Yakuza: Like a Dragon - RPG turn-based combat - Yakuza will remain turn-based. Get your brawler fix playing Judgment.

twitter.com/RGGStudio/status/1299766578783956995

twitter.com/RGGStudio/status/1303494087211806722

twitter.com/RGGStudio/status/1310643993689100288

twitter.com/RGGStudio/status/1310565331354738689

Yoshimi wrote:I've never given Yakuza games much notice, but this grabbed my interest and I think I'll either pick it up on PC or wait for the PS5 release.

In the meantime I manged to get a Yakuza 0 Steam key for £4 and have been really enjoying it this weekend.

speedboatchase wrote:

Yoshimi wrote:I've never given Yakuza games much notice, but this grabbed my interest and I think I'll either pick it up on PC or wait for the PS5 release.

In the meantime I manged to get a Yakuza 0 Steam key for £4 and have been really enjoying it this weekend.

Glad you're enjoying it. Go for Kiwami 1 and 2 afterwards if you're enjoying it - they're much compact and have great storylines.

Experience near-instant load times, cutting-edge next-gen crustacean A.I, and so much more in Yakuza: Like a Dragon on Xbox Series X.

For RGG Studio's first crack at an RPG, it's a damn fine result. It delivers what I love most about Yakuza and introduces new ideas that largely pay off. Ichiban isn't doing it alone, either. He has friends and mentors, ones who've helped him fight and overcome personal tragedies. It was an absolute thrill to watch him grow, and that's what's most important for a game so focused on its characters. Yakuza: Like a Dragon is a passing of the torch, and a fantastic entry in a beloved franchise that proves that it's in good hands with Kasuga Ichiban.

Yakuza: Like a Dragon’s colourful turn-based combat, engaging lead characters, and detail-rich setting make for a refreshingly different and mostly thrilling instalment in the long-running Japanese crime series. However, pathfinding annoyances and a number of escalating difficulty spikes in its closing chapters made completing its story feel like much more of a repetitive slog than any of the previous games. While I applaud the developers for daring to transform its established brawling into more tactically complex team-based battles, the grueling progression system it brings along with it means that Yakuza: Like a Dragon ultimately takes some bold steps in a new direction for the series but neglects to completely maintain its balance.

Although not without its faults, Yakuza: Like A Dragon is a likeable entry in the series, that retains the underlying themes of honour and helping the underdog. The turn-based combat works reasonably well, even if it’s fundamentally less exciting than the old system. It’s likely to be a divisive feature, and it will be interesting to see how it’s adapted in future episodes, hopefully with a rebalancing of the job system. Like A Dragon is also a massive game and for fans of side quests and distractions it’ll be easy to get lost in this for weeks on end.

Yakuza: like A Dragon is a good game - sometimes it's okay, sometimes it's great, sometimes it made me groan. It runs the full gamut of emotions, from boredom to disbelief. The will to reinvent itself is there, and that means not everything works - whether you'll enjoy it or not depends on what aspects you care about the most.

What Ryu ga Gotoku Studio has created is an ambitious new entry in a franchise that has managed to endure for over 15 years. Series veterans might be turned off by this new direction, but it manages to retain the same essence as its predecessors. And by the end, Ichiban Kasuga and Yakuza: Like a Dragon both prove to be a worthy successor to the franchise.

Yakuza: Like a Dragon impressively pulls off the switch to an RPG in style, providing an excellent combat system supported by loveable characters, and a tantalising main storyline with meaningful side quests.