Yakuza: Like A Dragon's homeless representation (Article)

[ArcadePerfect]

Yakuza: Like A Dragon’s homeless story is a societal breakthrough (https://thenaturalaristocrat.com/2021/01/27/yakuza-like-a-dragon-homeless-story-societal-breakthrough/)

I wrote an article on Yakuza: Like A Dragon's representation of the homeless population as tragic figures rather than one dimensional stereotypes earlier this year.

I thought with 'Like A Dragon' being made available on Game Pass recently more people have had an opportunity to play through it. Let me know your thoughts.

[mailman187666]

I feel it touched upon some good points that I had not thought about while playing (I'm playing it now). It really feels like a fresh take on the turn based rpg. I agree with your article and found it interesting. It really is one of the only games I've played where the fact of being homeless is well touched upon. The article itself felt like it ended slightly abruptly. I'm no English major or journalist, but I scrolled further down looking for closing comments and it felt like a cliffhanger. Ending with something like "It would be interesting to see what kind of social commentary the Yakuza series holds in the future if Like a Dragon shows us such a great example." or something like that. I'm not dissing your article though, just constructive criticism.

[Ed Oscuro]

A worthy subject and a good read; I liked your metaphor of the glass door that is fake. If I were to add something, it would be to compare the storytelling to other works about the homeless, or to reports about that, to see what's alike or different. If I were to take something away, I would look at the phrase "fiat money," which many people will see as a political statement; "fiat money" is just plain old "money" to most people - even considering the points you make about value being a changeable concept.

p.s. This reminds me of a fairly well-reviewed game on Steam that might make an interesting comparison. https://store.steampowered.com/app/632300/Hobo_Tough_Life/

[Gameguy]

Similar issues were explored by David Cage in his games, portraying "noble hobos" in basically every game he made.