Oh god: new Like a Dragon game announcement this September!

 

It should come as a surprise to no mortal man upon this world that you are currently reading the words of a Like a Dragon addict. I've played every one of their games, written exhaustively about each and every game. Dressed up as Kiryu Kazama to multiple comic cons. There's not a single part of this franchise I could obsess over more- and the fact that they even threw in a JoJo reference in Yakuza 0 is just the golden cream atop the glorious broth to me. But I will be the first to say that when I finally reached that (disappointing) final boss at the end of the DLC endgame dungeon in Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth I breathed a sigh of relief for having reached the end of my journey for at least a year. I figured I could put to rest my fandom until 2025 and maybe catch up with the rest of the world for a time. Beat those Souls-likes I've always wanted to play. Go outside for a bit. And I have. And it's been nice.

But Sega want me back.

Of course I heard the movement that this franchise was bubbling up in the background- how could I not? I knew that Like a Dragon would be getting it's own series under the Amazon label and that would give me an excuse not to retire my cosplay just yet after Kiryu takes his back seat from the franchise- for which I am supremely grateful. And I even heard the coy conversations about what the next game might hold- how it will be 'a surprise' and the lofty, silly ideas I had about what that could even mean. But it seems I blotted out the part where all this movement means that any marketing team is going to make an announcement sooner rather than later. That's kinda how stuff like this works. I was a fool- and now I will suffer for my foolishness by soon having to slot in the next adventure in the Like a Dragon universe into my 'to play list'. There's goes my free time.

So indeed- this September at the Tokyo Games Show we will have the next instalment of the Like a Dragon franchise fed down our throats, willing or otherwise, and in that brief sliver of time between now and then my mind boggles at the possibilities. What could it be? All we have to go off of is that this is 'not what we're expecting', whatever that means. Well, actually I know kinda what it means in the macro sense. It means we won't yet be getting a follow up to the incredible Lost Judgement, which is a shame. And we're probably also not looking at Kiwami 3 (thank god) or a remake of Kenzan. This really might be another side sequel in the vein of Gaiden, which could go practically anywhere in the franchise.

But let me get a bit wild for a bit. So if I was to get crazy with a Like a Dragon game that I would never see coming being announced, I would perhaps look at a prequel game starring Nishkiyama. And yes, there already was one such game- but that PSP exclusive could hardly match up to the sheer power of modern day Like a Dragon so I'd assume they'd either make a new one or totally remake that game from scratch- even more so than the visual and engine overhaul they did with Ishin. And if I were to get more out there with it- wouldn't it be cool to go off with some of the characters we've lost upon the way? I may dislike Yakuza 3, but I can't pretend I'm not interested in what it was that Mine has gotten up to in the years since his education beatdown atop Millennium Tower- and given the fact he recently got an updated model in order to star as a face-swap in Ishin, maybe it's time our shirtless push-up boy received his own spin-off?

There's plenty of villains who have peeled off over the years but few really hit as strong as Mine did. With his world view shaped under the boot of an unforgiving upbringing and an inability to form meaningful relationships with those around him- don't you want to see what a man like him could become under different circumstances? Of course, that might be a little difficult to pull of considering this is a Like a Dragon game and Mine was last seen plunging off the side of Millennium Tower. But then... he was seen plunging off Millennium Tower- whilst dragging Richardson with him! The very same Richardson who is runs the Revolve Bar in Infinite Wealth! So... I mean he could be alive... don't see why not...

But let's get wild- we're talking about a game totally unexpected which could mean a totally different genre! And for that- well we might be looking at a fully fledged Like a Dragon Strategy game! There have already been a slate of strategy mini-games in some of their games, I don't consider a totally wild proposition out of the blue for a fully fledged game to give us a spin at commanding an army of Yakuza thugs. Or maybe a squad-based tactical game like X-Com? (I'm trying to think outside of the box here!) There could certainly be something to be said about commanding armies of Tojo in the war against the Omi, with classic franchise characters starring as guest hero units. Battling through the streets of various locations throughout the franchise. Maybe through the eyes of Daigo Dojima, the only character who never really get's a spotlight to himself throughout the franchise? 

And if I were to shoot for the moon? Well, I would expect for a totally alternative universe Like a Dragon game, in the same vein as Ishin where we have classic characters playing recognisable roles but as different characters- and for it to be sci-fi. I know- what? But imagine it- Cyberpunk a Dragon! Robot armed Kiryu Kazama! Or 'Like a Trek'- travelling through the stars and meeting aliens who are just characters throughout the franchise with different colour skin and bad ear prosthetics! I don't know- I'm just trying to think as 'outside of the box' as feasibly possible with this one! Maybe we'll get a fully fantasy game where we travel across a vast fantastical kingdom slaying some evil presence that has laid waste to the lands and- maybe it could be a Souls-like? Could you imagine?

Like a Dragon is just one of those franchises entirely unrestrained by the confines of genre or setting- and unlike many others in similar straits it never seems to lose it's identity in the chaos of it all. It's not like Call of Duty slowly diluting itself with bad crossovers or Fortnite burning out it's soul to become a marketing receptacle for all the world to urinate in. When you tell me to expect the unexpected there's just no limit to where my mind can go and I truly expect my wallet to cry out in agony at whatever chaos September has for us. So please go gentle on me, SEGA- I really would like a bit of freedom from this franchise for a bit. Maybe just until February? Come on, man!

'Lost Judgement' Review

 Why do we put so much value in truths if all they do is crush us?

The original Judgement felt like a breath of fresh air to the Yakuza franchise that I wasn't really aware that I needed until it arrived. Witty, thrilling, humanising, exciting- Tak's journey hit many of the notes that were no longer reachable with the immortal Kiryu, or Joryu, as the lead of this franchise- and playing on the, somewhat, right side of the law as a detective opened up a whole new bevy of gameplay opportunities as well as avenues for narrative exploration that RGG utilised to spectacular ends. But what would a sequel to that look like? Honestly, I found the satisfying personal journey of Tak to clear his own conscious for his past failings to be a gripping narrative hook that couldn't simply be recycled for a follow-up, and that worried me for wondering how I would come out my Lost Judgement experience.

From the outset Lost Judgement clearly focuses on smoothing out the seams between gameplay verticals. Tailing you target is no longer treated as a separate form of gameplay but a hidden style applied on the player that allows them to lean against cover or activate a limited 'be casual' button if you get spotted out in the open. (Which is a lifesaver on those long tails where you make that one mistake. Would have killed for something like that in the original!) There's even a new parkour mode which is applied similarly, and a stealth mode given just the same. It's a really smooth way of transitioning gameplay that speaks to the not-yet-latent ingenuity of RGG as developers. Even in the heights they haven't gotten lazy with success.

Along with these systemic improvement come gameplay ones. Crane is actually far more useable as class with faster combos and I think even an improved switching time. (Although switching times were never really a detriment to useability thanks to the slow-down effect they apply.) Dodge windows and perfect dodge effects are more impactful this time around, heightening the feedback of being that lithe ninja brawler- and the ability to literally fly for a full second before performing a gravity defying air strike literally never gets old. They turned Crane around from one of my least favourite styles to one I couldn't stop toying about with. And that isn't all the combat improvements.

Yagami now has three styles, four with DLC! The Snake Style is essentially Tanimura's misdirection style from Yakuza 4 but revised to be far more useable with powerful punishments. It also offers some of my favourite heat actions- the 'surrenders' wherein you threaten a frightened opponent with particularly close judo kicks until they literally feint out of fear. (Love it!) Then there's the boxer class which is pretty useless at the start, but once you start the boxing 'school story' quest line, which unlocks skills simultaneously with the combat style, you'll find it to be a surprisingly effective single target duel move-set with quick dodges and counters so effective they honestly outpace even Tiger style at their peak!

A new welcome edition to the combat is the 'Battle Rewards' system which provide Yagami with extra SP (level up points) if he meets certain milestones during each fight. Take out an opponent without getting hit, knock someone out with each style, use an EX action- stuff like that. Naturally these kind of incentives encourages players to change up how they play the game, find the strengths in all the different Styles and then be all the more equipped in the late game when you really do need to understand when to switch effectively. Those late game bosses really do put you through your paces in all the best ways! 

