Overall a ok game. Worst rgg combat I've experienced by a mile lol. But side stuff is good and I like the story and ost a lot. The combat definitely fucked up the experience a lot and the many performance issues even though I'm on ps5. But if you fw these games cop it any yakuza fan will probably enjoy this somewhat.
Hijikata Toshizō (Mine Yoshitaka)
Wife’s Reaction:
“You play all these Yakuza games and expect me to come up with some new pithy comment each time. It’s too much pressure!”
History Repeats Itself:
Ishin! follows the tried-and-true RGG formula and throws it back to the late Edo period of Japan. This setting and the four combat styles keep the game fresh, and—as always—the characters and story are the heart and soul that carry the game to heights and resonate on a crazy level with me.
“You play all these Yakuza games and expect me to come up with some new pithy comment each time. It’s too much pressure!”
History Repeats Itself:
Ishin! follows the tried-and-true RGG formula and throws it back to the late Edo period of Japan. This setting and the four combat styles keep the game fresh, and—as always—the characters and story are the heart and soul that carry the game to heights and resonate on a crazy level with me.
ASSASSINATION OF BODHISATTVA
not done yet but holy mother of god this is the most boring story rgg has ever told. I don't like Yakuza 5 or 6 much but at least their stories had their good points, this is just Worst Detective Alive Simulator 2014
Novamente a franquia entrega uma das melhores narrativas que essa mídia tem a oferecer. O combate é um dos mais divertidos e variados, apesar de ainda achar o aspecto mais fraco, todo o resto brilha bem mais, principalmente a ambientação e o conteúdo secundário que é muito variado e divertido.
A nice change-of-pace for the Like a Dragon franchise, it allows for a few almost entirely new combat styles that distinguish it from the rest, with a cool aesthetic and world. Sometimes, the more powerful enemies feel like sponges and the mechanics make it apparent that RGG are not experts in this style of combat, but for the most part it's quite fun. The story is a lot to handle, as is the case with most RGG games, and maybe if I had a better grasp of Japanese history it wouldn't be as convoluted. I also will say the familiar faces and voices were great, but they only served to hinder me in figuring out each character's role in the story and allegiances.
This review contains spoilers
Like a Dragon: Ishin is real unique in this kooky little game series that I've been fond of since Yakuza 0 first stole my heart. I was hyped to play it and got it early access, and after finishing it this past evening: The Yakuza Samurai game is kinda good with some caveats.
Ishin's gameplay manages well, despite being weighed down by the decade old clunkiness that defined much of the entries at the time and before. Wild Dancer is absolutely bizarre and a highlight for ripping through crowds and stun locking many big bads, nearly completed the whole ring by the end of the story. The gun style is hilariously broken and mows down common enemies well. Swordsmen's is also nice to play yet the most clunky and awkward out of the four, and I never used it much outside of boss battles. Despite the great parry ability, Brawler is far away the weakest link unless items and objects came into play to account for the terrible damage output, despite this being an issue across the board especially against bosses who deal huge amounts of damage and take slivers themselves. Ishin's combat mostly was very fun and rewarding as upgrades opened up, but man I was missing the near perfect combat of Lost Judgment so hard during the first ten or so hours of my Ishin playthrough.
The story was solid with the historical focus of Edo period Japan leading up to the Meiji Restoration. I was compelled by Ryoma's search for his father's killer and how he grappled with his position/legacy as a samurai in these tribes of the Shinsengumi and Tosa Loyalist Party. It was a real solid mystery that slightly complicated the view of samurai as righteous warriors of the land and featured moments that critiqued not just English colonialism, but also the class system in Japan that disproportionately benefited the rich and powerful in feudal society. This was damped a bit with the turn in the second half towards a hardcore nationalist propaganda that tries to absolve the samurai clans (especially the Shinsengumi) even after being shown the terror they've brought on individuals and communities. Our playable character deadass gives a long, rousing speech at the end of the game about what makes Japan great in his dark blue police outfit, despite being very against the way "justice" is handled by both sides of the aisle.
Of course this is a very complicated issue given the conflicts in Japan at the time and the looming threat of the West invading. I don't think the game itself can really disconnect itself from the ideological underpinnings of these clashes in order to tell this historical story as effectively as it did. Still, the heel turn from the first to second half of the game felt like whiplash. I feel that the story could have benefited from three or four more chapters in the middle that better paced these changes like suddenly becoming besties with the captains. Stuff like getting more time with the main individual captains like Shinpachi (who I think even had a moment where he revealed to Ryoma that he didn't agree with the clan's extrajudicial actions) or even the main and final antagonist of the story would have done some good. Even outside the propagandistic tune change, some story elements felt undercooked into the second half as it felt that the game's pace started sprinting to capture so many historical events and wrap them up before the ending arrived.
I'll touch a little on the graphics and framerate from my playthrough. The game looked decent when it ran at 60 FPS on performance mode on my ps4 pro, but the textures and pop-in looked very ugly when loading in the distance or even right out of loading screens. The performance was at its worst during one of the last chapters of the game where the town is set on fire and the framerate chugged for most of the gameplay. Fortunately this wasn't the case much outside of this one chapter, but I'd recommend setting the game to performance rather than quality/graphics mode because of how shaky it felt in the latter in my experience. Strange that this is named a "Kiwami" game since this feels like a slight remaster with some changes in a new engine, but very much not a remake like Yakuza Kiwami 1 and 2.
Not much to talk about for sidequests though. There were a few interesting ones that contained some genuinely comedic moments, but most of them were very forgettable and were extended, repetitious friendship events with little interesting rewards.
Funnily enough, the card system did not feel too intrusive to me. They were an eyesore at first but blended into the background as time went on. I'm conflicted on the boss card attacks as they were only a small handful that never fundamentally placed a disadvantage against me as you can guard or dodge easily out of most of them and they feel on brand to other gameplay tropes in other Yakuza games, yet I can see them being a problem for others. The dungeons themselves are cool fun for like 15-30 minutes with how samey the locales are and how easy the enemies are. I barely interacted with the crafting system because of how grindy and stingy the game is with certain materials and money/experience. The game thankfully gave some decently powerful weapons through defeating bosses in story battles, so it wasn't that bad.
