When the new protagonist of the Yakuza series was revealed a few years ago, I was partly worried about his often humorous appearance and expressions signifying that the series was going to lose a lot of the more emotional elements and problems heavily grounded in reality to fully embrace the absurd. That was not the case. Ichiban is a fun and likable protagonist with a backstory that fits the series norm of having a protagonist that never had the culturally accepted family lifestyle which also causes him to fit in well with his new friends and companions. Even his Yakuza back tattoo of a dragonfish highlights the way his past is viewed, being seen as someone lower in society while also representing trying to take the reigns as series protagonist from Kiryu. He even comments when asked about his tattoo by saying he wanted a dragon but that represents the top of the food chain, and that one day it will shine brighter than a dragon. His look and usual antics make him seems like more of a doofus but he can often be smart and frequently uses his knowledge of criminal and Yakuza lifestyle and hierarchy to trick or intimidate the games antagonists. There is also a focus on bonding with your party and friends that often feels like an extension of the bar friends and conversations from Yakuza 6 with conversations at your favorite bar hangout spot, conversations when you go to certain parts of the city, and conversations that happen when you eat certain meals with your friends that all allow for a deeper understanding of each character. The usual high quality voice work, character expressions, and clothing detail the series is known for continues in this entry.
The change to an RPG battle system is both fun and fits well with the main character's desire to be a hero like in the old Dragon Quest games that he played, and that ends up supporting a plot often dealing with Ichiban becoming a source of support towards the abused and forgotten of society (homeless, sex workers, orphans, elderly, immigrants, poor, whistle blowers). With the main plotline also having the usual well written Yakuza fare of the dealings and backstabbing of Yakuza and police, rising politicians, a family at odds, surprising reveals, and a group of foreign gangs that put your party in the middle of a decades old counterfeiting operation that has been keeping the peace between three rival factions.
A well made assortment of side quests are here, featuring both the touching and funny situations that the series is known for. There is also a variety of activities to participate in throughout the cities such as karaoke (with all but one of your party members having their own song to sing), go kart racing, shogi, mahjong, cabaret clubs, Sega arcade cabinets, gambling, baseball, darts, golf, pachinko, movie watching, a bicycle riding can collection game, and a property management and shareholder meeting side quest. Three different areas are featured with the main one being Isezaki Ijincho and with both Kamurocho and Sotenbori being available to travel to at a later point in the story. The new area is well detailed and as enjoyable to explore as Kamurocho.
The new battle system is fun and often works well but the biggest issue is one that I didn't expect the game to have. A shift to an RPG like commands seemed like a change that would just get us even more of the great visceral/hilarious/bone crunching heat attacks of the main games (even more so with a lot of the more out there combat elements just being what Ichiban sees in his head), instead many of moves are just dull to look at until you start getting into a lot of the late game unlocks or co-op attacks. You also miss out on a lot of the environment based combat that has been around since Yakuza 6, apart from hitting enemies into cars that are still moving in the background, you won't be seeing friends help you out with special heat moves, knocking enemies into stores, throwing them over railings on trains, throwing them into microwaves, etc. Other problems involve awkward battle positioning when it comes to hitting multiple enemies, people getting stuck on things (though the game will eventually just teleport them to the correct position if it the environment is causing characters to get completely stuck), and using objects in the environment to attack doesn't always seem to work to the extent that half the time it doesn't even seem functional. The camera can also make it difficult to block attacks well (by hitting O/B before an attack lands) and can sometimes be so slow to react that you can be hit before you even seeing the attack coming.
Grinding job XP if you want to try out new things, the sudden loss of 4th party member unless you have done the business management side quest to replace him, quests to find and beat certain enemy types that the game sometimes just never seems to want to spawn, at times almost immediate enemy respawns, and enemies that have no chance of killing you but have ridiculous amounts of health can all make the game feel like an old JRPG in a bad way. The women in your party job role's and some of their character skills are much more sexualized and flirty than anything the men get and some of the enemy types you run into can be questionable (like how most any black guy you run into is giant muscleman, wearing giant chains, or someone who draws a gun on you and starts shooting it sideways). Plot wise the game ends with some of the most expressive and emotional acting in the series, rivaling Yakuza 0's best moments, though also hurt quite a bit by having your only real attachment to the moments being what Ichiban is personally feeling. This is due to one of the main antagonists that you watch him pour his heart out to being easily one of the most repugnant people in the entire series, to the point that I can easily see people (especially people from the kind of backgrounds that you have been supporting through the game) liking Ichiban less for his actions at the end of the game.
There is a decent number of classes with every character tending to fit two or three of them well, but all job skills and animations are the same for each character. While you can learn and keep two skills in every class that can then be used in a different job those two carry over skills are the same for every character, taking a bit of characterization out of it (though each character does have different color costume options). Each party member does have their own unique class (Ichiban has two) to give them a few unique options, though three of them basically start as their most useful one. It is also unfortunate that two of the classes are locked behind paid DLC.
