Like a Dragon is a "soft reboot" of the Yakuza series, with a new protagonist and turn-based combat instead of the usual button-mashy beat-em-up style. This was the ninth Ryu Ga Gotoku game I've played, so while I'll miss certain aspects of its predecessors, I'm relieved that the team at Sega chose to switch things up.

And many of those changes work really well. Ichiban's more outwardly goofy and emotive personality makes the differences in tone between main quests, substories and mini-games feel a lot more believable. I prefer the turn-based combat to button-mashing... this may be the first Yakuza game I've completed without sore fingers! Having multiple party members to manage (and strengthen my bond with) made me feel that much more invested in each of their stories. And the business management mini-game completely sucked me in for several days of my playthrough.

It isn't perfect, though. At first, the size of the game's main area of Ijincho seemed exciting, but I found its square footage lacked a certain density of interesting things to do and explore... I found myself relying on taxis a lot more than usual. The turn-based combat makes the series' trademark street encounters quite a bit more tedious. And a difficulty spike in the game's final act forced me into some manageable but irritating grinding to progress.

None of these criticisms stopped me from being as charmed as I've ever been by the series. I like Ichiban and his band of misfits, and I'll miss them when I finally put the game's Premium Adventure mode down and await the next chapter of their story.

Yakuza: Like a Dragon

Yakuza 7, also known as Yakuza: Like a Dragon, invites players on an emotional rollercoaster ride through the gritty streets of Yokohama, exploring themes of despair, loss, and ultimately, redemption. While the game doesn't shy away from delving into some dark and depressing elements, it offers hopeful and uplifting moments that leave a lasting impression

Ichiban Kasuga

Yakuza 7 introduces players to a new protagonist, Ichiban Kasuga, who breathes fresh life into the franchise. As the central character of the game, Ichiban Kasuga brings a compelling and deeply human element to the narrative, making him a standout addition to the Yakuza universe that I know so far.

From the outset, Ichiban Kasuga's personality shines through, endearing players with his optimism and determination. Ichiban's journey is driven by a desire for redemption, as he navigates the complexities of the criminal underworld in search of truth and justice.

What sets Ichiban apart from the usual protagonist of the franchise is his relatability and authenticity as a character. Despite his larger-than-life persona and penchant for flashy theatrics, Ichiban remains grounded and relatable, facing his own insecurities and flaws with courage and resilience. His interactions with other characters are filled with warmth and sincerity, drawing players into his world and inviting them to experience his highs and lows alongside him.

Combat

Yakuza 7 introduces a bold new combat system that deviates from the series' traditional beat 'em up style, opting instead for a turn-based RPG approach.

The turn-based combat in Yakuza 7 is both engaging and dynamic, requiring you to think strategically and adapt to everchanging circumstances. Each battle is a chess match of sorts, with players tasked with positioning their characters, exploiting enemy weaknesses, and unleashing devastating attacks to emerge victorious.

What sets Yakuza 7's combat apart is its emphasis on teamwork and synergy between party members. You can assemble a diverse roster of characters, each with their own unique abilities and job classes, allowing for customizable playstyles and dynamic team compositions. Whether you prefer to unleash powerful magic spells, unleash devastating physical attacks, or provide support to your allies, there's a job class to suit every playstyle.

The combat animations are incredibly satisfying, bringing each battle to life in spectacular fashion. From flashy special moves to dynamic camera angles, every encounter feels cinematic and exhilarating. The game's attention to detail is remarkable, with each character and enemy animation meticulously crafted to convey a sense of impact and weight.

In conclusion, Yakuza 7's combat system is a triumph of innovation and evolution, offering a fresh take on the series, signature action while retaining the depth and complexity that i enjoyed in the older games. With its engaging gameplay, customizable party system, and breathtaking animations, Yakuza 7 sets a new standard for turn-based RPGs.

Setting

Yakuza 7 transports players to the bustling streets of Yokohama, a vibrant and diverse city teeming with life and personality. From the neon-lit alleyways of Chinatown to the dark slums, the game's world is a rich tapestry of sights, sounds, and experiences that captivate the imagination and immerse players in its world.

One of the most striking aspects of Yakuza 7's world is its attention to detail. Every corner of Yokohama is crafted with a fine eye for detail, with stunningly realistic environments that breathe life into the game's setting. Whether you're strolling through the crowded marketplaces or wandering the back alleys of the city, there's a sense of authenticity and depth that makes the world feel alive.

The game's depiction of Yokohama is also incredibly diverse, with each district offering its own unique atmosphere and culture. From the glitz and glamour of the entertainment district to the gritty underworld of the criminal underbelly, there's no shortage of variety to be found in Yakuza 7's world. Exploring Yokohama is a joyous experience, with each new discovery bringing with it a sense of wonder and excitement.

In addition to its stunning visuals, Yakuza 7's world is also filled with countless activities and distractions to keep players entertained for hours on end. Whether you're participating in side quests to help locals with their problems, engaging in minigames like karaoke and arcade games, or simply soaking in the sights and sounds of the city, there's always something new and exciting to experience.

Perhaps most importantly, Yakuza 7's world feels alive and dynamic, with NPCs going about their daily routines and reacting to the player's actions in meaningful ways. Whether you're making friends with locals, fending off rival gangs, or simply exploring the city streets, there's a sense of immersion and interactivity that pulls you deeper into the game's world.

