When Does Like a Dragon Gaiden Take Place? Answered

Crisis has not yet been averted.

Official image of Kiryu from Like a Dragon Gaiden.
Image via Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio

The Yakuza/Like a Dragon series timeline isn’t necessarily complicated, but there have been enough titles to make it difficult to keep up with. Here, we explain when Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name takes place and where it sits in the main series timeline.

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When Does Like a Dragon Gaiden Take Place?

Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name is meant to connect the stories of Yakuza 6 and Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth by explaining what Kiryu was doing during the events of Yakuza: Like a Dragon (gaiden is Japanese for “side story”). As a result, Like a Dragon Gaiden starts in 2016 after the events of Yakuza 6, but the game mostly takes place in 2019 during the events of Yakuza: Like a Dragon.

The Mainline Yakuza/Like a Dragon Video Game Timeline

It isn’t uncommon for Yakuza/Like A Dragon games to start in one year, then have a time skip to when the game mostly takes place. The following table lists each mainline Yakuza/Like a Dragon game in chronological order of when the game primarily takes place, ignoring prologues and flashbacks. The Judgment games have been included since some characters cross over in the Yakuza/Like A Dragon games, while the historical drama games, which take place in the 1600s and 1800s, have been excluded.

Yakuza/Like a Dragon GamePrimary Year it Takes Place In
Yakuza 01988
Yakuza/Yakuza Kiwami2005
Yakuza 2/Yakuza Kiwami 22006
Yakuza 32009
Yakuza 42010
Yakuza 52012
Yakuza 62016
Judgment2018
Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name2019
Yakuza: Like a Dragon2019
Lost Judgment2021

The exact year Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth takes place is currently unknown, but because it’s a sequel to Yakuza: Like a Dragon, it will undoubtedly occur sometime after 2019.

And that is the current Yakuza/Like a Dragon timeline and where Like a Dragon Gaiden falls into it. If you’re looking for more information, check out our guide on how to level up the Akame Network in Like a Dragon Gaiden.

About the Author

Niki Fakhoori

Niki’s love for video games encompasses a wide range of genres, but she is especially fond of RPGs, adventure games, visual novels, simulation games, and fighting games. Her favorite video game-related pastime is asking her unwieldy backlog why she doesn’t have any new games to play. When she isn’t playing or writing about video games, she’s playing with cats, journaling, painting, or obsessing over the latest news in the world of stationery and planners.