Lost Judgement begins at a much slower pace than the original, which you might recall practically threw the serial killer in your face from the word 'go'. Lost Judgement is more interested in weaving something of a web of mystery that pulls itself together with time, which results in a much different early game where, unlike in the original, I honestly had no clue what Yagami would be faced with on a character level. Some not small part of me even considered it to be a much weaker opening for that very reason, but in hindsight that same decision to dynamically pace the game as the story progresses proved very much to this story's benefit. Even if it does make this game feel twice as long as the original, at least to start with.

Bullying is actually the major hook to start with, as Tak is hired to investigate claims of harassment as an upper class prep school in Yokohama called Seiryro High. Couple that with a new gang of ex-Yakuza forming in Kamurocho and a seemingly impossible murder tucked in there for good measure and you'd be justified in wondering how all of this can come together in a sensible manner, let alone result in a conclusion as powerful as Yagami's return to lawyering at the climax of Judgement. But would you believe it, I think RGG do such an incredible job juggling all of these I might actually consider it better done than the Mole investigation, at least for how many plot points are juggled and how long the mysteries are allowed to unravel- as opposed to in Judgement where you kind of fell onto the core leads of the serial killing nearly immediately.

Outside of the investigation Lost Judgement of course presents a plethora of side activities, including a huge meta-game investigation known as 'School stories'. These are not just questlines, they all feature fully developed minigames for wildly different genres that have progression built into them and all bleed into something of a larger investigation for the MRC (Mystery Research Club) at Seiryo High. Yagami stumbles into the position of 'outside council' for the club and, through an investigation into the identity of the mysterious 'professor' who appears to be orchestrating the downfall of many Seiryo school mates, becomes embroiled in just about every club in the school! You'll go through about half-a-dozen fully developed minigames on this journey. And yeah, it's a lot!

Yakuza 5 was the last game in this franchise to leave me feeling seriously overwhelmed, but Lost Judgement has to take the cake- I honestly thought I would never finish this game for all the tasks this one side story dumps you with. I'm talking a rhythm-action dance minigame like Haruka for Yakuza 5's but much harder, a competitive biker-racing minigame, an entire boxing league, a robot-wars/ Splatoon hybrid- you spend so much time in this darn School you start forgetting that Yagami isn't actually a teacher. Although, with all the clubs he ends up juggling, and the genuinely heart-warming way he ends up guiding and uniting his wayward club charges, I honestly wonder if the future of this character is to enrol as an official teacher, at least part time. I would actually be interested to see how Yagami grows further in this otherwise side gig of his.

But would you believe that these huge school stories aren't the only large-scale side quest that Lost Judgement throws at you? You will also be expected to scour Yokohama and Kamaurcho hunting down Squirrel stencils that lead towards goodies tucked away in the open world requiring simple gadget utilisation in order to reach in a manner not a hundred miles away from Arkham Batman Riddler trophies. And then there is the extensive bugging questline that has you chasing after the 'Illegal detective agency' across town as their services infiltrate ever corner of daily life. Although School stories have the most cohesive narrative to them as well as quite possible the best laid out mystery in the entire Judgement series so far. I was genuinely impressed when I figured out who the culprit was for how naturally they managed to lay out all the clues over the course of the extended questline.

Covering all of this content is a lot less daunting with the new edition of the Skateboard, making travelling around the two maps a lot more feasible now you can ollie and jump kick through the streets! There's even an entire skateboarding metagame built into School stories! (Unfortunately it's one of weakest vectors of that questline.) The skateboard serves as a clever little edition to your travelling repertoire that makes the journeys not just fun but speedy- which is a life-saver in the huge Yokohama world space imported right of Yakuza 7. There's only so much Yen you spend hiring Taxi's day in and day out!

My initial worries regarding how the story would evolve upon Yagami proved to be wasted concerns, because whilst this may not be a personal narrative delving into Tak's past- what we get instead is an amazingly direct story that stab right at the heart of Tak's core convictions with his foil, an opponent with similar morals but contradictory convictions! It's the classic beautiful clash between exclusionary ideologies that bring erstwhile brothers to arms against one another, brought in this game under the banner of the nature of justice itself and, if I were to be so bold, of the role that the concept of 'Judgement' can play in the pursuit of absolution. I was totally gripped by the intensity of these debates as the lines between friend and foe constantly seemed smudged and the electrifying performances of the leads were dragged to the forefront to shine.

A narrative about school-age bullying had every right in the world to be fluffy and cringe-worthy after school special style trite: but RGG pull absolutely no punches bringing these matters to their absolute darkest extremes. Systemic abuse buried beneath conformist corruption, the utter extremes of self harm and even suicide, and the extents that ordinary people can be pushed to in extraordinary circumstances. This was a narrative I honestly found thrilling. Sure, perhaps the story does not pick up quite as quickly as Yakuza 0, what I consider to be the team at their writing best, but I wouldn't question the team's pacing choices for a moment in hindsight. Bringing children into the narrative as more than just bundles of sympathy points required care and consideration- which RGG brought in rare droves. (They didn't even have any school girls inappropriately crush after Tak like they absolutely would have done in literally any other Yakuza game. RGG were taking this one extremely seriously.)

When the fireworks start flying things truly shoot fully off the rails, thanks in no small part to what I'm going to executively call a fresh legendary villain for the Yakuza hall of fame- Soma. It is extremely difficult, at this point in the franchise, to give us a villain who is genuinely frightening- but the utterly cold Soma, with the way he calmy walks (walks!) into scenes and callously causes hell. He's not portrayed as some inhuman monster like Lao Gui, nor a braggadocious cartoon like Sadamoto. He is just efficient and empathy-free, quietly 'just' and subtly commanding. He is one of those villains with a bigger presence than his screen time, which makes the moments where he does show up all the more special. And don't get me started on that theme! I cannot get 'Viper' out of my head, it is simply supreme!

In the end the final fight is actually not all that consequential in the grand scheme of events like it typically is in an RGG game. There's no 'battle in front of a ticking time bomb' or 'duel to inherit the Dragon of Dojima'. That last battle, as excellently choregraphed and dynamic as it ultimately is, transcends the boundaries of 'winners' and 'losers'. Without slipping into pretentious babble let me just gush about how it is a fight of almost primal necessity, with either side representing utterly distinct shards of the conceptual that is 'Justice' clashing as their conflicting ideals must, in pursuit of a truth neither can confirm but both must believe in. It is art. Possibly my favourite finale in a RGG game. Sublime.

The Kaito Files DLC is more traditional RGG fair, only with a heavier player character in Kaito who seems to suddenly refer to himself as Gorilla all the time because the new translation team who took over for this DLC found that really funny for some concerning reason. That being said, it is by no means shoddy in it's execution. The files present what is something of a retelling of Yakuza 1 with a bit of Yakuza 5 mixed in there for good measure, as Kaito tracks down his lost love whilst accompanied by a child that he kind of extra-legally adopts. (Seriously, did Kiryu ever actually officially adopt Haruka? Could he have orchestrated the most successful kidnapping in history?)

Kaito is a supremely endearing side character for the Judgement games and these files prove he makes for a charming protagonist too, in that same sort of way that Ichiban is- a traditionally dense guy with the street smarts to make up for it. It's particularly cool to see Kaito stretch his detective muscles without Tak around and solve mysteries on his own, and though the mystery in question is rather obvious from the outset- (Particularly directly after experiencing the web that was Lost Judgement's main game.) I do take a bit of solace in the familiar. Sometimes you just want to pummel a completely unquestionably evil bad guy on a rooftop whilst flailing around with Kiryu's Beast style that the team have renamed to 'Tank' for some incomprehensible reason. (They wanted to call it 'Gorilla' style, didn't they?)

Last and extremely least, I might as well discuss RGG's continued attempt to make me lose my mind and commit a violence on myself. Lost Judgement's Amon is nowhere near as insane as Judgement's. He doesn't steal your phone, thank god! Do you know what he does do? The biggest crime any boss in any franchise can do. He heals. A lot. And he stun locks you so you cannot stop him from healing unless you stun lock him first. (Hint: two or three Warrior Onslaught's when he hits his second stage will get the dick.) Not impressed. And once more I scream unholy hatred at those who crossed every line of decency to bring that monster into this world. Thank you RGG, now get out of office.

