Yakuza: Like a Dragon was a turning point for Sega's Yakuza series. It was the first to feature the new series protagonist Ichiban Kasuga, the first to be a turn-based role-playing game as opposed to an action RPG, as well as the first game to use the Japanese series title, Like a Dragon.
Ichiban Kasuga is a man who was raised in a Japanese soapland, an establishment where women wash men's bodies and usually allow prostitution. He became a punk on the streets of Kamurocho fighting other young men until he used the name of a yakuza patriarch to try to scare some yakuza. That backfires as the yakuza were rivals of the yakuza named and tried to use Ichiban to shame their rival.
Expecting to be killed after it was revealed he wasn't a yakuza, the patriarch instead claimed Ichiban was one of his men and took responsibility for his actions. After this, Ichiban felt indebted and kept coming around the office of the yakuza patriarch until he let him join his family for real. In 1999, when the patriarch's son commits murder, Ichiban is told to take the blame for his crime. He is finally released twenty years later, in 2019. However, his yakuza family isn't waiting for him.
With a criminal record and no one to help him, he is moneyless in the Yokohama district of Isezaki Ijincho, which is based on the real-life Isezakichō district. Unlike the previous series protagonist Kazuma Kiryu, who was a stoic man of few words, Ichiban is a passionate man who makes both allies and enemies quickly.
After the sixth main series game broke from tradition by only having a single protagonist to focus on what was then meant to be the end of Kiryu's story, Yakuza: Like a Dragon once again featured the same amount of playable characters as the number of the game in relation to the series. As Yakuza: Like a Dragon was the seventh main series game, it featured seven playable characters. Six were added to Ichiban's party during the main story, while the seventh is an optional ally that can be added through a side story.
The main six playable characters include a homeless man named Yu Yanada, a former detective named Koichi Adachi, a hostess bar mama named Saeko Mukoda, a man named Joon-gi Han who is second-in-command of the Korean-Japanese criminal organization known as the Geomijil, and a man named Tianyou Zhao who is the leader of the Chinese-Japanese criminal organization known as the Yokohama Liomang. The optional playable character is a woman named Eri Kamataki who is the heir to a sweets-making company known as Ichiban Confections.
Each of the characters has unique skills that can be used during a battle that are common in turn-based roleplaying games such as combat, healing, and projectile use. These can be changed through jobs, which give the characters unique outfits as well as new skills to use. Weapons and armor can be purchased, many of which can only be used by people with a specified job set.
Ichiban is said to be a fan of the popular Square Enix RPG series Dragon Quest. He has a vivid imagination, which allows the game to go to even crazier places than usual. The enemies encountered are probably the weirdest ever encountered in a Like a Dragon series game, and that's saying something. This craziness also extends, naturally, to the side quests. These are always the craziest part of all of the games in the series, and they are equally crazy here. The main game has some really funny moments, but the zaniest still comes from the side missions.
I wasn't sure how I would feel about turn-based combat after being so used to the beat 'em-up style action of the other games in the series, but it actually works surprisingly well for the series. Fans can still get the usual action RPG gameplay through the Judgment series and Kiryu spin-offs, so I'm actually glad they changed things up in the main series. For as good as the games are, the gameplay is definitely repetitive from game to game. That's not the case here, since no series entry has used the turn-based style of combat, and the game is better for it.
Yakuza: Like a Dragon is a worthy successor to the Kazuma Kiryu saga. Ichiban Kasuga is a much different character than Kazuma Kiryu, but his quirkiness, friendliness, and earnestness endeared me to him very quickly. Ichiban's six companions, including the bonus character, are all very memorable with excellent backstories. Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio has finally managed to make all of the playable characters feel fleshed out and worthy of your time. It has also finally given two women characters, Saeko Mukoda and Eri Kamataki, fighting chops. These women are usually used as assistance characters, but they can still kick butt as well as anyone else. Yakuza: Like a Dragon is well worth playing, and is a harbinger for good things to come when the series returns to turn-based combat in Like a Dragon 8.
Final Verdict:
4½ out of 5
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