This wildly ambitious Yakuza 5 co-op mod lets you play together as Kiryu and Ichiban, even folding Like a Dragon's protagonist into the game's cutscenes

Yakuza 5 but with Ichiban — (Image credit: Sega/Jhrino)

Typical, isn't it? You wait ages for a wildly ambitious cooperative mod to arrive, then two come along at once. This week already brought us a refurbished co-op campaign for the original Command & Conquer, and now some bright spark has reworked Yakuza 5 to make it playable with a pal.

That modding whiz is Jhrino. They're responsible for Intertwined Fates, a mod that gives a multiplayer makeover to Kiryu Kazama's penultimate adventure as Yakuza's lead character. The mod enables two players to experience Yakuza 5's entire story together, with player two assuming the role of the series' new protagonist Ichiban.

Intertwined Fates doesn't just drop Ichiban into the world and then pretty much ignore him like the Sonic games do with Tails, either. It does its utmost to integrate him into every part of the experience. Alongside letting Kiryu and Ichiban explore and fight together, the mod adds playable co-op dance battles and co-op hunting. Moreover, it folds Ichiban into Yakuza 5's taxi minigame, idol battles and handshakes, although he isn't playable in these sequences.

Yakuza 5 Co-op: Intertwined Fates (Almost) All New Cutscenes - YouTube

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Admittedly, some of Ichiban's appearances do look a bit contrived in the demo video, but Jhrino also explains that they are "new to animation", and that the quality of the cutscenes improves as the game progresses. This is partly thanks to their own increasing experience, but also due to the help of another modder who goes by Janfon1 who joined the project later.

Still, it's an impressive bit of work. Download and installation instructions can be found over on Nexus Mods. Intertwined Fates is intended primarily as a local co-op experience, but Jhrino says it can be made to function online with a little extra work. And if you don't have another person to play with, the mod supports Ichiban's presence as an AI character, so you can enjoy fighting alongside him even while flying solo.

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Rick has been fascinated by PC gaming since he was seven years old, when he used to sneak into his dad's home office for covert sessions of Doom. He grew up on a diet of similarly unsuitable games, with favourites including Quake, Thief, Half-Life and Deus Ex. Between 2013 and 2022, Rick was games editor of Custom PC magazine and associated website bit-tech.net. But he's always kept one foot in freelance games journalism, writing for publications like Edge, Eurogamer, the Guardian and, naturally, PC Gamer. While he'll play anything that can be controlled with a keyboard and mouse, he has a particular passion for first-person shooters and immersive sims.

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