Like a Dragon: Ishin!

Like A Dragon: Ishin! deserves its acclaimed reputation and can only have been improved by this modernising makeover. The story, visuals, sound design, and game mechanics are all top-class. Complexity is the name of the game as usual, but fans of the series will have no complaints about what has been delivered here. Everything that gamers love about the series has been included and improved upon to freshen things up. Even the use of familiar faces feels right when it could have seemed very wrong.

A missing gem from the Yakuza/Like a Dragon saga. Ishin! has the same ingredients that made the franchise great in a story that is set in completely different era. A must play for fans of the saga and a great introductory title for newcomers.

While fans of the series will undoubtedly get more out of this game than newcomers, it’s a fantastic title that’s worth checking out, both as a samurai story and as a sandbox RPG in general. If you love cinematic cutscenes, frenetic combat and simply killing time in a beautiful virtual realm, then Like a Dragon: Ishin! is a must-play game.

A great addition to any fan’s game collection, and sure to turn the heads of newcomers looking for some samurai action.

I am a big fan of the Yakuza series and Like a Dragon Ishin! has all the qualities that you would expect from a game in this series. It looks and feels like a modern game but certain aspects do remind you that you are playing a remake of an older game. For those new to the series this is a great one to jump into as it’s disconnected story-wise from the Yakuza thread. There is so much content to enjoy and the different combat styles keep things fresh even if the story doesn’t feel too fresh.

If you've been wondering what all the fuss surrounding the Yakuza series' foray into Japanese history is about, then wonder no more. Like a Dragon: Ishin! is a superlative localisation of a compelling samurai story, that is every bit as good as the series' other best outings. Brilliant.

Ryu Ga Gotoku’s games have often surveyed the stringent ethical code of its yakuza, where street violence and charitability go hand-in-hand. With Like a Dragon: Ishin!, the studio reflects on their organization’s chivalrous roots, where 19th-century samurai faced a period of political turbulence. Like the franchise’s best efforts, it’s wonderfully capricious, shifting from melodramatic to whimsical with the speed and precision of a master swordsman drawing his sword from its sheath.

In the end, Like a Dragon: Ishin is yet another strong entry in an exceptionally strong series, finally having been translated into English and lovingly reworked for the current generation almost a decade after its initial release. The combat’s showing its age around the edges and there are other minor quibbles to be sure, but this is still a trip to the past that’s well worth taking.

Like a Dragon: Ishin! delivers some excellent samurai action, with a story harkening back to Kurosawa, but there are a few thorns in your side. The game could have benefited of being more remade, the graphics in particular stand out as not quite up to date. There is almost too much side content to take on, I would have preferred fewer but more developed sidestories. Overall though, it’s a really good game that offers many hours of entertainment.

Whilst many of the components of Like a Dragon: Ishin! will immediately feel familiar, that is no bad thing. An adage that franchise fans will repeat is that there is no bad Like a Dragon game, and Ishin continues that trend.

The absolute biggest draw is definitely the story, where the developers once again deliver drama and mystery that you can't wait to enjoy more of. There are few game stories that interest me to such an extent that I'm disappointed when the cutscenes are over, but the Like a Dragon series makes it happen. Like a Dragon: Ishin is by no means an exception.

Like a Dragon: Ishin is a near-perfect package for fans of the series. It weaves an intriguing tale founded in historical events that has you hooked from the very start and eager to learn more at the very end. There’s a wealth of lighthearted substories, minigames, and slice-of-life gameplay, which offer a nice change of pace from the dark storyline. The weapon-based combat is a much-needed reinvigoration for the series that offers fast-paced, bloody carnage in style. The only real letdown was the few graphical issues I experienced, which hopefully a patch will soon resolve.

Like A Dragon: Ishin finally arrives in the west via a slick remaster that polishes up the visuals whilst also adding some fresh new combat mechanics to boot. This is another super solid entry in the long-running Yakuza franchise, it's perhaps a little more action-focused than usual, a little more on the serious and grounded side in terms of its story, but it also remembers to pack in plenty of the sort of madcap Yakuza substories and side activities that we all know and love. There's an excellent combat system to get stuck into here alongside an epic main campaign storyline that benefits greatly from the game's fascinating historical setting. This one comes highly recommended.

Like a Dragon: Ishin! feels more like a remaster than a remake, with an updated technical aspect but not up to modern standards and with the major novelty, Troops, proving to be far too invasive. At the same time, though, the game represents the end of an almost 10-year-long wait for one of the missing chapters in the series, thus turning out to be an almost obligatory purchase for any fan and for newbies alike, as it doesn't require any prior knowledge of the series.

Like A Dragon: Ishin is a competent remake of a previously Japan-only release, but series veterans might find more issues to nitpick over.

Like a Dragon: Ishin! provides the show and offers fans of the "Yakuza" saga an epic feudal epic at will. This remake in no way distorts the original 2014 experience, but modernizes the visuals and gameplay enough to make the adventure memorable a decade later. Ishin! is not perfect, far from it, and has some shortcomings, especially technical. However, the pleasure of playing a “Yakuza” game is there, and that is the main thing.

In its still somehow unique blend of humour and heart, spectacle and introspection, that Like a Dragon roars loudest. It may be nine years late, but we're glad it got here in the end. [Issue#382, p.94]

It’s not the best title in the series, and it could have definitely benefited from less padding, but it is a good one, and it’s nice to finally see it in the West.

Like a Dragon: Ishin is a great standalone work that holds its own in a fantastic series. An exciting whodunnit plot is the basis for a whole lot of action, some solid storytelling, and characters you sort-of know and will grow to love.

Like a Dragon: Ishin's timeless story and accessibility options make up for some of its outdated gameplay.