Summary

I do think that Lost Judgement might cross the line in being too big just by a scant few mission chains. But if you are willing to overlook a bit of bloat (and as long as it's not Assassin's Creed Valhalla levels of bloat, I'm fine) then Lost Judgement might just be one of the best Like a Dragon series games ever made. Fantastic progression, balanced gameplay, a thrilling mystery, searingly contemplative core themes, a fantastic core cast, a series icon for a chief villain, ample amounts of side content and an entire Sega Master System emulator chucked in Yagami's office for the hell of it. And Sonic The Fighters in the arcade. They really did stuff this one full of everything. Of course this is a recommend, that pretty much comes standard with this entire franchise. (With the staunch exception of Yakuza 3.) And I'm willing to slap an A+ grade. Where it might have lost points for it's length, it won them back with the surprisingly worth-my-extra-time Kaito Files. And with that, the last seal is broken. Now my journey can finally begin- towards INFINITE WEALTH!

'Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name' Review

"You're the most gorilla-ass looking Mother----- I've ever seen"

Finally, with perseverance and many hours playing minigames, I am lapping at the heels of Like a Dragon's forefront. With this spin-off inbetween-quel, I would finally be up to date enough in the franchise to enjoy the wonders of their most recently released entry. After getting through the gigantic Lost Judgement, of course. But Like a Dragon Gaiden did hold some nugget of interested to a series veteran like me that I wasn't quite expecting. Given the consequence of Infinite Wealth, and how I already know some of the ways that game treats itself as a series flashback, I wasn't expecting Gaiden to hold so much in the way of fan-service regarding the many adventures that Kiryu Kazama has travelled down. But what I ended up getting was such a neat jaunt through the long history of Kiryu that I ended up actually 100%-ing the entire game- which is not quite the undertaking it sounds considering this is the smallest Like a Dragon game by about half a game.

'Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name' exists to fill a gap in the void of time between Kiryu's supposed death in Yakuza 6 and his abrupt resurrection in the final act of 'Yakuza: Like a Dragon'- given us the details in where he was and how he played a part in the biggest world upset this franchise has ever undergone- the dissolution of the Yakuza. As such, you might think there would be a deficit of genuine stakes and tension the narrative could dig at, given that we know where all the important characters end up, but just like Yakuza always does this game introduces a whole host of new characters who, I guess are just supposed to be hidden in the background during the representative 'Yakuza 7' moments; so we can enjoy a whole new cast of people we come to somewhat respect and then fear for the lives of as the situation becomes more dire. Yippie!

First of I would like to commend RGG for giving me the option of picking Japanese audio whilst loading into the game, which saved me from the annoyed panic-quit I've ended up doing in every game since Yakuza 7, as I start the game all excitedly only to recoil in disgust at the English tonation of the first spoken words. Why is English the default language choice in a franchise starting Japanese characters taking place exclusively in Japan? Gods, it frustrates me! Of course, I would also like to offer a curious head tilt RGG's way for their brand new studio trailer intro that mimics the stylings of Marvel Studios in a way I find both cheesy and slightly endearing. But certainly a lot more cheesy. Remember when the 'Dark Universe' tried that? It foretold grim tidings.

Like a Dragon: Gaiden gives us Kiryu some time on from his hospital visit by sweaty politician-man-who-fakes-deaths. Now he is a lacent agent for the Daidoji faction- a secretive political faction that seem to be a mix between gadget powered secret agents and surveillance-state extra-judicial enforcers. They have Kiryu is a curious position wherein knowledge of his continued existence needs to be withheld for the potential international security threatening knowledge he gained at the end of Yakuza 6, but the man is too useful to just kill off and so they hold him vaguely hostage- preventing Kiryu from visiting Haruka and Haruto or any of the other kids at the Morning Glory Orphanage. Which naturally has Kiryu existing in something of a malaise, lacking his reason to be whilst being employed as a blunt instrument for the, somehow more political ambitious, Japanese CIA.

Most significantly from a moment-to-moment perspective, this means that Kiryu- renamed to Joryu- is now the proud owner of a brand-new combat style to compliment his classic brawling antics. The 'Agent' style seems like a set of attacks designed specifically to show off the capabilities of the modern Dragon Engine through the use of flashy and physics challenging gadgets. You shoot out glowing 'Spider Wire' that wraps around enemies allowing Kiryu to chuck them whatever direction they so please, sending anything in their path flying like a wrecking ball. Summon swarms of drones that encircle you in a protective field, or charge down your targeted enemy to keep them distracted. Or just blast your way around the battlefield with rocket boots that knock back anything in your path. They mostly turn screen fodder into putty to be moulded and taken apart at the player's discretion- and that's what makes the Agent class so very fun to use!

RGG actually put a lot of emphasis behind not only making this new style of play visually interesting, but also narratively significant for the way Kiryu gradually refines his mastery of the style by growing closer to the man who invented all the tools. They've also managed to hit a surprising amount of on-screen enemies at once, allowing the player to really go to town with the way they throw about badguys and upset physics objects without a classic Dragon Engine freakout ruining the cohesion of the scene. (RIP to that meme but god is it fun to blast through twenty enemies in a huddle using the rocket boots!) Also this might be the very first game in the franchise where you'll be approached by a giant hoard of thugs in the cutscene and actually face that exact number of guys in the gameplay. (Parity at last!)

My only real gripe with this class is simple- the activation of most all these tools are awkward. They all require a hold-down button prompt in order to set off, which can all too easily be overridden by a punch or kick or dodge if you are too close to an enemy. It makes it difficult to activate these seemingly precise crowd control tools when you're in a precision moment to benefit- requiring some brute forcing to get the effect you want now and then. Also, this is an odd one, but there's a single Agent Action where Kiryu performs a few judo-style limb pops on his opponent, with each pop accompanied by a rather distracting screen flash effect. This is the only agent heat action to display such an effect, which leads me to believe this aesthetic was originally designed to permate the entire style but they scrapped it after not liking how obnoxious the screen flashes were and forgot to remove the first one. Not really a game breaking issue, but just a curiosity I noticed.

In narrative, 'Like a Dragon: Gaiden' takes us up to events coinciding with 'Yakuza 7', and as such you can expect to see 'the new Kamarucho' Yokohama make some appearances, as well as sly (and not so subtle) references to the background events going on in that game. For example, did you know that Kiryu had a giant fight against a crew right outside of the homeless camp where Ichiban was being treated by Nanba after being shot? Of course, you didn't. This whole story is very much written in the 'Oh yeah, all this crazy stuff was actually happening right off screen' manner which veers on the edge of cute and overbearing fan servicing. I sort of wobble on the fence about it. On one hand, stuff like that example does make me roll me eyes- but on the other end, the finale of this game, which matches up neatly to it's sister scene in Yakuza 7, is genuinely badass and gratifying to experience. 

I do think, however, that Gaiden takes significant liberties with it's narrative in order to create some sort of plot for our iconic spiky haired godling to tackle outside of the struggle to end the Yakuza. Kiryu works hard to keep evidence of his existence secretive, which would be simple in any other Yakuza game where the man could literally bump into another character who literally worships the ground he walks on and not get recognised. (No, I'm still not over the fact that Akiyama didn't immediately know who Kiryu was when they met in that sewer in Yakuza 4!) In this game, however, literally every thug in the street can spot the man at a glance. It gets to a point where Kiryu has to employ Clark Kent hypnosis sunglasses just to get about public- as though the only six-foot man in Japan can hide behind a pair of slightly darkened shades!

Not too long into the story it becomes very clear what the real purpose of Gaiden's story is, however: to give us an excuse to revisit much of Kiryu's greatest hits. The Castle, probably my new favourite 'underground red district' area in the entire franchise, hosts an arena that treats us to recreations of the most significant moments in Yakuza history- re-enacted as exhibition matches that Joryu, amusingly, steps into. My favourite out of these being the recreation of the Yakuza 1 finale fight, where Joryu has to fight some one dressed up as Kiryu wielding a sword and a gun (for some insane reason) and seemingly using moves plucked right out of Sakamoto Ryoma's 'Wild Dancer' moveset. The fan service cuts deep in this one! 