To tie this long review off, LAD Ishin was some good action game fun all things considered, though very dated in many places. It clears most of the other Yakuza games for me that I've played and is an easy top 5 entry, even though I still feel a little contentious with the game and the issues I had with it. Regardless, I'll definitely be returning to play more side content and eventually do a legend and Ishin run down the road. Here's hoping Kenzan gets a remaster or remake sometime soon and joins Ishin as the second samurai Yakuza game to be localized in the west.
Ishin's gameplay manages well, despite being weighed down by the decade old clunkiness that defined much of the entries at the time and before. Wild Dancer is absolutely bizarre and a highlight for ripping through crowds and stun locking many big bads, nearly completed the whole ring by the end of the story. The gun style is hilariously broken and mows down common enemies well. Swordsmen's is also nice to play yet the most clunky and awkward out of the four, and I never used it much outside of boss battles. Despite the great parry ability, Brawler is far away the weakest link unless items and objects came into play to account for the terrible damage output, despite this being an issue across the board especially against bosses who deal huge amounts of damage and take slivers themselves. Ishin's combat mostly was very fun and rewarding as upgrades opened up, but man I was missing the near perfect combat of Lost Judgment so hard during the first ten or so hours of my Ishin playthrough.
The story was solid with the historical focus of Edo period Japan leading up to the Meiji Restoration. I was compelled by Ryoma's search for his father's killer and how he grappled with his position/legacy as a samurai in these tribes of the Shinsengumi and Tosa Loyalist Party. It was a real solid mystery that slightly complicated the view of samurai as righteous warriors of the land and featured moments that critiqued not just English colonialism, but also the class system in Japan that disproportionately benefited the rich and powerful in feudal society. This was damped a bit with the turn in the second half towards a hardcore nationalist propaganda that tries to absolve the samurai clans (especially the Shinsengumi) even after being shown the terror they've brought on individuals and communities. Our playable character deadass gives a long, rousing speech at the end of the game about what makes Japan great in his dark blue police outfit, despite being very against the way "justice" is handled by both sides of the aisle.
Of course this is a very complicated issue given the conflicts in Japan at the time and the looming threat of the West invading. I don't think the game itself can really disconnect itself from the ideological underpinnings of these clashes in order to tell this historical story as effectively as it did. Still, the heel turn from the first to second half of the game felt like whiplash. I feel that the story could have benefited from three or four more chapters in the middle that better paced these changes like suddenly becoming besties with the captains. Stuff like getting more time with the main individual captains like Shinpachi (who I think even had a moment where he revealed to Ryoma that he didn't agree with the clan's extrajudicial actions) or even the main and final antagonist of the story would have done some good. Even outside the propagandistic tune change, some story elements felt undercooked into the second half as it felt that the game's pace started sprinting to capture so many historical events and wrap them up before the ending arrived.
I'll touch a little on the graphics and framerate from my playthrough. The game looked decent when it ran at 60 FPS on performance mode on my ps4 pro, but the textures and pop-in looked very ugly when loading in the distance or even right out of loading screens. The performance was at its worst during one of the last chapters of the game where the town is set on fire and the framerate chugged for most of the gameplay. Fortunately this wasn't the case much outside of this one chapter, but I'd recommend setting the game to performance rather than quality/graphics mode because of how shaky it felt in the latter in my experience. Strange that this is named a "Kiwami" game since this feels like a slight remaster with some changes in a new engine, but very much not a remake like Yakuza Kiwami 1 and 2.
Not much to talk about for sidequests though. There were a few interesting ones that contained some genuinely comedic moments, but most of them were very forgettable and were extended, repetitious friendship events with little interesting rewards.
Funnily enough, the card system did not feel too intrusive to me. They were an eyesore at first but blended into the background as time went on. I'm conflicted on the boss card attacks as they were only a small handful that never fundamentally placed a disadvantage against me as you can guard or dodge easily out of most of them and they feel on brand to other gameplay tropes in other Yakuza games, yet I can see them being a problem for others. The dungeons themselves are cool fun for like 15-30 minutes with how samey the locales are and how easy the enemies are. I barely interacted with the crafting system because of how grindy and stingy the game is with certain materials and money/experience. The game thankfully gave some decently powerful weapons through defeating bosses in story battles, so it wasn't that bad.
To tie this long review off, LAD Ishin was some good action game fun all things considered, though very dated in many places. It clears most of the other Yakuza games for me that I've played and is an easy top 5 entry, even though I still feel a little contentious with the game and the issues I had with it. Regardless, I'll definitely be returning to play more side content and eventually do a legend and Ishin run down the road. Here's hoping Kenzan gets a remaster or remake sometime soon and joins Ishin as the second samurai Yakuza game to be localized in the west.
whatever... overrated af
the "yume" of y5 fans for this game is "sakamoto ryoma"
Definitely has shown it's age in some areas, more so then other Yakuza games. The decision to essentially just port this with an updated graphics engine and some new cast members makes Ishin a decidedly, and weirdly, retro experience, but it's a return to the classic Yakuza formula that should work for long time fans even if it's grindier then I think people would like.
It's liberties with Japanese history are plentiful for sure, but it's version of Ryoma Sakamoto feels true to life while also fascinating in it's exploration of identity and legacy; it feels like a game grappling with it's own portrayals of these figures on a meta level which makes the story thematically compelling. Another RGG banger, if ultimately nothing more then a fun side story.
It's liberties with Japanese history are plentiful for sure, but it's version of Ryoma Sakamoto feels true to life while also fascinating in it's exploration of identity and legacy; it feels like a game grappling with it's own portrayals of these figures on a meta level which makes the story thematically compelling. Another RGG banger, if ultimately nothing more then a fun side story.
This review contains spoilers
I liked when the villain said that he thinks allying with fucking Britain will get rid of Japan's class issues.
peak fiction incoming
O Yakuza de samurai!
Pra muitos isso ai pode ser um sonho, pra poucos como eu, os olhos não chegam a brilhar tanto quando penso nisso, porém, eu sou fã de Yakuza e não vou deixar passar nem sequer um spin off da minha reta, então gostando ou não gostando, fui dar uma chance pra Like a Dragon Ishin, entretanto, fui com as expectativas um tanto alta.. o que me causou o sentimento humano que muitos odeiam até mesmo escutar ou ver falar dela, a horrenda Decepção.
