Author: Garland SK
"When I was a primary school student, it was the most popular and beautiful period of Hong Kong cinema."
"At that time, there was Zhou Runfa's "God of Gamblers", there was Zhou Xingchi's nonsensical funny film, and there was also the gu confused boy series that our generation worshipped five bodies, and when I saw Chen Haonan, Pheasant, Da Tian Er, Da Fei, Hong Xing Thirteen Sisters in the film, the word underworld was no longer just synonymous with illegal crimes and no evil to me, in our hearts they were more benevolent, righteous, and had a feeling of representing controversy, of course, all of this existed in the movie..."
Hearing this, maybe some viewers guessed the game we're going to talk about today. However, if you give a negative answer, perhaps I can give more hints: its protagonist is probably the man with the most pot in the history of the game; the underworld is a cruel man, but he is not clearly sitting upright; and there are many titles such as "Dragon of Dojima", "Legendary Underworld", "Legendary Dragon" and "Fourth Generation President of the East Side Society". Yes, the answer may be fully understood by this point. Please put his name on the public screen, this man's name is Kiryu Kazuma, and the game is called "Ru Long" (龍が如く). The person who said the above is the game producer of the series, Yue Minoru.
Dragon Is an action-adventure game series produced and distributed by Sega, first released on the PlayStation 2 platform in 2005. The advent of the game can be said to be contrary to the trend of the time, because the game market expanded at that time, and more people were willing to devote their energy to the production of games that could break through the restrictions of gender, age, region and national boundaries, which were easy to understand and had a high probability of popularization. And Nagoshi Minoru led the development team to sing the opposite tone - of course, the story of this allows me to talk about it later, today is talking about the game itself.
Although in terms of theme, it is like a Japanese "GTA", but after actually playing it, you will find that it is completely different from the Vice City that R Star has devoted all its manpower and material resources to creating. I have to make a comparison, the former is faster paced, the car chase explosion special effects are not bad money, while the latter is full of all kinds of nonsense performances, more suitable for staying in Kamurocho while living a life while saying: "Plain is the truth." ”
The only similarity is probably in the interpretation of gangster culture in different backgrounds.
<h1>Nyo-Kaku (Ryu ga Gakku 1) 2005.12</h1>
At the end of 2005, following in the footsteps of Kazuma Kiryu, we came to Tokyo, Japan, and this game with Kamurocho as the stage kicked off.
Kazuma Kiryu's story begins with a prison sentence – although not his own doing, he voluntarily carries the charge of killing his boss in order to protect his friend Akira Nishikiyama and his beloved woman Yumi. After ten years of peaceful prison life, he returns to the familiar town of Komuro, but meets Haruka, a young girl who is looking for her mother. His former friends have also changed, and they have not been able to usher in the fate of Noji Tailai, and they are also involved in a series of complex events, and the former lover Yumi is now missing.
Therefore, in order to find the truth under the intricate clues, and in order to protect the young girl who has mastered a key information of ten billion yuan that is unknown, the "Dragon of Dojima" rose up and fought.
Kabukicho, located in Shinjuku, Tokyo, is Japan's most famous red light district and is a great place for urban youth to pastime. This small street with a length of not more than 600 meters in length and width contains more than 4,000 nightclubs, bars, small theaters, game halls and other entertainment facilities, which is a real entertainment street. In "Like a Dragon", it is based on this, and the characteristics of Kabukicho are originally carried to the game.
As a result, players can stroll down the streets to enjoy a slow-paced life, and a variety of weapons, food, and rich mini-games make people feel the realism and bring it into it. There are many similarities with games such as Shenmue and Hot Criminal released by Sega in the past, and the shortcomings are optimized on the basis of the previous ones. Battles use a real-time system, which will increase the "hot blood value" when attacking the enemy, and to a certain extent, you can use terrain or weapons to use the "Extreme Dao Technique". Depending on the conditions, a variety of pole skills can be used.