Yakuza 7 offers a vibrant and immersive world that serves as the perfect backdrop for its gripping narrative and engaging gameplay. With its stunning visuals, diverse environments, and countless activities to enjoy, Yokohama is a city that begs to be explored and experienced.

Yakuza 7 Like A Dragon (November 10th)

Story-Another installment to the yakuza storyline, in this game, we stray away from kiryu being the main protagonist after 7 games. this time, we go through the game as a man named Ichiban Kasuga starting his story in 2001, Where he is a Yakuza serving under a smaller Tojo family, The Arakawa Family and life seems to be going decent enough for him, he takes care of the Patriarch of the family's, Masumi Arakawa's son, Masato who is paralyzed in the legs due to Hypothermia. It's the birthday of a hostess he's dating so ichiban wheels him to the hostess bar, and masumi, wanting to look good for her on her birthday ends up taking a Ephedrine that helps him to walk for a limited time. So during his time at the hostess club, the hostess, Yumeno is very busy since it's her birthday and a lot of people are requesting her to spend time with her on her birthday. Ichiban decides to go and get Yumeno since Masato is getting pretty annoyed that he isn't getting to spend time with her, so there's a guy who looks all fancy who is currently in the middle of his time with Yumeno and masato ends up getting up when ichiban is causing too much of a commotion. eventually masato gets his time with yumeno and gives her the gift he's been waiting to give her, and she is quickly requested once again so that's pretty much it for that night, ichiban goes to the bathroom to relieve himself only to hear Yumeno and The Fancy guy talking about Masato and how she's only with him to squeeze money out of him, which Masato had also overheard. Dejected, he decides to go home by himself. Later in the night, ichiban meets with his patriarch who tells him some bad news, His right hand man, Jo Sawashiro had apparently killed a man from a rival group and asks that Ichiban would take the fall for him since losing Jo would be very bad for the family. Ichiban is more than willing to take the fall if it will help the patriarch for everything he has done for ichiban. So he is sentenced to 18 years in prison, expecting to be greated by his Patriarch once he was released but there is no one to greet him..and going from there he searches for his Patriarch as a lot of stuff has changed since he's been locked up for 18 years, and the story of course goes from one thing to another from there with plenty of mysteries that the yakuza games always have. The story was very amazing, i really loved it, as always the story of yakuza takes you through an amazing journey filled with drama, action, feels, laughs, it did not disappoint at all playing through this game, i was hooked on it and wanted to see what would happen next. It's getting really hard to pick a favorite yakuza game at this point, i think i still prefer yakuza 0 the most, but this is pretty high up on the list. As i played through this game, i am pretty sure i got a bit teary eyed a couple times at points, and the ending, oh my gosh! the voice actors did so damn amazing i'm still wrapping my head around the events and voice acting during the finale, i know i said i prefer yakuza 0, but i really believe yakuza 7 earns number 1 when it comes to the voice acting, ichiban is a great character who has more personality than kiryu and with that, he is more emotional and believable through the story.

Gameplay and minigames-Just like the game straying away from Kiryu, this game also strayed away from the battle system that it had since the beginning, instead we have a Turn based JRPG battle system, when i first heard of this change, I remember being a bit worried about this change, the yakuza series has always been a beat em up,so to change it to turn based jrpg was questionable. However, after playing through the game, i can say that it didn't harm the game, fighting in yakuza still felt as great as ever. Ichiban has played a lot of dragon quest growing up as he brings it up a few times and the rpg genre, to the point he begins to see the enemies transform into rpg style enemys. You get party members throughout the game, more that i was expecting. Like there was a certain person that will join your team through some side stuff, i was not expecting, it would've been awesome if that person actually popped up in the story after that, but that's hoping for too much i guess lol. Like in a lot of JRPGS, you can have 4 party members in battle. you eventually will get this battle option to call a poundmate which is pretty much like using a summon in final fantasy, there's a good selection of poundmates too and they all have different abilities, damaging enemies, healing your team, recovering mp, getting more money from the battle, etc. You can go to this area called Hello Work which lets ichiban and the other party members change their battle class, each of the characters have their own unique starting class and then the the characters have about 7 jobs to switch to which they can all switch too, i think 2 are guy exclusive and then the girls have two exclusive jobs for themselves. You'll eventually get a substory which is a Pokemon joke, where a professor introduces you to what he has named "Sujimon" and it adds a enemy database to your phone apps called the Sujidex, there's over 200 Sujimon in this game for you to fight and catalogue. You have a bunch of returning minigames like koi koi, poker, darts, claw machine, arcade games, shogi, mahjong, golf, batting, etc. but there are new games added in this game too. You'll eventually be introduced to a minigame called dragon kart which is pretty much like mario kart or crash team racing. This one minigame where you watch a boring movie and then you fight off sheep trying to put you to sleep lol. Thankfully the completion list makes its return, it takes a little bit to actually get it but it is there and with it, you get the fun task of going for the completionist feeling 100%ing every catogory if you're into that. i usually get a little tired out from going for that after a while, i think i ever actually managed to do that for yakuza 0. In yakuza, there's usually a minigame that earns you a great deal of money in the game. in this game, that minigame is Ichiban Confections, you will eventually be tasked with being the manager of a dying business and you have to revive it to be #1 in the business market but there's some rival businesses that are going out of their way to put you out of the competition. it's pretty fun, and once you're at the top, you can get yourself 3 million yen each cycle of the minigame. And also there is a game where you're riding a bike collecting cans, it's called can quest.

