Another perfect RGG studios game. Unapologetically Japan propaganda but the game was so fun and the spin on real people and a real story I’m very familiar with was fun from start to finish. Mine as Hijikata still should stand as one of if not the greatest casting choices ever
Queria dar uma nota maior mas teve bugs frequentes e a performance é muito triste👍
its nice being able to understand the story, i like this story but only problem i had with the game were some of the heat color changes, other than that another banger from rgg
A top-tier entry in this franchise and a beautifully remade game.
Second 'Like A Dragon' game I've played.
I feel, so far, these games aren't extremely polished on the gameplay side of things. If we're only discussing combat, that is. For context, I played this start to end on "Legend" difficulty, the highest feasible difficulty ('Ishin' mode explicitly states that it should only be attempted on new game plus). I did 90% of substories, all the dungeons, and did a looot of crafting. I didn't do much of the arena, why? Well, one fight had a foe shoot me with incidenary bullets that literally stunned-lock me to death. Sadly that wasn't the only time I loss more then half of my health from being trapped in a inescapable combo. I'm fine being punished for not dodging the initial hit of a combo, but the amount of total combined damage doesn't really feel fair with how quickly some of these enemies swing their swords. Am I saying this game is too hard on Legend mode? Not really. If anything, this game goes repeatedly back and forth with it being too punishing, and yourself being utterly unstoppable. You can craft and buy some seriously disgusting weapons, like a cannon that will literally infinite combo most foes and some bosses, or the Vortex pistol which shoots so fast that it shreds health pools in seconds. Then there's the trooper system that are special attacks, and if you have the tiger trooper (as in a literal tiger) then that's near-guranteed instakill on a single enemy. Did I mention that some troopers are real content creators (which are free DLC)? One of which is a Vtuber. No, I'm not going to spoil who.
Of course there's a lot to do beyond shoving swords up a ronin's ass. You got karaoke, dancing, fishing, gambling, farming, pet managing, cards, shogi, cooking, and the bane of my existence, chicken races. What's wrong with that last one? It's easily the best way to make money in the entire game, but its of course luck-based. And every attempt takes an agonizingly long time. And sometimes you get those ""fun"" moments where ten times in a row the chicken with the highest possible chances of winning just never wins. Literally gone for half an hour before winning once, but the payout is honestly worth it.
Substories are very frequent compared to 7, which my first Like A Dragon game. Wasn't a fan how a ton of them required coming and leaving so many times. You'd visit a friend, give them a item, walk away, then come back. This happens an absurd amount of times. They do provide a lot of cute, and funny side stories so they're at least worth it.
It's funny how many issues I have with this game, but it's hard to hate. It has some great set-pieces, a roller-coaster of a plot, excellent sound design with stellar choreography in cutscenes and combat, a ton of stuff to do beyond the main story, and honestly quite a lot of heart. You know you've done good when I've invested so much time in your RPG system to want to grind for rare materials, namely to see the great weapon designs. Not necessarily for stat ups. And while not my favorite, the music did its job very well across the board.
That aside, you can spin around like a madman with your katana and your rapid-fire pistol as you carve a path of death, then summon a bear for good measure. That should be enough to convince you one way or another.
I feel, so far, these games aren't extremely polished on the gameplay side of things. If we're only discussing combat, that is. For context, I played this start to end on "Legend" difficulty, the highest feasible difficulty ('Ishin' mode explicitly states that it should only be attempted on new game plus). I did 90% of substories, all the dungeons, and did a looot of crafting. I didn't do much of the arena, why? Well, one fight had a foe shoot me with incidenary bullets that literally stunned-lock me to death. Sadly that wasn't the only time I loss more then half of my health from being trapped in a inescapable combo. I'm fine being punished for not dodging the initial hit of a combo, but the amount of total combined damage doesn't really feel fair with how quickly some of these enemies swing their swords. Am I saying this game is too hard on Legend mode? Not really. If anything, this game goes repeatedly back and forth with it being too punishing, and yourself being utterly unstoppable. You can craft and buy some seriously disgusting weapons, like a cannon that will literally infinite combo most foes and some bosses, or the Vortex pistol which shoots so fast that it shreds health pools in seconds. Then there's the trooper system that are special attacks, and if you have the tiger trooper (as in a literal tiger) then that's near-guranteed instakill on a single enemy. Did I mention that some troopers are real content creators (which are free DLC)? One of which is a Vtuber. No, I'm not going to spoil who.