Quando iniciei o Ishin eu já notei uma diferença nos gráficos, que você percebe de cara que não é feito pela clássica Dragon Engine, e sim pela Unreal, e como todo mundo sabe a Unreal é uma engine complicada de se lidar, não é toda empresa que tem o domínio das funções dela e sabe executar bem o trabalho gráfico com ela, por isso, alguns jogos costumam ter a mesma cara e o mesmo aspecto, e infelizmente com Like a Dragon não foi diferente. Os rostos dos personagens são um tanto pálidos, o carregamento de algumas texturas incomoda um pouco, bugs de iluminação são recorrentes e a única coisa que não ocorreu comigo graças ao bom deus, foram os benditos stutterings.
Mas saindo da parte nerd, o principal da franquia aqui ainda continua bom, no caso a história. É uma das partes mais fortes do jogo (isso se não a única), tem reviravoltas, mistério e todo aquele ar maravilhoso que existe na franquia inteira, há momentos em que você se sente motivado a jogar apenas pra saber o que vai acontecer no próximo capítulo, e em outros momentos você não vê a hora de terminar ela logo por conta de fases chatas e entediantes, mas em geral ela agrada bastante seja fã ou não fã da franquia, é de facil discernimento e seu único problema é não conter legendas em PT-BR pra melhorar mais ainda a experiência.
Sua gameplay eu achei mais ou menos, com o tempo fui me acostumando mas dos 4 estilos eu apenas o usei o da espada, pois os outros parecem um tanto fora pra mim e não caiu muito no meu gosto, Wild Dancer é efetivo contra inimigos em área, o Gunner contra inimigos a distância, Swordsman contra 1v1 e o Brawler.. ta aí só por existir. Mas é claro que a gameplay dele não se resume apenas ao combate, o modo de ''bairro aberto'' como muitos gostam de chamar, é um tanto chato de caminhar por aqui e considero o mapa do Ishin um dos piores, o lugar é grande e te força em vários momentos a utilizar do fast travel e acaba tirando um pouco a gostosura de andar a pé e passar por encontros aleatórios como nos jogos anteriores.
O jogo tem seus pontos bons, mas pra mim ele não me agradou o suficiente pra eu dar 4 estrelas ou 5, só foi ficando bom depois do capítulo 8 e quando fui ver eu ja tava terminando ele, to triste pois queria ter gostado mais desse aqui, mas enfim, nem todo jogo é pra todo mundo e ta tudo certo!
Só não recomendo a quem nunca jogou Yakuza começar por esse aqui, acho que uma das melhores coisas que tem nesse jogo é você já conhecer os personagens e ver eles atuando outro!
Pra muitos isso ai pode ser um sonho, pra poucos como eu, os olhos não chegam a brilhar tanto quando penso nisso, porém, eu sou fã de Yakuza e não vou deixar passar nem sequer um spin off da minha reta, então gostando ou não gostando, fui dar uma chance pra Like a Dragon Ishin, entretanto, fui com as expectativas um tanto alta.. o que me causou o sentimento humano que muitos odeiam até mesmo escutar ou ver falar dela, a horrenda Decepção.
Quando iniciei o Ishin eu já notei uma diferença nos gráficos, que você percebe de cara que não é feito pela clássica Dragon Engine, e sim pela Unreal, e como todo mundo sabe a Unreal é uma engine complicada de se lidar, não é toda empresa que tem o domínio das funções dela e sabe executar bem o trabalho gráfico com ela, por isso, alguns jogos costumam ter a mesma cara e o mesmo aspecto, e infelizmente com Like a Dragon não foi diferente. Os rostos dos personagens são um tanto pálidos, o carregamento de algumas texturas incomoda um pouco, bugs de iluminação são recorrentes e a única coisa que não ocorreu comigo graças ao bom deus, foram os benditos stutterings.
Mas saindo da parte nerd, o principal da franquia aqui ainda continua bom, no caso a história. É uma das partes mais fortes do jogo (isso se não a única), tem reviravoltas, mistério e todo aquele ar maravilhoso que existe na franquia inteira, há momentos em que você se sente motivado a jogar apenas pra saber o que vai acontecer no próximo capítulo, e em outros momentos você não vê a hora de terminar ela logo por conta de fases chatas e entediantes, mas em geral ela agrada bastante seja fã ou não fã da franquia, é de facil discernimento e seu único problema é não conter legendas em PT-BR pra melhorar mais ainda a experiência.
Sua gameplay eu achei mais ou menos, com o tempo fui me acostumando mas dos 4 estilos eu apenas o usei o da espada, pois os outros parecem um tanto fora pra mim e não caiu muito no meu gosto, Wild Dancer é efetivo contra inimigos em área, o Gunner contra inimigos a distância, Swordsman contra 1v1 e o Brawler.. ta aí só por existir. Mas é claro que a gameplay dele não se resume apenas ao combate, o modo de ''bairro aberto'' como muitos gostam de chamar, é um tanto chato de caminhar por aqui e considero o mapa do Ishin um dos piores, o lugar é grande e te força em vários momentos a utilizar do fast travel e acaba tirando um pouco a gostosura de andar a pé e passar por encontros aleatórios como nos jogos anteriores.
O jogo tem seus pontos bons, mas pra mim ele não me agradou o suficiente pra eu dar 4 estrelas ou 5, só foi ficando bom depois do capítulo 8 e quando fui ver eu ja tava terminando ele, to triste pois queria ter gostado mais desse aqui, mas enfim, nem todo jogo é pra todo mundo e ta tudo certo!
Só não recomendo a quem nunca jogou Yakuza começar por esse aqui, acho que uma das melhores coisas que tem nesse jogo é você já conhecer os personagens e ver eles atuando outro!
Man, what a let down. A great idea on paper, let's take the Yakuza/Like a Dragon universe and move it into a new time period. There are some differences here and there of course, but the general idea should be a slam dunk and unfortunately, it comes up quite short and becomes maybe the worst Yakuza/LaD game in the franchise (excluding Dead Souls).
This game just feels incredibly scaled down from LaD's normal over-the-top nature. I never found much of the heat moves that you normally see to be that impressive. Most of the items around you that are normally grabbable and usable are pretty generic as well. Luckily this game features sword and gun (and a combo of both) fighting styles to help make up some of that.
