Amazon Prime’s new “Like a Dragon: Yakuza” series is so chock-full of scene-chewing mob bosses, try-hard henchmen and haggard cops (of both the corrupt and upstanding varieties) that it’s almost a marvel the showrunners missed out on the most important character of the long-running game franchise: the red-light district of Kamurocho.
Barring a few exceptions, this thinly veiled stand-in for Tokyo’s Kabukicho entertainment district has served as the main backdrop for the Ryu Ga Gotoku game series (as it’s known in Japan) since its first title in 2005. In the Kamurocho of the games, there’s always a tableau of side characters hanging out on the neon-drenched streets — some seedy, like a rookie dominatrix in need of a confidence boost; some less so, like a budding hard rock band comprised of soft-spoken members feigning malevolent tendencies. This web of urban oddities is always there for players to nibble on between main missions of murder, billion-yen heists and other yakuza-related melodrama.
In most games, this makes for a refreshing gameplay loop: Carry out a mob hit or shakedown a shop owner to move the plot forward. Then step outside and bump into another eccentric Kamurocho denizen for a palate cleanser that serves to paint a fuller picture of the vices and iniquities of a society that allows a criminal network of thugs and thieves to thrive.
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