Music-I'm not really someone who notices osts in games that often, besides ending songs and stuff, but this game had some really amazing osts! there's one that plays throughout the game, a sad kind of tune, and it's just amazing. It's called "the only way out" and it's probably my favorite ost in the whole game. honestly, it kinda sounds similar to one of my favorite bands' songs (10 Years). You can collect CDs in this game from stores and minigame prizes where you can listen to them in your HQ area you get eventually in the game. There's even a cd for sonic that plays the ost of sonic adventure's main theme, i would've loved it if it was actually the song, but nope, just the instrumental but it was still cool. When Ichiban receives a message, it plays a little rpg tune which is nice to hear. Of course Kareoke makes a return and all the songs are fantastic as always, watching everybody sing their hearts out has always been such a great past time in the games, plus they actually will sing in english if you're playing the game in english, I personally had to stay faithful to the japanese voices for my first playthrough because it just seems right. But if i ever get around to playing this game for another run, i'll definitely be checking out the english voice acting, my friend played through the game in english and he seems to have felt the same powerful voice acting from the dub in that finale so we'll see.

Exploration-for the main segment of this game, you will be in Yokohama and it is very huge, the biggest yakuza location so far i do believe. It's so huge that you'll probably be using the taxis a lot more than you have in the previous games, especially if you don't feel like fighting enemies to get to your target destination, but in this game, you have to actually speak to the taxi driver when you see their car to unlock it as a quick travel location which i thought was pretty cool. You also have on your cell phone app options a taxi icon which has a taxi pick you up from wherever you are and travels to the taxis locations you unlocked so far, i kept forgetting about this app so i just ended up running to the closest taxi to quick travel, plus i think it costs a bit extra which isn't too big of a deal. You will also find yourself exploring dungeons in this game filled with treasures and enemies only fightable in the dungeons if you go back to them after you receive a message about going back to the dungeon for stronger and rare enemies. There's certain people who will give you a "Honk-Honk", if you're a dragon quest fan, you know how that's a direct reference to Puff-Puff lmao. There is also a blacksmith you will meet who can craft weapon and armor for you or improve certain weapons to greater stats which will eventually change into a complete new weapon if you keep improving it as long as you have the materials needed for the weapon and the funds of course. You can find bugs lying around in locations or buy them in prize points from certain games which you can use for crafting the weapons or gear, or you turn them in to a clark from any poppo shop for your SOS quests which you will eventually be introduced in the game, it involves you doing good deeds and being a "hero" like helping citizens that are being harassed from thugs by beating them up. delivering bugs, plates, food. or completing really special requests like finding all 9 cats that ran out of the hero boss' office or taking a photo of the 10 kappa statues throughout the world of this game. After you complete these SOS requests, your hero rank goes up. You can also grow vegetables seeds and flower seeds which takes a few minutes irl to finish growing. You can turn these in also For SOS requests, but also you can use them by having the barkeep of the survive bar turning the veggies into bentos, and the flowers into bouquets, he can also make medicines. The bouquets you can use to give to your allies, each one like a certain type of flower bouquet which will boost their bonds by 25 points. There's also romance options with certain girls you'll meet throughout the game, you'll need a good amount of flower bouquets to win their hearts. Once the characters reach a certain amount of bond points, if you talk to them at your HQ, you'll interect in a Drink link conversation which has 5 different levels, it gives you more background to these characters and also, once you reach a higher bond level with that character, they'll gain more exp if they're not in your battle party and at their highest bond level, they will learch a special tag team skill. While Exploring the world in this game, you might see triangle appear near the top of the screen with a title in blue, pressing it initiates a funny conversation between certain party members for the subject which will also boost your bond with the party members in that conversation. There are over 100 conversations throughout the game so goodluck finding all of them! There's also a Social stats kind of graph with 6 different stats to increase to lvl 10, this is also what you need to work on if you want to unlock the romance substories with the girls. The six social stats are Passion, Style, Intelegence, Confidence, Kindness and Charisma. To enhance these social stats, you'll want to work on those completionist challenges, they'll tell you what they improve, or certain dialogue choices throughout the game will raise certain social stats, or you can find certain items that will raise your social stats a bit. At certain levels in the social stats, you can unlock a extra area. If i'm not mistaken, i'm pretty sure a certain part in the finale chapter was trying to be on some ff7 iconic art lol.

My problems with the game- My biggest problems with the game was probably the battling stuff, it plays like one of those JRPG's where if your main character (ichiban) gets K.O'd in battle, instead of letting one of your other 3 party members revive him, it's just gameover which is really disappointing, i've always disliked that that idea in certain jrpg's. Besides that, i hated how as soon as you finish a battle, the enemies will spawn already a small distance away when you're busy trying to continue the game, play minigames, do substories, etc., it became a pain for me. The Hostess clubs make a return, but you don't actually do anything with them. which is pretty sad because seeing the sexy hostess' and getting to know them through talking with them has always been one of my favorite things to do in the yakuza games, like there's 2 hostess bars and about 10 hostess' for each bar, but all you do is request them buy food and drinks and ichiban and the male teammates just hang in the bar having a good time for a couple seconds and walk away, all it does is raise the bonds between ichiban and the male party and heal your hp and mp, but you could just eat at any restuarant to recover hp and mp. i'd rather get to know a few hostess' story like past yakuza games. I dislike that you have to travel back to hello work just to change your class, it's so unconvenient to the point i just didn't care and kept everybody mainly in whatever i had them in from the first time i played with their jobs. I would've liked it if you could've done more stuff with the romance options. I also wish that there was a lot of hidden areas you could reach from raising your social stats, i think there was only two of them.

