Yakuza 7 continues the incredible music and story and world the Yakuza series has always been known for, but this time with a gameplay twist. It's a miracle my computer can run this game on lower settings, not a statement about the game just damn.
Ichiban and friends are all a great cast, it's fun to see them all get along and grow. Ichiban himself is a fantastic new protagonist, with a different approach from Kiryu that feels fresh and original. Where as Kiryu is blunt and to the point, while also closed off, Ichiban is a little more emotional, outreaching, and expressive. Both are great in their own right but Ichiban is again fresh. The story is also a new adventure that can rest easy knowing it doesn't have to continue plot threads of old. All in all, the story is excellent.
Sadly, the same can't be completely said about the combat system. It feels fresh at the start, with timed hits (which were a bit of an issue for me at times again that's my computer's fault.) Once you get used to it you can go wild...but things do get old fast. Dungeons feel like they were designed with the mindset of previous Yakuza games rather than an RPG, so there are times like the sewers where they can drag on for far too long. Also for a game that places huge emphasis on positioning, it's absolutely baffling that there's no way to influence your position so you can be stuck waiting for your character to get into an ideal position before using an attack. With RPG combat, it feels fresh at the start yeah but then with the amount of battles it starts to drag out the further you get into the game.
The late game bosses are also egregious, while some of them are justified in their difficulty spikes sure it brings everything to a halt and makes you leave to go grind which can take hours before you're ready to try again. The biggest difficulty spike jumps from the previous boss' level 36 to 50, a 14 level gap! Extra shoutouts to the Final Boss who halfway into his hour long fight after an hour long dungeon starts to use an OHKO move, and there's no way of knowing he even has an OHKO move or that OHKO moves are even in the game before this. And of course if you get hit you have to do the whole dungeon over again. It's a callback to things in early Dragon Quest games, but those games are at least shorter and at the start of the RPG genre rather than having the 35+ years of genre evolution to know why that's lame.
While the combat could have been a lot better, especially in the second half, Yazkua 7 is still a fresh take on the series and I do hope to see more of Ichiban's adventures going forward...so long as it leaves the mechanics of the past in the past.
Ichiban and friends are all a great cast, it's fun to see them all get along and grow. Ichiban himself is a fantastic new protagonist, with a different approach from Kiryu that feels fresh and original. Where as Kiryu is blunt and to the point, while also closed off, Ichiban is a little more emotional, outreaching, and expressive. Both are great in their own right but Ichiban is again fresh. The story is also a new adventure that can rest easy knowing it doesn't have to continue plot threads of old. All in all, the story is excellent.
Sadly, the same can't be completely said about the combat system. It feels fresh at the start, with timed hits (which were a bit of an issue for me at times again that's my computer's fault.) Once you get used to it you can go wild...but things do get old fast. Dungeons feel like they were designed with the mindset of previous Yakuza games rather than an RPG, so there are times like the sewers where they can drag on for far too long. Also for a game that places huge emphasis on positioning, it's absolutely baffling that there's no way to influence your position so you can be stuck waiting for your character to get into an ideal position before using an attack. With RPG combat, it feels fresh at the start yeah but then with the amount of battles it starts to drag out the further you get into the game.
The late game bosses are also egregious, while some of them are justified in their difficulty spikes sure it brings everything to a halt and makes you leave to go grind which can take hours before you're ready to try again. The biggest difficulty spike jumps from the previous boss' level 36 to 50, a 14 level gap! Extra shoutouts to the Final Boss who halfway into his hour long fight after an hour long dungeon starts to use an OHKO move, and there's no way of knowing he even has an OHKO move or that OHKO moves are even in the game before this. And of course if you get hit you have to do the whole dungeon over again. It's a callback to things in early Dragon Quest games, but those games are at least shorter and at the start of the RPG genre rather than having the 35+ years of genre evolution to know why that's lame.
While the combat could have been a lot better, especially in the second half, Yazkua 7 is still a fresh take on the series and I do hope to see more of Ichiban's adventures going forward...so long as it leaves the mechanics of the past in the past.