But the problem is that although the story with very oriental characteristics has made many Western media a little confused, not only that, IGN's review also raised other problems - such as the lack of changes in combat limited to one punch and one kick, and the lack of thrill brought by conventional action game combos. And it turns out that they did play a good card and performed quite well in the local market. It sold 230,000 copies in 2005 and 340,000 copies the following year, and won the Excellence Award at the Japan Game Awards. After the remake version of the PS3 was released, the total sales also exceeded the million mark.
<h1>Jojo 2 (Ryu ga Gakku 2) 2006.12</h1>
With the previous game to lay a great river and mountain, The famous Yue Minoru hit the iron while it was hot a year later, so that the sequel met with the players.
The golden basin is difficult to wash hands, and it is easy to overturn the car after repeated jumps. In the following generation, "Like a Dragon 2" still tells the story of Kiryu Kazuma. After dealing with the "ten billion incident that disappeared" of the East Side Kai, Kiryu was reluctant to continue to struggle in the underworld disputes, and gave way to a year of stability with Haruka.
However, the head of the fifth generation, Yukio Terada, was killed, and while he was ill, Omi Lianhe, the largest gang in Kansai, took aim at the leaderless Higashijo Kai in an attempt to merge it and then march into the Kanto region. People in the rivers and lakes, involuntarily, love and hatred are difficult, and enmity is endless. Kiryu then inherited Terada's will and returned to Kamurocho in order to save the Higashijo-kai, and personally sent the letter entrusted by Teraida to Omi Ryuga in Kansai, trying to play the role of a peacemaker to prevent the two from fighting, hoping to resolve the conflict peacefully, but was still blocked by Ryūji Goda, the president of the Omi Lianhe Naosogo Dragon Society known as the "Dragon of Kansai".
In the process, Kiryu Kazuma also encounters Kaoru Sayyama, a female policewoman known as the "underworld hunter". The two people who were originally opposed came to a road to investigate their childhood backgrounds, and the conspiracy behind the incident also surfaced, and a love-hate relationship began.
This time, the stage not only has the previous game Tokyo Kabukicho, but also expands the stage to Osaka Dotonbori and the new world, and the game's combat system has also undergone an evolution, allowing it to pull from the front to the rear for a 360° all-round attack, and the types of weapons and extreme skills have also increased significantly. In addition to the baseball of the previous game, the mini-game also added golf, bowling and other sports, and can also enjoy the fun of playing shogi, mahjong and Bai Qingjie, which is further combined with the game content, and no longer has the visual sense of the mini-game 50-in-1 encyclopedia. In addition, the number of hotels in the previous game's highly acclaimed hotel has also increased to ten people, and they can still enjoy dating them after work.
The PS2 version alone sold more than 1 million copies, and in 2007 it was recognized by the Excellence Award from the Japan Game Awards.
<h1>Jojo 3 (Ryu ga Gakku 3) 2009.2</h1>
This time, "Like a Dragon 3" did not choose to take advantage of the popularity of the 2nd generation, but chose to spend a period of time precipitating. After the release of the early Edo-era "Rulong: See The Samson" in March 2008, the orthodox sequel "Rulong 3" debuted strongly in February 2009.
Without the help of Chi Xing Zhou, Yokoyama Masayoshi's script frees up the self and becomes mysterious. The script of this work is a typical example of being criticized in the "Like a Dragon" series. The quality is not good, the quantity is also small, and it is easy to make people want to be dissatisfied at once. Especially when comparing the works of the 1st and 2nd generations, it is like two dangerous peaks in front of the eyes, leaving a narrow sheep intestine trail in the middle. But no way, you have to go here.
The story takes place a few days after the end of the battle between Omi Andei and The Higashijo-kai. Kaoru Sayama, a policewoman who had previously had a love-hate entanglement with Kazuma Kiryu, was transferred overseas (kiryu's emotional rivalry was never selected in the later series), and after saying goodbye, he once again chose to live a plain and simple life, and ran an orphanage in Okinawa with Haruka.
But our shooting location is not in the small town in "Stardew Valley", and if you want to be a good and qualified protagonist, you are doomed not to fish in muddy waters; therefore, he is either on the road to being dealt with gangster disputes or has long been involved in it, and the place where he stays will definitely be related to the underworld. In this sense alone, the buff of Claire's brother Chris 100% of his teammates in Resident Evil is a passive skill that is permanently locked and unchangeable.