Speaking of- goodness knows I all but fell out of my chair when I saw how the new big bad introduced to loom over Joryu's new narrative was none over than Nishitani III- grandson of the psychotic SOB I think we all remember from Yakuza 0. Talk about a call back! Nishitani was famously the crazed model upon which Majima based his own brand of insanity after noticing how effective it was in making people underestimate what was, at heart, a principled and oodly dependable man. Nishitani the 3rd strangle inherits less from his grandfather than Majima did. (Which I guess makes sense, seeing as he never met him.) His is a pretty boy narcissist with a sharp eye and a seemingly rare intellect. I almost wonder if he could have made into being one of the great Yakuza villains if he wasn't relegated to this spin-off title.

When he's not risking his life to change the course of the criminal underworld, Joryu spends his time interacting with the world with perhaps the best free-roam encouragement this franchise has come up with to date- the Akane Network. Akane, a new red-haired crass-witted character, runs a kind of underground informant network that ties to everyone in Sotenbori, the open world map for this game. As such, pretty much everything you do contributes to the expansion of her network, opening up new lucrative missions and the ability to buy bonuses from her store such as increased item drop rates and cash multipliers. RGG know how much players like to see progress bars increase, so by tying literally every open world activity to an overarching completion bar, they're pretty much chummed up the waters for all us open world freaks out here.

And with this revolution of how they decided to present the open world comes a revision to one of Yakuza's time honoured traditions: The Hostess club. As much as I would happily jump onto the very next Hostess club running minigame, I doubt we'll get another anytime soon. (although they did make an explicitly mention of Kiryu's time at Club Four Shine, because the fan train is never out of service!) What we do get, however, is a hostess club featuring- oh my god it's FMV! There's something so disconcerting about watching a live action video of Kson flirting at a camera which makes my skin shrivel beneath my bones- I have no idea who thought this was a good idea but frankly- I would have preferred the 3D models. (I believe Kei returns as a 3D model in Infinite Wealth. Thank god.)

Alongside the Hostess clubs we also get a return of Toy car track races! And they're just as hopelessly prone to inexplicable physics engine screw ups as ever! And there's... character customisation? That's right, Kiryu can be customised to your heart's content at the boutique, and of course RGG gave as Kuroda-san's iconic hat so I figured it only made sense for famous Yakuza Kiryu Kazama to go through the game disguised as famous voice actor of Kiryu Kazama: Takaya Kuroda! (They won't suspect a thing!) And the creme of the crop of side activities has to be the genuinely brilliant arena side quests- they had me hooked!

The new Joryu-clan meta game has the player gathering tough allies across the game world that can be employed to take part in group death matches in the arena, which are offered alongside your typical one-on-one and one-on-many style match-ups. These fights level with experience, grow closer to Joryu to expand the duration of their special abilities- the typical level of depth you'd expect from an RGG game. What blew my mind, however, was the discovery that every hireable character was actually playable. That's right, you can select almost any of the fights, from the groups ones to the solo bouts, and play as your gun-toting support character, or (if you have the DLC) any of the legendary Yakuza members plucked from the series such as Majima or Daigo! They have their own move-sets and special abilities as well- which is a crazy amount of effort to put into a mostly hidden feature in an optional game mode!

And when you're not winding away the hours grinding against some of the genuinely tough arena challenges, you can delve into the dozens of side stories that take you done familiar routes. Such as searching for blonde stick-up artists all attempting to cosplay as Ryuji Goda for some reason- as though the man is going to come back from the dead and return to Sotenbori not having aged a day- (actually, if Kiryu can do it- why not his golden other half?) Also, much to my shock, Kaito makes a surprise appearance! And I only spoil that reveal because I think I'll explode if I don't mention the frankly insane amount of times Kaito and Kiryu are compared to 'Gorillas'. It's this weird quirk of the new localisation team that took over from 'The Kaito Files' DLC for Lost Judgement- they want Kaito to seem as animalistic as possible and literally call him a Gorilla every chance they get. Not gonna lie, it makes me a little uncomfortable. Not sure what they were trying to get at, truth be told.

Given the squashed length of Gaiden, being only 5 chapters long, the plot doesn't quite unfold with the same grace as some of the full RGG games, and some characters with simply incredible write-up blurbs you might expect to be epic series stable characters, such as Shishido, never really get their chance to blossom. I would even say the narrative starts to get a bit rushed during the middle chapters, with Joryu getting shoved into the colosseum for one chapter, then pulled out again and then shoved back there within the space of a single chapter- you kind of end up more following objective markers than trailing along the breadcrumbs of the story. I actually think there might have been a cleaner way to do this, perhaps if RGG had committed more to either the Agent storyline or the Castle storyline, but mashing them both together in a runtime these condensed was simply a recipe for... a little bit of a mess.

That being said, as far as 'doing all the hits' is concerned, the team did not miss. You even get to have a brawl in Cabaret Grand in a bid to draw out Nishitani- it's just an absolute crime that you didn't get to battle the man himself there, in the same building that his grandfather duelled Majima within all those decades previously! Perhaps RGG allowed that 'fan service' mind to overright their clean storytelling duties, because the Kaito files proves they should have no trouble pulling off satisfying smaller narratives when they put their mind to it. (Then again, the Kaito files didn't have to bridge a gap between two major entries, now did it? Maybe the scale of the task was just a tad too overwhelming.)

Of course when it comes down to it, those moments of sheer drama, Like a Dragon always delivers. I had expected a bit more in the way of peril, and thus expected one of my new favourite side characters, Akane, to be at least in mortal danger at some point, if not killed off entirely! (Maybe playing Lost Judgement at the same time coloured my expectations a little. Kept expecting Soma to literally melt out of the shadows and ice someone!) But I guess when you're dealing with the Dragon of Dojima, peril never really enters the conversation, does it? Especially with his Agent powers. I'd wager to call this iteration of Kiryu the most 'in his prime' since Kiwami- which naturally makes the man something of a physical embodiment of the coming, unstoppable, force of change. We already know the Yakuza are going to end, Yakuza 7 already played out that plotpoint, Kiryu is simply the hammer to ensure it is neatly smashed to dust.

I cannot withhold my critique of the finale boss, who shares almost the exact same problem as the Aizawa final boss in Yakuza 5. ("What are you doing here?" "I'm not so sure myself!" Those words are burned into my memory!) This boss kind of feels like a rehash of that one, both in general motives and even in build. Although Gaiden's boss is significantly better placed in the narrative to make his convictions blaze in opposition to Kiryu's iron will, making that final fight classical symbolic of the core theme- putting behind the 'undying spirit of rebellion', like the hippies floating into the rat race after the swinging sixties- if Kiryu was there to punch the Beatles into submission. (Oh! I've got a great idea for the next spin-off!)

The spectacle of the fight itself? Epic. One of the very few four stage fights in this franchise that drags us all over a famous, but underexplored, location in the franchise- (that isn't Millennium Tower!) gives us a brutal meat wall meets meat wall style duel with dynamic stage transitions and one of my actually favourite 'dispatching' scenes in the franchise. (I don't want to think about the state of those kneecaps. Ouch!) Plus, I'll always award extra points to the kind of finale that brings so many of the old school crew back together. Always good to see Majima and Saejima fighting side by side! They even found time to give us a direct lead in to Infinite Wealth with a call back to literally the very first thing the player is told to do in the very first Yakuza game. (after beating up the alley thug, of course.) A game for the fans.

But if I may be permitted one final gripe- I was aghast to find out that this game was more than 80gb in total size, more than Lost Judgement! Which turned into straight perplexment when I saw that Infinite Wealth was less than 60gb! And only after finishing the game do I think I understand why. Gaiden comes with a two hour special demo for Infinite Wealth installed with the game, it's dragging around the baggage of Like a Dragon 8 and my hard-drive is forced to suffer for it's sin! I can't believe they hard-coded an entire demo into the game, what where RGG thinking? Not about condensing their game files, that's for sure!

Summary

For a side game, Like a Dragon Gaiden overperforms it's role sensationally- overstuffing the game with so much to do you'll forget what you're playing is essentially a sawn-off RGG title. Unfortunately the snub-nosed campaign does hurt the scope of the typically epic tales that RGG tells and the genuinely promising new characters they place within this new playset. (I hope we get to see more of these characters in games to come.) The new gameplay editions may have been as much tech showcases as they were gameplay additives, but I never got bored breaking opponents to pieces using them so I won't complain. (Plus it feels so good having a nimble style of Kiryu once again, I've missed feeling agile!) This may be a side title in the Ryu Ga Gotoku franchise, but the team did enough right to make it a worthwhile diversion to the core games. Heck, you might even tear up at little during the ending scenes. (I almost did!) Of course, the game gets my recommendation. And as far as grades go, I'll give this a B+. Another solid outing for the franchise that never seems to fall off. Which brings me one step closer to the front lines!

