Yakuza: Like A Dragon is such a blast to play. It emulates that 0 feeling by having a well-structured and engaging story, and effectively serves as an origin story to new series mainstay, Ichiban Kasuga. A lowly grunt working for the Arakawa Family in early 2001, he has to take the fall for a kill gone wrong. 18 years later, he is released from prison to find an unfamiliar world, in an unfamiliar setting. This introduction is ripe for a beginner to the series to indulge in, but certain story events and past characters showing up hit so much harder if you started from 0 and played all the way up until 6 especially. The passing of the torch to Ichiban is a well done one, while Kiryu was certainly a great protagonist in his own right, it is refreshing seeing a protagonist who really goes all out on his emotions and really, you can't help but root for a guy like him. His party members are also a joy to have around, especially as Ichiban relies on his friends much more than Kiryu ever did. The story is also phenomenal, probably the second best behind 0's.
But story aside, what about the shift to a turn-based JRPG format? Honestly, Yakuza contextualised in this format works surprisingly well. It doesn't really innovate, but more just evokes that old timey JRPG feel. It probably helps if you're a fan of Dragon Quest, as they actively mention that Ichiban grew up playing them and basically imagines his encounters much like those games would be. A very conventional take on an unconventional setting of modern day Yokohama Japan. Active button presses for skills and guarding give some agency to keeping interest in fights, and being able to skip lengthy skill animations are a good step. It's rather humorous seeing the tropes and hallmarks of those being done in a watered down, down to earth setting (well, as much as Yakuza can get anyways). Having characters being able to switch jobs helps too, but it's obvious which jobs are good for which characters most of the times, having retainable skills from each job helps in encouraging diversity though. It's the Alien: Isolation of JRPGs in that for a first attempt at a different genre shift, it's a damn good first impression. A little bit more tweaking and this would have been perfect.
While the main method of going through the games may have changed, one thing that hasn't, the abundance of minigames. Karaoke is pretty well done with the new cast of characters singing, with Adachi's take on Machine Gun Kiss being a noteworthy one. There's a Mario Kart type minigame, a can collecting minigame set against hobos, personality tests that actually improve your personality, fighting sheep men in a movie theatre to avoid falling asleep, and even a capitalist simulator thrown into the mix. However, if you ever decide to do mahjong, they made the AI insanely tough, so don't expect an easy time if you liked doing it in the past. There's no real incentive to do the Completion List (or the Challenges section) this time around as all they give you are Personality boosts, and you'll max them all long before you finish everything on that list anyways.
Substories are very charming as usual, and even have some callbacks to older games, a real treat for fans that have been around before this game. Ichiban's take on things helps make these substories stand out. You can even raise your bonds with your teammates by having a drink with them, unravelling their personal stories and problems. Not only does this offer backstory on your crew, it also helps in combat too, so it always helps to be a friend. Soundtrack is a banger, as usual, with many new, and recurring tracks being used to great effect.
I see a lot of potential in the future of the Yakuza series as a JRPG series. Was it weird to do a genre shift in the mainline titles, and relegating the beat 'em up gameplay to the Judgment spin-off series? Yes, but after 15 years or so of doing beat 'em up gameplay, I can understand why RGG Studios would want to do something new and different. Ichiban's tales clearly work better given that he himself is a Dragon Quest nut. With Nagoshi gone and a sequel in the works, it will be interesting to see how Yakuza progresses in this new world. As the endgame song says, "welcome Ichiban", I hope you're here to stay.
Comments
Post a Comment