Video game adaptations have come a long way from the early 2000s, when nearly every single one was derided. With the likes of The Last of Us, Fallout, and even Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, video game adaptations have become great pieces of media in their own right — not just because they capture the games they’re based on. But that’s the key of what makes a great adaptation, the fact that it actually “adapts” something, and doesn’t just flat-out copy the elements of what made the games popular. Amazon’s newest video game-based show, Like a Dragon: Yakuza, is the perfect example of this, and picture proof that we should move past an obsession with adaptations having to be just like the game.
Like a Dragon: Yakuza is based on Sega's two-decade-old franchise of the same name. The Yakuza games largely take place in a fictional red-light district of Tokyo called Kamurocho, and have become well-known for a unique brand of zaniness mixed with crime melodrama.