Unfortunately, these aren't all that fun to play with either. All four fighting styles feature pros and cons to them but quickly you'll realize that the hand to hand is kinda pointless. You do get a weapon you can swap to in this fight style, some of which can be interesting and fun to use but to me, it just never made up for some of the limitations this game felt like it possessed.
The enemies feature a lot of the Yakuza 3 issues of just constant blocking. All four fighting styles do have a guard break attack but some of those had range issues. It also happens so frequently too that some of these moves get so old because you are constantly having to use it to break through for damage.
The gun had moments of being OP which was satisfying and the sword/gun style had some fun crowd control uses. I just wish they went over-the-top with these styles, though I didn't unlock every heat action or move so there might be some I missed out on that are silly and over the top. If they do, I wish they would've better spread those out to make the combat more fun, I might've stuck it out more if I was getting these fun moves, would've probably made the monotony of the combat decrease as well.
The new feature in this game where some of the over-the-top attacks resided was the army/card system. Think Majima Construction type card setup but in Ishin you are able to set these cards up for use in battle. There are a few over the top attacks found here, you can have a Tiger or Bear help you for instance. You can add 3-4 cards to each fighting style all that have different powerups. Some will heal you, some are stat buffs, general attacks, etc. If they are the General in your squad, those also lead to various powerups as well, so placement can be important as well.
In order to use these attacks you'll have to attack in that fighting style in order to build up bars that, when filled, will allow you those abilities during a fight. If you aren't using those styles though, they will stay at the level they were at when you last used that fighting style. I found some of these pretty useful and fun to use but there seemed to be a lot less 'rare' or story character cards then in previous games so rarely strayed from the cards I selected fairly early into using it (this card based thing is not unlocked right away in the game).
I found crafting and upgrading your weapons a bigger grind than in previous Yakuza games and more annoying to deal with. There aren't a ton of super powerful weapons that can easily be found in this game, so you'll be tasked with focusing on crafting to help keep your attacks doing damage as you progress. The weapons are so pricey to make though. You can 'level up' your crafting abilities to help cheapen prices but I always felt like it was barely knocking them down. Since you're having to craft basically everything too, from weapons to armor, you're still spending a good amount.
You can get money in various ways, many that should be familiar to people who have played other games in the franchise. If you like some of the money making ways of other games, you'll probably be able to still go through those means in order to make money. I did grind through my normal ways of making money but because so much was going to crafting, it just felt like a bigger grind in those ways.
The farming side game is kinda neat and easy to use. You can use these items to make food as well, and those cooking games are pretty standard but a nice addition as well. Think Cooking Mama style mini games. The biggest pain with this cooking game though is you have to make every item one by one, there is no ability to cook multiple dishes at the same time. I wouldn't even mind having to do these mini games over and over and over if I could at least choose to make more than one of a dish at one time. These dishes I found were a huge lifesaver too since they provide a good amount of health recovery. The normal medicine and items you can buy in this game always felt pretty underpowered too so I was constantly going back and making dishes.
The other big problem with this game is just traversing in it. If you want to go farm and make dishes, there is only one point on the map that will take you there. You can't even use a taxi to go there directly. So if you're on the other side of the map, you'll have to either walk all the way down to that one singular location or fast travel to it, and the fast travel areas that are set in the game are spread out way too far. So even when you fast travel to the nearest point, you're still having to walk a good amount after that.
The side quests, another Yakuza staple are all a pretty big let down. Another area that feels scaled back from its normal silly and over-the-top nature. You can also make connections/relationships with various people around town, something that has been featured before. These connections though are not all that different from each other. So you'll be constantly giving people dishes or junk or vegetables to slowly build up these meters.
Overall, Like a Dragon: Ishin just feels like a missed opportunity. This setting and the LaD style should be great, but the grind, the lackluster side quests and main story, the slog of battle, and overall lackluster location just made me want to get through this game as quickly as I could. Besides all of this, it looks pretty nice, seeing some of these familiar character in newly imagined ways is neat, seeing some characters that only were featured in one Yakuza game from ages ago was a nice treat as well, it's not all doom and gloom when it comes to this game. It's just that the bar for Like a Dragon games is pretty damn high for me and Like a Dragon: Ishin just doesn't come close to hitting that bar and being as silly and satisfying as the other games in this franchise.
This game just feels incredibly scaled down from LaD's normal over-the-top nature. I never found much of the heat moves that you normally see to be that impressive. Most of the items around you that are normally grabbable and usable are pretty generic as well. Luckily this game features sword and gun (and a combo of both) fighting styles to help make up some of that.
Unfortunately, these aren't all that fun to play with either. All four fighting styles feature pros and cons to them but quickly you'll realize that the hand to hand is kinda pointless. You do get a weapon you can swap to in this fight style, some of which can be interesting and fun to use but to me, it just never made up for some of the limitations this game felt like it possessed.
The enemies feature a lot of the Yakuza 3 issues of just constant blocking. All four fighting styles do have a guard break attack but some of those had range issues. It also happens so frequently too that some of these moves get so old because you are constantly having to use it to break through for damage.
The gun had moments of being OP which was satisfying and the sword/gun style had some fun crowd control uses. I just wish they went over-the-top with these styles, though I didn't unlock every heat action or move so there might be some I missed out on that are silly and over the top. If they do, I wish they would've better spread those out to make the combat more fun, I might've stuck it out more if I was getting these fun moves, would've probably made the monotony of the combat decrease as well.
The new feature in this game where some of the over-the-top attacks resided was the army/card system. Think Majima Construction type card setup but in Ishin you are able to set these cards up for use in battle. There are a few over the top attacks found here, you can have a Tiger or Bear help you for instance. You can add 3-4 cards to each fighting style all that have different powerups. Some will heal you, some are stat buffs, general attacks, etc. If they are the General in your squad, those also lead to various powerups as well, so placement can be important as well.
In order to use these attacks you'll have to attack in that fighting style in order to build up bars that, when filled, will allow you those abilities during a fight. If you aren't using those styles though, they will stay at the level they were at when you last used that fighting style. I found some of these pretty useful and fun to use but there seemed to be a lot less 'rare' or story character cards then in previous games so rarely strayed from the cards I selected fairly early into using it (this card based thing is not unlocked right away in the game).
