Yakuza: Like A Dragon Review: A Turning Point

It’s rare to write a guide/tips before writing a review, but it was such a relief to defeat the True Final Millennium Tower and earn the platinum for Yakuza: Like A Dragon that it felt more appropriate to do that than the review. Also, I’ve had the game since launch and only just come back to it.

I was diving back in because of Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth and my fondness of Ichiban Kasuga. It made sense to return to the roots and reverse engineer all the spoilers in its sequel. My recollection was an overly difficult turn-based game, and I’d given up at the first Seiryu encounter. Five or so years later, I’ve smashed through the campaign in a swift time, but clocked in 121 hours to get that elusive platinum.

But we aren’t here for the dog tags, and instead want to know if Yakuza: Like A Dragon is worth your time. Story-wise, yes. Unlocking everything, depends on your social life. It’s a fairly decent story, as is always the case with a Yakuza game, but it’s very, very talky, so if you don’t like reading much text, play Tekken.

Yakuza: Like A Dragon Review

The year is 2000, and low-ranking yakuza member Ichiban is spending the last few hours of New Year drinking in a Kamurochō park. The next morning, he heads into work to find out he’s about to be taking the blame for a murder he didn’t commit. As a testament to his fierce loyalty, Ichiban accepts and heads to jail until his release in 2019.

Though exiled from the family, he believes he’ll be greeted by the family’s patriarch with open arms, but receives the opposite. Disregarded for the time served, he finds himself in Yokohama, befriending fellow homeless types, and nursing a nasty bullet wound. He’s about to work his way up from rock bottom and demonstrate how character and determination can overcome overwhelming odds.

And while there’s a lot of melodrama in the series, as is very common in Japanese dramas in general, Yakuza: Like A Dragon is often heartwarming; Ichiban winning over countless foes with his passion, charisma and confidence – coincidentally, stats you’ll be focusing on in your journey through the seedy underbelly of Tokyo, Yokohama and Osaka.

It’s The Turn Of A New Hero

Yakuza: Like A Dragon was Ichiban’s entry to take over the torch from Kiryu. Kiryu touched upon that directly in the dialogue and was somewhat left open for interpretation. Considering the time that this Yakuza: Like A Dragon review is being written, Kiryu has since appeared in Yakuza: Infinite Wealth and another spin-off, Like A Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name. He’s certainly holding onto that torch.

Where Kiryu has a strong sense of justice and always tries to do the right thing (as seen in his dragon fists), Ichiban has more depth. He’s flawed, kinda stupid, but has a massive heart and naturally a wielder of the policitcally correct sword without being a dick. A note on wielding: he’s also a geek as he introduces the turn-based element and visualises the battle experiences as if playing in Dragon Quest.

Instead of a button-mashing, face-smashed-into-railings experience, combat is much more methodical and uses the traditional class system of warriors, mages, healers and rogues. Each character has unique classes and abilities, though they can learn various jobs, adopting magic attacks, blunt force, healing, or general support. Surprisingly, it’s intuitive and welcoming to those new to the genre.

A Game Within A Game Within A Game

In Yakuza: Like A Dragon, Ichiban is the mediator for several gangs: families within the Yakuza, the triad, Korean assassins and the deadly obasan. Split into 15 fairly demanding chapters, players can wave their middle finger at the devs and do as they please. Fortunately, this was Sega’s plan: to entice you into this delightful world and stay there, eating takoyaki, playing darts, or grinding for hours on end.

Like the sequel, there’s plenty to do. For story purposes, you can wander the streets for random encounters to level up and visit stores and the Romance Workshop to craft weapons and armour, upgrading the former to the endgame EX EX models. For the explorer, there are 40+ substory sidequests to complete, from tracking cats, feeding people kimchi, or detonating exploding mascots.

And best of all, it’s the minigames. Being a Sega game, you can hop into one of Japan’s dying arcades and relive (or experience for the first time) Space Harrier, Virtua Fighter and Super Hang-On, or the darts mentioned above, batting centre, golf, or even a few songs at karaoke. There’s ‘something for everyone’, and despite ditching real-time combat for turn-based, I have to say, I much prefer the latter.

Yakuza: Like A Dragon Review Summary

The Yakuza series is quite an investment as the more you put in, the more you get out, and the more hair you’ll lose. For some time, Yakuza 0 was my favourite, but that’s surpassed by Infinite Wealth, and surprisingly, not Yakuza: Like A Dragon. That said, it’s either third or fourth place, which is a must-have for your collection if you have the time.

And for clarity, my favourites are in the following order:

1. Yakuza: Infinite Wealth
2. Yakuza 0
3. Yakuza 4
4. Yakuza: Like A Dragon
5. Yakuza Kiwami