Release date: 16 January 2020

Developer: Ryu Ga Gotoku

Publisher: SEGA

Platforms: Windows, Xbox One and Xbox Series S/X, PS4, and PS5.

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“Yakuza: Like a Dragon has its share of problems. Tiring grind, with difficulty jumps, frustrating at times combat encounters, and dungeon-like levels. But those are mere shadows in comparison with exceptionally strong character and story writing, the sheer amount of class customizations, funny and quirky, yet deep substories, and exciting mini-games. This game is a celebration of Ryu Ga Gotoku creative freedom and talent, as the soft reboot of the beloved franchise is deemed to be a success and the new beginning.”

 

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It was difficult to know what to expect from the new Yakuza title. The 15 years old franchise which sold millions of copies entered a new era a new spin-off series starring Takayuki Yagami continued the traditions of the action beat ‘em up games while the mainline entry was to become something that most people would never guess to see. Yakuza 6: The Song of Life was a beautiful title despite some of the fans finding the ending frustrating, so Ryu Ga Gotoku decided to change the formula. New protagonist, new story, new city, and most importantly brand new turned-based party gameplay. You heard it right the Yakuza RPG with all of its light and dark side points. Despite all the news the foundation and the key principles of previous Yakuza titles are still there. Immense focus on storytelling, deep and memorable characters, quirky and weird substories that could make you either laugh or shake your head, a dense semi-open world environment, a great variety of mini-games, and other activities.

 

RGG are masters of storytelling through cinematography and the player is quickly drawn into the atmosphere of Japan right through the first introductory sequence. Moments later we are getting to know the new protagonist of the series – Ichiban Kasuga who is truly a breath of fresh air for the franchise. Fans got used to Kiryu Kazuma but Ichi brings a new dynamic. Kiryu stands out as a strong silent type man who walks his path despite being chased down by the Yakuza ties, a modern-day ronin. The way he acts, the way he speaks, the way he fights make him almost a super-hero like character. You don’t see people like Kiryu in the office or on the street. Ichi in contrast is a much more human-like individual. He reminds you of one of your friends. He is not very bright, has his share of inferiority demons, comes up with some weird plans and ideas, maniacally obsessed with video games. Nonetheless a true and passionate friend, loyal till the last breath and strong enough to help you when you are in trouble. Another thing is that Kiryu is a lone wolf based on both story and gameplay only being assisted during very specific moments by other characters. Ichi on the other hand not that self-sustainable and to succeed must rely on the support of his companion friends. The contrasting looks of the two main series protagonists further highlight the emotional direction change of the beloved franchise with Kiryu having a classic manly look and Ichi with a flashy hairstyle and red suit. This a great improvement over the Judgment protagonist who is more or less a variation of Kiryu Kazuma archetype in terms of emotional architecture.

 

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Protagonist change also affects the tone of the main story. Before the storytelling elements in the Yakuza series were divided into two categories: main story and substories. The main story usually having a darker serious tone in contrast with substories which would involve weird, funny, heartwarming, and sometimes outright silly smaller-scale events. But in this game, we are having a brand new protagonist who tends to find himself in all sorts of silly situations and this time plenty of humour and silliness is presented in the main line as well, despite the main story’s true focus is still set on very deep and challenging topics such as loyalty, family values, true friendship and of course unconditional love. Companion relationships play a very important part in Like a Dragon ecosystem giving it a bit of Bioware taste. Not as branching but emotionally fulfilling nonetheless. The player can complete companion substories to know them better, create stronger bonds which directly combat effectiveness, and dive deeper into their struggles and personal challenges. No matter who is sitting nearby: a driving instructor, a bum, K-pop superstar or Liumang gang boss all those stories are well-written and engaging.

 

Interestingly the change of protagonist indirectly affects the actual gameplay of the Like a Dragon title. Kiryu Kazuma was always self-sustainable being able to take down dozens of enemies effortlessly. Ichi on the other hand must rely on his companions to succeed. Each companion not only has unique personality, motivations, and personal objectives but also a combat role that can be adjusted through using different gear and professions (class customization) but cannot be changed completely. People who are familiar with party-based RPGs shall instantly recognize three pillars of the combat design – tank, damage dealer, and support, but also with character unique abilities. As the result, we are having a branching complex party combat design that players have never seen before in Yakuza games.