I found crafting and upgrading your weapons a bigger grind than in previous Yakuza games and more annoying to deal with. There aren't a ton of super powerful weapons that can easily be found in this game, so you'll be tasked with focusing on crafting to help keep your attacks doing damage as you progress. The weapons are so pricey to make though. You can 'level up' your crafting abilities to help cheapen prices but I always felt like it was barely knocking them down. Since you're having to craft basically everything too, from weapons to armor, you're still spending a good amount.
You can get money in various ways, many that should be familiar to people who have played other games in the franchise. If you like some of the money making ways of other games, you'll probably be able to still go through those means in order to make money. I did grind through my normal ways of making money but because so much was going to crafting, it just felt like a bigger grind in those ways.
The farming side game is kinda neat and easy to use. You can use these items to make food as well, and those cooking games are pretty standard but a nice addition as well. Think Cooking Mama style mini games. The biggest pain with this cooking game though is you have to make every item one by one, there is no ability to cook multiple dishes at the same time. I wouldn't even mind having to do these mini games over and over and over if I could at least choose to make more than one of a dish at one time. These dishes I found were a huge lifesaver too since they provide a good amount of health recovery. The normal medicine and items you can buy in this game always felt pretty underpowered too so I was constantly going back and making dishes.
The other big problem with this game is just traversing in it. If you want to go farm and make dishes, there is only one point on the map that will take you there. You can't even use a taxi to go there directly. So if you're on the other side of the map, you'll have to either walk all the way down to that one singular location or fast travel to it, and the fast travel areas that are set in the game are spread out way too far. So even when you fast travel to the nearest point, you're still having to walk a good amount after that.
The side quests, another Yakuza staple are all a pretty big let down. Another area that feels scaled back from its normal silly and over-the-top nature. You can also make connections/relationships with various people around town, something that has been featured before. These connections though are not all that different from each other. So you'll be constantly giving people dishes or junk or vegetables to slowly build up these meters.
Overall, Like a Dragon: Ishin just feels like a missed opportunity. This setting and the LaD style should be great, but the grind, the lackluster side quests and main story, the slog of battle, and overall lackluster location just made me want to get through this game as quickly as I could. Besides all of this, it looks pretty nice, seeing some of these familiar character in newly imagined ways is neat, seeing some characters that only were featured in one Yakuza game from ages ago was a nice treat as well, it's not all doom and gloom when it comes to this game. It's just that the bar for Like a Dragon games is pretty damn high for me and Like a Dragon: Ishin just doesn't come close to hitting that bar and being as silly and satisfying as the other games in this franchise.
i am not the woman i was when i made this account, for one i’m now happily engaged and i don’t thirst after men who live in the tv anymore. that being said okita is rivalling yakuza 0 majima in terms of ‘men made of pixels making me feel insane’ here. so much so, i am convinced this being remastered was a ploy devised by rgg studios bc they saw i’d stopped buying yakuza merchandise and needed to boost their figures, “show that bitch majima with a ponytail again, we need to shift these novelty shot glasses”. jokes on them i’m in my mid-20s now and i dont have the vigour 22 year old me had when it comes to blowing money on stupid bullshit. i want to wander the streets of kyo and lock eyes with okita, i think it’d be like looking at the sun or a really nice photo of a landscape, just pure bliss before he kills me out of fear & confusion bc i’m a white woman in 1800s japan
While initially this feels like a fun fanservice game, this quickly delves into its own characters and story and really stands on its own as a separate Yakuza story. While the roles and characters are similar to the ones that share their faces, i really felt like the ones with even just a decent amount of focus are entirely their own characters and their faces only serve as an introduction to give you an initial impression of them. It took me a few chapters to actually get invested in the story, but once it grabbed me it didn't stop being amazing. The combat was fresh, engaging and some of the best in the series and the mini-games and side content are quite easily the best. The only gripe I have is that the antagonists aren't particularly engaging, especially compared to their counterparts, but the Shinsengumi and any other characters make up for that a lot.
I LOVE OKITA I LOVE OKITA I LOVE OKITA I LOVE OKITA I LOVE OKITA I LOVE OKITA I LOVE OKITA I LOVE OKITA I LOVE OKITA I LOVE OKITA HE IS MY WIFE
I LOVE OKITA I LOVE OKITA I LOVE OKITA I LOVE OKITA I LOVE OKITA I LOVE OKITA I LOVE OKITA I LOVE OKITA I LOVE OKITA I LOVE OKITA HE IS MY WIFE
At this point Yakuza and RGG are the Ubisoft of Japan
Really had a good time with this one, seems that RGG can't miss. Definitely engaged with the side activities more here than in previous like a dragon/Yakuza games but that's kinda of a double edged sword.
In previous RGG games usually the main story was too juicy to leave it alone for long and despite having awesome and fun activities and side quests I always found myself itching to get back to the main plot which was not the case with this game. It's the classic Japanese medieval history period revisited once more intrigue, samurai honor, assassinations', class division, political schemes struggle to deal with foreign powers and greed. Don't have particular qualms with the story its just that I've seen it many times in different media before although it certainly fits with the yakuza style games.
Now when it comes to extra stuff to do this game has it in spades. At first I couldn't move an inch without tripping into another mini game, sub story or some other activity with a long ass progression system tied to it begging me to try it out. I gotta say I enjoyed pretty much all of it from the farming simulator in "another life" to Bloodborne style chalice dungeon crawl to the equipment crafting at the blacksmith and so forth, now if you want to 100% things then you'll need to put in some serious hours grinding and it can become a bit dull. The idea is to balance all that and main story, kinda like making a nice salad, add a bit of karaoke, a bit of combat arena, some grinding for crafting materials, some sub story fiasco and you gonna have a good time.
