Nishiki also appears as a main character in the prequel installment, Yakuza 0, which follows Kiryu's early years as a low-ranking member of the Tojo Clan.

In the past prior to the widespread use of safer synthetic inks, the color red was considered to be especially macho in Japanese tattooing because of the harmful pigments it may have contained.

He noted that recording sessions would last up to four or five hours long with a lot of dialogue to go through, hence it is not possible to do them together with other cast members in the studio due to the length of time required.

Wanting to surpass Kiryu, he made sacrifices and numerous betrayals in order to claim the ten billion yen so that he may become the Tojo Clan's fourth chairman.

Vowing to settle their feud once and for all, Nishiki accepts this final showdown with his former blood brother Kiryu, both removing their shirts to display their yakuza tattoos on their backs - the dragon and the koi.

Nishikiyama is willing to support Kiryu when he finds himself kicked out of the Dojima Clan after he is accused of killing a man he had beaten up for a debt collection task during the opening sequence of the game.

In contrast to his original characterization, he is depicted as a warm and loving, if impulsive and emotional loudmouth who is image conscious and inclined to fun-loving pursuits.

At certain points in the game's narrative, the player-controlled Kiryu can partake in multiple side activities together with Nishiki, such as going to karaoke establishments, batting cages together, and shopping for new suits.

Nishiki is shown being thrust into a leadership role that was meant for Kiryu, and the combination of stress from having to cope with his sister succumbing to a terminal illness and his guilt over letting Kiryu be punished for his crime prevents him from acting decisively as boss, allowing his subordinates to treat him with disrespect and steal from other yakuza families, while letting Nishiki take the blame for their actions.

This single-minded pursuit changes Nishiki so much that he spends the duration of the game trying to prove himself by killing Kiryu, having decided that he will never be complete until he has destroyed the legend of the "Dragon of Dojima".

The character appears as the final boss of the promotional freeware game Streets of Kamurocho, developed and released as part of Sega's 60th anniversary celebrations in October 2020.

[7] Kento Kaku plays Nishikiyama in the 2024 TV series Like a Dragon: Yakuza, with Johnny Yong Bosch voicing the character in the show's English dub.

Greszes was of the view that Nishiki's inferiority complex, borne from being unfavorably compared with Kiryu by his adopted father and other members of the Tojo Clan, combined with a series of personal tragedies culminating in his sister's tragic death, led him to become cold and unfeeling instead of grappling with his own intense pain and sadness.

They suggested that both 0 and Kiwami demonstrate how both Nishiki and Kiryu were failed by their father figure, Shintaro Kazama, and that this failure is the true tragedy of the story arc.

Castello pointed out that Nishiki's final act as an apologetic gesture is to save Kiryu and his adoptive daughter Haruka Sawamura and destroy the money he had once been fighting for, albeit in the only way he knew how to: being over the top and driven purely by emotion.

[12] Richard Dobson from TheXboxHub commented that Nishiki's stark difference in personality from 0 to its sequel never needed explaining on account of 0 not existing as a prequel prior to the original game's release.

[15] Alexandra also praised the boss fight with Nishiki in Kiwami, calling it "a brutal display of tragic violence, a catharsis of pent-up emotion that finally explodes in a flurry of kicks and punches".

[15] In the same way characters in musicals sing to express their abundance of feelings, Alexandra compared it to Kiryu and Nishiki having a boss fight, and "that final release of emotions somehow clears the air".

[15] Peter Glagowski from Destructoid was less impressed with the boss battles in Kiwami, noting that the remake of the original game almost plays like a "best of" version of the entire series.