After Ichima and Haruka spent a smooth year at the Morning Glory Orphanage with eight other orphans he had adopted, the problem arose again. Due to the expansion of the US military base and the development of the leisure village, the Morning Glory Orphanage is also facing the risk of expropriation, and the owner of the land is the local underworld organization "Ryudō".
Just as the nerves were straining and about to start acting, Daigo Dojima, the sixth-generation president of the Dongcheng Society, came forward to pressure the plan to terminate. But a year later, in March 2009, the leader of the Ryukomichi family, Shigeru Nagawara, and Daigo Dojima were shot by the same mysterious man, and the matter was once again confusing. In addition, the struggle between the Higashijo Clan, who had temporarily lost its leader, and the cadres who wanted Kiryu's return was also expanding. So Kiryu reappeared in order to investigate the true face of the mysterious man and for the future of "Morning Glory".
Yes, the "Dragon of Legends" is back; and that's the slogan of their propaganda period. The main stages of the game are Jinmurocho in Tokyo and Ryukyu Street in Okinawa. The 3rd generation is also stable and steady, and there are no groundbreaking changes, but there is no seam combat: in the past, when the story was in progress (adventure mode) into the battle, it was necessary to read the screen and switch to the battle scene; when the player began to fight, he could enter the battle without reading, so that the player could enjoy the game more smoothly and quickly; Chase Battle: The chase battle of this game changed the old setting, and the player had to chase the enemy or escape the enemy's pursuit. The player's familiarity with the map will be the key to success, and the apocalypse: the ability to capture the phenomenon happening on the street with the camera function of Kiryu's mobile phone, and thus get inspired by it to obtain the new Upanishads (Extreme Path Skills) skills are eye-catching.
The lavish cast of actors and voice actors has always been a tradition in the "Like a Dragon" series. Three generations are not to be missed, with the help of singer-songwriter Shigeru Izumi, actors Shigeto Nakamura, Tetsuya Watanabe, Fujiwara Ryuya, and the funny group Daisuke Miyagawa and Hiroyuki Miyagi.
It is worth mentioning that "Hatano Yui" and "Momoki Kana", two teachers who are active in a special small movie, play the role of a public relations lady in the remake version of the game. Talking to each other in the store increases intimacy, and a deeper relationship triggers appointments and special assignments.
The overall performance of the script is not as good as the overall performance of the first and second generations, although the sales in the first week are even worse, but the response of the players is mediocre, and it also leaves a haze for the sequel.
<h1>Jojo 4: 传说</h1>继
For the first time, the game features a multi-protagonist system, with additional play areas, rooftop areas, underground areas, and sponsoring companies. In addition, this work is also the first time in the "Like a Dragon" series that there is an online ranking, and it is also a rare appearance of monster kappa in the series.
The story takes place a year after Dragon 3. The three-dimensional organization "Jincun Xingye", a subsidiary of the Dongcheng Association, has a fight between hooligans and shootings because of some disputes. However, the victims who were shot were cadres of the "Makoto Ueno Peace Association", a mafia organization that was brotherly with the Higashijo Society, and this incident forced the younger brothers of Kanemura Tokiyo to clean up the mess, but in the process, the leader of Kanemura Koyo was also killed by unknown people, and led to a small fight between the underworld organizations that continued in Kamurocho. But that was just the foreshadowing of all the plans, and the story unfolded.
The four story lines of this game are the emotional drama between Akiyama and Lily, the 18-year unjust prison investigation of Tsurushima, the revenge of Tanimura's father, and the story of our old friend Kazuma Kiryu. The girl named Lily brings together men who could not have met. These four men with strong convictions are guided and meet on this street, and the gears of fate begin to spin, asking, is Ru my master?
Oh sorry, the cross-cutting, let's continue.
Although there is not much change in the gameplay, for the first time, the multi-protagonist setting is quoted and each protagonist has different skills and moves. For example, the mysterious loan shark Akiyama Jun is more dexterous and more adept at leg kung fu; for example, the death row prisoner Tsushima Okawa is strong and strong, and can see the style of a punch superman in him; for example, the criminal police officer Furumura Masayoshi is judo kung fu. Coupled with the fact that each character's story and respective missions have made certain differences, this allows players to find a sense of freshness and playability is further enhanced.
