All mainline Yakuza games, ranked from worst to best

The latest game is made for hardcore Yakuza fans only, and essentially bridges Kiryu’s story between Yakuza 6 and Infinite Wealth. There are plenty of references here to the older games which will go over your head if you haven’t played them. The ending here is excellent, but the story is on the weaker side, and as such has been filled out with mandatory side quests that are frankly not up to the series standard. Many will see you running around and fighting gangs, or battling through the coliseum. Great if you love the series, but one to play after you’ve finished the others.

Fans weren’t so keen on Yakuza 3, as a large part of the story is set in Morning Sun orphanage in Okinawa. Here we see a softer side to Kiryu as he helps out the orphans, and runs the home for the most part. The yakuza get involved, but it’s a much tighter story than fans were used to, focusing on character development with less of the bombastic boss fights that the series is known for. It’s great to learn more about Kiryu’s connection to Haruka and Morning Sun, but not the best place to start.

Yakuza 6 features the series' best-known actors, including Beat Takeshi and Tatsuya Fujiwara from Battle Royale. It’s another tight story, which focuses on finding Haruka after the yakuza tries to hunt her down and her son Haruto. Set in the small town of Onomichi, it has one of the smaller maps, but it does have a number of the series’ best boss fights and bombastic twists. Not a bad place to start to get a grip on what the series is about, but it's not one of the better games.

As with most original games, it sets the tone for the series, introducing us to Haruka, who is pivotal to Kiryu’s story. However, it is almost unplayable by today’s standards, but you can play Yakuza: Kiwami for a far more polished version of the game’s story. You can see that the series hasn’t found its feet yet with this one, but Kiwami will still give you a great experience, and prepare you for later plotlines.

Yakuza 5 is divisive among the fan base, as it is the longest game with the most locations and playable characters. Unfortunately, this does mean the story is rather bloated, but you will get to explore Fukuoka, a village in Hokkaido, Sapporo, Osaka, and, of course, Tokyo as you play through the story. One chapter also focuses entirely on Haruka with rhythm-based gameplay that fans have been split on. This is the best game if you like variety, but you might find it drags on too long.

Like A Dragon marks the start of a new era for the Yakuza series, it’s removing the Yakuza name, Kazuma Kiryu is no longer our protagonist, and it’s not even an action game anymore. Instead, we follow Ichiban Kasuga, another member of the yakuza, in this turn-based RPG. Fans were cautious of this complete change in tone, but it still keeps all that goofy Yakuza style and has an amazing story at its core that leads into Infinite Wealth. This will be the most up-to-date and modern Yakuza experience, but skips out on the history and story of the series.

Unlike the original Yakuza, the series started to understand what it was all about here, and contains staples that are still in the series to this day. This is one of the tightest and best stories in the whole series, and it really gives each character room to breathe. It introduces one of the best antagonists in the series, and Kiwami in particular is a masterclass in Yakuza gameplay, and has some of the series best boss fights, including the best final boss fight of any game in the series.

Yakuza 4 brought a number of new features to the series that people absolutely loved, and helped cement the game in people’s hearts as one of the best. It features multiple locations and multiple playable protagonists, but as the first entry to do so, it felt fresh and not bloated at this time, and it also introduced a number of fan-favorite characters in the series. One of the key games in the series that feels the most Yakuza-y.

Long-term fans of the series always wanted to know how Kiryu and everyone’s favorite character Majima ended up as part of the Japanese mafia, and Yakuza 0 answers that question for you. It is very character-focused and yet still has amazing boss fights. As a prequel to the series, it is also one of the best places to start, showing you a bit of everything and leaving you wanting so much more.