Yakuza: Like A Dragon is the seventh primary entry in the Yakuza franchise and the last to use the Yakuza name. From humble beginnings with the original Yakuza in 2005, to the breakout success of Yakuza 0 in the West back in 2015, Yakuza’s unique mix of high-octane action and intense criminal drama alongside an abundance of absurd and addictive mini-games and side content has rightly won the series acclaim from fans and critics alike. This new entry in the series brings not just a new name, but a new protagonist, city, and a complete combat redesign. While every entry of the series has added something new, including other protagonists, it is the scale and scope of these changes that makes Like A Dragon such an ambitious experiment, and while the changes are not universally positive, Yakuza: Like A Dragon presents a future for the Yakuza franchise we should all be excited for.
For those unacquainted with the series, the Yakuza franchise thus far has followed a member of the Dojima crime family named Kiryu Kazuma, a stoic man with a heart of gold who, after serving a 10 year prison sentence for a crime he took the fall for but did not commit, finds himself embroiled in the endless political struggles between rival Yakuza. His journeys through the criminal underworld of the fictional red light district of Kamurocho (a near one to one replica of Tokyo’s Kabukicho district) have served as the basis for the six major Yakuza games thus far. After following Kiryu’s journey for so many years, with his story coming to a proper close at the end of Yakuza 6, the question of where the series would go next became increasingly imminent. What even is the Yakuza series without Kiryu behind the wheel? Like A Dragon answers that question with another: what isn’t the series without Kiryu? In actuality this Kiryu-less entry in the series fares incredibly well despite this seemingly massive change. The masterful crime thriller writing of the series remains beautifully intact, and with Ichiban being as fun to watch punch his way through every situation as Kiryu while being a wholly different character, it’s hard not to get swept up with Like A Dragon as if nothing has changed at all. It begs the question: how much really has changed?
In a nod to series tradition, Like A Dragon opens similarly to other entries, giving us the opportunity to wander around the familiar Kamurocho as new protagonist Ichiban Kasuga, a 24 year old, bright-eyed member of the small-time Arakawa crime family run by the once-legendary hitman Masumi Arakawa. When a dispute between a rival crime family leads to Arakawa’s second-in-command committing murder, Arakawa pleads for Ichiban to take the fall to keep the family from collapsing. Ichiban, being exactly the sort of person who would jump at the chance to be a martyr, gladly volunteers himself, seeing it as an opportunity to show true heroism while repaying the kindness of his patriarch. With Ichiban behind bars, we then flash-word to 2019 where, after serving his 18 year prison sentence (extended from 15 after Ichiban gets into a fight with a prisoner who bad-mouthed Arakawa), the now 42 year old Ichiban walks out of the prison gates with a smile, believing Arakawa will be there to welcome him back into the family and his old life. What Ichiban actually finds is no welcome at all, but a washed up detective from Yokohama named Adachi Koichi who informs Ichiban that no one will be coming to welcome him, and the criminal world as he knew it no longer exists. The criminal world is now controlled by a Yakuza organization series veterans will know well: the Omi Alliance. The Omi have even taken over Ichiban’s home of Kamurocho, the former heart of the now dissolved Tojo Clan (the alliance of crime families which Arakawa and previous protagonist Kiryu were a part of). To make matters even more confusing, Arakawa has somehow become the chairman of the Omi Alliance, seeming to have sold out the Tojo Clan to obtain power and influence. If this wasn’t enough stress for one day, when Ichiban manages to track down Arakawa and confront him about this, Arakawa shoots him in cold blood and Ichiban is left to die in the streets of Ijincho, Yokohama. Upon recovering, Ichiban finds himself homeless, penniless, and without much else but his wits and the kindness of others to get back on his feet and uncover the truth of what happened to Arakawa while he was in prison.
