UPDATE (post-RGG7): For anyone who came here wondering if there are spoilers for Ryu ga Gotoku 7 (Yakuza: Like a Dragon) in this game, there are none. The backstory and setup are the same, but whereas RGG7 is set in Yokohama, RyuOn is set in Kamurocho, where Kasuga teams up with a completely different set of allies and faces completely different enemies.
It’s kind of an alternate universe version of the same story, or an earlier draft (before they added Masato to the storyline). Reading it won’t spoil your enjoyment of 7/Like a Dragon, in fact I think it enhances the experience, so please enjoy this different version of Kasuga’s story.
Ryu ga Gotoku Online launched in Japan in November 2018. I decided to write up a summary for anyone who doesn’t want to play it/can’t play it but is curious about the story anyway. I plan to update as I play this time, rather than waiting till the end. The initial release contains the first 11 chapters, and apparently that’s the first half of the first episode. We don’t know yet when more story will be released, or when it will end. Here’s what happens in the first two chapters.
Prologue
We see Kasuga Ichiban on the ground, all beat up, and Arakawa, along with a bunch of what I assume are his underlings, is standing pointing a gun at him. Arakawa says “You did well … But it’s over for you now.”
Kasuga asks why he’s doing this, and Arakawa just says, “Bye then, Ichi.”
Arakawa smiles. The screen goes black as a gunshot rings out …
Chapter 1: Ichiban from the slums
17 years earlier, December 30 2000
Kasuga Ichiban and his fellow Arakawa Gumi member and otoutobun [yakuza little brother] Yasumura Mitsuo are chasing a debtor. Kasuga, in his pre-prison incarnation, has a punch perm (which we know from Yokoyama he got in imitation of Arakawa). His initial name tag, before we hear his name, calls him “yakuza with a punch perm”. The man they were chasing claims he only has the money he has on him, and if they take that he’ll starve to death. They fight him. [Yasumura does the battle tutorial]
When the fight’s over, Kasuga asks for the man’s wallet, then says there’s all kinds of stuff in there that he doesn’t need. He dumps the wallet’s contents on the ground, and just keeps the empty wallet. Yasumura asks Kasuga what he’s doing, and he says Sawashiro (the Arakawa Gumi wakagashira) only said to bring him the wallet, so that’s what he’s doing. He’s not dumb, though he plays dumb. He says the guy only resorted to borrowing from loan sharks to pay his mother’s surgery fees. He quotes Granny Mitsuko, who runs a snack called Cat Burglar in the Champion District, who said, “Everyone should help other people out when they can. People who have money should share the wealth.” Yasumura says he thinks that’s just an excuse because she has a shitload of loans herself …
Then Yasumura gets a phone call. They’ve got another job, on Tenkaichi Street. “Let’s redeem ourselves by actually getting some money this time!” First though, they need some more allies, so Yasumura introduces the gacha system and guides you through the tutorial on that and how to organise your party.
Then it’s off to a cabaret club, where guys from another Tojo Kai gang (I think it’s read Muroi Gumi) are trying to get the club to pay them protection, even though they already pay Arakawa Gumi. Kasuga tells the manager, Nakai, they’re covered by the Arakawa Security Guarantee. He tries to calm things down, to avoid trouble in the shop, but the Moroi Gumi guy is belligerent, telling him he has no balls, just like his patriarch Arakawa. “Whatever happened to the ‘Killer Arakawa Gumi’?” Kasuga takes strong offence to the insult to Arakawa, so then there’s another battle tutorial, which unlocks daily trials, and then a tutorial on levelling up.
Kasuga refuses a reward for getting rid of those guys, because the club pays its protection money every month. It seems Ichiban is very much inspired by Arakawa, who is said to not be the money-grabbing type either. Mitsuo is less impressed, he thinks that if they were more focused on money they’d be higher up in Tojo Kai by now, but Kasuga is sure Arakawa has his reasons.
On their way back to the office, a man calls out to Kasuga. He’s an old friend, when they were kids they used to compete to see who was strongest. He’s called Yamagishi (I think that’s how you read it, anyway) and he’s a yakuza now too, but he’s a member of a top rank (chokkei) gang. He says he heard Ichiban’s tattoo is only linework, and it only reaches the back of his shoulders, was it too painful for him? Kasuga says no, he just ran out of money. Of course they have a fight, then get a phone call from Sawashiro asking where they hell they are.
When they get to the office, Sawashiro isn’t happy to hear that they’ve made no money whatsoever. He’s tearing into them when Arakawa turns up and saves them. He’s heard Kasuga was fighting again, and tells him it’s pointless getting wound up over people badmouthing him. Kasuga says Arakawa saved his life, so he’ll devote his life to paying him back.
Arakawa tells Kasuga, “You’re an idiot, Ichi. But that’s the best thing about you.” Ichiban grins, “Aw, thanks, Oyassan!” but Arakawa tells him not to smile like that – “If a yakuza shows his teeth like that when he smiles …” Ichiban’s heard it before – “that means he’s in big trouble.”
