Back in 2016, Like a Dragon fans believed Kazuma Kiryu’s saga had come to a definitive close with Yakuza 6: Song of Life. Yet, within just a few years, the franchise refused to let go, delivering remakes and spin-offs featuring Kiryu, even putting him side-by-side with his successor, Ichiban Kasuga. This cycle of retirements and returns makes it clear that passing the narrative torch in these games is more complicated than it seems.
The pattern continues as Yakuza Gaiden allowed players to once again slip into Kiryu’s shoes, and the latest entries offer him a dual protagonist role alongside Ichiban. Kiryu’s narrative arc, including a battle with terminal cancer, seems scripted for a final farewell — only to be undone in subsequent titles. It’s a storytelling cycle that’s frustrated many, highlighting a reluctance to let iconic characters truly step away.
Even the recent Yakuza Pirates in Hawaii hints at Kiryu’s survival, denying the closure fans anticipated. Rather than offering rest, these games keep Kiryu’s story alive — sometimes to the detriment of fresh character development and the series’ forward momentum.
With new remakes like Yakuza Kiwami 3 revisiting Kiryu’s past adventures, players feel an exhausting repetition of his continual 'retirement' and return. This narrative recycling ranks among the franchise’s biggest flaws, as Dojima’s Dragon remains seemingly immortal, blocking space for new protagonists to fully claim the spotlight.
Like a Dragon’s struggle isn’t isolated. The entire industry seems to wrestle with the challenge of phasing out legacy heroes. Frequent resurrections and comebacks often overshadow new narratives, leaving fresh protagonists struggling to shine.
Take the upcoming Resident Evil: Requiem. Its new lead, Grace Ashford — the franchise’s first solo female protagonist since Resident Evil 0’s Rebecca Chambers — barely escapes being overshadowed by veteran Leon S. Kennedy. Despite Grace’s significance, the marketing heavily favors Leon, whose legacy is deeply entrenched in the series.
Marketing materials and gameplay previews focus mainly on Leon, relegating Grace to a secondary role in key art and promotions. This sidelining threatens to overshadow the fresh perspective she could bring to the series, a familiar story told all too often when new protagonists are introduced alongside well-loved veterans.
Leon hasn’t undergone multiple forced retirements like Kiryu, yet his dominance in marketing at the expense of Grace illustrates a broader reluctance to fully embrace new heroes. Players hoping for Grace to have a strong presence may find themselves disappointed given how the spotlight continually shifts back to legacy characters.
While Leon hasn’t said goodbye to the audience on four separate occasions like Kiryu, it still feels incredibly flimsy for the series to be overshadowing a new female protagonist with him.
Image via Capcom
This isn’t unique to Leon. Capcom’s Dead Rising series faced a similar dilemma when Frank West, the original face of the franchise, was replaced by newcomer Chuck Greene in Dead Rising 2. Initially, this shift felt promising for the series’ evolution.
Chuck Greene’s fresh story breathed new life into Dead Rising 2, even featuring crossover DLC with Frank himself. But that momentum was short-lived as Dead Rising 2: Off the Record re-centered Frank as the protagonist, erasing Chuck from the narrative altogether.
Though Off the Record remains non-canon and Dead Rising 3 brought in a whole new cast, Frank West’s status as the franchise’s face meant his return was all but inevitable. This trend culminated with Dead Rising 4, casting an older, jaded Frank back into action for “one last job,” stripping away much of his original charm for a tired, nostalgic appeal.
Rather than growing or evolving, Frank felt like a relic shuffled back into the spotlight—his personality laundered into gruff sarcasm and weary catchphrases. It’s a clear example of nostalgia overriding fresh and compelling character work.
Like a forgotten G.I. Joe toy tossed into a sandbox, Frank West stumbled through a setting he once owned. Fans were left watching a shadow of the original character parrot tired tropes for a nostalgic audience yearning for the past.
Like a dusty old G.I. Joe toy, Frank West is thrown around the sandbox of Willamette Mall, parroting catchphrases and snappy jokes in order to sell this product to gamers who remembered playing the original games years ago.
Image via Capcom
Sometimes, the refusal to pass the torch becomes so glaring that entire narrative arcs are discarded for fan service. Ace Attorney’s transition from Phoenix Wright to Apollo Justice stirred controversy with its themes of legal corruption and flawed institutions.
Apollo Justice highlighted a darker tone, showing a defense attorney grappling with a broken system, far removed from Phoenix’s hopeful idealism. Instead of mentoring, Phoenix presented a jaded call for reform, challenging the franchise’s established norms.
One standout moment, the case Turnabout Serenade, showed how the justice system would rather condemn an innocent blind child than admit police corruption — a bold narrative stance rarely seen in the series.
Despite this shift, Dual Destinies backpedaled by sidelining Apollo and re-centering Phoenix, abandoning the systemic critique Apollo brought to the forefront. The solution was simplified to rooting out a single corrupt individual, restoring the comforting narrative of personal heroism.
Fans got to enjoy nostalgic moments like Phoenix’s return and quirky courtroom antics, but only at the cost of Apollo’s more complex themes and progression in the series’ storytelling.
Image via Capcom
Across countless franchises, the story repeats: veterans are pulled out of retirement, stories are rewritten to keep them relevant, and new characters rarely get to fully flourish. This cycle stifles narrative growth and can leave series feeling stuck in the past.
Even Assassin’s Creed, often criticized for its yearly installments, handled its protagonist transition more gracefully by concluding Desmond's story after five games and only bringing him back briefly for a cameo. Though it’s struggled with new antagonist narratives, it kept its character arcs reasonably contained.
This is not just a gaming issue. Many entertainment forms grapple with aging characters who stubbornly refuse to move on, from Star Wars constantly revisiting the original trilogy’s era to Downton Abbey’s servants working well past believable retirement ages. Fictional characters seem trapped, unable to evolve or be replaced.