Judgement Review

Eyes like these can't see much. Can't tell an innocent man from a murderer.

As I came around to 'Like a Dragon: Ishin', I decided that if I wanted to speed up my journey to the front of the franchise, I would need to double us- thus was born the plan to play and review Ishin alongside this, Judgement- a game of quite some significance within the franchise. As 'Yakuza: Like a Dragon' indicated the series moving into RPGs going forward, Judgement was born to affirm the existence of action combat games into the near future, carrying on the direct legacy of Yakuza 6 but born in a different narrative body with a totally new protagonist. That of Takuya Yagami- detective on the mean streets of Kamaurcho. Little did I know that the murder mystery of Judgement would bear a curious mirror of the murder investigation that spurs on much of Ishin's plotline. Curious parallels, that. Totally accidental. (I wonder if I'll find similar parity with my next double-up: Lost Judgement and Like a Dragon: Gaiden.)

Placing us on the otheside of the law for the first time in this series, I'll admit to feeling slight trepidatious as to how RGG would handle a detective story- would they play it safe and rely on cliches? Would they make it too similar narratively to the Yakuza games to the point where the perspective change was made redundant? I should know better than now to hold concern over RGG's writing chops, fool that I am. For Judgement deftly tells a genuinely enthralling serial killer mystery wrapped with excellently interwoven character stakes that marry the drama of being at a knife's edge with the swelling rise of confronting your past and finding strength in your own most shameful failings. I come out and say it right away, I was enamoured with Judgement's plot from start to finish.

From the get-go the premise lays it on strong by presenting Yagami as relatively fresh-faced lawyer who won a case against the state. A little bit of real world trivia as to why this is such a big deal- Japan famously holds a 99% conviction rate. They don't hull you into the courtroom unless they've already got your ass fitted out for a jumpsuit. For Yagami to serve as one of the few, on a murder trial no less, lets you know exactly what you're dealing with when it comes to our protagonist. A defiant of the odds who pursues his vision of the truth relentlessly- even when all the world seems against him. And like any good story, this reflects cleanly in the adventure to come. Of course as any great drama goes, Yagami's victory soon turns into his greatest shame after an incident that shatters his self-belief and causes him to hang-up practicing law altogether in order to go off the beaten path and become a detective with his Ex-Yakuza friend, Kaito.

It's important to note that even when pried from the Yakuza main brand, Judgement is still intrinsically linked with the world that RGG spent decades spelling out throughout the franchise. Yagami's adoptive father is head of a third-tier family of the Tojo Clan, the dealings of the Yakuza are relevant throughout the plot. What we're really getting out of Judgement that is unique from a narrative point is both the view of a largely law-driven protagonist who believes in the sanctity of the justice system, and the fact that we're in the hands of a 'human' again. Which is to say, Kiryu is famously described as being not human. The things he does, beating up 100 thugs by himself in Yakuza 5, taking a leadpipe to the head and not flinching in Yakuza 6- they're inhuman feats of lunacy. Yagami, on the otherhand, actually suffers a concussion for the first time in this entire franchise. He often has to fight large crowds with his friends at his side, he runs away when outgunned. Yagami feels mortal, which reintroduces long lost dramatic tension to the danger in the story.

There's an endearing quality to Takuya's performance that is based in his somewhat aloof and charismatic carefree attitude I find somewhat reminiscent of one of my favourite RGG protagonists- Akiyama. The man is never without a sarcastic comment to bring down the tension, and his parenthesis comments he throws in now and then never fail to get a smile out of me. However Tak comes wrapped up with this earnest passion which flares up in the appropriate moments that can just be electric to watch- for those moments when you see the blazing conviction and feel not just his determination but also his humanity underneath. I think that was what made Nishikiyama's iconic Yakuza 0 speech a never-failing tear jerker, beyond the helplessness was the real human relatability of feeling lost and hollowed- that doesn't always have the chance to flare up with Tak, who naturally guards that otherwise fragile side of himself with a quip and hand-wave, but in those moments it does it connects like a gut punch. Genuinely fabulous!

The Detective's Kamurocho

Judgement feels like it has something to prove right off the bat, boasting ambitious cinematic angles of charred crime scenes and flashback narratives that simultaneously portray and link the investigation of 'The Mole' and the investigation of the case three years previously that marked such a turning point in Yagami's life. For the tale it tells of Tak's personal and outward redemption I would actually mark this as fundamentally better written and more investigative than 'LA Noire', Rockstar's own take on switching up to the otherside of the law to tell a story of deep flaws and grit. (Although I have a soft spot for both games, naturally.) 

Tak also boasts a noir-style narration of events where he'll have an internal comment on his observations as people talk, which range from actual insight to literally just stating the obvious as though you can't see it. This tool of bringing the player into his mind is ideal for selling for vision of being the detective who scours crime scenes for corroborating clues, compares characteristics to identify perps, tails people through the bustling streets and even leads the odd chase or two. RGG committed fully to the detective fantasy and it slides into the gameplay formula with a commendable smoothness. Of course, paying attention actually has some vague value within the game too, with investigations potentially revealing extra information that can unlock optional boosts to stats, or incorrect dialogue choices even rarely leading to otherwise avoidable fights.

Being not a street thug for the first time in the franchise, Takuya tends to try and minimise the damage he causes during combat. He'll still kick around enemies like ragdolls, but in the rare instance he nearly kicks a guy off a building, he'll rush to save him. A stark contrast to Kiryu who, you might remember in Yakuza 0, double drop kicks a guy out of a third floor toilet window and just assumes the guy survived it. This new approach also means Tak doesn't pick up a lot of the dropped weapons throughout the game, like knives and guns, and those he can pick up are usually tied to newly animated debilitating heat actions, rather than the old one where protagonists would literally try to carve people's head's in with crowbars and then claim moral superiority in the next scene.

Combat

In a return to action combat, Yagami plays much like Kiryu does with a basic set of combos spruced up by Heat Actions- Tak's form of combat is a sort of self-taught martial arts that focuses on fluidity and agility, allowing some of his action scenes to come across as a more exaggerated Jackie Chan movie. Tak also boast two distinct combat styles to switch between with various utilities. Tiger style is designed to focus on single targets whilst Crane is ostensibly designed for groups, although personally I found Tiger to mostly be what you use when you want to take a target down and Crane being the back-up for those times when you're surrounded and need to buy some room. Although Crane has this strangely sluggish activation window for it's basic combos that make it functionally useless in dire moments of being completely surrounded, essentially nullifying it's best use case. I mostly used Tiger throughout most of the game, consequently. 

New to this game, and hammering home that 'Tak is actually mortal' point is the Mortal Wounds system, which provides an extra kick to enemies charge-up special attacks which knocks off chunks of your full health in a semi-permanent manner. Essentially it's some kind of 'light wear and tear' system which necessitates Tak taking off time to visit a doctor here and there. Unfortunately that doctor charges and arm and a leg in the early game meaning that until you secure a decent revenue stream (of which this game has very few) or you'll do what I do and sail along several chapters with half your health bar blocked off. Honestly, sometimes it's better to just literally stand there and die when you catch a mortal wound rather than drag that around for the next ten hours of playtime.

Side cases

Just as with Akiyama in Yakuza 4, RGG wanted to really sell the daily life of a Kamurocho investigator, which means Tak's side stories are all about performing some detective work for his clients in all kinds of seemingly straightforward tasks that blossom into memorable adventures all of their own- just like in Yakuza. Maybe you'll start off by following a spouse someone suspects to be cheating, actually a lot of these stories start with that, only to find yourself wrapped up in a investigation of a love scam, or a third party blackmail or anything other than the most boring expected path. RGG never go for the obvious, and that's what makes their side quests the most entertaining in the industry!