If you’re worried that I’ve gone and spoiled most of the game in that summary, let me assure you that everything I’ve mentioned here is just the opening tutorial (yes, really). In true Yakuza fashion, Like A Dragon manages to fit enough twists and turns into its opening hours alone to serve as a feature-length film. Many have rightly criticized the opening hours of Yakuza games for being entirely too passive, mostly consisting of simple gameplay tutorials interspersed with hours of exposition and Like A Dragon similarly has a bad habit of withholding the fun too long for the sake of telling its story. While I personally have become fond of this slow-burn style of storytelling, many new players will likely be confused or disappointed to find their first session with the game will mostly have them placing their controller down, sitting back, and watching cutscenes. This is not saying you should skip these cutscenes or avoid the game because of this slow start, it’s the opposite really. Part of what makes Yakuza games so enthralling is that they approach storytelling in a way more similar to a visual novel than a Western AAA action game. You get a lot of time to watch characters grow, interact with each other, and shape the world around them. With Like A Dragon, rather than one overarching plot, players are given a plethora of smaller, interconnected stories which eventually coalesce into an appropriately climactic and complex conclusion.
The chapters of the story are quite self-contained too, giving the game natural stopping points which make these long story moments easier to digest. This makes the experience much easier to pick up and put down since you can generally reach the end of a single chapter in one play session and come back for another when it suits you best. Soon you’ll find you’ve been through what feels like a vast number of different stories that are individually satisfying but still build on one another. For every hour Like A Dragon asks of its players, it gives twice the density of storytelling you’ll find in most games. While it may not be possible for everyone, investing the time to watch Like A Dragon’s sprawling narrative take shape will leave you with such a wealth of fun and fascinating characters that you may find it’s actually putting the game down that is the real challenge.
The premise behind the new turn-based combat system is especially brilliant. The narrative explanation is that the game’s new turn-based RPG battles are actually the result of Ichiban thinking of everything in his life in terms of Dragon Quest, which he has been obsessed with since childhood. This goes as far as Ichiban outright hallucinating during combat, with allies and enemies alike suddenly transforming into their combat personas. This way of explaining the turn-based nature of the game feels like an elaborate joke that only gets funnier when fights begin to decide the entire fate of the Japanese political system, but Ichiban still insists on waiting his turn to pummel villains with his bat. The combat itself is traditional JRPG fare with the added elements of positional strategy, crowd control, and resource management that retain their depth even late into the game. You’re not going to get the speed and bombast of Persona 5 or the complex positional strategy of a Fire Emblem game, but Like A Dragon finds a satisfying middle ground where enemy positioning and damage type optimization serve as opportunities for interesting choices without being overwhelming. That being said, some fights fail to capture the positives of either of these gameplay styles. Particularly in fights with low-level enemies where it feels wasteful to use MP, there is not a rush mechanic to speed through them, leading to most overworld fights becoming frustrating roadblocks rather than exciting chances to level up while navigating the world map. Particularly around the midpoint of the game, Ijincho’s overworld became more tedious than fun for me as I was stuck choosing between a loading screen to fast travel, or having my time wasted by unavoidable combat encounters with multiple low level overworld enemies on the way to my destination. While playing, I ended up just staring at the mini-map to ensure I avoided enemies but as a result, I stopped being able to look around at the beautiful environments of Ijincho’s streets as I traveled.
The quick-time event system for skill moves is the start of an interesting gameplay idea, but Like A Dragon does not refine the idea in a way that past entries in the series have, leaving them feeling dull by comparison. In previous games with a fighting game style combat, players had the chance to not just learn button combos to use interesting attacks, but also would encounter quick-time events to trigger finishing blows. These would often appear in boss battles or when certain street objects were near the player, allowing them to react to their surroundings for the chance to deal greater damage. The system became somewhat repetitive by later games but it was easy to forgive this since it generally ended battles more quickly. In Like A Dragon these quick time events persist but without the sense that they actively enhance attacks. Often if these inputs are failed, you are left with an attack that doesn’t do a satisfying amount of damage. It feels more as if you are punished for failing the quick time event rather than being rewarded for good play. As someone who is quite bad with quick-time events I usually found myself looking for comparable attacks with no quick time event or skill moves that required excessive button mashing instead.