Combat in the game started off a bit on the slow side while most of your moves are locked it feels awkward and stiff but as you level up things get better and better as it should. Really like the leveling system, you get exclusive skill points for using that particular style in combat and a universal skill point after leveling up your character. Cool thing is that you can use the universal skill points to progress in the specific combat tree which you enjoy using the most and once you obtain the exclusive point dedicated to that tree you can swap them out allowing you to either progress further and faster in one particular style or level up multiple ones at the same time. While we're on the combat the trooper mechanic is awesome, simple yet effective. As you progress in the dungeon crawl you unlock trooper cards that can be slotted for each one of your 4 combat styles. Now they range from cards that give you healing, damage or defense buff to the ones that grant you a flashy moves to use like summon a bear for a combo or even let loose a kamehameha, these trooper abilities charge up over time and as you engage in combat. Also depending what cards you have equipped they provide you with a health bonus and can be leveled up, they may also have synergy with other cards equipped as well for stronger effects. Great way to add a bit of flare and customization to the combat big fan.
Honestly don't know what else to say here good game is good more at 6. If you played previous Yakuza/Like a Dragon games this will all be very familiar just with the medieval Japanese coat of paint on it.
In previous RGG games usually the main story was too juicy to leave it alone for long and despite having awesome and fun activities and side quests I always found myself itching to get back to the main plot which was not the case with this game. It's the classic Japanese medieval history period revisited once more intrigue, samurai honor, assassinations', class division, political schemes struggle to deal with foreign powers and greed. Don't have particular qualms with the story its just that I've seen it many times in different media before although it certainly fits with the yakuza style games.
Now when it comes to extra stuff to do this game has it in spades. At first I couldn't move an inch without tripping into another mini game, sub story or some other activity with a long ass progression system tied to it begging me to try it out. I gotta say I enjoyed pretty much all of it from the farming simulator in "another life" to Bloodborne style chalice dungeon crawl to the equipment crafting at the blacksmith and so forth, now if you want to 100% things then you'll need to put in some serious hours grinding and it can become a bit dull. The idea is to balance all that and main story, kinda like making a nice salad, add a bit of karaoke, a bit of combat arena, some grinding for crafting materials, some sub story fiasco and you gonna have a good time.
Combat in the game started off a bit on the slow side while most of your moves are locked it feels awkward and stiff but as you level up things get better and better as it should. Really like the leveling system, you get exclusive skill points for using that particular style in combat and a universal skill point after leveling up your character. Cool thing is that you can use the universal skill points to progress in the specific combat tree which you enjoy using the most and once you obtain the exclusive point dedicated to that tree you can swap them out allowing you to either progress further and faster in one particular style or level up multiple ones at the same time. While we're on the combat the trooper mechanic is awesome, simple yet effective. As you progress in the dungeon crawl you unlock trooper cards that can be slotted for each one of your 4 combat styles. Now they range from cards that give you healing, damage or defense buff to the ones that grant you a flashy moves to use like summon a bear for a combo or even let loose a kamehameha, these trooper abilities charge up over time and as you engage in combat. Also depending what cards you have equipped they provide you with a health bonus and can be leveled up, they may also have synergy with other cards equipped as well for stronger effects. Great way to add a bit of flare and customization to the combat big fan.
Honestly don't know what else to say here good game is good more at 6. If you played previous Yakuza/Like a Dragon games this will all be very familiar just with the medieval Japanese coat of paint on it.
ummm where are the sega arcade machines?!?!? what did they do for fun back then, read??? (video review)
It's like Gintama except there isn't some absurd reference to an anime from 1983 that you've never heard of every two seconds.
So far pretty great. I feel like the changes they've made from the original are fairly unnecessary and sometimes worse than the original, but I'm still able to get over them. Everything else has been fun.
who knew that samurai of the tokugawa shogunate were 20 feet tall and could shoot fireballs using their nyatasha nyanners trooper card dlc? or is that one of those “alternate history” things
I took 1 JP history class and can confirm this is exactly what happened
I had first learned of this game back around the time I started Yakuza 6 and ever since I had hoped that one day, due to the series' popularity exploding in the west after 0, it would come over. Needless to say my excitement when this was announced was through the roof. Sadly I cannot say I enjoyed the game as much as I would have liked. Even the worst (mainline) Yakuza game is great by gaming standards so its not like it was terrible, but it just never really landed for me.
Out of the way, its combat was fun as always. I do enjoy the style systems, Wild Dancer was probably the most fun for me as Brawler just felt absurdly weak, Gun was too run around and Sword was rather stiff. However it did get old by the end but that is something every game can run into as they grow in length. I really liked how the leveling up the skills was handled. The standard "get orb upon level up for skills" remains but rather than just the standard ones you get from a standard level up, you also get on for specifically the style that you ALSO leveled up (which maxes out at 25). Those style orbs can be swapped with the generic orbs in a slot which allows you to spend that generic on on a different skill entirely.
The story meandered at times, but thats common in the series and I found the busywork before the very end to be rather stupid. Take a walk around the city and do these minigames and fights these guys again (except for one who was the only new fight). That soured it and maybe if I knew more about Japanese history I would have been more interest. I did like that I could complete all the substories without gambling or fighting Amon, so I think this is the first game I actually did do all substories. I don't even know if he's in the game but he always seems to be so he must be hiding somewhere.
My biggest issues comes from getting money. Because of how much this game relies on weapons compared to the previous games, aside from 7 and one character in 5, you need to interact with grinding resources and making weapons more than usual. They are expensive, not as expensive as I remember weapons costing in Yakuza 7 but also you do not get money anywhere near as fast in Ishin. The whole Second Life subgame was clearly intended to be the go to for money outside of gambling but its not fast enough. The crops grow in real time, and even with the max level fields and using fertilizer (which has a cool down unless you interact with the order book) the best stuff takes 20 minutes. What you need for orders and how much you get for rewards goes on a rotation and from what I saw range from 2000 gon to 1.1 ryo (which if my math is correct 1 ryo is 10k gon) and that 1.1 was strictly for ginseng. Making weapons and armor costs both money and resources and the best stuff can cost hundreads of ryo which means over a million each item. You also need to level up the blacksmith to make the better stuff and making weapons barely even increases it at low levels nevermind higher. The best way was donating so you're either spending resources making weapons to donate or you're going to the arms dealing and buying the cheap weapons in bulk to donate both which will cost you A LOT of money as weapon drops from enemies didn't happen unless they were story bosses or found in the battle dungeons which in of themselves are monotonous.