Final Thoughts and Score-This game was great, and it left me wondering, "where the heck is yakuza going to from here?" I'm not sure if i want the combat to go back to the beat em up style we've grown to love or if i'd prefer it to stay in this turn based rpg style it's taken on. Both styles are great so it's fine either way. The story was magnificent as in all yakuza games, this is probably #2 for the yakuza series for me. The music is amazing, i love the songs and i love the ost's. The exploration is fantastic but i do dislike when the enemies spawn right after you just finished a battle and in battles if ichiban gets defeated, it's gameover instead of letting us revive him. I would rate this game a 9/10.

I started Like a Dragon sometime in 2022 and played it in spurts over the next year, deleting it whenever it frustrated me. Only recently did I have the compulsion to try and finish it. I finally did. It's a really astonishingly BIG game, one that kept surprising me with its restless ambition, and I think this is the reason I kept struggling to beat it. I've played a few other Yakuzas: 0, Kiwami 1 and 2. I loved their stories and had a hard time putting them down, but it took Like a Dragon to make me realize how emotionally uninvolved I was in their combat. There's seemingly endless ways to become overpowered or indestructible in those games, and I think it's that breeziness which made their campaigns so accessible. And it was never really about the combat: it was about the story, and the side missions, and the addictive array of minigames.

Yakuza 7's shaky critical reception seemed to obscure the fact that the developers were really out to make their magnum opus. The battle system isn't perfect, but it's robust and addictive. The constant enemy encounters are annoying, but they eventually allotted me the resources to give my characters everything they needed. The minigames are the best I've had yet from the series. It feels like the polar opposite experience from my Kazuma Kiryu driven games: it wasn't about the story, it was about the gameplay. My drive to conquer this mammoth wasn't to see the outcome of Ichiban's quest, but to prove to the game I actually had it in me to beat it.

I don't think that's an issue with the game. There came a point I accepted that the story wasn't doing it for me, and most of the time in my gaming life that means I'm going to quit the game entirely. But Yakuza 7's gameplay experience is so cartoonishly, joyously swinging for the fences that, as the credits rolled, I finally understood how much I adore this game.

Yakuza Like a Dragon is the start of a new era for the long running Yakuza franchise. The numbered series are dropped in favor of the Like a Dragon name, Kazuma Kiryu is replaced by new protagonist, Ichiban Kasuga and the beat ‘em up gameplay has transformed into a turned-based RPG. The result is one of the best Yakuza experiences I have ever had and is the evolution of the franchise. However, Like a Dragon is not perfect. The pacing and balance will irk many players. And the game lacks many quality of life features expected in a modern JRPG.

Kasuga and Kiryu, other than the obvious difference in physical appearances, share a lot in common. They are both orphans who join the Yakuza because of a greatly admired fatherly figure. They have an intense adoration for the Yakuza and its strict honor codes, yet hesitate when collecting money from the poor. And they both confess to a crime they didn’t commit and spend decades in jail in order to save the reputation of their Yakuza family. This is where the similarities end. While Kiryu is a stone-faced badass that will smash a fool’s face into the pavement, Kasuga is a goofy puppy faced nerd, obsessed with Dragon Quest (as in the actual games published by Square Enix) and imagines himself as the hero in an RPG.

In typical “Yakuza” or rather “Like a Dragon” fashion, the game takes a long time to open up. Expect to watch cutscene over cutscene for the first 3 hours with little input. The amount of world building has increased with each subsequent game. And Like a Dragon’s pacing is especially sluggish, since it needs to introduce players to a brand new cast. The TLDR is that Ichiban takes the fall for a murder, stays in jail for almost two decades and is released to discover his Yakuza family has abandoned him. Ichiban’s quest literally starts from ground-zero; he starts by working with the homeless, then to sex workers and eventually to crime bosses to figure out what the hell happened while he was in prison.

The transition from beat ’em up to turn-based combat is surprisingly seamless. Heat actions, environmental object combat and other special attacks are translated in sensible ways. Ichiban can utilize special attacks by spending SP, and when he attacks, any object in the way is used as a make-shift weapon. In previous Yakuza games, combat was a solo affair with the occasional NPC ally, but in Like a Dragon, Ichiban and up to 3 other friends are fighting as a team. And the other party members don’t just stand idly by when it’s not their turn, there are tag team attacks and follow-up attacks.

Like a Dragon has the best side-character development in the franchise. You will get to love Adachi and his horny tendencies, Namba and his overly pessimistic nature and Saeko with her deceptively charming, yet aggressive nature. The Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio also borrowed a page from Atlus (their Sega sibling) by introducing social link-like bonds between Ichiban and the cast. Ichiban can develop these bonds by hanging out with his mates whether it is sharing a meal at a restaurant, singing karaoke, or just being in combat together. By developing these bonds, the teammate can learn special moves, gain more experience when not in the active party and also gain eligibility to new jobs.

