As we’ve noted many times over, just because you can adapt a video game franchise to the big screen or silver screen doesn’t mean you should. Yet, companies from movies, TV and streaming services feel that they have to “keep trying,” even if the results are almost obvious at times when you see what’s being done. In the case of Like a Dragon: Yakuza, Amazon Prime Video was trying to continue its run of solid adaptations, including the Emmy-nominated adaptation of a certain post-apocalyptic gaming franchise, by banking on the recent surge of love for Sega’s series about the Yakuza. However, as the first season dropped, many are wondering if the people behind it even played the games at all.
If you look at the Rotten Tomatoes score for Like a Dragon: Yakuza, you’ll see it’s at 57%. That might not be as low as a certain Gearbox Software movie that was doomed from the moment they announced the cast, but it’s still pretty low. Granted, it only has seven critical reviews right now, and some of them do put it as “fresh,” but when you look at who are the ones praising it, you’ll see that it’s not exactly from the most prestigious places around. Plus, one critic praised it for not following the game material, which is an odd thing to say for an adaptation.
Many note that one of the key elements of Sega’s underworld series is the mix of wacky characters, actions, and the motivations behind much of what they do. Yet, this series apparently ignores many of those origins, backstories, and methods that they use to push the story forward, making it even less of an adaptation, and more of a story that just so happens to have the same name as a video game. A review from another website noted that this version of Kiryu, the protagonist of several games, acted so little like the video game version, that the “real” Kiryu would beat the live-action version up if they were to ever meet. That says quite a lot.
The sad irony here is that despite all the wackiness that the franchise has, as its upcoming pirate title shows in full force, this is something that they should’ve been able to replicate rather well. All they had to do was look into what made these games great and then bring it to streaming. They couldn’t do that, though, so if you’re a fan of this series, you might want to lower expectations before watching it.
