Yakuza’s Tiger Drop Packs a Powerful Punch
Why you shouldn’t overlook Kazuma Kiryu’s signature move
Tokyo, 2006. You’re strolling down the streets of Kamurocho (based on the Kabukichō red-light district) when you accidentally bump into a group of thugs, a street brawl soon unfolding before you. You watch the first thug throw a haymaker at you. Instead of blocking or sidestepping, as any normal fighter would do, you crouch down and aim a punch at the thug’s midsection. You knock him clean off his feet and into his mates like a bowling ball. Strike! You win!
This is not a normal counterattack you’ll see in fights. It’s a Tiger Drop.
Hailing from the Yakuza series, the Tiger Drop is an in-game fighting technique featured in nearly every Yakuza game since its inception in 2005. We see this devastating move often wielded by series protagonist Kazuma Kiryu. It’s a powerful counterattack that is more than pure strength and fury. It’s a memorable technique that carries with it history.
The Tiger Drop is a powerful counterattack that deserves more attention. It’s a move that not only is thrilling for players to execute but a clever way of incorporating the game’s lore in the middle of a fight.
Unleashing the Tiger Drop
In the Yakuza games featuring Kiryu, execution of the Tiger Drop is fairly simple: press Triangle (or Y on the Xbox controller) when the enemy’s attack is about to hit the player. In some games, players will need to lock on to an enemy (pressing R1 or RB on the Xbox controller) before executing the move with the same input.
Successfully pulling off the move against attacking enemies will let players watch a simple, but destructive punch change the tone of the fight. Players will watch Kiryu drop into a crouch and deliver a compact, but devastating body blow that not only deals massive damage but knocks the enemy back. The Tiger Drop can also affect multiple enemies if they are within its area of effect.
“Deliver a strong blow simultaneous with the enemy’s attack. The ability to see through the assault is highly important.” — Yakuza Kiwami
With its near-comical destructive outcome, the Tiger Drop can easily fall into the pantheon of memorable punches in gaming, mingling with the likes of the Falcon Punch and the Shoryuken. However, there is one element that makes the Tiger Drop unique when compared to these other powerful punches: its defensive nature.
Both the Falcon Punch and the Shoryuken, while entailing elaborate inputs, are offensive moves that do not require players to execute said moves in reaction to an enemy attack. All that’s asked of players is to input a certain set of commands and that’s it. The Tiger Drop, however, is not a move you can perform freely in battle. It can only occur when players input the correct commands as an enemy attack is about to land on Kiryu. It has to happen within that split second.
Despite the execution restriction, the Tiger Drop makes up for it with an additional benefit: it grants the player invincibility frames (also known as i-frames) during its animation.
This means that while players are dealing massive damage to the enemy with the low body blow, they are also invulnerable during that brief time period. The Tiger Drop functions as an excellent defensive and offensive combat tool. Keep in mind that different games yield different results; the i-frames are absent in Yakuza 3 and Yakuza 4.
It’s easy to gauge the Tiger Drop’s power. The damage it does to an enemy’s vitality speaks for itself. The move can take out a huge chunk of an enemy health bar (as seen above), sometimes taking it out entirely from the halfway point. This devastating effect translates to boss enemies, who usually come with multiple health bars. A Tiger Drop has the power to take out an entire health bar, rendering a boss fight easier.
Successfully pulling off a Tiger Drop is satisfying. Witnessing its cataclysmic damage is not all the game offers. Yakuza games do a great job of conveying the technique’s raw power through the use of audiovisual effects.
There’s the bone-crunching sound cue as Kiryu’s fist strikes that sweet spot. The over-the-top hit effect when the move lands. The visual spectacle of the enemy flying and landing on their backside. Not to mention the later games’ impressive Dragon Engine allows for some hilarious environmental effects, such as the move causing the enemy to rag doll through a store window. The animation for the move itself is simple — or dare I say, subdued — but its aftermath makes it memorable.
The Tiger Drop’s sense of satisfaction also comes from the execution requirements, which can vary from game to game. Some Yakuza entries have more leniency in the execution window than others, although one variable remains the same: it demands precise timing in its technique. When players execute the Drop, they managed not only to inflict titanic damage to their enemies; they did so with pinpoint timing.
What Makes the Tiger Drop Memorable
Like most memorable moves in gaming, the Tiger Drop plays a significant role in the Yakuza lore, particularly in the Yakuza 2 and its 2017 remake.
In the two games, players will discover that the ‘Tiger Drop’ name is more than just a gimmick. Kiryu will literally kill a full-grown tiger using that very move! Although the move serves as a finisher (meaning the tiger is already at low health), the way he sends the pouncing tiger flying backward is nothing less than impressive. Keep in mind that adult tigers can weigh up to 310 kilograms (or 683 pounds)!
Although the move itself has existed before Yakuza 2, its presence in the game’s story cements it as a legendary move in the Yakuza community. The move came to be thanks to Kiryu’s martial arts mentor, Sotaro Komaki, and is exclusive to those who are a part of the Komaki school.
The series presents it as one of Kiryu’s most powerful — if not overpowered — move. So much so that most of the series’ boss rush challenges dictate the player to not use the Tiger Drop because of its sheer raw power and ease of use if the player is skilled enough.
Long story short, the Tiger Drop has gained a near-godlike status in the Yakuza community, and it is time it gets more recognition in the wider gaming community as one of gaming’s most memorable moves.
In the meantime, with Kiryu retiring from the Yakuza protagonist role, here is hoping that Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio can come up with a successor to the Tiger Drop by assigning newcomer Ichiban Kasuga with his own memorable move.
Call it the Elephant Bash, perhaps?