Some of the most memorable standouts including the repeating exploration into the various perverts of the city that hound the streets in supervillain style get-ups and personas. Then there's the book publisher that needs you to solve quirky little logic puzzles in order to secure a lucrative publishing deal. Oh, and I can't forget the entire K-drama style tale of crime family legacy based around the wellbeing of a single cat. (That one leads to mid-air drone combat!) There's not a single iota of quality dropped in the wackiness of side content and it's great to see RGG at the top of their game once again, making you question literally who could come up with this stuff after every new wild diatribe.

Friends in need

New to Judgement, and adapted from the original Ishin, is the 'Friends' system- wherein Yagami will make friends with the people across the world that he investigates cases for and just meets randomly on the street. They can be just cashiers at the local convivence store, or celebrity chefs hanging outside one of their own restaurants for some reason. Yagami can interact with and build a steady rapport with them to the benefit of maxing out and becoming decent friends with them- perhaps narratively representing Tak reaching back out to a world which he largely shut himself off from those three years past. Although what exactly makes him start being friends with the entirety of Kamurocho now is anyone's guess. Most all friends carry a unique story you learn about them, and some even provide small benefits if you max out your rapport.

Some benefits are as little as dropping a few materials your way when you meet them, which can used in the new 'Extracts' power-up system that one friend presents you, and others will just greet you as you pass them on the street, filling up your Heat gauge. (Which is actually called 'EX' in this game but it functions exactly the same as Heat so we're just calling it Heat.) Some friends might even pledge to come to your aid in combat, and will show up during dynamic open world encounters to pledge their strength to you- which is quite the boon considering the actually huge gangs of thugs the game chucks your way in the latter hours of the game.

Around town

Of course, Judgement comes with own version of Kamurocho packed with new side activities to bring the world alive in that manner that just comes expected with RGG games these days. These range from courting various girlfriends through their dedicated storylines, dragging them across town to kill time and grow closer, to just playing House of the Dead. Oh yeah, they developed their very own House of the Dead clone and put it into this game as an arcade activity because at this point, why not? The only omission which strikes at my soul- Tak doesn't get to go to Karaoke. Maybe the big name actor who plays him was too self-conscious to embarrass himself in the recording booth- either way we missed out on a potential new slate of RGG karaoke classics. So sad.

The Prestige

As the mystery ticks on towards it's apex and the threads start to unravel, Judgement transitions to a position very familiar to Yakuza 7 players- positioning the protagonist in a place of absolute powerlessness in the face of their opponent. Typically not the direction that cat-and-mouse style noir stories end up veering, but great fodder for final act priority shifts. RGG are always skilled at taking traditionally non-exciting topics and transforming them into lynchpin matters of life and death, and Judgement's Alzheimer's Medication 'AD-9' is no exception; providing a impressively terrestrial and real-world framework to present something as surreal as a modern day serial killer who goes around collecting their victims eyes. (Hence the Japanese version of the game's name: 'Judge-Eyes'.) 

The final act is a intense and solid execution of every kind of action you want from a story like this, courtroom drama, emotional confrontations, race-against-the-clock moments and even a good old fist fight or eight. They even, much to my shock and surprise, managed to avoid doing the modern RGG thing of piling seven endings on top of one another before and after the credits to belabour the same point incessantly. (I finished Ishin first, so maybe I still had the extra ten minutes of story after the final fight of that game still sore in my brain.) I love a good book-end on character growth, and though Judgement might not surprise in that regard it does satisfy, to such a degree I wonder how it's sequel would carry that momentum going forward.

Amon

Last and very least I need to discuss this game's Amon, because of course they brought back the series-stable finale superboss. I think he's worth mentioning because Shin Amon might be one of the franchise's worst. Amon has always been an exercise in presenting the least balanced, most bull, frustrating boss fight that the team could come up with- but even I was blown away by the fact that this Amon has an opening move in his first phase where he takes your phone. Your only means of pausing and accessing your inventory? He takes that. And unlike when similar mechanics are introduced in Kingdom Hearts fights, you can't get that back! You have to finish that fight without being able to eat any of the healing items in the already limited inventory menu, and without being able to take a breather by pausing for a few seconds. All of that is without mentioning his second phase, an impromptu game of 'match the colour with your style' rounded out by a finale phase of 'switch quickly to the opposite style in order to break my damage shield but be prepared to switch back immediately because the stage is full of stun-locking beams that will lock and instantly kill you for being in a the wrong style for a second too long. Well done boss-developing team, you've outdone yourself and I hate you for it.

Summary

Judgement is mix of the familiar we love about RGG's Like a Dragon games mixed in with some fresh new twists which distinguish this spin-off franchise as something just unique enough to stand on it's own legs. It revives a otherwise long-lost human fragility to the characters and world that heightens the stakes when lives are actually placed on the line, and provides the standing leg from which to deliver heartfelt passionate performances that the game carves out the odd scene or two for at it's most climatic moments. It feels like a refresh button on the Like a Dragon formula just before it started to grow stale, and for effective detective gameplay placed atop the gripping narrative, I knock in an extra notch to the grade bringing my review score up to an A Grade. Of course with a recommendation for Like a Dragon fans, as well as a rogue encouragement for 'LA Noire' fans who were sad that game never got a sequel or sparked any game development trend. Judgement may feel different to the style of game that was going for, but there's a certain heart to it's systems that are undeniably reminiscent. I think you'll like what you play.

'Like a Dragon: Ishin' Review

History can't have two Sakamoto Ryomas.

'Like a Dragon: Ishin' marks the point where Yakuza was no more and the RGG franchise finally became the Like a Dragon series of games- just in time for the franchise to move away from being purely about Japan's Mafia. And it's also somewhat symbolic, given how the original stood as the final step on the original trajectory of the series, as a solely Japan-focused collection of games, before turning back and becoming the global phenom it is today. 'Yakuza: Ishin' was never given an English Translation, and fans assumed it never would as poor sales in the West seemed to indicate Yakuza had been totally forgotten. It was sometime after this game when one last effort was made for a simultaneous Western/Eastern release with full quality translations, almost as is to prove to themselves there was no point of trying any further. That follow up game would be Yakuza 0- and the rest was history.

With Ishin we are brought back to that turning point, remastered and re-released as part of the 'Like a Dragon brand' to bring all fans up to speed finally, after all this time. And for my part, it is a great release finally being up to see the game that birthed a song I knew only from a fanmade translation from a very dedicated Youtube channel for years. (Samurai Ondo- Majima's true masterpiece!) I held a lot of expectations coming around to 'the Samurai Yakuza' game, and in typical fashion for these games what I experienced was nothing like what I thought I would. It's safe to say that Ishin pretty much slapped me around, as a man who thought himself more than familiar enough with this franchise to breeze through another on his journey to series parity; but was it a slapping for the better or worse of my time with the game? Let's find that out together.

'Like a Dragon: Ishin' is a peculiar proposition, framing itself as a fictionalised historical effort borrowing actors and character models from across the wide series of Yakuza games and 'recasting' them, as it were, as famed historical characters. Kiryu Kazama, our beloved protagonist, is now Sakamoto Ryoma. Majima is Okita Soji, and Ryoma's sworn brother Takechi Hanpeita is predictably played by Nishikiya- wait, no? Takechi is played by Shibusawa? The most scheming of three villains of Yakuza 0? That's... an interesting choice. A fun little note you'll find is that whilst these characters and their respective actors are playing totally different people within the narrative, their personalities and abstract narrative roles are never too far away from their originals. Kiryu is every bit the incorruptible force of nature of Ryoma, Soji is a violent killing-machine with a madman's glee. Even with the recasting that 'Like a Dragon: Ishin' got over the original 'Yakuza: Ishin'; that philosophy stays true, so familiarity with the series, whilst not essential, provides some intrinsic idea of what you can expect from each character. (Which does not exactly speak wonder about Ryoma's burgeoning relationship with his sworn brother, huh.) 

Of all the times throughout the Samurai era of Japan that could have been chosen, Ishin picks a particularly interesting and not often adapted time- the coming of the outside world. Just as Red Dead Redemption revels around portraying the last gasps of the Wild West, Ishin settles itself in a period of great upheaval and change as the isolationist Japan is forcibly opened up to world of gunpowder and foreign might, which some might go so far as to call the end of the Samurai age. This is the aura that clings over the core of the central narrative, as the future of country is split between warring ideologies, as well as much of the sidestories, wherein radical xenophobia often clashes with progressive co-mingling with the new world. There's little point in dancing about it- RGG do an excellent job scaling up their dramatic narrative chops to the shifting futures of an entire nation- they make this 'historical epic' stuff look easy!

