Yakuza: Like a Dragon

 PC
User Score
7.9

Generally favorable reviews- based on 190 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 148 out of 190
  2. Mixed: 13 out of 190
  3. Negative: 29 out of 190

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  1. Kramer96
    Aug 12, 2023
    9
    Gioco che merita parecchio,ottima storia anche se sembra troppo diluita soprattutto alcuni dialoghi secondari, ottimo il personaggio principale cosi come quelli secondari, ci sono tantissime attività secondario che non annoiano (tranne la gestione dell'azienda) il combattimento a turni potrebbe infastidire i vecchi fan della serie Yakuza, gioco divertentissimo pieno di battute e sceneGioco che merita parecchio,ottima storia anche se sembra troppo diluita soprattutto alcuni dialoghi secondari, ottimo il personaggio principale cosi come quelli secondari, ci sono tantissime attività secondario che non annoiano (tranne la gestione dell'azienda) il combattimento a turni potrebbe infastidire i vecchi fan della serie Yakuza, gioco divertentissimo pieno di battute e scene surreali

    Gioco che merita    … Expand
  2. JimmieRamone
    Jul 3, 2023
    10
    I had reservations about Yakuza no longer being a story-based brawler, but this is honestly one of the best Japanese role-playing games I've played in years. There's a fun job system, reminiscent of the ones you'd find in the older Dragon Quest games. Tongue-in-cheek callbacks to other popular JRPGs are everywhere, from direct references to Dragon Quest to more subtle nods like the "NewI had reservations about Yakuza no longer being a story-based brawler, but this is honestly one of the best Japanese role-playing games I've played in years. There's a fun job system, reminiscent of the ones you'd find in the older Dragon Quest games. Tongue-in-cheek callbacks to other popular JRPGs are everywhere, from direct references to Dragon Quest to more subtle nods like the "New Age Hippie" that was one of the sillier enemies in Earthbound.

    The story is just about what you'd expect from Yakuza; the main plot is a somewhat more serious crime drama, while the subplots are every bit as zany as the ones in Kazuma Kiryu's adventures in the previous games. One of the best modern RPGs I've had the pleasure of playing.    … Expand
  3. Trixxstrr
    May 21, 2023
    8
    Took around 63 hrs. I enjoyed the switch to RPG in this one, and the story and characters were great.
  4. TheHambro
    Mar 15, 2023
    9
    Yakuza: Like a Dragon is only my second game (Yakuza 0 is my first), but I can say I’m increasingly becoming more invested in this series. It’s charming, weird, hilarious, and absolutely bonkers at times. I know the series is known for its beat-em up playstyle, but I’ve gotta say, I really like the change to the party; turn based combat. Top it off with a job system, it offers a lot ofYakuza: Like a Dragon is only my second game (Yakuza 0 is my first), but I can say I’m increasingly becoming more invested in this series. It’s charming, weird, hilarious, and absolutely bonkers at times. I know the series is known for its beat-em up playstyle, but I’ve gotta say, I really like the change to the party; turn based combat. Top it off with a job system, it offers a lot of variety. For me, its greatest strength are the characters and story. The story was a roller coaster of emotions, and by the end of it, I was hit right in the feels.

    Great game. I very much looking forward to future entries, and going back to play the previous games. Thumbs up from me!    … Expand
  5. WeirdoFlaminko
    Feb 14, 2023
    0
    I love the rpg elements in this game. they're well excecuted. i also love ichiban. all my homies love ichiban. can't wait for yakuza 8
  6. basic123
    Dec 23, 2022
    9
    Superb story and good gameplay. Fighting can get a little bit boring after a while. But overall a nice game and a big surprise.
  7. Sergius_Grey
    Sep 30, 2022
    8
    Anyway, bakuto, I've known you for a long time, and I'm not going to play noble: play Yakuza: Like a Dragon, and we'll call it even. At the same time we'll see how quickly you adapt to the Yakuza game series. I don't know why the hell you hadn't discovered this series earlier, and especially Yakuza: Like a Dragon, but I don't meddle, if I missed these masterpieces, there must have been aAnyway, bakuto, I've known you for a long time, and I'm not going to play noble: play Yakuza: Like a Dragon, and we'll call it even. At the same time we'll see how quickly you adapt to the Yakuza game series. I don't know why the hell you hadn't discovered this series earlier, and especially Yakuza: Like a Dragon, but I don't meddle, if I missed these masterpieces, there must have been a reason.

