There are combinations that shouldn't work. Mixing genres as diverse as the ones Yakuza: Like a Dragon tries to blend should be impossible. And yet Ryu ga Gotoku Studio has succeeded in the enterprise of combining RPG and Beat 'em Up in a title that promises to be something completely unique, while helping the RPG genre expand into new, almost uncharted territory. For the uninitiated, the seventh chapter, chronologically speaking, of the Yakuza series sees drastic changes of direction compared to previous games.
A new protagonist, Ichiban Kasuga, takes the reins and brings with him a new combat system, no longer action but with a turn-based structure that blends the classic gameplay flow of a Dragon Quest, a modern HUD system to the Persona (although in reality it is more reminiscent of the less popular Trails of Cold Steel III) and the dynamic movements of the previous Yakuza.
All this results in battles that do not lose the over-the-top appeal that characterized Kiryu's adventures, but at the same time express a new experience.
Before going further into the gameplay sector, let's discuss what we have been able to experience while waiting for the review. We had the opportunity to play the title in Chapter 5, with a much over-powered party compared to the one we had in the playthrough of the Japanese demo, set in the same chapter we faced last year. In this test we had all of Yokohama at our disposal with all kinds of mini-games and with the possibility of indulging in many more secondary quests, plot events (which we cannot discuss yet) and above all a lot of gameplay.
Preliminary impressions are excellent, but with some reservations. The game is graphically very satisfying, especially in its well-optimized PC version. The Dragon Engine still knows its stuff, yet the impression is that there has been a slight step backwards compared to Kiwami and Judgment, probably due to the greater width of the areas and the many particles on display during the battles. The plot - being able to deal with it only partially for now - quietly stabilizes on the usual average level of RGG studio, with the interesting variant of having introduced group dynamics in addition to the personal ones of our protagonist. The narrative structure very cleverly blends classic RPG stereotypes and the narrative system of a Yakuza, making Like a Dragon a very fast-paced title with many new themes for the series.
The new city, Yokohama, is less glamorous on a superficial level than Tokyo's Kabukicho district, yet it is very diverse and extremely dense with interesting content.
The secondary missions involved us in a way that did not happen from Yakuza 0 and the mini games in turn are numerous and interesting, with additions such as Dragon Kart and Ichiban Enterprise that easily enter among the funniest mini games of the saga.
So let's go back to the age-old question of turn-based gameplay that has so divided the fanbase. As you could have guessed from the introduction, for us it is generally promoted, with however some doubts that we can deepen during the review. Fighting in the streets of Ichin-jo (Yokohama district where the events take place) it is fun and sometimes spectacular, however you will often encounter very weak enemies which give the impression that facing them is just a waste of time.
After the significant improvement of Kiwami 2 and Yakuza 6 in regard to the so-called "random clashes", Like a Dragon takes a step back and brings back the problem of often having "useless" fights while heading from point A to a point B.
Another doubt lies in the "Works" system. Each character can change skills and stats based on the work equipped, however the progression system of Yakuza Like a Dragon pushes not to experiment with the various jobs, as with each change you will find yourself being heavily weakened due to the enormous weight on the character statistics.
We will return to these points in the future review, as the confinement to Chapter 5 may have hidden some subsequent mechanics that can mitigate the annoyance caused by these flaws.
Yakuza Like a Dragon is also the first title in the series localized in Spanish (excluding the spin-off Judgment) and also enjoys an English dub. Both the localization and the dubbing seemed very solid to us, however we recommend avoiding the Spanish pairing with English voices, as the two adaptations differ too much and can create more than a few annoyances.
IThe Japanese dubbing is of the usual excellent level to which Yakuza has always accustomed us, so if you don't mind the language, we recommend playing it with a Spanish adaptation and Japanese dubbing.
Our in-depth, albeit limited, trial of Yakuza: Like a Dragon left us satisfied. Some mechanics will have to be judged at full game to understand if they can present problems or not, but in general Ichiban's adventure seemed interesting to us and with a charm at the same time new and reminiscent of past titles. The much content available already in chapter 5 and the excellent level of execution give us hope in waiting to sink our teeth in the full game.
► Yakuza: Like a Dragon is an RPG type game developed by Ryu ga Gotoku Studio and published by Sega for PlayStation 4, PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5, the video game was released on 13/11/2020
Will come out for PlayStation 5 il 02/03/2021
Version for Xbox Series X from 31/12/2020