No wonder everyone says you better learn how the chicken races work. I hate gambling to the point where if a game forces me to then I usually knock the game down a half point so I initially wasn't gonna even touch them but unless I wanted to rely on my packaged in dlc weapons the whole game or use unupgraded stuff. I went in there and used the exploit (available at the time of writing this) to basically get free money since it allowed the bet to be removed but still pay you out like it was active. I never had to worry about money after that and just used the golden gun as my gun equip the whole game after that.
The trooper system was also something I did not care for or wanted to interact with much. Trooper cards are cards that allow you to activate special abilities such as shooting a big fire beam or stealing health from enemies and give you bonuses such as an HP increase passively and attack increases if they are in the commander slot. I could no be bothered to want to level them up so I just used the free dlc ones and was almost entirely for the health bonus until bosses themselves started using similar attacks to them.
TLDR: I was excited for this one but unfortunately it just didn't really land. Combat was fun until the final dungeon where it became dull, story didn't grab me, and the game has a money wall problem that would grind it to a halt if I didn't learn of the ways to mitigate it as early as I did. I don't think its the worst but it also ain't gonna be in the top 5. I like it more than 6 but probably not more than 3 (I don't hate Blockuza as much as the average Yakuza fan). Also Sega I don't care that you changed the name in the west to be the same as in Japan, I'm gonna keep calling this series Yakuza due to not only due to reflex but my own stubborness.
Out of the way, its combat was fun as always. I do enjoy the style systems, Wild Dancer was probably the most fun for me as Brawler just felt absurdly weak, Gun was too run around and Sword was rather stiff. However it did get old by the end but that is something every game can run into as they grow in length. I really liked how the leveling up the skills was handled. The standard "get orb upon level up for skills" remains but rather than just the standard ones you get from a standard level up, you also get on for specifically the style that you ALSO leveled up (which maxes out at 25). Those style orbs can be swapped with the generic orbs in a slot which allows you to spend that generic on on a different skill entirely.
The story meandered at times, but thats common in the series and I found the busywork before the very end to be rather stupid. Take a walk around the city and do these minigames and fights these guys again (except for one who was the only new fight). That soured it and maybe if I knew more about Japanese history I would have been more interest. I did like that I could complete all the substories without gambling or fighting Amon, so I think this is the first game I actually did do all substories. I don't even know if he's in the game but he always seems to be so he must be hiding somewhere.
My biggest issues comes from getting money. Because of how much this game relies on weapons compared to the previous games, aside from 7 and one character in 5, you need to interact with grinding resources and making weapons more than usual. They are expensive, not as expensive as I remember weapons costing in Yakuza 7 but also you do not get money anywhere near as fast in Ishin. The whole Second Life subgame was clearly intended to be the go to for money outside of gambling but its not fast enough. The crops grow in real time, and even with the max level fields and using fertilizer (which has a cool down unless you interact with the order book) the best stuff takes 20 minutes. What you need for orders and how much you get for rewards goes on a rotation and from what I saw range from 2000 gon to 1.1 ryo (which if my math is correct 1 ryo is 10k gon) and that 1.1 was strictly for ginseng. Making weapons and armor costs both money and resources and the best stuff can cost hundreads of ryo which means over a million each item. You also need to level up the blacksmith to make the better stuff and making weapons barely even increases it at low levels nevermind higher. The best way was donating so you're either spending resources making weapons to donate or you're going to the arms dealing and buying the cheap weapons in bulk to donate both which will cost you A LOT of money as weapon drops from enemies didn't happen unless they were story bosses or found in the battle dungeons which in of themselves are monotonous.
No wonder everyone says you better learn how the chicken races work. I hate gambling to the point where if a game forces me to then I usually knock the game down a half point so I initially wasn't gonna even touch them but unless I wanted to rely on my packaged in dlc weapons the whole game or use unupgraded stuff. I went in there and used the exploit (available at the time of writing this) to basically get free money since it allowed the bet to be removed but still pay you out like it was active. I never had to worry about money after that and just used the golden gun as my gun equip the whole game after that.
The trooper system was also something I did not care for or wanted to interact with much. Trooper cards are cards that allow you to activate special abilities such as shooting a big fire beam or stealing health from enemies and give you bonuses such as an HP increase passively and attack increases if they are in the commander slot. I could no be bothered to want to level them up so I just used the free dlc ones and was almost entirely for the health bonus until bosses themselves started using similar attacks to them.
TLDR: I was excited for this one but unfortunately it just didn't really land. Combat was fun until the final dungeon where it became dull, story didn't grab me, and the game has a money wall problem that would grind it to a halt if I didn't learn of the ways to mitigate it as early as I did. I don't think its the worst but it also ain't gonna be in the top 5. I like it more than 6 but probably not more than 3 (I don't hate Blockuza as much as the average Yakuza fan). Also Sega I don't care that you changed the name in the west to be the same as in Japan, I'm gonna keep calling this series Yakuza due to not only due to reflex but my own stubborness.
Thank you Hidenori Shoji for making the best final boss track i ever heard my fucking life man, Assassination of Bodhisattva saved my misserable life
A história é o ponto alto do jogo, apesar de um inicio bem lento ela faz jus aos titulos da franquia principal reimaginando a história do real sakamoto ryoma no jeitinho yakuza, cheio de plot twists, porradarias sinceras e vários monólogos com um bom e extenso conteúdo extra.
infelizmente a gameplay não é tão polida assim, com o combate do jogo sofrendo também desse início lento, apesar dos 4 estilos de combate prometendo variedade, eu acabei me vendo focando todo meu tempo de jogo em um só estilo que eu achei divertido e ignorando os outros, e o sistema de upgrade desse jogo meio que te recompensa por jogar assim. pelo menos, conforme os upgrades e novos sistemas são adicionados o combate do jogo se torna sim divertido.
já o sistema de equipamentos (por que sim, esse jogo tenta ser bem mais um RPG de ação)sofre já que o grind do jogo é chato demais, e o sistema de crafting é bem mais ou menos, só se tornando realmente útil se você gastar bastante tempo farmando os materiais pra usar ele direito, então essas mecânicas de rpg acabam não vingando muito. Apesar disso, da pra zerar o jogo sem engajar com o sistema de crafting a fundo, eu acho ate melhor já que evita a parte mais tediosa do game
infelizmente a gameplay não é tão polida assim, com o combate do jogo sofrendo também desse início lento, apesar dos 4 estilos de combate prometendo variedade, eu acabei me vendo focando todo meu tempo de jogo em um só estilo que eu achei divertido e ignorando os outros, e o sistema de upgrade desse jogo meio que te recompensa por jogar assim. pelo menos, conforme os upgrades e novos sistemas são adicionados o combate do jogo se torna sim divertido.