Gameplay

Given the time period, Ishin obviously does away with the series staple hand-to-hand styles that we've all come to know and love over the years... for the most part, there's still a basic brawler style. (It's just useless now.) Ishin marks the long awaited return of the 4 combat styles which we haven't seen since Kiwami 1- and I for one have yearned for that combat diversity ever since! Now we have the Swordsman for classic single-target katana duelling, Gunman for ranged dominance, Brawler for it's one crowd control ability and an entire slate of largely useless combos and Wild Dancer, for a sword-gun hybrid crowd slashing moveset that frankly feels insane to wield. And with that is rebirthed my interest in actually learning the intricacies of combat.

Of course, it's not as though newcomers to Ishin can get away with not learning each style inside and out! Ishin might just contain the most challenging combat the franchise has had to date, and I mean actual challenge this time, not that Yakuza 3 ever-blocking garbage which makes that game near unplayable. For the first time in a long time- players can't just spam the attack button and watch enemies collapse. There's a lot slower combat chops, parrying is not available from the start and even by the endgame you never really unlock any traditional parry options you might expect from a sword-based game. There's more of a balance to gameplay, reading which enemy is going to attack, dodging and knowing the right combo to best take advantage of the enemies blunder- before retreating to blocks and weaves for the next opportunity. Some have certainly found the challenge to be detrimental to the experience, but I found a uniquely extrinsic charm to mastering the more tactical challenge to combat, rather than just learning what combos look the best as I typically do with these games.

All of this leads into the new levelling system which, to be honest, is a bit complex for a Yakuza game. All styles level up separately, necessitating you to switch and train each separately, but you also have an 'overall' level to take account of too. Every time you level up a style you unlock a point that can spent in a radial skill tree full with new moves or significant damage/health boosts- but when you level up your overall level you unlock a 'training' point which can be spent in any style. However that training point can be swapped out for a more permanent 'style' point later, freeing up that training point to be spent elsewhere- which might be necessary given that there are only 25 style points per style and much closer to about 40-50 skills per style. Does that sound confusing? It is. But it does nail that feeling of progression which felt a little lost when the franchise stuck closer to 'auto levelling' from 3-5. I also much prefer it to the 'notches' system of Kiwami 2 and 6. (Maybe because it's close to 0's system. I am a 0 simp- confirmed.)

Going Feudal

It's important to note that Ishin is more of a Remaster than a Remake, in that it recreates the original game in substance with additions or revisions made atop of that. As such, much of the clunkiness in design of the original game has been carried over to this version practically untouched. The inelegant tutorial force-feeding you basic world interactions? It's there. The stifling claustrophobia of Tosa's world design, with buildings that inexplicably require a loading screen to enter. Hobbling about at a snails pace when damaged to a critical pace (modern games have made the hobble less cripplingly slow) and the fact that your health doesn't get reset to full if you die during a fight. If you enter a fight with no health, your retry will retain that deficit. Hell, the cutscene before each fight has been revived! Most of these could have been easily brushed past with the new engine, as demonstrated by every game released around this one- but I suppose when you're committed to faithfulness that includes all the warts and jagged edges.

I would be remiss not to note that despite these headaches and hang-ups, the Dragon engine does look absolutely gorgeous rendering pre-restoration Japan. The richness of character model skin in closeups, the refraction of godrays breaking over the rooftops, there is a richness to his world that imbues a visual warmness to feudal Japan. I actually really love the way the Dragon Engine compliments this world space, which is funny because I find modern Kamarucho a bit too glaring sometimes, with all the neon pulsing. This might just be the best looking Like a Dragon game I've played, and I'm not just saying that because we get to see Kiryu's naked buttcheaks in a sauna wrestling match. But... well... I'm not going to pretend like that isn't a contributing factor either!

Having a totally new city of Kyo to explore is a rare treat in the Like a Dragon world, providing us a host of totally new streets to become intimately familiar with as well as host of new world activities to keep us preoccupied. You can bet on Chicken races to score the big bucks, partake in cannon ball slicing, battle your way through the arena, (in probably it's most challenging iteration yet) learn to dance in the style of the Geisha, go fishing, partake in a horribly time ravishing farming minigame, play about with the cooking-mama style cooking minigame and of course, go Karaoke with the friends you make throughout the story. And there is much besides because of course, Like a Dragon is a dream-title for minigame lovers, as it always has been.

New to my eyes is the 'Friends' system, which is funny considering I was playing this title alongside Judgement which also features a 'Friends' system. Essentially you'll connect with people across Kyo that demand simple tasks of you, such as giving them a vegetable you've grown in your farm, in exchange for a bit of their 'friendship' bar filling. It seems like something of a prototype to the version coined in Judgement, and certainly the scale of how long it takes to max out some of these friendships veers straight into the realms of tedium- but it does create a sense of community with those you come across. Unfortunately, a lot of these characters are decidedly one-note, and so once again I remember the community of much smaller towns such as the cast of 'Yakuza 6' much more clearly and fondly. Still, it was interesting idea.

Coming to Kyo

The dramatic events which carry Ryoma around the shifting sands of Japan's most powerful are delightfully simple yet evocative. A revenge tale mixed with a murder mystery mixed with a spy thriller, where Ryoma spends much of his time under a false name surrounded by the members of the Shinsengumi, a elite team of ruthless mercenaries who famously spent much of their years chasing down an activist called 'Sakamoto Ryoma', creating a delightful aura of tension for much of the early story. RGG really are at their best when their characters are surrounded by others who allegiances are largely unclear, which becomes increasingly difficult to achieve in the core games as Kiryu comes to know literally all the most righteous people across Japan, so literally any new face in the story is inevitably destined to be the bad guy at some point. (Seriously, any new Tojo Clan face after Yakuza 2 is a 'surprise' villain in the final act.) It's great to see them play around with trust, again!

Of course, as you might have picked up on, names and identity are key themes for Ishin as well as the larger question of 'legacy' which hangs over the entire world like a knife when the future of the Japanese world is in the balance. Deciphering what is behind a name, what it means to reinvent oneself and even to live under a pseudonym- and the validity of the life lived therein, are all addressed and laid bare for the viewer to digest in that delightful Japanese manner of story writing. These near primordial ideals laid bare at the heart of the narrative help raise the narrative into something of an epic- even before you start rubbing shoulders with the literal lords of the land. All helping cement one of the most powerful stories RGG has ever told.  

Crafting

If there is one step that I think Ishin takes which verges on going too far into it's genre type, it was the Blacksmithing trees because wow- that was straight overwhelming. All your equipment in the game, swords, guns and armour (and special weapons which I never used because they don't contributed to any of the skill trees EXP) are splayed out in a tree of successive power for which you can collect materials and transform one blade into another and so and so forth. These weapons scale wildly in power and costs as you go along the tree, with some endgame blades practically trivialising combat for the cost of 100-200 Ryo- (Which is about four to five hours straight of grinding the farming minigame, for context.) and a slew of resources so rare you might just be farming the new dungeons for a week before you get enough 'Dragon Eyes' to power that sword to it's fullest.

There's even a 'slotting' feature right out of an ARPG, where you can earn exceedingly rare boost tokens (or dismantle much more common dropped equipment which contain the token you're looking for already slotted) and slot those boosts into your preferred equipment for a small fee, as well as a frankly inexplicable chance of failure. With how difficult it is to get these tokens in the first place, I really don't think there should be a 'failure' chance. (Particularly one that seems to pre-roll it's results so you have to really work to pull off a save scum.) Oh, and there's a system for upgrading the colour rarity of your swords in order to boost their base damage as well as the number of slots they have. If literally any other game got hold of these systems they would be microtransaction hellholes- under RGG they're just a eye-bulging amount content nicely asking for your heavy time investment.

