Of Dommes and Night Queens: Kink, BDSM, and positive representations of alternative sexualities in the Ryu Ga Gotoku (Yakuza/Like a Dragon) video game series

Abstract

This article analyses the representations of kink and BDSM in two non-BDSM mainstream games in the Ryu Ga Gotoku franchise, known in the West as Yakuza and Like a Dragon: Yakuza 0 (Ryu ga Gotoku Studio, 2015) and Yakuza: Like a Dragon (Ryu ga Gotoku Studio, 2020). For this purpose, this paper adapts a methodology of myth-analysis and the identification of recurrent motifs to analyse the discourses that these games generate around kink and BDSM as alternative and non-normative practices within their particular social and ludic imaginaries. By drawing on game studies and sex and sexuality studies, this article provides a reading of the dommes in Yakuza 0 and Yakuza: Like a Dragon as contextualised within popular culture, the genres of role-playing games (RPG) and beat’em ups, and the genealogy of dominatrices in Japanese games. The substories (game missions) studied here tell the stories of Ayu, a dominatrix with a lack of confidence, and Yumiko, a more experienced dominatrix bullied by colleagues and connected to a legendary Mr. Masochist who has become immune to pain. Together with the recurring job class of Night Queen, a fighting class, these substories frame kink and BDSM through the lens of professionalisation and normalisation. The analysis recognises 20 recurrent motifs that help articulate the discourses proposed by the games and construct a positive vision of kink and BDSM within the queer spaces of the underworld that allows the dommes to assert themselves within their communities