já o sistema de equipamentos (por que sim, esse jogo tenta ser bem mais um RPG de ação)sofre já que o grind do jogo é chato demais, e o sistema de crafting é bem mais ou menos, só se tornando realmente útil se você gastar bastante tempo farmando os materiais pra usar ele direito, então essas mecânicas de rpg acabam não vingando muito. Apesar disso, da pra zerar o jogo sem engajar com o sistema de crafting a fundo, eu acho ate melhor já que evita a parte mais tediosa do game
At its core, it's a Like a Dragon game like all the rest, but man I did not like it as much as I would have liked.
The story is good. A samurai game with various series characters filling the cast is a really charming idea. All of the casting/recasting is good, they all seem to fit the characters. The only one I was iffy with was Takechi. Just 0 fan service. Shibusawa is one of the weakest final bosses in the series story-wise. I just think they should have kept him the same or replaced him with someone friendly with Kiryu, like Nagumo from 6 or maybe even Ichiban. There's probably a better match somewhere. I just wish there was more stuff from 6. 6 is good!
I did not vibe with the gameplay initially. I ended up using the swordsman style exclusively, it feels like the style the game is built around. The other styles just don't feel fleshed out. In general your damage is comically low and the damage enemies do is pretty crazy, though it's likely I was using armour with awful stats. I wish the combat was faster in general.
I couldn’t bring myself to care about that stuff with the cards. I just kinda ignored it. I did find improved healing and damage cards which I used. I also ignored the crafting. Is it good? I don’t know. I don’t want to know.
Fights can be annoying, this game rivals Yakuza 3 in terms of enemies blocking attacks, although it’s easier to break through. Bosses are pretty bad about this. You’ll usually have to dodge to the side and get behind them and hit them a couple times for pitiful damage before they start blasting your ass.
The camera is bad. It's like a constant boss fight. There's a bunch of jank in general. I have to wonder how much of that is carried over from the original. This is probably the Like a Dragon game with the least polish. Also from what I've seen, the original looks better at times? I hope they go back to the Dragon Engine.
All in all, I really like gambling on chicken races, Great game.
The story is good. A samurai game with various series characters filling the cast is a really charming idea. All of the casting/recasting is good, they all seem to fit the characters. The only one I was iffy with was Takechi. Just 0 fan service. Shibusawa is one of the weakest final bosses in the series story-wise. I just think they should have kept him the same or replaced him with someone friendly with Kiryu, like Nagumo from 6 or maybe even Ichiban. There's probably a better match somewhere. I just wish there was more stuff from 6. 6 is good!
I did not vibe with the gameplay initially. I ended up using the swordsman style exclusively, it feels like the style the game is built around. The other styles just don't feel fleshed out. In general your damage is comically low and the damage enemies do is pretty crazy, though it's likely I was using armour with awful stats. I wish the combat was faster in general.
I couldn’t bring myself to care about that stuff with the cards. I just kinda ignored it. I did find improved healing and damage cards which I used. I also ignored the crafting. Is it good? I don’t know. I don’t want to know.
Fights can be annoying, this game rivals Yakuza 3 in terms of enemies blocking attacks, although it’s easier to break through. Bosses are pretty bad about this. You’ll usually have to dodge to the side and get behind them and hit them a couple times for pitiful damage before they start blasting your ass.
The camera is bad. It's like a constant boss fight. There's a bunch of jank in general. I have to wonder how much of that is carried over from the original. This is probably the Like a Dragon game with the least polish. Also from what I've seen, the original looks better at times? I hope they go back to the Dragon Engine.
All in all, I really like gambling on chicken races, Great game.
Excelente jogo, uma das melhores histórias d franquia e me prendeu do início ao fim.
Meu único problema com a história seria aqueles 3 finais falso lá pra reta final, Po jogo se decide se vai acabar logo desgrama.
Eu amei os minigame e as side mission, me fez tirar quase 40 horas só nisso.
Eu gostei de ver alguns rostos conhecido mas tenho um grande problema com o mal uso é até a não precisão que muitos personagens tinha.
Esse remaster também tem problemas de textura, iluminação e raramente de colisão.
Eu acho que a RGG tem muito a aprender com esse remaster pra evitar esses problemas no futuro.
Eu gostei do combate porém dps de 25 horas o combate começa ficar chatinho......
Enfim e um baita jogasso sendo facilmente um dos melhores da franquia.
Meu único problema com a história seria aqueles 3 finais falso lá pra reta final, Po jogo se decide se vai acabar logo desgrama.
Eu amei os minigame e as side mission, me fez tirar quase 40 horas só nisso.
Eu gostei de ver alguns rostos conhecido mas tenho um grande problema com o mal uso é até a não precisão que muitos personagens tinha.
Esse remaster também tem problemas de textura, iluminação e raramente de colisão.
Eu acho que a RGG tem muito a aprender com esse remaster pra evitar esses problemas no futuro.
Eu gostei do combate porém dps de 25 horas o combate começa ficar chatinho......
Enfim e um baita jogasso sendo facilmente um dos melhores da franquia.
Finished in 2023
Let me just start by saying that I very much enjoyed this game. I’m very glad they decided on a western release. Honestly a great stand-alone game and one of the more fulfilling endings in the franchise.
However the grind in this game is anything but fun. Having played through the series i’m used to quite a bit of it but this game takes the cake. The substories weren’t as memorable as the ones in the main series either. I felt like both of these take away from the overall rating. Settling for 3,5 stars now.
Let me just start by saying that I very much enjoyed this game. I’m very glad they decided on a western release. Honestly a great stand-alone game and one of the more fulfilling endings in the franchise.
However the grind in this game is anything but fun. Having played through the series i’m used to quite a bit of it but this game takes the cake. The substories weren’t as memorable as the ones in the main series either. I felt like both of these take away from the overall rating. Settling for 3,5 stars now.