General Cards

A somewhat new addition to Ishin are the battle cards which sit at the bottom corner of your screen at all times. Whilst they were around in the original, they existed purely for the dungeon diving metagame- here they've been expanded out to encompass nearly the entire game, and as such the whole world has been scaled around them. (So if you plan on playing some of the higher difficulties, it's pretty important to understand the things.) Battle cards are recruitable squad-mates that you can assign to each one of your styles in order to give them a small collection of passive stat boosts and potentially battle-changing active powers. For example, you may have a card that gives you a boost to attack charge speed, which you assign to your Swordman style, and when you activate that card you'll have an extreme 3 times damage boost for a brief few seconds.

Where these cards get somewhat controversial across the community is with some of the more... shall we say... ostentatious character cards with the sillier powers. You'll get a pet tiger which can summoned out of nowhere to do damage in a frankly too long animation, or maybe a card literally featuring Youtuber CohhCarnage that allows you to fire laser beams out of your hands. The most eye popping for me being the Nyanners card. Yes, the Vtuber Nyanners. It calls the lifeforce out of surrounding enemies in the form of little 2D cat heads that fly into you. In an otherwise grounded Samurai fiction-historical setting- these can be a little jarring. Personally I already know this as a franchise where protagonists glow blue and perform inhuman feats of violence that somehow never cause casualties, so I can reconcile this in my head; but I don't discredit those who think these abilities in particular go a little too far in breaking immersion.

Also, this is a strange one, a lot of the cards are broken. Ishin is already one of the least documented Like a Dragon games so good luck finding any feedback on your problems online, but from my testing there are quite a few fundamental design issues that have never been fixed. For one, when you unlock 'special moves' they can, maybe only for some, be accessed with the same trigger as the cards- meaning they'll be times you want to activate the card where you'll instead activate the frankly useless special abilities instead- typically opening you up for enemy punishment. And then some of the passives just don't work. It's hard to judge for some of the more background boosts like the 'increase charge speed', how do you even judge something like that? But the one which provides continuous healing based on how many sword cards are in your deck? Yeah, that broke in real time for me. When I first equipped that card it healed me three times for a mere 30 health and then never again for the rest of my playthrough. I think this system might have been a tad rushed.

Dungeons

As mercenaries for the Shinsengumi, it falls under the player's purview to sometimes... do their job. And in Ishin that comes in the way of the repackaged 'Bouncer Missions' from Kiwami 2, this time known as 'Dungeons'. These instance missions play out like 'missions' in 'Final Fantasy: Crisis Core' or 'Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker' or any of those other Japanese games which make you suspect that the concept 'quantity over quality' floated about production once or twice. You charge through a gauntlet of encounters, topped off by a boss, and earn random loot from a pool listed on the mission screen. Slowly unlocking more encounters, in the same tile-sets, against slightly tougher enemies, and so on and so forth. At the very least, thanks to Ishin's genuinely difficult combat, it's a bit less utterly mind numbing than the 200 bouncer missions of Kiwami 2- but I wouldn't call it 'top tier content' either.

You really have to sink hours into this mode alone before actually interesting bosses start showing up near the tail-end of the Dungeons mission tree. Fights here are challenging, demanding decent gear, build consideration, resource planning and perhaps a bit of heat-action scumming too. You'll probably need to invest in the several style trainers for each individual style that exist throughout the game, because Ishin is a game made by madmen who kept throwing in content atop content. These are some of my favourite fight throughout the game that really push you to the brink without collapsing into the typical nonsensical degeneracy of an Amon fight. (I actually skipped Amon for this game, because I didn't even want to conceive how painful it would be. Also I couldn't be bothered to grind city quests to unlock him.) It's just a shame that you have to dedicate so much to get here, along with the fact that most of these quests award a total pittance by that stage in the game. 5 Ryo per 10-15 minute dungeon? I might as well just grind farming!

Shaping a Nation

The late game is stuffed with some of the most bizarre and epic moments I've ever experienced in an RGG title, alongside some of the most frustrating. Ryoma's naivety, inherited from his face-sake Kiryu, is headache inducing when he needs to be told of the same revelation five times from five different sources before he takes it as gospel. (Maybe it's because I was playing Judgement starring an actually competent detective at the same time, it just made all this meandering especially annoying.) But I love all the ways in which the team told the story of the Meji Restoration, without losing their trademark insane narrative twists tucked in there. (Showing off Takechi posing for that famous Sakamoto Ryoma photo that's even on his wiki page was a stroke of genius.) There are even some straight confusing moments for which no one has any explanation. Why does Takechi severely age for one scene and then go back to normal for the rest of the game? It plays out like that in the original too, for seemingly no comprehensible reason.

Also, it must be said that the fan-service of bringing so many iconic series faces together is really satisfying. Mine being a supremely important character vindicates those who fell in love with the man purely for his story and not because he performs shirtless pushups in most of his scenes. Kondo being Adachi is... genuinely hilarious to me for reasons I can't quite explain. (I guess seeing Adachi in a position of respect is so antithetical it's funny.) And most importantly, having Ryoma's love interest Oryo have her face changed to be Yuki is just perfect. Yuki is the character who always seemed like she would make a genuine partner for Kiryu if only it were meant to be. (which of course it couldn't be, given she was created for the prequel and added into the remakes of the original two games.) Finally bringing them together in this mash-up cross-over affair is supremely sweet in a manner I did not quite expect from the scary mob-game makers at RGG.

Most historical fictional tales tend to get lost nearer the end as they have to bow to the wake of genuine historical change, which in reality usually veers out of grasp of the handful of historical figures prominently featured. This would have been the case with Ishin too had they not done such an excellent job affixing a personal revenge/vindication plot atop the real world story- thus even making the arguably redundant final confrontation feel as climatic as it should. Plus, I should add points to the team for finding a giant tower atop which to host the finale in lieu of Millennium Tower- although I wouldn't have batted an eye if a portal opened up and warped us atop that building just for the finale, for future reference RGG. That finale was epic, and a worthy successor (or predecessor, as the case my be) to the brilliant Shibusawa showdown at the end of Yakuza 0 which I still hold as one the franchise's key defining moments. Although Ryoma does go on a bit in front of the Jingu stand-in at the end. (Started getting 'Metal Gear Solid 2' flashbacks for a bit there!)

Music

This marks one of those games worthy of a mention for it's musical contribution, not least of all because of the remixes of classic franchise tracks to woodwind instruments to fit the setting. I immediately flipped out and downloaded Katsura's theme when I realised it was literally just Akiyama's 'Affected Fight' given woodwinds and a hip-hop edge. Incredible! It's just a shame we don't get a 'Receive and Bite You' remix. Also, my hearing may be off but I'm pretty sure 'Pledge of Demon', which makes a triumphant return to the soundtrack, is literally completely unchanged from the original. I was listening out but I think the team literally just lifted it. Which I'm not complaining about mind, that original track is a banger- I just... thought they were doing something different with this soundtrack, you know?

Summary

'Like a Dragon: Ishin' is a peculiar game, carrying all of the shine and polish of modern Yakuza whilst held back by some of the design shortcomings of the original which it follows far too closely. Some of the gameplay changes are not implemented quite as well as they could be, and there is definitely a vastly distinct challenge wall here that series fans are in no way prepared for. However as the original Ishin was such a great game- that excellence rubs off on this 'Remake/Remaster'. Personally I actually love the idea of recasting everyone to reflect modern Yakuza whilst retaining some of the older classics and giving them updated models. (I know there are diehard Mine fans who did a backflip when they saw him brought to Dragon Engine glory.) Ishin is absolutely packed with content, some of it conceived with genuinely impressive depth- such as the crafting and levelling trees.

Ryoma's tale is one of the most impressive interwoven historical fiction I've been privy to across all gaming, sacrificing practically nothing from the personal stakes or the historical events to bring both into the limelight- and performances are typically top tier for the franchise- even as the game copies the original scene for scene for some reason. I do think that as a remake Ishin could have tried a lot more to smooth over the cracks of the original, but the package delivered is still solid enough to stand with the high quality bar that the Like a Dragon franchise has become emblematic of in recent years. Of course I recommend this game, with the warning to not approach it like your typical Yakuza title, and slap my happy A Grade atop the title for good measure. Yet another spectacular Samurai era game to throw atop the pile of Sekiro and Nioh and 'I hear' Rise of the Ronin and Ghost of Tsushima, reinforcing how well this era fits in the world of gaming. Can't wait for Assassin's Creed Red to come and break that streak!