The concept of job or class switching in RPGs is not novel, but Like a Dragon expertly weaves this gameplay design into its story. Plot-wise, the reason why Ichiban and friends need to switch jobs is so they can infiltrate specific businesses. Gameplay-wise, changing jobs, grants new abilities, stat changes as well as costume changes. While experience gained in each job is separate; stat bonuses and special abilities learned from one job can be used by other jobs. The unfortunate downside is that weapons are also kept separate and tied to each job. For example, even if Saeko is eligible for the Dealer job, not having any Dealer weapons significantly hampers her combat potential. The base weapon for each job is a joke and does minimal damage. This problem is especially egregious for the late-game jobs and DLC jobs that require millions of yen to obtain their weapons. Switching a character to a new job without a weapon is not completely useless, but it is actively discouraging knowing that the early-game jobs have vastly better combat potential due to the ease of access to their job weapons.

There are three primary ways to earn income in Like a Dragon.

1. Players can choose to grind and battle foes in the underground sewers and a battle tower.
2. Compete in the standard offering of Yakuza gambling mini-games like slots, poker, etc.
3. Or choose to do the featured Ichiban Holdings investment mini-game.

The investment mini-game is the highlight of Like a Dragon, and it is a smart evolution from the real estate mini-game in Yakuza 0. In this mini-game, Ichiban is tasked with running a small mom and pop store and growing it into a Fortune 500 company. Every quarter, Ichiban attends a stockholders meeting and has to fight off angry investors to increase the stock price. I found the investment mini-game oddly engaging. While I have never run a corporation before, there are definite parallels that can be drawn. Ichiban will need to take loans from the bank to afford to buy property and when times get tough he will have to layoff employees. There are also employee specialties, morale and pay raises to take into account. Players can choose to skip this mini-game, but I wouldn’t suggest it as it is the best way to earn income and a bonus character can be recruited into the party.

Like a Dragon starts to show more flaws starting in Chapter 10. The game enforces an arbitrary roadblock where Ichiban has to amass a large fortune to continue. For players who completed the Ichiban Holdings mini-game, this should be a cake-walk. Following this roadblock comes an intense difficulty spike with a boss who can knock out Ichiban in one strike (it is a Game Over if Ichiban falls, even if the other party members are still standing). This is coming from someone who did every available substory and fought in every single battle encounter. Grinding for higher levels becomes a necessity. Spoiler alert, there is an even more challenging boss fight a few chapters afterwards. I have no problem with challenging boss fights, but other than these two boss fights, the game is relatively easy in terms of JRPG standards. If I’m playing a Mario RPG I’m expecting a pleasant relaxing time, not a hard-as-nails Shin Megami Tensei game.

The core of Like a Dragon is still phenomenal, but there are other flaws that bugged me. The two party members that join in the late game are unnecessary and have underdeveloped storylines. Saeko is the first playable female combatant in the mainline Yakuza games, but compared to the men, her presence is significantly diminished after her arc completes. Jobs like the Enforcer, Chef, Dealer and Matriarch (from the DLC) are overpowered. AOE attacks are not clearly illustrated making it hard to gauge the range of their attacks. There is no option to pull up the list of enemy weaknesses while in battle. And there is no way to skip trivial encounters other than running away (there is a late game amulet that can be obtained that forces no encounters but that’s a lame workaround).

I’m sure many Yakuza fans were perplexed that their beloved beat ‘em up franchise has turned into a turned-based RPG, but rest assured Yakuza Like a Dragon is the real deal. Ichiban Kasuga is more lovable, emotional and sympathetic than the Dragon of Dojima ever was. The theme of family flows throughout the story, whether it is Ichiban’s bond with his Yakuza family or with his compatriots. Side-characters bring much more heft and emotional weight and have just as interesting backstories as Ichiban’s story. The game has flaws that come with a developer not skilled in making RPGs, but as long as you can overlook these flaws, Like a Dragon is highly recommended!

My Yakuza/Like a Dragon Ranking:

1. Yakuza Like a Dragon
2. Yakuza 0
3. Yakuza Kiwami 2
4. Yakuza 5 Remastered
5. Yakuza 6
6. Yakuza 4 Remastered
7. Yakuza Kiwami
8. Yakuza 3 Remastered

Yakuza Like A Dragon Review

The Last game of 2020 i played i beat it like a minute before the new year lol. Now we were scared for the change from a Beat em up style game to an RPG, We were scared it'd be repetitive or get old after a few hours but i never felt like that throughout the entirety of my Yakuza Like A Dragon playthrough. We thought like the same attacks might bring it down but it doesn't, its the same thing with the beat em up as well you see the same moves after hours of play but it never gets boring.

Ichiban Kasuga

The new character who will be the main of the Yakuza story going forward is Ichiban Kasuga, and what a damn character he is, hes completely different from all the other characters in the series. Ichiban compared to all the other Yakuza characters like Majima Sajima and Kiryu and Akiyama is the most human. Your not going to see Ichiban take on 100 or 30 men by himself.. When hes in these situations there is fear from him of course he won't back down. Kasuga relies so much on his friends, the party you get in the game and is much different from the other Yakuza characters who will always do things by thereselves mostly. Icibans dragon quest influence makes him an idiot and its hilarious like he sees stuff in his head more on that later.

Characters

Its Yakuza lol you expect to see bad characters? Hell No Yakuza Like A Dragon is no different tons of awesome characters from story and substories throughout the entire game i can't spoil my favorites but Ichibans friends Adachi Saeko and Namba are all great. Adachi is a fired cop, Saeko is a hostess, Namba is a homeless guy there stories are all great.