Like A Dragon succeeds at not just being one of the best Yakuza games but at creating a new protagonist that isn't just a great character but who is every bit as strong as Kiryu and reworks the series into a completely different combat and party focused style that, for the most part, works well while being fun to play but also further surrounds you with the friends, allies, and social issues that have always been at the heart of the series. It sounds like Ichiban is planned to head future games and that is a great choice. If the series continues with the RPG like battle system I think a lot of the issues would be fairly easy to fix and what we have here was a good start to a new gameplay style.
Screenshots: https://twitter.com/Legolas_Katarn/status/1343379463740878848
The change to an RPG battle system is both fun and fits well with the main character's desire to be a hero like in the old Dragon Quest games that he played, and that ends up supporting a plot often dealing with Ichiban becoming a source of support towards the abused and forgotten of society (homeless, sex workers, orphans, elderly, immigrants, poor, whistle blowers). With the main plotline also having the usual well written Yakuza fare of the dealings and backstabbing of Yakuza and police, rising politicians, a family at odds, surprising reveals, and a group of foreign gangs that put your party in the middle of a decades old counterfeiting operation that has been keeping the peace between three rival factions.
A well made assortment of side quests are here, featuring both the touching and funny situations that the series is known for. There is also a variety of activities to participate in throughout the cities such as karaoke (with all but one of your party members having their own song to sing), go kart racing, shogi, mahjong, cabaret clubs, Sega arcade cabinets, gambling, baseball, darts, golf, pachinko, movie watching, a bicycle riding can collection game, and a property management and shareholder meeting side quest. Three different areas are featured with the main one being Isezaki Ijincho and with both Kamurocho and Sotenbori being available to travel to at a later point in the story. The new area is well detailed and as enjoyable to explore as Kamurocho.
The new battle system is fun and often works well but the biggest issue is one that I didn't expect the game to have. A shift to an RPG like commands seemed like a change that would just get us even more of the great visceral/hilarious/bone crunching heat attacks of the main games (even more so with a lot of the more out there combat elements just being what Ichiban sees in his head), instead many of moves are just dull to look at until you start getting into a lot of the late game unlocks or co-op attacks. You also miss out on a lot of the environment based combat that has been around since Yakuza 6, apart from hitting enemies into cars that are still moving in the background, you won't be seeing friends help you out with special heat moves, knocking enemies into stores, throwing them over railings on trains, throwing them into microwaves, etc. Other problems involve awkward battle positioning when it comes to hitting multiple enemies, people getting stuck on things (though the game will eventually just teleport them to the correct position if it the environment is causing characters to get completely stuck), and using objects in the environment to attack doesn't always seem to work to the extent that half the time it doesn't even seem functional. The camera can also make it difficult to block attacks well (by hitting O/B before an attack lands) and can sometimes be so slow to react that you can be hit before you even seeing the attack coming.
Grinding job XP if you want to try out new things, the sudden loss of 4th party member unless you have done the business management side quest to replace him, quests to find and beat certain enemy types that the game sometimes just never seems to want to spawn, at times almost immediate enemy respawns, and enemies that have no chance of killing you but have ridiculous amounts of health can all make the game feel like an old JRPG in a bad way. The women in your party job role's and some of their character skills are much more sexualized and flirty than anything the men get and some of the enemy types you run into can be questionable (like how most any black guy you run into is giant muscleman, wearing giant chains, or someone who draws a gun on you and starts shooting it sideways). Plot wise the game ends with some of the most expressive and emotional acting in the series, rivaling Yakuza 0's best moments, though also hurt quite a bit by having your only real attachment to the moments being what Ichiban is personally feeling. This is due to one of the main antagonists that you watch him pour his heart out to being easily one of the most repugnant people in the entire series, to the point that I can easily see people (especially people from the kind of backgrounds that you have been supporting through the game) liking Ichiban less for his actions at the end of the game.
There is a decent number of classes with every character tending to fit two or three of them well, but all job skills and animations are the same for each character. While you can learn and keep two skills in every class that can then be used in a different job those two carry over skills are the same for every character, taking a bit of characterization out of it (though each character does have different color costume options). Each party member does have their own unique class (Ichiban has two) to give them a few unique options, though three of them basically start as their most useful one. It is also unfortunate that two of the classes are locked behind paid DLC.
Like A Dragon succeeds at not just being one of the best Yakuza games but at creating a new protagonist that isn't just a great character but who is every bit as strong as Kiryu and reworks the series into a completely different combat and party focused style that, for the most part, works well while being fun to play but also further surrounds you with the friends, allies, and social issues that have always been at the heart of the series. It sounds like Ichiban is planned to head future games and that is a great choice. If the series continues with the RPG like battle system I think a lot of the issues would be fairly easy to fix and what we have here was a good start to a new gameplay style.
Screenshots: https://twitter.com/Legolas_Katarn/status/1343379463740878848