In addition, the hotel ladies in this game are played by seven beautiful women selected through the draft, and the game is modeled by their actual appearance; and the player, as the protagonist, can not only cultivate themselves, but also be able to interact closely with the hotel ladies.
Dragon 4 won the 2010 Japan Game Awards and received a high rating of 38 points (40 out of 40) from Famiton. However, sales have been affected by three generations, and this game has been snubbed.
Joso 5: The Mussent <h1>(Ryu ga Gakku 5: Dreams, Fulfilled Persons) 2012.12</h1>
Since then, the "Like Dragon" series of works has continued to develop with a steady pace of about one game a year, and in 2010, the "Black Panther Like Dragon New Chapter" with the theme of underground fighting competition was launched on the PSP platform; in 2011, the more bizarre zombie theme shooter "Like The Dragon of the End" was launched on the PS3 platform; and the sequel to the PSP platform work was released in early 2012 - "Black Panther 2 Like Dragon Asura".
With a buffer period of more than two years, "Like a Dragon 5", which is known as the culmination of the series, is ready to go.
In order to achieve greater ambitions, a larger stage was first configured. There were five cities in Sapporo, Nagoya, Osaka, Fukuoka, and the traditional Tokyo Kamurocho series, making it the best of the series at the time. Secondly, the multi-protagonist setting seems to have given them a taste of sweetness, so it was used, with Kiryu Kazuma as the beginning as the first chapter, Tsushima Okawa as the second chapter, Sawamura Haruka as the third pre-opening (1st generation little girl), Akiyama Jun as the third post-opening, adding newcomer Shinakata Tatsuo as the fourth beginning, and finally the five-in-one final chapter route.
The number of play points on the street is the largest in all previous works. Combat and scene transitions are smoother, and related operations are improved. Due to the expansion of the scale. As a result, the development time was almost twice that of the previous series, so it also became a material library for some of the related works in the subsequent series. In 2017, a remake of "Like a Dragon Pole 2" was launched to improve the 5th generation as a basis, which attracted the next door Capcom to call the insider.
The theme this time is dreams. Although it is still happening within the framework of the pole road, the direction of the story is no longer the same cliché. There is less bitterness and hatred in the extreme world, and more human warmth in ordinary life.
In April 2010, a spat ensued from the mafia groups "Higashijo-kai" and "Makoto Ueno", and as the long-standing shortcomings of the police community were exposed, the Higashijo-kai was also reorganized under the orders of daigo Dojima, the sixth-generation president, and reconciled with its long-standing old enemy, the largest underworld organization in Kansai.
Over time, in December 2012, the seventh president of the Omi Lianhe became critically ill, which could trigger a butterfly effect that threatened the peaceful relations between the Higashijo Society and the Omi Lianhe, triggering a full-scale war between east and west. So Daigo Dojima, in order to avoid a major war, gave up his self-esteem as the head of the Tokyo Metropolitan Association, the largest organization in the Kanto region, and went to Fukuoka to negotiate. At this time, some people secretly plotted to involve the national underworld in a war. However, a group of "sleeping men" have also awakened. They decided to re-enter the vortex of the war for the sake of their respective paths, beliefs, and dreams in Fukuoka, Osaka, Sapporo, and Nagoya, exposing the conspiracy set in the five major cities of the country.
The gameplay of this game has been highly praised, and the change of story, closer to life may make old players less accustomed, but there are almost good and bad points, and the controversy is more focused on whether to like it or not.
On metacritic, a review site, the media score was 83 out of 100 and received a perfect rating from the Japanese game magazine Famiton.
<h1>Nyojo 0 Oath Place (Like a Dragon 0 Place of Vows) 2015.3</h1>
On August 24, Sega held a NICONICO bio-broadcast program entitled "Rulong Special Program ~ Sexy Actresses, Male Performers Presentation ~", and the name of the latest work was published on the program - "The Place where Dragon 0 Vows".
