Like a Dragon Gaiden resurrects the weirdest Yakuza character: manbaby

Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name is recruiting some of the franchise's best and worst characters, including the Yakuza patriarch who dresses like a giant baby.

Yes, you unfortunately read that correctly. Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio quietly announced that some of the more batshit Yakuza characters would be returning in Like a Dragon Gaiden with the tweet below, where RGG Studio lead Ryusuke Horii played a bit of the new game with host Kazami Dogma.

This would be Susumu Gondawara, the Yakuza patriarch who loves dressing up like a gigantic baby, and also forcing his unwilling subordinates to don big nappies. The returning Colosseum battle arena will be home to Patriarch Gondawara, and we hope that he won't be venturing outside this battle arena. Kiryu has probably had enough of fighting men in nappies.

Elsewhere in the screenshot above though, we can see other wild Yakuza characters making a reappearance, like Gary "Buster" Holmes, who first appeared in the original game on PS2, and acted as a summon more recently in Like a Dragon. Then there's the weird robot, who popped up in Dotenbori in Like a Dragon via the Soken Fight Club.

According to the information below though, manbaby and Holmes might be just the tip of the iceberg. It turns out that characters like the man with a sheep's head, and the man with a chicken's head, are also returning in Like a Dragon Gaiden's Colosseum mode, and they each have distinct battle abilities from past Yakuza characters. 

Oh yeah, it has been confirm by someone who play the demo that you can play as LITERALLY EVERYONE in the Gaiden arena. from r/yakuzagames

"Chicken man" having Kuze's move set is honestly bizarre, and "sheep man" picking up photographer Andre Richardson's battle abilities isn't far behind it. The whole thing looks like a very deranged greatest hits collection of the weirdest characters in the entire Yakuza franchise. 

RGG Studio reveals below that anyone who pre-orders the new game (which is only available digitally) will bag the Legendary Fighter Pack, which includes actual normal human beings like Taiga Saejima and Daigo Dojima.

It'd be a bit of a shame if all these great reappearances were limited to a pre-order bonus pack, admittedly. It'd be perfect if anyone who happened upon this game as their first Yakuza game, for example, was inspired by these characters to go back and play past games in the series. That all might not happen if they miss out them purely through not pre-ordering the game.

Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name is out later this year on November 9 on PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, and Xbox One. You'll also bag a demo for Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth if you shell out for a copy of the new game.

A recent Like a Dragon Gaiden trailer had Kiryu a broken man, and long-time fans are very concerned as to what he could be so broken up about.