The Villian in this one its like Yakuza Kiwami turned up to 100 thats all i'll say but he was awesome as well like i said I don't want to spoil anything in this game thats the main stuff.

Gameplay

It is an RPG now but it still is a Yakuza game enemies roam the streets just like they would when it was a beat em up you just go into a random battle which is turn based. The combat itself the RPG element now its fast paced and keeps you always watching because theres a parry mechanic where you press circle at the right time to avoid a lot of damage. The enemies themselves are very different and hilarious the many enemy types you fight . So many funny ones theres a trash bag enemy they have bags over them, Theres a pervert flashing enemy that will flash you with there coat and there wearing a thong such funny shit theres so many different enemies in here you'll be laughing so much from them. Remember what i said of Ichibans Dragon Quest influence well the enemies are like that because its all in his head so in his head enemies transform and have rediculous weapons the wacky stuff you'd expect from Yakuza.

The way like they do status ailments and stuff is hilarious as well, Like a camera enemy will snap shots at you this will give you a status ailment, one enemy gets a rag with chemical and sticks it in your face and you'll fall asleep, one enemy will hack your phone and send porn to you usually to a female character and this will give them like a fear ailment seriously just creative stuff. Enemies have weakness to like any RPG some weakness are like weak against knives, weak against strikes weak against guns, weak against blades and weak against magic. I think they have class weakness to like a host enemy will be weak to a hostess class lol

There are character classes you can change there called jobs theres like 12 classes to choose from, to name some theres a hostess job, theres an Idol class, theres a S&M class for the girls lol they each have there own attacks and weapons and outfits and stuff.

Exploration

Yakuza Like A Dragon has the biggest location in all the games the new City is huge like theres hardly no barriers stopping you from going places. This is all brand new not copy and paste and seriously the whole games like that like there is all brand new stuff animations, enemies, Locations just everything. The City has all the mini games you'd expect and some brand new ones like 5 new ones . The substories are great although it felt like they didn't have to many, it might be because all the substories are on the map so you never had to roam around and run into them so there way easier to find.

The Substories have a big change because a lot are way longer in this one they have way more story to them ill spoil like  3 but trust me lots of great ones. Theres one girl who has to get surgery or else she'll die because shes weak and can barely go outside and theres this apple she keeps looking at on a tree hoping it doesnt fall or she'll give up on life. Ichiban has to protect this tree from many people who keep going after it for different reasons lol very heartfelt. Theres one with a homeless guy who likes this girl who gives out free food to people so you have to help him and guide him and find out what the girl likes. Than he asks her out and talks to her but than these people make fun of them so the homeless guy gets his life together completely changes his looks his clothes and everything. The last one ill mention is about this guy who feels no pain and wants to feel pain again won't spoil what thats about but another great one mostly all are great and way longer, i really don't know how they keep thinking of this stuff.

Negatives

The boss fights are not good most are not epic as you'd come to see from previous Yakuzas this was my biggest problem. The heat actions are gone from the bosses QTE's are gone from the bosses and this really brought the boss fights down a huge amount you just werent getting those bad ass moments and an epic climax at the end. Theres cutscenes in some boss fights like before and this is my 2nd problem you will only ever see Ichiban in them like your friends completely disappear when these cutscenes happen but the cutscenes in the boss fights are not epic at all hardly. I think it is because Ichiban is not some legendary fighter hes more human than all the other past Yakuza characters so he doesnt have overwelming strength and can trade blows with enemies and stuff im not sure. The game needed more cutscenes with your friends fighting to i have no doubt this will change in Yakuza 8 and get improved and stuff but its definately a really big negative.

The Job systems is also a problem because when you level up theres two things you level, your character level and you job level so switching a job will bring you down to level 1 on the job so you'd have to grind it out and level it up if you want to try a new class and i just couldn't be bothered. Sometimes you dont even want to switch jobs because the characters main job is there own unique one so switching it makes them feel the same. I wish you could have switched jobs on the fly like Final Fantasy X-2 dresspheres, but in Yakuza you have to go to a certain place to change it and yeah its annoying when the job doenst work so you ran all the way to the place and changed it for nothing. Those are the only two negatives i can think of honestly.

Final Thoughts

Yakuza Like A Dragon was awesome, I was worried about the RPG turn based combat but man i enjoyed it a lot i like the new change. I think it works to because of Ichiban actually needing help and not being able to fight 50 people on his own like the Yakuza Legends. Judgement also had more of a companion thing going but Yagami could also fight 30 people by himself but Ichiban can't do that as of yet anyway but i like it i like hes more human and a bit more realistic. It has loads of amazing characters, It being a traditional RPG has postives and negatives like i said Ichibans more of the focus in cutscenes and in fights his friends really aren't and they need to feel more like a group with equal focus on each atleast in combat. The bosses are the main negative after Final Fantasy 7 taken Yakuzas style in bosses i was ready for Yakuza to do that as well but they took these out and even when two bosses did have it its not nearly as epic as all the other Yakuzas no fights in Like A Dragon come close to any of the Yakuzas not even Judgement or Fist Of The North Star. Judgement had that bad ass final Hospital fight which i still remember because it was just freaking bad ass. Than Yakuza 6 the fights in that were just incredible and it sucks but Yakuza Like A Dragon fails on this and even when it tries it when cutscenes happen your party vanishes and its just a one on one with Ichiban and a boss til the cutscenes over and your friend reappear again took me out a a bit. The story though is great! Is it better than 6 or Judgement? probably not but it still has a lot of great stuff happening and twist and turns and surprises and great moments like that final chapter was....WOW! The ending itself is.....you'll see but probably one of the best endings of 2020.  Also should mention i played with english voices than went to see what Iciban sounded like in Japanese and i cant go back to japanese because Ichibans english voice the performance is amazing especially at the end...my god! Also you can argue how the hell his friends can even fight people but its Yakuza so who cares lmao

My Score for Yakuza Like A Dragon is a 8 Had it had the bosses it would have been a 9 or a 10 but loses points on that.