The screenwriters of this generation are mainly the screenwriters of Masayoshi Yokoyama and Tsuyoshi Furuta, With Masayoshi Yokoyama in charge of kiryu and Tsuyoshi Furuta in charge of The True Island chapter; it is a prequel to the first generation of the series, set in the protagonist Kazuma Kiryu at the age of 20 and Goro Majima 24, and the scenes of the game span Theochi town in Kanto and the Heavenly Hori in Kansai.
This generation of the system is roughly from the "Restoration" system to make the basis and then improve and optimize the Komurocho, the external nature of the work to try to innovate the idea of finally used in the orthodox work, and then check the defects and fill in the gaps and polish, but also added the real estate management of this analog element rich playability.
The time came 7 years before the first generation of Ichima was imprisoned. In December 1988, a young man appeared in the Dongcheng Kai, the largest underworld organization in the Kanto region, and although he was strong, he lived a chaotic and rotten life, but fortunately he was decent, poor and did not choose to steal battery cars, but relied on debt collection and part-time work to make a living. His name was Kazuma Kiryu. At the same time, in Osaka's Happy Street, Tenhori, there was a man who ran a hotel that was about to close down to become a popular shop in Cangtian. The true face of this man who received money and fame was a former member of the Higashijo Clan, and because of the intention of resisting the organization, he lived as an almost prisoner under the surveillance of Omi Lianhe, the largest underworld organization in Kansai, and decided to return to the original organization as a gangster in order to allow his brothers in prison to have a place to return. His name was Goro Majima.
Men without purpose and men with purpose but no exit are embroiled in strife in The Town of Kamuro where money is everything. An era is over, and two legends are about to begin.
As of June 2015, The Place of the Dragon 0 Oath has shipped more than 500,000 copies in Asia and Japan.
<h1>《Nyojo 6: The Death. (Like a dragon 6 poem of life.) ）2016.12</h1>
"Like a Dragon 6 Poems of Life" " is the final chapter of the legend of Kazuma Kiryu, and the full stop in the subtitle seems to mean that his story will be brought to an end. This game uses a new "Dragon Engine", so the graphics are undoubtedly the best in the series.
Similarly, a number of well-known actors were also invited to join, including Takeshi Kitano, Ryuya Fujiwara, Oguri Shun, Yoko Maki, etc., which can be described as a group of stars shining, and jointly composed the curtain praise for Kiryu Kazuma.
In order to make Haruka and the children of the Morning Glory orphanage happy, Kiryu knows that he must pay the price. He refused dawu's legal assistance and accepted his sentence to serve his sentence. Haruka, who originally thought that he could get a stable life and retired from the art world, was faced with the harsh eyes of the world as a "daughter raised by the underworld", and Haruka, who was constantly maliciously slandered every day, knew that he was too naïve, so in order not to let the "morning glory" be affected, he decided to leave the "morning glory" orphanage.
As time passed, Kiryu's sentence ended in 2016 and he returned to "Morning Glory". After learning about Haruka's disappearance from the children who greeted him, he decided to return to Kamurocho. When you come to the old land, everything has long been human. At this time, it is learned that Haruka lost consciousness due to a car accident and has a son, Haruka.
In order to find out why Haruka was in Hiroshima and who Haruka's biological father really was, Kiryu stepped into the territory of the "Omichi Renya-cho" in Hiroshima, the underworld organization "Yomei Lianya", which was the only one in the country after the Higashijo Kai and Omira Lianhe, and the underworld organization that held the bull's ear in Hiroshima. At the same time, Kamurocho is about to fall into the struggle between the three major forces of the Dongcheng Society, the Chinese gang, and the Korean gang.
The game sold about 218,000 copies in its first week in Japan, making it the week's top game sales, but it was slightly down from its dual-platform debut, Dragon 0. However, this time it is not limited to self-cultivation in the small circle, and chooses to land in Europe and the United States. As of June 2018, nearly 1 million units of the game have been sold worldwide, of which overseas markets account for about half of the game's sales.