    10 breaks in the pattern about Yakuza out of 10.    … Expand
  8. kinsang
    Sep 10, 2022
    9
    ภาพพัฒนาขึ้นจากภาคล่าสุด การเปลี่ยนสไตล์เกมเพลย์เป็นการเสี่ยงครั้งใหญ่ แต่ผลตอบแทนออกมาคุ้มค่า เนื้อเรื่องถือเป็นการเขียนบทที่ดีระดับต้นๆของซีรี่ย์เลยทีเดียวภาพพัฒนาขึ้นจากภาคล่าสุด การเปลี่ยนสไตล์เกมเพลย์เป็นการเสี่ยงครั้งใหญ่ แต่ผลตอบแทนออกมาคุ้มค่า เนื้อเรื่องถือเป็นการเขียนบทที่ดีระดับต้นๆของซีรี่ย์เลยทีเดียว
  9. Sepherim
    Aug 2, 2022
    8
    La saga Yakuza necesitaba cambios, con una fórmula bastante agotada, y Like a Dragon los ofrece, convirtiendo la saga en un JRPG por turnos en un cambio que a algunos gustará y a otros no. Porque lejos de las peleas beat'em up, ahora pasamos a manejar una party de personajes, a jugar los combates por turnos y ese tipo de cosas típicas de los JRPG. El combate por turnos funciona bastanteLa saga Yakuza necesitaba cambios, con una fórmula bastante agotada, y Like a Dragon los ofrece, convirtiendo la saga en un JRPG por turnos en un cambio que a algunos gustará y a otros no. Porque lejos de las peleas beat'em up, ahora pasamos a manejar una party de personajes, a jugar los combates por turnos y ese tipo de cosas típicas de los JRPG. El combate por turnos funciona bastante bien, pero tiene algunas cosas raras, como algunas cosas que dependen del tiempo real y no de los turnos (como el levantarse del suelo) y, en especial, el posicionamiento de los personajes y enemigos; estos se mueven de modo "natural" por el campo de batalla sin que realmente tengamos mucha capacidad para controlarlo, lo cual tiene un impacto enorme en la viabilidad y utilidad de las habilidades de áreas. Por el resto, el cambio de protagonista le viene muy bien a la saga, permitiendo contar una historia que no tiene que hacer encaje de bolillos para que Kiryu se involucre en la trama, sino que es un progreso natural en la historia de este personaje nuevo. Hay algunas apariciones de personajes de toda la vida, pero sobretodo se desarrollan un montón de personajes nuevos en esta historia, aliados y enemigos, creando una aventura que, en general, está muy bien (si te gustan las historias de los Yakuza, ya que es muy Yakuza en cuanto a narrativa, allá donde no lo es tanto en mecánica).

    Gráficamente el juego está muy bien, tanto en ejecución como en diseño, con algunas cosas más especiales fruto de la fantasía del protagonista que le sientan curiosamente bien. El sonido también tiene un muy buen nivel en general. Y, al menos en mi tiempo jugando, no me encontré con ningún bug, aunque si que los controles a veces son un poco contraintuitivos.

    Por todo ello, sin duda Yakuza: Like a Dragon es una apuesta que no contentará a todo el mundo, pero a mi me parece un giro interesante y un buen intento por darle un soplo de aire fresco ahora que Kiryu es cosa del pasado. Un 8.    … Expand
  10. Sholva
    Apr 17, 2022
    9
    Another great Yakuza series game.

    Yakuza: Like a Dragon is an interesting new take for the series which, until now, always was based around real time action combat, with certain RPG like elements like gaining skill points to unlock skills, some gear to equip, etc., in the past games. If they ever continue this new saga and still want to keep it turn based, I would like to see big    Another great Yakuza series game.

    Yakuza: Like a Dragon is an interesting new take for the series which, until now, always was based around real time action combat, with certain RPG like elements like gaining skill points to unlock skills, some gear to equip, etc., in the past games.