Of course there's a lot to do beyond shoving swords up a ronin's ass. You got karaoke, dancing, fishing, gambling, farming, pet managing, cards, shogi, cooking, and the bane of my existence, chicken races. What's wrong with that last one? It's easily the best way to make money in the entire game, but its of course luck-based. And every attempt takes an agonizingly long time. And sometimes you get those ""fun"" moments where ten times in a row the chicken with the highest possible chances of winning just never wins. Literally gone for half an hour before winning once, but the payout is honestly worth it.
Substories are very frequent compared to 7, which my first Like A Dragon game. Wasn't a fan how a ton of them required coming and leaving so many times. You'd visit a friend, give them a item, walk away, then come back. This happens an absurd amount of times. They do provide a lot of cute, and funny side stories so they're at least worth it.
It's funny how many issues I have with this game, but it's hard to hate. It has some great set-pieces, a roller-coaster of a plot, excellent sound design with stellar choreography in cutscenes and combat, a ton of stuff to do beyond the main story, and honestly quite a lot of heart. You know you've done good when I've invested so much time in your RPG system to want to grind for rare materials, namely to see the great weapon designs. Not necessarily for stat ups. And while not my favorite, the music did its job very well across the board.
That aside, you can spin around like a madman with your katana and your rapid-fire pistol as you carve a path of death, then summon a bear for good measure. That should be enough to convince you one way or another.
This is my first time playing Ishin, but I have played all other localized entries in the series & spinoffs besides 5,6 and Dead Souls.
I loved my time with this, and while I do have some minor complains, overall it's a superb entry and one of my favourites in the series.
Initially I was a bit put off by the combat and how overpowered the guns felt in the early game, but the more time I spent using the Wild Dancer style & Katana, I never looked back.
Combat is satisfying, and solid.
Originally, I was a bit put off by the combat demo, because it felt a lot less fluid than Lost Judgement did. However, after playing the full game, I can easily compare it with Yakuza 0's combat, which by itself is a great compliment.
Story is REALLY good, one of the best of the series imo.
If you like RGG games, I can't recommend this enough!
Main Story takes about 22~ hours if you don't focus on side objectives.
I loved my time with this, and while I do have some minor complains, overall it's a superb entry and one of my favourites in the series.
Initially I was a bit put off by the combat and how overpowered the guns felt in the early game, but the more time I spent using the Wild Dancer style & Katana, I never looked back.
Combat is satisfying, and solid.
Originally, I was a bit put off by the combat demo, because it felt a lot less fluid than Lost Judgement did. However, after playing the full game, I can easily compare it with Yakuza 0's combat, which by itself is a great compliment.
Story is REALLY good, one of the best of the series imo.
If you like RGG games, I can't recommend this enough!
Main Story takes about 22~ hours if you don't focus on side objectives.
Before I start this review, I just want to thank RGG Studio for finally releasing this title in the West. The fact that this has finally happened is like a dream come true for most fans. Anyway, on with the review.
Like a Dragon: Ishin is a remake of a spin-off of the Yakuza series (now called Like a Dragon series in the West). This game is essentially an all-star game, with the cast of the Like a Dragon series portraying major Japanese historical figures. The game's story recounts the tale of Sakamoto Ryoma. How much of this game is historically accurate is beyond me (if I were to guess the team took a lot of creative liberties given the cast), though rest assured, the game's story is excellent.
