In A World Full Of Cynics, I Want To Be Ichiban Kasuga

I was a relative latecomer to the Like A Dragon series, only playing Yakuza 0 for the first time a few years ago. But, like many people, I fell for it very quickly. Of course, it helps that at the time, Yakuza 0 was considered by many to be the best and most polished game yet, as well as the best starting point due to its status as a prequel. Yakuza 0 being my first venture into the series only set me up for success.

There’s much to love about Yakuza 0 – its sense of humour is unique, politically progressive, and sharply satirical, while it’s somehow both a deadly serious examination of Yakuza culture and filled with surreal, absurd substories. Plus, its core narrative is compelling and, at times, deeply moving.

Longtime protagonist Kazuma Kiryu is the kind of character you simply can’t help but love. His stoic nature and violent past is counterbalanced with his desire to do good and his habit of sacrificing his own health, safety, and happiness to protect others. He is a flawed man, one who wields his ability to enact horrible violence as a tool, but who also tries as much as he can to use that violence to good ends. He’s a deeply compelling and complex character who evolves over the series, and he’s one of my favourite characters of all time.

But Yakuza 0 is no longer my favourite game in the series – I knew from the moment I played a preview of Infinite Wealth on the Tokyo Game Show floor that it would supplant Yakuza 0 as my new favourite. Infinite Wealth’s turn-based gameplay suited me much better, and its new Honolulu setting is beautiful and exciting. Its open world, while multiple times bigger than Yakuza 0’s Kamurocho, is wonderfully dense and alive. The game has kept everything I love and added so many high-quality mechanics on top of the base game that I still can’t quite believe they pulled it off so well. No matter how much time I spend in the game, it never starts to feel repetitive or like I’m wasting my time.

Kiryu is no longer my favourite protagonist either. Ichiban Kasuga heads Infinite Wealth, and I love him to bits because he exemplifies the kind of person I want to be. While I love Kiryu, the path his life has taken has forced him to wrestle with nihilism. Kasuga, on the other hand, faces the world with seemingly relentless optimism, and that’s what I need for myself.

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There are a lot of things that remind me of myself when I look at Kasuga. He’s an emotional guy and he doesn’t hide it, but his heart is always in the right place – so often when he starts to spin out or overreact, it’s because he cares so much. He’s so earnest that it makes me cringe (god, that one scene with Saeko is painful), but I see that in myself too. You won’t see him scheming and creating elaborate plans or spinning webs of lies. He’s far more likely to just say what he means, even if it might make him look silly.

He wears his heart on his sleeve, is unfailingly loyal to his friends, and always tries to do the right thing. No matter where he is or what he’s doing, he’s willing to drop everything to help someone that needs him, which is how he ends up getting in so many fights. He found purpose helping fellow ex-Yakuza reintegrate into society by finding them civilian jobs. His drive in life is doing the right thing, helping people find justice, and being a good friend.

He and Kiryu aren’t that different on paper. Both have the ultimate goal of doing more good in the world than bad, both see it as their duty to protect the weak, both ultimately turned away from the Yakuza to pursue their own goals of bettering the world. But in a world that grows more jaded by the day and so easily brushes issues off by insisting that nothing we do matters, we need more Kasugas.

I spent many years steeped in cynicism and depression, sincerely believing that there was no point in doing the things I wanted to do because none of it would matter in the grand scheme of things. If I tried to get back up and actually pursue happiness and enjoy my life, I would just get beaten down again by the same oppressive forces that did it the first time. Life had no meaning, so I wouldn’t live life.

But there was a turning point in my life when that depressive nihilism grew optimistic. If nothing matters, I can do whatever I want. I can do the things that make me happy, I can make art without worrying about it being bad, and I can hum along to the music in my headphones in public even if people look at me. Even if my actions won’t change the world, I can at the very least be happy, and make the people around me happy as well. It was optimism that made life worth living again, and it’s optimism that continues to let me bounce back when I hit rock bottom.

That’s what Kasuga represents to me. Every time something gets in his way, he works around it. When things are out of his control, he does the best he can with the tools he has. He’s dedicated to being a good friend and to making the world better in whatever small way he can, whether that’s beating up random dudes harassing a woman on the beach or lending a friend a listening ear over a drink at their favourite bar.

Kasuga knows that often, the only way out is through, and that there’s value in small kindnesses and small joys. Kasuga knows that sometimes, when everything is going wrong, a bowl or three of gyudon can make life worth living again. I want to be the kind of person that keeps going, that keeps searching for goodness when everything sucks, that makes kindness and justice a core philosophy and not just something they talk about. I want to be Ichiban Kasuga.

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