    If they ever continue this new saga and still want to keep it turn based, I would like to see big improvements to the skill selection menus and other UI stuff to make combat more fluid; I understand they mostly take inspiration from Dragon Quest games, but I’d love to see improvements on how we select and quick use skills and stuff like that, and I’d mention as an example the Kiseki series of JRPGs, because that’s my favourite JRPGs series currently, and I think their latest games (the ones here in the west) have very much my preferred way of executing commands and showing UI menus for skills.

    On the Performance side of things, this game runs pretty nicely on my Ryzen 5 3600 and RTX 3060 Ti, managing at least stable 60 FPS at Max Settings and 1620p DLDSR resolution (around 70’ish if uncapped) which, for a game like this, is more than enough. 4K is possible, but the frame-rate is in the 40s area, and it feels quite choppy, so a 30 cap would make more sense at 4K, but 60 FPS is so much smoother that I stuck with that.

    Graphics wise, this is the first Yakuza game on PC that has Temporal Anti-Aliasing, and it shows: the annoying visual shimmering from previous Dragon Engine based games like Kiwami 2 or Yakuza 6 is mostly gone, at last, and the visual presentation of the game is one of the best in the series, in my opinion, especially when it comes to cinematics and cutscenes, with a very nice usage of Depth Of Field too.

    My only gripes with the graphics are the Screen Space Reflections, which aren’t too great, and some of the Textures for certain assets could have been a bit higher quality, as the game doesn’t even allocate more than 3.5 to 4 GB of VRAM at 1620p on my system.

    Overall, it’s not a bad looking game among those in the series, I think it’s one of the best ones, visually, but I can see a lot of room for improvement, especially if a future game implements stuff like DLSS, to improve Temporal Stability, or even Ray Tracing…can you imagine Kamurocho at night with Raytraced Reflections? We need this to happen, it’s the next logical step, in my opinion, at least as an optional feature.

    The soundtrack in the game is quite decent, albeit a bit repetitive for combat scenarios, and the voice actors did one hell of a job (I played in Japanese voices), with a stellar performance from Ichiban’s actor, especially in the last chapter (if you know, you know).

    Obviously, this game benefits from all the lore we should, by now, have accumulated from previous entries, and I think the writers did a great job in making this game a kind of a “passing the torch” type of experience, for a new generation of heroes, more fitting than ever in this installment, due to the JRPG style.

    The story had some bits that could’ve been executed a bit better, but overall aside from those small moments, the story felt quite great and enjoyable, and there’s a good amount of character development.

    Still, lots of questions left to interpretation for the players to make their own theories, obviously to hype things up for an inevitable sequel, I hope sooner than later.

    I enjoyed this game quite a lot, it’s not perfect…but I was expecting to dislike the new combat system and instead what I found was an incredible cast of playable characters and a big new area to explore in the series, and I really can’t wait for the next game.    … Expand
  11. SteveAnimanga
    Apr 5, 2022
    9
    Un juego lleno de detalles y de cosas por hacer. Muy bueno gráficamente y con un sistema de combate excelente. En conclusión muy divertido y adictivo.
    Personalmente, me ha gustado mucho como llevaron esta saga al género JRPG. En mi opinión, uno de los mejores y más variados rpg de la generación.
  12. Seyta
    Jan 30, 2022
    0
    What a disappointment, I love yakuza games, especially Yakuza 0. But yakuza dragon is just bad and boring, it's sad to says. I love RPG & turn based games but it's just really bad on this game. And all the crazy outfits, weapons etc just sucks, we are not in saints row.
  13. CompleteIdiot
    Oct 15, 2021
    10
    Simply amazing. I have always had enjoyed JRPG games, and Persona 4 and 5 truly nails it with the friendship is magic theme. But what kind of keeps those games back is the slice of life high-school setting. The older I get the more disconnected from it I feel. Presenting similar concepts in the world of Yakuza is genius. To quote someone who's games rarely work - "it just works!".Simply amazing. I have always had enjoyed JRPG games, and Persona 4 and 5 truly nails it with the friendship is magic theme. But what kind of keeps those games back is the slice of life high-school setting. The older I get the more disconnected from it I feel. Presenting similar concepts in the world of Yakuza is genius. To quote someone who's games rarely work - "it just works!".