This game has a similar combat system to Yakuza 0/Kiwami. There are four styles to choose from and you have to figure out which is best suited for the combat scenario. While playing through this game, I only used two of them instead of alternating between the four. The Brawler style is the typical punching combat that the series is known for and it's not that good this time around. Compared to the other styles in the game, it's weak. The attacks do little damage so it's not worth using. The other style I didn't use a lot while playing is Gunman. As the name implies, this style primarily focuses on firing a gun. While dealing with the enemies that walk around the map, Gunman mows them down which made combat bland. Not only that but the dodge for this style wasn't the best. I did enjoy the other two, however. Swordsman Style allows the player to fight with a sword and the attacks here bring a lot of damage. This style also allows the player to block attacks, which the other ones don't offer. The other style is Wild Dancer, which combines sword and gun use. This style's attack range is wide, which makes up for its somewhat low damage output. Plus, the dodge is fantastic. I also enjoy the flamboyant nature of it.
What's new to the combat system is the controversial trooper cards system. In the original release of Ishin, these cards were exclusive to a certain game mode. This time around, they are an important part of the combat. At first, I didn't think I would enjoy this inclusion, but I ended up having fun with them. My biggest gripe is the fact that the game kind of forces you to use them. In a post before the game was released, RGG Studio described the cards as optional. However, the bosses in the game still use these special powers even if the cards aren't equipped. It unintentionally forces the player to use the cards.
Like most games in this series, Like a Dragon: Ishin is filled with side content. The mini games are fun and I enjoyed the Another Life bit. The substories here are rather forgettable though. I certainly chuckled at a few of them but none stuck out to me.
One thing this remake did was change up the cast. Since the original was released before Yakuza 0 and Yakuza: Like a Dragon, characters from those games weren't featured. To make up for that, some of the characters were recast to include the newer titles. As much as I like Kuze and Zhao, I also like Hamazaki and Baba. Replacing them with characters from the more popular titles seems rather insulting (it doesn't help that Zhao looks like he knows what an iPhone is). I understand wanting to include characters from the newer games, but they could've gone about it another way: the substories. To be fair, they did do something similar for the occasional substory, but I would've liked to see more. This could've been a great way to include characters from both the new and old games, but it is what it is.
As for a remake, it doesn't change much outside of a few minor things. If that's the case, I have to wonder why remake it all? This "remake" is more like a remaster. However, I won't spend too much time on this topic because I'm just happy this game was finally released in the West in some way.
Like a Dragon: Ishin is flawed but a fun experience. The story is top-notch. The combat was okay but still enjoyable. However, some odd questionable decisions prevent me from giving this a higher score.
Like a Dragon: Ishin is a remake of a spin-off of the Yakuza series (now called Like a Dragon series in the West). This game is essentially an all-star game, with the cast of the Like a Dragon series portraying major Japanese historical figures. The game's story recounts the tale of Sakamoto Ryoma. How much of this game is historically accurate is beyond me (if I were to guess the team took a lot of creative liberties given the cast), though rest assured, the game's story is excellent.
This game has a similar combat system to Yakuza 0/Kiwami. There are four styles to choose from and you have to figure out which is best suited for the combat scenario. While playing through this game, I only used two of them instead of alternating between the four. The Brawler style is the typical punching combat that the series is known for and it's not that good this time around. Compared to the other styles in the game, it's weak. The attacks do little damage so it's not worth using. The other style I didn't use a lot while playing is Gunman. As the name implies, this style primarily focuses on firing a gun. While dealing with the enemies that walk around the map, Gunman mows them down which made combat bland. Not only that but the dodge for this style wasn't the best. I did enjoy the other two, however. Swordsman Style allows the player to fight with a sword and the attacks here bring a lot of damage. This style also allows the player to block attacks, which the other ones don't offer. The other style is Wild Dancer, which combines sword and gun use. This style's attack range is wide, which makes up for its somewhat low damage output. Plus, the dodge is fantastic. I also enjoy the flamboyant nature of it.
What's new to the combat system is the controversial trooper cards system. In the original release of Ishin, these cards were exclusive to a certain game mode. This time around, they are an important part of the combat. At first, I didn't think I would enjoy this inclusion, but I ended up having fun with them. My biggest gripe is the fact that the game kind of forces you to use them. In a post before the game was released, RGG Studio described the cards as optional. However, the bosses in the game still use these special powers even if the cards aren't equipped. It unintentionally forces the player to use the cards.
Like most games in this series, Like a Dragon: Ishin is filled with side content. The mini games are fun and I enjoyed the Another Life bit. The substories here are rather forgettable though. I certainly chuckled at a few of them but none stuck out to me.