The cast of characters is great. I enjoyed getting to know them. They all felt unique instead of played out character archetypes. Ichiban Kasuga is a good Yakuza lead. He wears his heart on his sleeve and is obsessed with Dragon Quest. It makes him fun and believable in the serious moments of the main story and the silly moments of the side quests.

Yakuza successfully switched to turn-based RPG combat. Party members have jobs that represent everyday people seen on the streets of Ijincho such as hostesses, homeless people, construction workers, and break dancers. The attacks these jobs offer are funny, exaggerated versions of what these people would do. It feels very Yakuza. When attacking, the game will bring up QTE prompts for mashing the "X" button or pressing the "Y" button at the right time to do extra damage. This is also done when defending where the player can press "B" right as an enemy hits them to decrease the amount of damage taken. It all makes for an active, tense, and satisfying combat system. This games form of summons is a phone app called Poundmates that allows players to call characters they've met in side quests and pay them to come help in battles for one powerful attack or support ability. These can also get pretty silly too.

The enemies are also representative of people seen in the streets of Ijincho. There are enemies like Yakuza, street punks, and thieves that would pose an obvious threat, but there are also weird ones like therapists, ministers, and garbage bag men. They have fittingly weird attacks too. It feels like the developers are having a lot of fun making this game, and it's refreshing for a JRPG. The bosses are tough, and they made me pay attention to my character builds and team composition. They feel like epic battles even though most of the time, I'm just fighting one man. My only issue is that some enemies are just damage sponges with a lot of HP and resistance to all attacks. Unlike bosses, they aren't challenging to fight and have a small move set. Fighting them just feels like a boring waste of time. Some missions have dungeons, but there's nothing much to them that's interesting. It's mainly just running from enemy encounter to enemy encounter to get to the boss at the end.

The main story is good. It's long, but that's because they were putting in the work to make the later moments of the game feel earned. Ichiban's start is similar to Kiryu's. He takes the fall for a crime committed fellow Yakuza member and spends 18 years in prison for murder. When he gets out, he is betrayed by his old boss, shot, and left in the trash to die. He is rescued by a homeless community in Ijincho. From there he works his way to get back on his feet by looking for jobs and helping out the locals in the community who are being oppressed by the local gangs. The latter digs him deeper into the affairs of the three major gangs called the Ijincho three: the Japanese Seiryu Clan, the Chinese LIumang, and the Korean Geomijul. There are plenty of surprises as the story gets bigger going from tackling homeless and deportation issues to corrupt politicians in local and regional governments. The story was all told through cut scenes where good performances all around and full English voice acting. Some of these cut scenes felt dragged out though. I had plenty of times where my controller disconnected for being idle too long while I was watching some of these scenes. I have no idea where they would go next if they make a sequel because this game covers a lot of ground.

The game does have some pacing issues. Most of the game was a smooth ride. I fought every enemy encounter I ran into and was sufficiently leveled for most dungeons by doing this, but there were a few moments of difficulty spikes that forced me to grind for hours to get my characters' levels up. There was a mission that had a recommended level, but for some reason, the game doesn't show a recommended level for all missions. This would have saved me some time butting my head against a boss that I wasn't strong enough to beat. There is also a moment in this game where I needed to raise 3,000,000 yen. I don't even think I had 100,000 yen at the time, and it took hours to get that money. These were all very memorable annoyances in the game that brought the experience down for me.

To raise the 3,000,000 yen, there is a surprisingly deep minigame where Ichiban runs a company called Ichiban Confections. This company is failing as it recently went public. The daughter of the company's late original owner needs Ichiban's help making the company a success and raising the ranks. I needed to raise sales by managing employees (hiring, firing, and improving morale), managing property (buying, selling, upgrading, and assigning employees), purchasing commercial production and air time, making investments, and pleasing shareholders. It all felt intimidating at first, and it took a few sales periods to wrap my head around it. I became heavily invested in it, and it even has it's own hidden story inside of it including its own boss fights.

The side quests can be hilarious or touching and sometimes both at the same time. They are worth doing, and I'm going to keep playing to see them all. Other than the standard side quests, there are also smaller quests that are apart of an app called Part-Time Hero. Once Ichiban is hired by the company, he can help out people in trouble by fighting off assailants or getting items they need for money or get paid by finding collectibles in the world requested by jobs posted. Standard side quests have multiple parts to them, but these Part-Time Hero jobs are one and done. They are good for some quick money.