    Friendship you develop with your fellow homeless people is powerful, and while cheesy at times enjoyable nonetheless. Having played all the previous titles, I believe that the newest title in the series does great justice to the previous legends of the series, while adding a very good new main character. Kasuga really is in many ways an inverse of Kiryu. Loud, extremely emotional and not super sharp. But extremely adorable. I'm glad to hear the series sold well as I want to see more of this character and the new side characters.

    Gameplay wise its quite standard JRPG stuff. Yakluza 7 is oozing with style, and many of the attacks are very inspired and creative. Playing it really struck me how weird it is that we don't have more RPGs that choose to forgo fantastical elements and just come up with creative over the top real world possibilities. Like a our favourite hobo smelling so bad it lowers the attack and defence of enemies, or calling in a biker to do a headshot with the back of the bike.

    All in all, one of my favorites in the recent times. Story, music, gameplay, characters, side quests, minigames... Everything simply worked. Thank you Yakuza team, and please release that cop Yakuza game also on PC!    … Expand
  14. Gaudy
    Oct 1, 2021
    10
    Magnifico juego, sobre todo si eres fan de la saga Yakuza y de los JRPGs. Enorme, llenisimo de contenido y con la jugabilidad caracteristica de SEGA. Horas y horas de diversion, a partes se hace rapidisimo y otras lentisimo. Mas de 70 horas llevo y estoy en el final. El 100% del juego es una locura y sobrepasa facilmente las 100 horas, eso si puede hacerse bastante pesado. Aun así es masMagnifico juego, sobre todo si eres fan de la saga Yakuza y de los JRPGs. Enorme, llenisimo de contenido y con la jugabilidad caracteristica de SEGA. Horas y horas de diversion, a partes se hace rapidisimo y otras lentisimo. Mas de 70 horas llevo y estoy en el final. El 100% del juego es una locura y sobrepasa facilmente las 100 horas, eso si puede hacerse bastante pesado. Aun así es mas que recomendable para amantes del genero y de SEGA. Las batallas y la subida de nivel pueden hacerse bastante pesadas en ciertos tramos.… Expand
  15. lalahand
    Sep 20, 2021
    9
    Best jrpg that I have played in years. A very good story. An exciting combat mode. I’m unhappy with only the underground map which forces the player to repeat too many boring battles
  16. Welkinz
    Sep 7, 2021
    8
    This is definitely a different JRPG. It tried to modernize the game by adding new fighting elements. I also enjoyed the unique sense of humor in this game.
  17. Dco326
    Aug 28, 2021
    7
    Ne znam meni je sve ovo isto kao i pre stim sto su lose uradili ovaj fajtring sistem na kraju sam cepao sve na brzaka i igrao samo story u globalu smorio sam se i ne bih je igrao opet. fajt sistem mi je sve usrao vala.
  18. TheL0neW0If
    Aug 24, 2021
    2
    I do not like the fact that I had to give a yakuza game a negative rating.
    Unlike previous games some characters lack depth and are in a way less serious to previous yakuza games.
    the game combat system gets very repetitive and it is very slow. for people who use to play the game only for the sake of the main story, now have to be ready to grind a lot to be on the same level as the    I do not like the fact that I had to give a yakuza game a negative rating.
    Unlike previous games some characters lack depth and are in a way less serious to previous yakuza games.

    the game combat system gets very repetitive and it is very slow. for people who use to play the game only for the sake of the main story, now have to be ready to grind a lot to be on the same level as the enemy.
    combat system can leave you wanting to tear your hair and smash your head against the keyboard. a third of the time you will see your character running to the enemy and back to his position.

    from my readings the developers had to change the project direction, because beat em up was not attracting enough players from the japanese market, but in doing so they took one of the core elements of the game.

    the fights not only in the sub story but also in the main story became way too comical, a charachter would blow a kiss to an enemy lowering their defense stats, compared to the old games where majima or kiryu would scream furiously and charge their heat to pull sick moves.

    the city is impressive as always the side activites too. the graphics is great, voice acting I can not complain always on point.