One thing this remake did was change up the cast. Since the original was released before Yakuza 0 and Yakuza: Like a Dragon, characters from those games weren't featured. To make up for that, some of the characters were recast to include the newer titles. As much as I like Kuze and Zhao, I also like Hamazaki and Baba. Replacing them with characters from the more popular titles seems rather insulting (it doesn't help that Zhao looks like he knows what an iPhone is). I understand wanting to include characters from the newer games, but they could've gone about it another way: the substories. To be fair, they did do something similar for the occasional substory, but I would've liked to see more. This could've been a great way to include characters from both the new and old games, but it is what it is.
As for a remake, it doesn't change much outside of a few minor things. If that's the case, I have to wonder why remake it all? This "remake" is more like a remaster. However, I won't spend too much time on this topic because I'm just happy this game was finally released in the West in some way.
Like a Dragon: Ishin is flawed but a fun experience. The story is top-notch. The combat was okay but still enjoyable. However, some odd questionable decisions prevent me from giving this a higher score.
Fantastic remake that sadly has a few issues keeping it from being a 5/5. Presentation, combat, visuals and especially music are very good, but with the change of engine over to UE4 some issues have crept up. Some cutscenes have flickering issues (and run at 30fps no matter your framerate!), and somehow most of chapter 12 specifically runs below 30fps when this game runs at a capped 60 on PS5. Combat, while fun can get stale as it’s not as free flowing as you would think, which is a shame after what Lost Judgment showed us. However, the introduction of battle cards offset this as there are plenty of buffs, debuffs, healing and special moves that come with those, that help the game to feel fresh and exciting for the most part.
I’m hoping they iron out the issues that were present here as it looks like sadly Sega have binned the Dragon Engine and want to be lazy like most developers nowadays instead of using the great engine they had built over the last few years.
Overall Ishin is definitely a great game, not one I would recommend to newcomers to Yakuza, as this game is pure fan service and a lot of it will be lost on people who have not played the games that came beforehand.
Kenzan next you cowards
I’m hoping they iron out the issues that were present here as it looks like sadly Sega have binned the Dragon Engine and want to be lazy like most developers nowadays instead of using the great engine they had built over the last few years.
Overall Ishin is definitely a great game, not one I would recommend to newcomers to Yakuza, as this game is pure fan service and a lot of it will be lost on people who have not played the games that came beforehand.
Kenzan next you cowards
Never thought I'd say this but please return to the Dragon Engine RGG.
Like a Dragon: Ishin! is a period piece featuring a ton of different characters from all over the Like a Dragon series hailing from what I consider to be the golden age of the series (between 5 and 0). It's really good! I didn't know dick all about the history of this time period, and it was interesting to see it adapted in the typical LAD style, with all the reveals, betrayals, and sworn-brothering that entails. The setting really fits LAD like a glove, and I'd love to see more period pieces like these with this cast.
Años esperando poder jugar Like a Dragon: Ishin! Un título del que tenía muchas esperanzas y una expectativas elevadas, las cuales, en su mayoría, las ha cumplido, pero también ha decepcionado en otras pocas.
A nivel narrativo es de lo mejor que uno se puede encontrar a día de hoy, es cierto que la trama a veces da la sensación de estar artificialmente alargada, pero todo los capitulos de la historia, con sus más y sus menos, consiguen darte algún momento clave y atraparte para seguir jugándolo.
Jugablemente el juego es correcto, al igual que en el apartado gráfico se le notan las carencias y se siente más como un remaster de un juego de PS3, ya envejecido, que como un remake que tratan de vendernos. En muchos sentidos, sobretodo en los menús y las ventanas se siente un juego tosco, pero aún así no deja de ser divertido.
Otro punto genial que nos trae el título es la enorme cantidad de minijuegos y secundarias, los cuales son muy variados y atrapan muchísimo, aunque tal vez hubiese agradecido tener menos misiones secundarias o al menos con más peso a nivel de desarrollo del personaje.
