We review the 5 reasons why you should join the adventure of Yakuza: Like a Dragon. The saga takes a new starting point, ideal to discover it.
Yakuza has been wrapped up in the eternal question. What is the best delivery to get started? The saga has reached the West with a dropper; from being practically lost at the end of the PlayStation 3 generation, to living a golden age in the final stretch of the current one. SEGA has turned the brand into one of its spearheads for our market, and in 2020 they take another step forward to consolidate that position.
On November 10 we will see the launch of Yakuza: Like a Dragon, an especially relevant installment at all levels. For its followers it comes as an unprecedented way to enjoy the franchise they love through the change of gender. On the other hand, newcomers will see a roster of starring faces and stories that start from scratch. In this piece we will review the five reasons why you should not miss the new Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio.
Ichiban Kasuga, starting point
Yakuza 6: The Song of Life was a special installment. Not only did it serve as a debut for the new version of the Dragon Engine, which allowed to discover a Kamurocho that gained in depth and possibilities, but it was the interactive retirement of the Dragon of Dojima. Kiryu said goodbye to the prominence of a main Yakuza installment. There is a full stop to the predominant story line of the first six story titles. Although Like a Dragon is accompanied by 7 in Japan, the witness is picked up by another character that has nothing to do with what has been seen so far: Ichiban Kasuga.
Ichiban survives as a petty thug in a Tokyo Yakuza family. By chance of fate and that we will not reveal, he will serve a prison sentence that will put him behind bars for 18 years of his life. All for a crime he did not commit. For this reason, when he leaves, he will discover a society that has nothing to do with the one he met almost two decades ago. You must search for answers to try to get your life back. We can expect a multitude of references to the Yakuza universe and the appearance of old friends during the adventure. Of course, to understand it you will not need to have played any other previous installment.
Gender swap: hello to shifts
Yakuza: Like a Dragon completely changes the register. From the mamporro salad of the self against the neighborhood, we went on to a combat in the purest JRPG style. We will fight in turn-based combat with the same possibilities that you would expect from a traditional game of the genre. We will have an assortment of attacks and special abilities that will be linked to the profession we have chosen, which are still roles with which to create synergies between the group. You can change at any time from Hello Work, the office where we will be assigned tasks and where we can check the progress of the level of each job.
For the first time in the saga we will be accompanied at all times by a group, made up of three other characters that we will discover during the initial bars. Does the rhythm of the action change from the usual Yakuza? The truth is that not so much. Thanks to the Dragon Engine we see transitions in real time that never stop the action, both at the beginning and at the end of the fights, nor at the time of completing the selected actions.
Yokohama, a new city
The main map for Yakuza: Like a Dragon is Isezaki Ijincho, a fictional version of the Isezakichō neighborhood of Yokohama City. Its playable portion is three times the size of Kamurocho. It is composed of nine neighborhoods, among which are Chinatown and Koreatown, two of the key points of the most important mafias in the place. Visually it will offer various landscapes thanks to its privileged location. Rivers, parks, skyscrapers, streets full of shops … there is a lot of crumb.
In some moments of the adventure we will pass through other areas. Kamurocho is present, how could it be otherwise, to which Sotenbori, the famous entertainment district of Osaka, joins. The second will be especially familiar to Yakuza 0 and Yakuza Kiwami 2 players. You won’t miss a thing.
Side activities, the real Yakuza sauce
The franchise always offers two very marked offers in a single package. During the main plot you can expect a grown-up script, full of plots and interests between the mafias and the upper echelons of politics in Japan. During the 18 hours that usually last on average, interest continues to rise as the threads are uncovered and we approach the final stretch. The Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio proves reliability.
However, Yakuza is something more; It wouldn’t be the same without its side activities. Beyond the huge number of side missions available, mini-games are part of its DNA. Yakuza: Like a Dragon proposes Kart racing, watching movies in a theater while dealing with goats, karaoke, and much more. Show off an eccentric side that feels great when hitting the main knot. If you let yourself go, you have game for more than a hundred hours.
Prepared for the new generation and localized into Spanish
You can enter calmly. Yakuza: Like a Dragon follows the path seen in Judgment and will have localized texts in Spanish. As for the performances, you can choose whether to keep the original in Japanese or the adaptation in English.
It will be the first installment of the saga to be prepared for the new generation of consoles. November 10 will accompany the launch of Xbox Series X | S. We know that the title will have several performance modes depending on the model you choose. On Xbox Series X you can do it at 4K and 30 fps or 1440p at 60 images per second. On the other hand, Xbox Series S targets 1440p at 30fps, or 900p at 60fps. In the case of PS5 we only know its release date: March 2, 2021. On PS4, Xbox One and PC it will do so on the same day as on Xbox Series: November 10