    big minus points are the grinding you might need to spend 8 hours or so preparing for a fight. a fight can take 45 mins to an hour sometimes and it is less exciting and extremely repetitve, you would skip some turns with no action just to heal your charachters.

    as someone who played yakuza from 0 until 7 I unfortunately might stop following the series or just watch a lets play on YouTube, because i can not put myself through a yakuza similar to like a dragon. I quit the game toward the last 3 or 2 chapters and started watching lets play while skipping the fights, during my own gameplay i left it on autopilot sometimes until fights finished and then I came back.    … Expand
  19. Mr_Eleganto
    Jul 16, 2021
    7
    As much as I like the series, this entry was a bit rough for me, so I won't hail or hate it's guts. I'll just leave it be like a good jrpg about Yakuzas criminal world and hell it was fun! Story goes down with time, yeah, but the whole experience worth it's end titles if you chose to play this unique experience, like RGG STUDIOS always do. Thanks!
  20. theworld1313
    Jul 5, 2021
    10
    I think the game is greatness! I love the mini games and the story, also the music is greatness. Its a game with a fresh take on the series!
  21. Crackfarmer
    Jun 8, 2021
    7
    Positive:
    - Fluent 60fps capped @maxed settings on 1440p
    - Interesting story - Fun side quests - Good variety in weapons/gear to use (this was before i found out that you have 100 different jobs to choose and use a different weapon on every job too....) - Great main/party characters - Good character design - Voice acting is good - Treasure hunt feature, sadly doesn't get much from    Positive:
    - Fluent 60fps capped @maxed settings on 1440p
    - Interesting story
    - Fun side quests
    - Good variety in weapons/gear to use (this was before i found out that you have 100 different jobs to choose and use a different weapon on every job too....)
    - Great main/party characters
    - Good character design
    - Voice acting is good
    - Treasure hunt feature, sadly doesn't get much from it. Almost not worth the time it takes to do it.
    - You can save for the most part at any given state
    - Ichibans investment company

    Negative:
    - Getting overwhelmed with equipping, collecting and leveling up several characters alongside with exploring 3 cities ....
    - No hostess club minigame like it used to be in Zero and the Kiwami games
    - The amount of "Jobs" doesn't benefit the game, considering you have to level up each job from level 1 again plus get different weapons, only the character level sticks
    - Slow leveling, need to level & equip your allies too
    - Too many different towns to attend, kamurocho would've been enough
    - Lipsync isn't too good
    - Just go over one street in yokohama - enemies skyrocket in level, almost oneshot you
    - Debuffs / Skills aren't much useful in fights
    - Many dialogue is replaced by cheap text lines and some moans. Low effort. Most games have full voiceovers for pretty much all dialogues
    - Game consumes too much ressources for the results of how it looks.
    - Paid DLCs, garbage ones too
    - Gold safes require keys which have to be purchased and can't be found, money is the issue in early/mid game
    - Too much stuff to collect throughout the game
    - Turn based game, wish it was the combat as Zero had, fights get annoying really quick
    - All prices are insane, the only affordable part is food in restaurants, stores are overpriced
    - Transition from ingame to cutscene often stutters or even freezes the game for a couple seconds

    For now the negative overweights the positive, so i have to give it a negative review for now.
    Will reconsider the review until i'm fully through the game or so annoyed that i quit playing.    … Expand
  22. truemask
    Jun 7, 2021
    9
    A excellent RPG and the best Yakuza game to date.

    The story in LAD is great, it remains interesting from beginning to end, and has an excellent cast of side characters. i Liked the main protag from other games Kiryu but Ichiban Kasuga is a much more dynamic character, he had a range of emotions he's funny, a bit of a knucklehead, stubborn, loyal, he heart but it also a badass (more    A excellent RPG and the best Yakuza game to date.

