Like a Dragon: Ishin!

Marketed as a remake with its new graphics engine, Like a Dragon Ishin is actually just a remaster to which its cutscenes have been boosted. After the improved cutscenes, the game reveals its technical problems (rigid animations), bugs and imbalance. With a game released almost 10 years ago, it was inevitable. But the strength of Yakuza games is also its immersion, its many activities and its history which succeed in transporting the player to an exotic feudal Japan.

By going back in time, Ishin offers plenty of fresh ideas, but some well-established features of the LAD series suffer in return – especially the story. [Issue#25, p.84]

You sometimes notice that this is an old PS3 game, but on most points Like a Dragon: Ishin! stands up fine. Although you have to keep Wikipedia open next to it to find out what some historical dialogues actually mean.

Like a Dragon: Ishin! is a remastered blast from the past that will appeal to longtime Yakuza fans, but a dated design and some bugs make the game feel rough around the edges.

When is a remake not a remake? Ishin at times feels like the developers cut corners by incorporating existing models from other games and the original. NPC characters and animations lack refinement and didn't get the overhaul you would expect from a remake. However, the cutscenes and the original story remains strong and the gameplay with its new use of weapons and the added team cards are solid as ever. Together, Ishin fails to rise above the average, which could have been easily avoided.

Ishin is playfully outdated in some areas and the technology is not entirely convincing. Series fans will still have fun with the atmospheric title. Newcomers, on the other hand, should rather choose another game from RGG.

Was it really necessary to remake Like a Dragon: Ishin!? It’s questionable, but we’re glad it’s finally available in the west in some form. It’s not the best Like a Dragon game – in fact, it might come quite low in the pile – but a good time can be had with it nonetheless. Its world might not be all that attractive, and its story a slow-burner, but it has the usual charm and a bucketload of interesting activities to carry it.

A welcome novelty and throwback for long-time Yakuza fans, that offers everything they love about the series, although it’s held back by a rather underwhelming plot and too much fan service.

While its half-baked gunplay should probably have remained holstered, Like a Dragon: Ishin!’s stylish sword fighting and over-the-top Trooper card attacks successfully pair the Yakuza series’ brand of hysterical action with the historical fiction of its 19th century Japan setting. Unfortunately, its step back in time also presents a slight step down in quality for its substories and side activities, which have each been eclipsed in entertainment value by the other Yakuza and Judgment games in the years since Ishin’s original Japanese release, and the blander areas of its low-tech environment can’t quite compete with the flashy charms of Kamurocho when it comes to exploration. Even so, its high stakes story had me hooked throughout, and it was fascinating to get an insight into a period of Japanese history I knew very little about previously, albeit through a heavily fictionalized lens.