Yakuza: Like a Dragon Reviews

My first intro to Yakuza series and I am not disappointed. Good story, good gameplay, massive amount of content and mini-games, replayability value is high, recommended 9.99 / 10.00

Noticeably the first try they had at a turn based yakuza. The balance is questionable, the crafting system is cool but the materials are a pain, and the lack of indicators for AoE skills made them feel wonkier than they needed to be. However, the story more than makes up for it and solidified my love for Ichi, not to mention the elation of beating a legitimately hard endgame if you don't cheese it too much(at least story, I don't plan on going to the final dungeon anytime soon).

While the side minigames are entertaining, the random difficulty spikes and boring combat make this game feel like a chore to play. I found the silliness endearing and the minigames were fun for a bit. The story was interesting, but there was way too much dialog to the point I was skipping 90% of it and still understood the story. The few fun things that I like about this game come nowhere close to compensating for how boring the majority of this game is. 5/10

The first time the Yakuza series turned to a turn based combat system, I was very hesitant at first when I heard this but at the same time I was very intrigued. As a long time follower of the Yakuza franchise I knew that I would play this. It's my favourite game in the whole series as of writing this, the story is great. Kasuga is a great and fresh protagonist to introduce to the series that somewhat needed a breath of life into it.

Turn based style is an incredibly big downgrade compared to the previous game play style the series was known for, definitely thinking about skipping this game.

This game is pretty epic. It's like persona but instead of playing as some boring high schoolers fighting the government or something. You play as a 42-year-old homeless man with undiagnosed schizophrenia and his friends on their quest. To find a proper job in today's economy after spending 18 years in the joint for a crime he didn't commit

This game has everything you would expect from a Japanese game. Great story, great gameplay, great setting. It was my first Yakuza game, does not require prior knowledge. Be prepared for long cutscenes (most you can click through dialogs), adequate amount of grinding for there is quite a difficulty jump around chapter 11-13, exploration and tinkering your team. Beat the final boss, and enjoy a 20 minute movie epilogue. <3

Best JRPG I've ever played and definitely one of the best RPGs I've experienced in general. The characters and story are incredible, as is the gameplay, quests and activities. The turn-based combat is a blast. I really can't say one bad thing about this game. Best main character I've seen in a video game yet. It's a must play! 10/10

Yakuza: Like a Dragon, or Yakuza 7 (Y7) is the... eight installment in the mainline Yakuza series! After many years telling the story of the Dragon of Dojima, that mostly concluded on the previous title, RGG Studio took it upon themselves to reinvent the franchised they had fostered for years. The result they arrived to: taking their existing world and turning it into a turn based RPG featuring a brand new protagonist. This game separated itself from its predecessors by turning into a turn based RPG for its main combat gameplay. However, I'd say it has certain elements of action RPGs. The enemies and playable characters interact with their environments in dynamic ways, moving in to attack, taking or avoiding damage based on their position, some attacks may even change depending on the surroundings. While the player lacks control of most of these aspects, understanding and using them to one's advantage is key. Besides city exploration and random encounters, the game will present several "dungeons" throughout the story, most are temporary, while others become permanent and allow you to access them again in order to strengthen your party. The new protagonist, Ichiban, is brimming with charm and personality, and his outlook on his adventure allows for an entire party of characters to tag along for the adventure, traveling together and adding to the development of the story. The game mainly takes place in a completely new city, Yokohama's Ijincho area, which is considerably bigger than good ol' Kamurocho. Of course you also have your Yakuza staples in minigames an sub stories. On top of the classic ones, you'll also encounter party chats when eating or exploring the city, adding more substance and incentive to explore the world. Enemies are classified into many types and they have determined spawn areas, and the map is split into distinct subsections that house them. On the completion side, most requirements stay the same as previous games, like minigames and such, but the RPG gameplay creates a new type of challenge for the end game. A new dungeon becomes available in Premium Adventure with more challenging enemies than those of the main game. Beat that and a considerably harder version appears, which pretty much requires you to grind to max level and overcome that massive challenge, a good understanding of the battle system is a must to conquer it. For the rest of completion there are many objectives but they're not technically required, you don't even get any items for completing everything, but veteran completionists may still take up the task to conquer all the objectives regardless. This game has been praised immensely and I completely understand it after playing it, i never put it down while I played it and I clocked in 164 hours after everything had been done. I hear the gameplay improves on 8 so I'm eager to discover them when I get around to it.