    The story in LAD is great, it remains interesting from beginning to end, and has an excellent cast of side characters.

    i Liked the main protag from other games Kiryu but Ichiban Kasuga is a much more dynamic character, he had a range of emotions he's funny, a bit of a knucklehead, stubborn, loyal, he heart but it also a badass (more fun personality overall) whereas Kiryu only has one setting "mean-mugging Yakuza tough guy"

    another thing that made this game much more enjoyable for me is English voices, all other Yakuza games are Japanese only and after hours and hours it got tiring to listen to. this game also has phenomenal VA's cast like Matt Mercer, George Takei, Elizabeth maxwell, David Hayter and more

    turn paced gameplay is excellent but still has that punchy Yakuza feel,

    the only real gripes i have about the game is grinding and difficulty spikes.

    when the difficulty increases the game requires you to spend a large amount of time, fighting in dungeons to level up and collect gear and cash
    there are some difficulty spike for me the difficulty spiked a few times for some really hard bosses and most notably this happens for the first time for the boss of chapter 9. and then again for a few sections including 2 more notable bosses later on

    also there are some things the game does not tell you like you drop half your cash when you die and you can use ATMS to stash your cash.    … Expand
  23. hertzian68
    Jun 7, 2021
    2
    This game is a mixed bag but overall it's a banal excuse of a yakuza game when taken into account the other 7 games in the series. We go from the legends and high level yakuza glory and drama with a Kiryu of dignified tragic grandeur and the other legends and their stories to childlike retards and bums with endless UI and dialogue that just crawls along. GAG. The writers LOVE orphans, theyThis game is a mixed bag but overall it's a banal excuse of a yakuza game when taken into account the other 7 games in the series. We go from the legends and high level yakuza glory and drama with a Kiryu of dignified tragic grandeur and the other legends and their stories to childlike retards and bums with endless UI and dialogue that just crawls along. GAG. The writers LOVE orphans, they love surrogate paternal relationships, they love all types of perversions and all sorts of videogame culture, we get it this is just over the top and does NOT fit in very well with the series as a whole. I don't play turn based combat games, it's too automatic and too UI heavy I prefer control over the experience as much as possible with the least UI in the way. One aspect of why I've played and replayed 0-6 is that it's NOT TURN BASED. This is serviceable but I did NOT play Dragon Quest so the references mean nothing to me. Ichiban seems to SHOUT his lines rather than speak and it sounds like he's on drugs lol. The larger maps are pretty empty and generic, even reworked from Y4/Y5 to my eye. I think Y6 was about 40gb, this monster is 60gb and for what? so they can shout MA MORE! BLOATED. The back stories are just not believable, although that's true for most yakuza games to be fair. This game would have benefit by being shorter and more personal and detailed AND being more Yakuza focused rather than all the other characters etc that have absolutely no YA-KU-ZA whatsoever. Over-Rated. GARRISH. PERVERTED. BANAL.… Expand
  24. IDQDS
    Jun 6, 2021
    0
    Отличная игра
    Местами графика очень радует
    Но местами есть мыльцо, но не так сильно бросается в глаза, а так игра отличная!
  25. AllNewSuperfake
    Jun 2, 2021
    7
    +10 because every game could be a 10

    -1 The presentation does the job, but by now the "new" engine feels dated. Too many clones, too many reused assets, and the facial animations make everyone look like they just burst through a door with an axe shouting "Here's Johnny!". Especially "dungeons" are dull, repetitive affairs, the architecture has no recognition value in most places. In the    +10 because every game could be a 10

    -1 The presentation does the job, but by now the "new" engine feels dated. Too many clones, too many reused assets, and the facial animations make everyone look like they just burst through a door with an axe shouting "Here's Johnny!". Especially "dungeons" are dull, repetitive affairs, the architecture has no recognition value in most places. In the questionable tradition of older JRPGs items and treasure are never physically present in the world and only exist as boxes or sparkling points with added arrows so that you never feel like you found something, but it found you, and it won't leave you alone until you take it...
    -0.5 ... the loot. Into your inventory. Given your relatively short experience as a homeless person it makes sense that you collect trash, but you will already carry the equivalent of a hardware store in the pockets of your flashy suit when you finally get to use it in a convoluted and tacked-on crafting system. A lot of the stuff you find doesn't make sense.

    To find what you are looking for in excel-style menus with microscopic icons, navigating through the dungeon in your pockets and party is a burdensome and complicated affair. Obviously in the spirit of nostalgia, so...