Ichiban has personality stats similar to the Persona series. They can be raised by doing side quests or bonding with party members. There's also a minigame involving taking vocational tests to raise personality stats. The tests have multiple choice trivia questions on a range of topics and have a time limit on answering them. I didn't know most of the questions and relied on Google or guessing for most of them. Raising these stats can be used for recruiting employees for Ichiban Confections and getting to know non-party member characters in the world. I didn't dig too deeply into this system. I raised my stats enough to talk to some characters in the world, but I found little initial pay off in doing so. To continue talking to them after the first time, I had to raise my stats more, but I didn't bother. I'll look into it more now that I've completed the main story.

"You better take me down in one shot." "Why's that?" "Because if you miss I'm gonna beat the shit outta you!"

This was my first Yakuza experience and I got to say I really enjoyed it. Definitely lived up to its reputation. It's by no means perfect and most individual systems in the game are honestly mediocre, yet the game manages being far greater than the sum of its parts. A sentiment I also felt about Persona 4.

The story has a tone that's all over the place which does give me mixed feelings about it especially since the game is LOOOOOONG. I spent roughly 70 hours, which included doing all the side quests I found, trying each mini game at least once, doing the battle arena and barely touching the dungeons (I never did the lower level dungeon but I did a few floors of the late game dungeon before calling it quits. It was honestly just tedious and not that interesting IMO). It ranges from the hilarity/memetastic to extreme melodrama taking its nonsense plot way too seriously. Which is apparently par for the course with the series. While most story beats are pretty mediocre or nonsensical, the high moments are VERY high. Not going to lie, even the ending was very cathartic, though I wish they had done something more interesting with Masato/Aoki boss fight rather than having it be another slug fest. Especially since he was born crippled, may have been interesting to show his character becoming power drunk as a reaction to being born handicapped. It's kinda there now but half-baked since he gets "experimental" surgery from America to basically become a martial arts chad. Given he is substantially weaker than Tendo and his fight does have a mechanic of constantly calling in minions, so it is technically different even if not in a particularly clever way. Also the post-credit scene never ends lol

In the end, I found Ichi to be a very endearing dingus. Who is as cartoonishly good as his villains are cartoonishly evil. It doesn't quite hit the heights of Don Quixote does (which it does reference) but overall it was an enjoyable experience well worth my time, even if it definitely overstayed it's welcome. Where this game truly shines is in the side content.

I loved the business management mini-game. It engrossed me. It cleverly captures late stage capitalism with it's use of bar graphs to make decisions on promotions, fires, hires and investments. All done based on statistics, devoid of the humanity. It's designed in a way to encourage you to min/max just like an exec would operate. Unfortunately, since there is an ending to it, I did reach a point when I had basically maximized my profit potential. So I just started racking in money without losing anything and the minigame went from being extremely engaging to very boring since victory was 100% ensured. There were a few stressful moments, such as when I took out a billion dollar loan. For a long stretch I was just scraping by, thinking I may have ruined my company, until I paid off the debt then my profits exploded. But hey, that's business. Got to spend money to make it ya? While it makes canonical sense why you cannot sell Ichiban Confections, I definitely felt compelled to sell it when it was only raking in 3mil dollars and my other companies were raking in 40+mil. Definitely acted as a handicap, but Ichiban is too empathetic to ever consider selling it. Still, would have been interesting to leave that decision to the player and perhaps have a better rewards for keeping Ichiban Confections.

The game is certainly buggy. In cut scenes you will have tons of random people teleport in and out of existence. In combat, your character will get caught on terrain or path towards enemies in silly and nonsensical ways. Fortunately the devs included a safety valve wherein you teleport to the enemy if your character doesn't reach it within a certain amount of time due to buggy pathing through the cluttered world. It's also pretty disappointing how unreliable AOE abilities are and how unpredictable it is for you to use random objects as weapons, such as bikes, cones, ect. The combat is serviceable with added goofy/MEME flavor to keep it engaging, such as siccing a horde of pigeons on an enemy to kill them.

Combat is overall pretty mediocre, having less depth than Crono Trigger on the SNES. You can't control your positioning or the enemies and you have no idea if your AOE abilities are going to hit multiple targets (both of these common sense issues are apparently addressed in the sequel). Also while enemies have weaknesses and resistances, you barely notice this impact in the late game where bosses are basically damage sponges which makes their fights feel more tedious/annoying than epic and cathartic. I'm hesitate to say there were difficulty spikes, but The Dragon fight and Tendo both were fights where the bosses were significantly higher levels from the rest of the game and hit like trucks while being as durable as a bus. You are certainly expected to grind before both fights. Fortunately both do also give you the battle arena and late game dungeon respectively, but I never like a game that forces you to grind. Just feels like lazy padding and makes the "challenge" of the fights trivial anyways if you grind long enough...a lose-lose in my book. Not hard, but very tedious. Especially due to the lack of depth from combat.

You also get into WAY too many random encounters that you sometimes can't avoid. What makes this grating is not only the prevalence of these fights, but also how low level enemies will still bite at your ankles. Giving you no XP nor challenge. They really should have caused low level enemies to flee from you in fear, which would work as nice character development showing that Ichiban is moving up in the world and would remove the tedium of pointless random fights. You do get an accessory late into the game as a reward from the battle arena that will stop enemies from spawning on the street. Which is amazing since it completely removes this gripe. The BIG catch being that you can't get it until late into the game and you've already slogged your way through tons of tedium.

Overall, I do recommend this game, but be warned it is long and rife with padding. But just as rife with meme humor if that's your jam. There are few RPGS that let you roleplay as a hobo mage.