016, Kiryu returns to Kamurocho, but only for a little while. He learns that Haruka is in a coma due to an apparent car accident, and she has a child named Haruto. Haruka was in Onomichi, Hiroshima for a long time before the accident, so Kiryu goes there to investigate what happened and who Haruto’s father is.

While finding clues, important characters like Daigo, Saejima, and Majima are imprisoned, and rival groups, the Chinese Saio Triad and the Korean Jingweon Mafia, are looking to make their moves in Kamurocho.

Available on: PS4, Xbox One, PC | IGN’s Yakuza 6: The Song of Life Review

8. Yakuza: Like a Dragon (2020)

A major turning point for the series, Yakuza: Like a Dragon begins the transition away from the Yakuza name. It also introduces a new turn-based combat system and a brand-new main character: Ichiban Kasuga, another Tojo Clan member who, like Kiryu, starts his journey by agreeing to take the hit on a criminal charge for his family and go to prison for a murder he did not commit, getting stripped of his yakuza association in the process. On his release 18 years later, Kasuga quickly learns that major changes have happened in the underworld while he was away, chiefly that the Omi Alliance defeated the Tojo Clan.

Kasuga goes to confront Masumi Arakawa, his former patriarch and father-like figure who seemingly sold out the Tojo Clan, about what has happened and is greeted by his former compatriats with hostility. Arakawa shoots Kasuga and dumps his body near a homeless encampment in Yohokama’s Isezaki Ijincho. (New city unlocked!)

Ichiban wakes up and finds himself in the care of Yu Nanba, a now-homeless former nurse who has treated his gunshot wound. This is the starting point for our new protagonist, who will meet multiple new faces for the Yakuza series to round out his turn-based party, including members from area criminal groups the Yokohama Liumang, the Geomijul Mafia, and the Seiryu Clan. Together, they dig around Yokohama, Sotenbori in Osaka, and Kamurocho to uncover the bigger picture behind Arakawa’s play.

Available on: PS5, PS4, Xbox Series S|X, Xbox One, PC | IGN’s Yakuza: Like a Dragon Review

9. Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth (2024)

The biggest Like a Dragon game to-date teams up the old and new guard – Kiryu and Kasuga – in a true two-protagonist saga that takes the crew from Japan to Hawaii and back. Jumping ahead to 2024 after the events of Yakuza: Like a Dragon (if you were curious, the pandemic also exists in the Like a Dragon universe), Kasuga and friends are trying to live above-board lives in Ijincho until a popular VTuber posts a viral video that upends their normalcy. Soon after, Kasuga learns that his mother, who he thought was dead, is alive and has secretly been living in Honolulu, and hops on a plane to find her.

After immediately getting into some trouble after landing (classic), Kasuga runs into Kiryu, who is also in Hawaii to find Kasuga’s mother on behalf of the Daidoji faction that agreed to give him sanctuary and keep him in hiding (play Like a Dragon: The Man Who Erased His Name for the full backstory there). Kiryu also reveals that he’s been diagnosed with cancer from exposure to nuclear waste (which is connected to the Big Bad of the game). That’s just the very tip of the setup to the massive story that embarks on new adventures, reflects on Kiryu’s past, and builds a dramatic arc that involves multiple international mob groups, a religious cult, live streamers, and a national conglomerate, just to name a few players in this soap opera.

Available on: PS5, PS4, Xbox Series S/X, Xbox One, PC | IGN’s Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth Review

How to Play the Yakuza Games by Release Date

Yakuza (2005)Yakuza 2 (2006)Yakuza 3 (2009)Yakuza 4 (2010)Yakuza 5 (2012)Yakuza 0 (2015)Yakuza 6: The Song of Life (2016)Yakuza: Like a Dragon (2020)Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth (2024)

What’s Next for Yakuza?

The Like a Dragon story is far from over. Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, released this January, quickly became the fastest-selling game in the franchise and is one of our favorite games of the year so far. The game series’ director, Masayoshi Yokoyama, has already confirmed another game is in development. All we know at this point is that the next game will not be Yakuza Kiwami 3, but we’ll get a full reveal during Toyko Games Show between September 26-29.

A live-action adaption series loosely based on the original Yakuza game is also set to come out on Amazon Prime later this year in two batches on October 25 and November 1. It’s directed by Masaharu Take (The Naked Director) and stars Ryoma Takeuchi (Kamen Rider Drive) as Kiryu. “The game developers at Sega told me the show is faithful to the games and that my performance was faithful to Kiryu, so that’s enough for me!” Takeuchi told IGN in July.

Looking for more video game timelines? Check out these guides:

Grand Theft Auto Games in Order God of War Games in Order Assassin’s Creed Games in Order Resident Evil Games in Order

Leanne Butkovic is an Editorial Project Manager at IGN who would like to one day befriend Seonhee.