Yasumura and Kasuga split up, and Kasuga goes drinking – “Where shall I go for a drink tonight?” … “Ah, I drank too much again tonight!” Back at home, Kasuga remembers meeting Yamanishi, and then reminisces about his childhood and how he met Arakawa, for the benefit of anyone who still hasn’t seen the prologue movie.
Then he gets a call from Arakawa, who asks him to come to the office. On the way there, he runs into the guy from Muroi Gumi again, who accuses him of killing their boss. What!
After fighting him, he finally gets to the office and apologises to Arakawa for taking so long. Arakawa talks about Muroi Gumi, they’ve been interfering in Arakawa Gumi territory lately. Because they’re higher up in Tojo Kai, he didn’t want to make a big deal out of it, but earlier today one of their guys came at Arakawa with a gun. It made Sawashiro angry, so he followed them and killed the patriarch Muroi. Because Muroi Gumi is at the top level of the Tojo Kai hierarchy, that means Arakawa Gumi has rebelled against Tojo Kai. They’ll be expelled from the clan, but if that happens, a weak little group like them wouldn’t survive. So that can’t happen. But Sawashiro can’t go down for it either. Will Ichiban do the service?
Ichiban agrees. He thanks Arakawa for allowing him to do this, to let him pay back the favour he did for Ichiban all those years ago. He asks Arakawa to say thank you to Sawashiro – those bastards were trying to kill Arakawa, so Sawashiro had to kill him, he’d have done the same thing.
So the story was arranged that he’d been expelled from Arakawa Gumi last month. He went to the police as a civilian and confessed to the murder of the Muroi Gumi patriarch. He was sent down for 15 years.
Chapter 2: The lost hometown
One day in 2018. Kasuga Ichiban’s release date.
Kasuga’s getting out of prison. The guard seems quite fond of him. He notes that Kasuga had two years added to his sentence for half-killing someone in prison who made fun of his patriarch Arakawa. The guard asks if his people are coming to pick him up and Kasuga says they should be waiting outside for him, then the guard gives what he calls the traditional speech: “Don’t come back, okay.”
Outside, no-one’s there. Kasuga waits two hours, but no-one turns up … so he heads to Kamurocho on his own. He’s really happy to be back. Though he notes the town’s really changed, he accepts that makes sense, as it’s been 17 years after all.
He sees a girl being bothered by a “mean-looking man”, and helps her, but she just runs away – “That was a waste of help.” But the man and his friends want to fight, and Kasuga’s fine with that, as he’s been banged up for 17 years and he’s ready for some exercise. They call Kasuga “frizzy head”.
After the fight, the bad guys reveal themselves as Omi Rengo yakuza, and call a policeman over, telling him Kasuga started a fight with them. The police officer goes to arrest Kasuga, so he runs away. He can’t believe it – the police taking the word of Omi Rengo yakuza, just like that?
The girl he saved appears. She runs a small company called Kamuro Security, and she offers him a job helping out, protecting shop owners who just want to do business peacefully in this harsh town. [This is the haken – business protection – tutorial]
After that, Kasuga runs into Kitamura (finally, a name that’s easy to read), a detective from the Metropolitan Police Criminal Investigations Division 1. They knew each other in the past, he used to arrest Kasuga a lot. Kitamura saw what happened with the Omi guys earlier, and Kasuga asks him what the hell’s going on in this town. Kitamura says he’ll tell him all about it, but there’s someone he wants him to meet first. Kasuga has no time for that, he wants to get to the Arakawa office, so he takes off.
Kitamura speaks to someone on the phone, saying it’ll be quicker to let him see for himself than to try and explain it anyway.
Back in Tenkaichi Street, the owner of a cabaret club called Spica is being harassed by an Omi Rengo dude (who seriously looks like chief producer Yokoyama). The owner, whose name might be read Tamosaki (but probably isn’t), asks Kasuga to help him out by defending the club against the Omi invaders. He’s been in this town for years, and he has no intention of giving his business to them. [This is the donpachi – “shootout” – alliance battles tutorial. I was dreading this, because I thought I’d have to do multiplay and I hate multiplay. But it’s an individual tutorial, no actual multiplay interaction, phew.]
After that, Kasuga finally gets to the Arakawa Gumi office. It’s completely deserted. Omi guys turn up, and there’s a few fights.
Afterwards, Kitamura turns up to tell him that Tojo Kai’s gone and Omi is in charge of the whole of Kamurocho. Now he’s made an enemy of them, and they won’t stop chasing him till he’s dead.
Kasuga doesn’t care, he just wants to know where Arakawa is, and if he’s safe. Kitamura says the only one who can answer that is “a certain person”, which is the person he wanted him to meet earlier.
He takes Kasuga to a darkened empty room, where this mysterious person appears on a screen. These meetings are always held in secret. The person (who appears to be male, but his face is in shadow and his voice is disguised too) says he can’t be exposed, circumstances are complicated, so call me X.
Kasuga doesn’t care about his name, he just wants to know where Arakawa is.
But X wants Kasuga to kill Arakawa Masumi.
Dojima's Dragon Girl 
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