[h3]Real Yakuza use a gamepad.[/h3] There's (currently) two entry points to the Yakuza series. Yakuza 0 and Yakuza: Like a Dragon. However, they feature completely different combat systems. At the time of writing, I have only played a few hours of Yakuza 0 and this title. So I would consider this game to be my first. But you can't go wrong entering the series at either place, regardless. [h3]Tradition — combat mechanics[/h3] Much like the Yakuza culture, being steeped in tradition. This series has you normally playing as Kazuma Kiryu. With the games he's in being beat 'em ups. However, in Like a Dragon, you'll play as Ichiban Kasuga. Who is obsessed with Dragon Quest. No really. The whole game is turn-based because that's how he starts to envision fighting. Moreover, the game is effectively a traditional JRPG set in a 'low-fantasy' setting. That said, the skills are secondary to the core of the combat, which is positioning and timing. This might sound odd in a turn-based game. Let me explain — the characters are always moving around each other. All mixed up. Enemies and party members alike. If you do a basic attack when there are enemies in the way, there is a significant chance you'll not only take damage from an opportunity attack, but you may be interrupted entirely. Making your turn completely wasted. So the core of the combat really comes down to selecting targets that are open to attack as everyone is moving around. Of course, the combat is deeper than this, there are status effects, types of attack, melee, blade, etc. Resistances to the aforementioned. There is also a job system which can be leveled individually from character level. You're able to use some special attacks to avoid the chance of being interrupted by targeting enemies far away. I'm unsure if that was intentional, but I ended up doing it a lot. There's also a mechanic to block attacks to mitigate damage, you must press the associated button right before the attack lands. It's a little like Super Mario RPG — that's what it reminded me of anyways. Some special abilities also have a timed button press to increase damage. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3419070558 [h3]There is a TON to do in this game.[/h3] In spite of this, I did not find the game excessively grind-y. Given the genre, you might expect that. But you can do mini-games that are rather involved and some that are less involved. See movies with companions, build a relationship (bond) with them — this also increases your own chance for opportunity attacks as well as allow non-active party members to gain experience points. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3419070716 The city itself is teeming with life. While it feels oddly restrictive, in that you cannot really interact with the world, there's a ton of items and things to find though exploration. It can be rather rewarding. Doing sub-stories will often gain you characters that can be used in other aspects. Typically either for “Poundmates”, which act as summons in the combat, or for one of the more elaborate mini-games introduced as “Ichiban Confections”. This one is unlocked a little later in the game. You'll run a business, manage employees and decide when to expand. There are even shareholder meetings which has an entirely different “combat” system. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3419070955 At one point I even traveled to the park just to collect bugs for the “Part-Time Hero” side missions. There's some really, genuinely funny and enjoyable side stuff in this game. [h3]Deck Specs[/h3] This is gonna pull around almost the full 25W all the time. But it runs phenomenal on the deck. 800P native, no scaling — the game will run 35-60FPS depending on the area. But as the game is turn-based, this shouldn't effect much. I personally think it also looks very good on the OLED screen and I think that the JRPG genre is simply perfect for handhelds. [h3]The Gist[/h3] Fantastic story, good combat. Great entry point to the series. Very satisfying still if this is the only Yakuza game you play. I can't honestly say anything bad about it. The cutscenes can be a little long, I guess. I'd recommend it to everyone unless you truly just cannot stand JRPGs. [quote]If you've found this review helpful, consider following my curation — [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/28295405/]Station Argus[/url][/quote] [i]With finesse![/i]