 

The new gameplay is fresh and exciting, especially with some superhero, magic, and other ridiculous stuff in the mix that happens in fights (don’t worry there is a fairly reasonable explanation for this). But there are two main issues with the combat in Like a Dragon. Difficulty spikes for one. Starting from the midgame you would destroy all the trash mob packs effortlessly only to discover that the boss destroys you as effortlessly as well and there is no way you can beat him at this point. In the older titles, you would always have a chance to wrestle out the victory (unless you are totally out of health and 0 items) due to the action-based skill and reflexes, but here 80% of skill is preparation. Party building, skills set up, buying items. Occasionally you shall hit some walls. That comes down to another problem of this title – grind, and there is a lot of it. You shall need to grind experience, money, crafting materials, special items you name it. And again this comes down to preference. I enjoyed very cool and exciting mini-games like Dragon cart or trash can collecting but going through the arena fights just to get the needed items and experience or to proceed through dungeon-like mazes filled with respawning mobs can be very tedious.

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From the visual and technical point of view Like a Dragon looks solid. It is using an RGG-exclusive Dragon Engine. One of the stronger points of this engine is showing the city night scenes and that shows. Yokohama looks gorgeous at night with all those lighting effects and the urban atmosphere and liveliness of a bustling city district. Characters look great in the cinematic cutscenes and adequate in the in-game environment as the game is not a next-gen but rather a cross-gen title. At some point, one can realize that it is pointless to talk about music score and sound design in SEGA games as those are simply unrivaled with an amazing first-party soundtrack and sound effects. This time RGG approached the sound effects design creatively using some of the 8-bit era-inspired sounds in substory and mini-games sections which give the game a very interesting flavour.

 

Yakuza: Like a Dragon has its share of problems. Tiring grind, with difficulty jumps, frustrating at times combat encounters, and dungeon-like levels. But those are mere shadows in comparison with exceptionally strong character and story writing, the sheer amount of class customizations, funny and quirky, yet deep substories, and exciting mini-games. This game is a celebration of Ryu Ga Gotoku creative freedom and talent, as the soft reboot of the beloved franchise is deemed to be a success and the new beginning.

 

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WARNING: The section below contains spoilers about story, characters and endings.

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Strong points:

• Flawless Drama flow chart.

• Exceptionally strong companion and supporting character writing.

• New protagonist’s unique personality is likable and relatable.

• The story is full of twists and unexpected turns comparable to high-end soap opera series.

• The game nailed a perfect balance of being serious and funny at the same time.

 

Weak points:

• Minor story pacing issues.

 

Ryu Ga Gotoku studio is one of the best examples of the development team evolution in the gaming industry. The team grows together with its main franchise in every respect and story writing is one of the examples. The game writers use a prolonged “grabber” technique placing impact points right at the start of the game to set up the stage. In chapter I the impact point is Ichi going to prison by taking the blame for a murder he never committed and in chapter II Masumi Arakawa shooting the protagonist right in front of everyone. Those are very powerful high tension scenes. After these events, things cool down but from onward drama tension level never goes down but only up. As the player shall uncover the whole conspiracy web that involves both criminal gangs and high-profile politicians (big picture) and encounter personal struggle and even betrayal at some point (Nanba’s case). In the end, the player would expect nothing less than an epic dungeon-like Millenium tower level with tons of fights, and a grand finale with an extremely emotional and unexpected resolution. And that is exactly what the player is going to get.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Extremely powerful point of the game is character writing, especially the protagonist’s writing. His relationships with key story characters are something that young aspiring writers should learn from. Ichi lives a hard and dedicated life. During the course of the story he gets bullied, betrayed, laughed at, betrayed again but despite that, he is loyal until the end to the people he truly loves. Ichi forgives them even the worst sins and looks forward to life with a heart full of optimism and boyish hope. He is betrayed at least three times by Arakawa, Aoki, and Nanba, but he still never loses faith in them believing that their hearts are pure. Some people would call that naïve and would be right, but Ichi has his personality and own values which are solid as they could ever be and it’s a true joy to see both Aoki and Arakawa breaking down emotionally when they feel the power of loyalty and unconditional love, moreover those moments even more emotionally impactful as ultimately both of them meet their tragic end during the course of the story.

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Companion writing is another side of the golden coin. On the surface our companions look independent, tough, self-sufficient but in the reality each of them has their own challenges, struggles and fears. Adachi is haunted by his past in the force and looking to redeem himself through helping one of the kids to enter the college,  Nanba is trying to find his brother and Saeko is looking out for her weaker sister who always tend to get into troubles. All the themes are very powerful and dialogue in the "Survive Bar" where the interaction between characters happen is engaging and emotional.

 

There are not many holes in the writing if any. Some people wouldn’t like the convoluted main plot which gets bigger than life with all the politics going on. But this is how almost all Yakuza games build this structure. The first chapter may be a bit longer and dragging than what one would expect and the last quarter of the game feels a bit rushed, as during the course of the game Aoki was portrayed as a very cold, calculating man who never takes any risks but suddenly he loses control and takes a silly bait (which he admits that this is a stupid bluff by himself). But those are very minor problems overshadowed by the beautiful, engaging, and unpredictable the one to remember story and memorable deep characters.

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