This issue was highlighted for me in certain boss fights where my opponent would have an excessive amount of health, but wouldn’t take meaningfully more damage from a skill move (particularly when I missed a quick-time event). This meant I was often spamming standard attacks or cheap skill moves since the difference in damage often didn’t feel meaningful enough to waste my resources. Even the skill moves that asked me to button mash (which were more reliable to execute than timing-based skill moves) became tedious as I did them turn after turn and my fingers began to ache. It was disappointing to feel that the best solution was to just use basic attacks and healing moves when I sincerely wanted to take advantage of the large array of skills my characters had available. I would still use certain skill moves to add challenge at times or because they looked cool, but it generally just felt wasteful and time-consuming to do so when combat would take a similar amount of time regardless. The exception to this was crowd-control attacks, which were easily the most fun I had with the combat system. I never got tired of Ichiban whipping around as a breakdancer wiping out six enemies at once in an instant. I can absolutely see where the fun is here and I hope with future entries we see refinements that keep the fun alive more consistently in combat.
It wouldn’t be a Yakuza game without a slew of hilarious and addictive minigames. Even calling them “mini” feels somewhat inaccurate considering that they often include multi-hour side stories and some have enough mechanical depth to be considered fully formed games. Standouts this time around include Dragon Kart (a Mario Kart style racing game with full car customization and a cast of wild characters to race against), the business management game at Ichiban Confections which has you essentially becoming local business tycoon overnight, and the Can Collection game which has you colliding with opponents to obtain the most tin cans to recycle for cash. Like A Dragon also has a collection of popular Sega arcade titles, crane games, and many popular gambling games all available to sink untold hours into if you let them.
Like previous titles, Like A Dragon suffers from an often well-meaning but fundamentally ignorant approach to social issues such as gender. The series has had major female characters over the years, however they have consistently been made secondary to their male counterparts. Like A Dragon has made some progress in this regard, with one primary and one secret member of the player’s party being women, but the sexism is still embedded on a mechanical and narrative level. For some confusing reason, gender determines a character’s combat class options. While the male characters have access to eight diverse classes to choose from such as Fortune Teller, Enforcer (Security Guard), Breaker (Breakdancer), and Chef; female characters are given only four total class options, all of which are sexual or service-oriented: Idol, Hostess, Nightqueen (Dominatrix), and Dealer. The decision is extremely confusing overall considering the series’ overall positivity around gender nonconformity. The idea of having a team of leather-clad middle-aged men fighting as Dominatrixes sounds like exactly the kind of joyful absurdity this series captures so well, and yet the opportunity to embrace player choice is entirely missed. Narratively only one of these characters (Saeko) is a main focus of the plot and the comments made by the protagonist and his male counterparts about her body and perceived inability to hold her own are disappointing and unnecessary especially considering how excellent of a party member she is.
When it comes to other social issues the game’s story addresses, it’s a similarly mixed bag. Particularly disappointing was Ichiban’s time living in a tent city for the unhoused and his struggles to find work without a home address or connections. This part was so nearly a highlight of the story for me. While the game makes an active effort in both its plot and side-quests to humanize and empathize with the unhoused, Ichiban’s story eventually all but leaves them behind as our protagonist gets a lucky break and is suddenly no longer lacking in work opportunities or housing. The story makes good strides in making clear that homelessness is something that social programs, government work programs, and regular people all exacerbate, but never fully commits to a clear message for players to take away from Ichiban’s intimate encounters with those he meets in the tent city. Instead, it seems to muddy its own success by not seeming to fully commit to empathizing with the residents of the tent city in the narrative.
There really are no other game studios who do it quite like Ryu Ga Gotoku, and Yakuza: Like a Dragon makes clear that even after all this time, they have no intention of resting on their laurels. Yakuza: Like a Dragon shows that its developers are committed to elevating their unique brand of action to new and exciting heights. Even with some narrative missteps and at-times repetitive gameplay, it is clear that future titles have plenty of opportunity to grow. If you haven’t played a Yakuza game yet, there really is no better time than now to dive in. Wherever Ichiban goes next, you’re not going to want to miss it.
Yakuza: Like A Dragon remains true to its roots, for better and for worse
By: Olive Haugh