    +0.5 for translating the yakuza series into something that resembles the old Dragon Quest series, because even though I've never played it I still recognize music and sound samples from those games, but....
    -0.5 ... it really doesn't do anything for you if you haven't played them except making the more emotional moments in the story come across like memes. Which is a real problem when it comes to

    -2 the story. I won't say it's not interesting. Seriously, this game left me terrified that I might not understand what the word "writing" means that everyone was praising here. It's a little bit like reading something a 13 year old boy comes up with when he is writing his first epic novel. There is a lack of basic understanding of the themes and subjects the story is dealing with that left me speechless on a regular basis.

    This is, of course, not a franchise where you would expect Shakespeare or serious life lessons or deep philosophy. But it's unfortunately not presented like the filler text it should be instead. I have spent roughly 90 % of the first 6 hours watching TV - meaning cutscenes - and clicking dialogue box after dialogue box without any actual interactivity or choices. It's a superstorm of dramatic tropes with everything from corruption to child abuse, wild conspiracies and power struggles. Tragedies and misery pile up and collide with honor codes and ancient morales, poverty, prison, prostitution, death. And all of that from the perspective of a 13 year old, with all the insight and deep reflection you would expect.

    You can basically witness in real time how the writers try to explain to themselves how they got to the point where they needed to be after they got there on a regular basis, and during that process they stumble upon all the plot holes and contradictions they created on their way. So you click away text window after text window and listen to hours of professional voiceacting that, once again, seems like a meme most of the time because it is so f*ing ridiculous. And yet, at the same time, it's like you are watching the main characters standing around, no one knows what is going on and how they got there, so everybody has to improvise while the director is whispering "Just act natural!" from the sideline.

    All of this could actually be fun or even well-made satire. But I'm afraid they were serious about this.

    -0.5 ... when they are not fighting. Which they will do a lot. You won't be able to walk down any given street without having at least one random encounter, and while I enjoyed the round-based combat because I feel more in control than with the typical button mashing throughout the series, it's just too drawn out, and with the added RPG-nostalgia full of flashy effects and ridiculous power moves it is like constant comical relief. I actually love the idea to have the classic RPG formula translated to a modern day scenario, but given the actual story it's like watching a really sad movie with a constant laugh track playing over it. Even that could work, but it just doesn't.

    +0.5 still, even though I felt like I was part of an elaborate joke that I didn't really get - great writing? great scores? Deep characters? Are you f*ing kidding me - I never really got bored. The never-ending storytelling clears up after a few hours and releases you fully into an absurd sandbox that never makes sense, but always comes up with a new ridiculous idea. The actual gameplay has a satisfying flow and sense of progression. I love to hate this series, but I also hate to love it.    … Expand
  26. DragonOfDojlma
    Apr 29, 2021
    1
    ı hate turn based combat system it doesn't fit the nature of yakuza games.
  27. kueapel
    Apr 27, 2021
    10
    The writing in this game is one of the best. How they keep the constant transitions between the absurd over the top comedy into very serious topic about the grey and dark area of the society really is one of the smoothest out there. The side characters are memorable and actually makes you want to know more about them so much, you became a drunkard. But the main character though, oh boy...The writing in this game is one of the best. How they keep the constant transitions between the absurd over the top comedy into very serious topic about the grey and dark area of the society really is one of the smoothest out there. The side characters are memorable and actually makes you want to know more about them so much, you became a drunkard. But the main character though, oh boy... he's the most lovable, most positive, best middle aged man you'd ever want to befriend with.

    The JRPG aspect of it is clearly not well balanced, but it's a major step into the right direction. For something that's rushly done based off an April fool's joke, it's actually pretty damn good, I hope they expand upon it instead of returning to the old beat em up style that I've grown weary of after 7 consecutive games of it.    … Expand
  28. Vaako
    Feb 24, 2021
    0
    I spent hours watching this entire game. The cut scenes are glorious and never ending. My only recommendation would be to watch this game via YouTube because it has better optimization.
  29. SomeName
    Feb 21, 2021
    8
    Yakuza 7 is in many ways, a new chapter in the series, using a new combat system and character cast to breathe some life into a franchise that had become rather formulaic. I'm glad the developers had the courage to go off the beaten path and try something a bit different. Anyways, here's my assessment after finishing it:

    ++The new turn-based combat engine allows playing as multiple    Yakuza 7 is in many ways, a new chapter in the series, using a new combat system and character cast to breathe some life into a franchise that had become rather formulaic. I'm glad the developers had the courage to go off the beaten path and try something a bit different. Anyways, here's my assessment after finishing it:

    ++The new turn-based combat engine allows playing as multiple characters and manages to keep a decent pace with action prompts as characters use abilities (basically heat actions). There is a great diversity of abilities and enemies, introducing new ones right up until the end of the game.