<h1>Jojo 7: Light and Dark Departure (Dragon 7: Whereabouts of Light and Darkness) 2020.1</h1>
On April Fool's Day 2019, Dragon Studios released a video featuring a demo of a new game in the series. The overhaul of the gameplay surprised the players, but after glancing at the time, most people laughed again, thinking that it was a deliberate joke by the production team. However, in August of the same year, at the "Rulong Latest Work Press Conference", after officially publishing the latest works of the Rulong series, people found that the original jokes were actually said in their hearts. As a result, the protagonist of the series, Kazuma Kiryu, has also become a thing of the past, replaced by a new character, Kasuga Kazuma.
This work is carried out at the same time as the story of "Dragon Online" published on November 21, 2018, and has the same prologue, but the subsequent development and direction are different.
The same world and the same dream, also as the identity of the pot bearer. On January 1, 2001, Haruhi, a young underworld member of the Arakawa Group, was entrusted by the leader of the group, Masasumi Arakawa, to replace Sawaki Shōgun, the leader of the group, for the murder committed by Sawaki Shōjo, who was second only to the group leader in the underworld. For the sake of the cherished organization and the esteemed group leader, Kasuga volunteered to be the scapegoat.
However, he was released from prison in 2019, but no one came to greet him, so he returned to Komurocho alone and found that it was no longer the familiar appearance. The former Higashijo would fall apart, and even Kamurocho had long been completely dominated by the police and the Kansai underworld organization Omi Rigaku. The real culprit in this situation is his former beloved group leader, Masasumi Arakawa.
The unbelievable spring day of the near future went to the location of Arakawa Masumi. Breaking through all the difficulties, he finally met the leader he envisioned, but this reunion after 18 years ended with Arakawa coldly buckling the board machine against Kasuga.
When Kasuga wakes up, he finds that the place where he woke up is a nomadic area made of thick cardboard and garbage, and he inquires around and finds that it is the original Town of Ise-Sagi in Yokohama.
Having lost everything, Kasuga, in order to find out why his esteemed leader Arakawa and the organization have undergone a drastic change, and who is the real culprit behind the destruction of Shinmuromachi, decides to rely on his own strength to gather all his companions to completely fight a turnaround battle from the bottom of this valley.
The combat system of this game is different from the previous game in the series, from the original real-time action combat style to a menu-based RPG style battle system that can issue different commands, players will control Kasuga Ichiban and other members to fight, in addition to the basic "attack", "defense" and "escape", you can also launch the killer "extreme skill" or interact with nearby objects to repel the enemy.
In addition, each member has their own unique skills and classes, such as Kasuga Ichiban's class as a brave, which can attack or give teammates a buff through the weapon "bat"; female-specific professional idols use microphones or charms to deal with enemy attacks in addition to having the ability to heal members.
Sega's previous annual comprehensive report for 2020 showed that the total sales of the "Like Dragon" series of games exceeded 14 million copies. Compared to 12 million in 2018 (when Dragon 6 was released in the West) to 12 million in 2019, the total sales of the series are 11 million copies. This means that more than 20% of the sales of the series life cycle come from the past two years.
The initial depiction of underworld culture was considered too local, and even the producer's name, Yue Minoru, said that he did not think too much about the market outside of his home country, but time has changed, which has become the main selling point of the series. "Like a Dragon" and the "Persona" series can capture the hearts of overseas users.
Unlike the genre of games like Little Butter, which cannot be controlled by thousands of flesh-and-blood teenagers, "Like a Dragon" is also exciting, but it has been full of male hormones since its birth. However, one more point is full of emotions, less is like a child's play, although it can't play acrobatics, but it just walks steadily on the steel cable that connects the two sides of nonsense and seriousness.
Moreover, relying on the foundation laid by Chi Xing Zhou, Yokoyama Masayoshi played steadily, and the level of high-quality drama attracted a group of players who were not cold to the theme. The story of the Extreme Dao is still playing out, and now, in this world that was originally pure masters, more and more women have fallen in love with it. And when the story of Kiryu Kazuma comes to an end, I believe that the spring day will bring us more joy and emotion.
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Pay attention to the "Broken Thought Workshop", spread the game culture, and make the game more than just a game.