    -While I find that this new combat works really well for the random encounters on the street, it stagnates a bit during the "storm the castle" yakuza office gauntlets where you fight your way up to some boss. Due to limitations of the system you will only ever fight a maximum of 10 enemies and there is very little usage of furniture or other environments to really turn it into a fun chaotic brawl. Similarly, the boss fights are not really that challenging (barring 1-2 very good exceptions) or interesting. It's mostly a pattern of debuffing the boss, buffing your characters and then spamming every character's hardest-hitting moves. This is something the previous fighting-game style combat did better.

    +There's generally a decent number of new mini-games to play, some of which are very creative and enjoyable. I particularly like the one in the movie theatres, which comes with its own little subplots and dialogue.

    -The main money-making minigame (that you will have to play because there's no other way to make some real money), is a glorified spreadsheet business-management simulator. It's not very interactive and once you reach the end, there's basically no variety either. Yet you'll still come back because the endgame gear costs ~10 million yen a piece and this game spits out a lousy 3 million, making you pay 5 minutes of your life each time for doing the same thing over and over.

    +The new character cast is strong and really helps the main storyline become more interesting. Their personal investment in the events and antagonists really help the game stand above previous instalments, where it was mostly the plot dragging Kiryu back to save the Tojo clan again. That said I'm a little worried that the writers will make them star in so many sequels until they too, become very tired and disinterested in what the plot wants from them.

    +Very good sub-stories with multiple parts and recurring characters. They have cut out most of the "go there and have some angry men start a fight with you" missions and put them into a separate section where they can be largely ignored.

    -The game is lacking in this kind of side-content for the last 3rd of the playthrough. Even though it unlocks 2 areas to explore, there's not really much to do in them (especially if you've played previous titles) except grind for levels.

    +Good graphics, effects and soundtrack, consistent with the series.    … Expand
  30. SMITHBOY12
    Feb 15, 2021
    9
    Great game if your into turn based. I personally prefer this to the old series
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Awards & Rankings

33
#33 Best PC Game of 2020
61
#61 Most Discussed PC Game of 2020

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
83

Generally favorable reviews - based on 21 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 17 out of 21
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 21
  3. Negative: 0 out of 21
  1. PCMag
    Mar 30, 2021
    90
    Yakuza: Like a Dragon transforms the long-running beat'-em-up series into a Japanese role-playing game—and it's shockingly good. Though it retains some of the past games' clunky character animations, Like a Dragon's action-packed combat and engaging story make it a must-own RPG.
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  2. RPG Fan
    Jan 11, 2021
    94
    After over 100 hours of play, I’ve completely fallen in love with this new take on Yakuza. With its robust character relationships, expansive job system, kinetic turn-based combat, and all of the usual Yakuza wackiness and heartbreak, this has rapidly become my current favorite in the series. For traditional RPG fans on the fence about Yakuza, this new JRPG-inspired entry is the perfect place to start! For those who prefer the classic beat-em-up combat, I implore you to give the new gameplay a try. If it doesn’t stick, don’t worry, because I suspect that Judgment will become the new home of this time-tested combat system. For me, Yakuza: Like a Dragon stands as one of the greatest RPGs of 2020 and (hopefully) the beginning of a brand-new era of Yakuza!
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  3. Ragequit.gr
    Dec 7, 2020
    85
    Yakuza: Like A Dragon is a brave reboot that manages to change the recipe very successfully and you will love it, especially if you have even a slight appeal to JRPGs or turn-based games in general. It is not perfect, mainly thanks to the "childhood" diseases which were inherited from other representatives of the genre (such as grinding), however it remains a highly enjoyable and entertaining game that can offer dozens of hours of enjoyment.
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