Técnicamente, aparte de su apartado gráfico justo el cual se siente como un juego de mediados de la generación anterior (PS4/One) sí que se siente algo mediocre el tener las escenas limitadas a 30 frames, tener un stuttering elevado en zonas cargadas independientemente del ordenador que poseas o que haya glitches en escenas.
Ya por último quiero destacar además de su argumento y narrativa la banda sonora, la cual roza el sobresaliente con unos temas perfectamente sincronizados con la ambientación y a cada escena. Los combates finales perderían mucho de no ser por los maravillosos temas que suenan.
En definitiva, Ishin! es un título que he disfrutado muchísimo de principio a fin, no me he parado a realizar el 100% ya que necesita una cantidad ingente de horas innecesarias, pero sí que he completado el 90% de las misiones secundarias y todos los minijuegos, además de relaciones y la propia historia a lo largo de las 42h que me ha durado. Me parece un juego muy recomendable, pero hay que ser consciente de que se siente como un título de hace 8 años, tanto para bien como para mal.
A nivel narrativo es de lo mejor que uno se puede encontrar a día de hoy, es cierto que la trama a veces da la sensación de estar artificialmente alargada, pero todo los capitulos de la historia, con sus más y sus menos, consiguen darte algún momento clave y atraparte para seguir jugándolo.
Jugablemente el juego es correcto, al igual que en el apartado gráfico se le notan las carencias y se siente más como un remaster de un juego de PS3, ya envejecido, que como un remake que tratan de vendernos. En muchos sentidos, sobretodo en los menús y las ventanas se siente un juego tosco, pero aún así no deja de ser divertido.
Otro punto genial que nos trae el título es la enorme cantidad de minijuegos y secundarias, los cuales son muy variados y atrapan muchísimo, aunque tal vez hubiese agradecido tener menos misiones secundarias o al menos con más peso a nivel de desarrollo del personaje.
Técnicamente, aparte de su apartado gráfico justo el cual se siente como un juego de mediados de la generación anterior (PS4/One) sí que se siente algo mediocre el tener las escenas limitadas a 30 frames, tener un stuttering elevado en zonas cargadas independientemente del ordenador que poseas o que haya glitches en escenas.
Ya por último quiero destacar además de su argumento y narrativa la banda sonora, la cual roza el sobresaliente con unos temas perfectamente sincronizados con la ambientación y a cada escena. Los combates finales perderían mucho de no ser por los maravillosos temas que suenan.
En definitiva, Ishin! es un título que he disfrutado muchísimo de principio a fin, no me he parado a realizar el 100% ya que necesita una cantidad ingente de horas innecesarias, pero sí que he completado el 90% de las misiones secundarias y todos los minijuegos, además de relaciones y la propia historia a lo largo de las 42h que me ha durado. Me parece un juego muy recomendable, pero hay que ser consciente de que se siente como un título de hace 8 años, tanto para bien como para mal.
I took 1 JP history class and can confirm this is exactly what happened
kyoto i love you, best place to be in the 1860s fr fr
Despite being a remake on the same engine, it's hard to imagine that Ishin is a 9 year old game with some new polish, features, and QoL. For all my love of the Dragon Engine, it's almost nostalgic playing another RGG game on Unreal engine.
Ishin follows the story of Ryoma Sakamoto through 1860's Japan following the appearance of the "black ships". As you go through the story, you are introduced to a number of historical figures who are played/modeled after characters that span the main Yakuza/LaD series. Part of this new remake is recasting to include some new characters, and it was great to see newer faces (particularly from 0 and LaD). This also means great new battle remixes for the relevant characters as well. While I'm not overly familiar with the history surrounding the game, I assume quite a number of liberties/interpretations are made to adapt it into a RGG studio story, but it's definitely one of the better ones they have put out.
Gameplay-wise, Ryoma fights with 4 styles. Fists, Sword, Gun, and Wild Dancer (Sword+Gun). I had my doubts, but all 4 of them maintain relevancy in different situations throughout the game and are all fun to use. The trooper system that lets you equip cards to activate different abilities is really fun to use too. You can even set the abilities to auto-activate so you can set-it-and-forget-it, should you choose. While the game is back on the previous engine, some QoL from the Dragon Engine did get backported as well - namely, auto-saving and saving anywhere, and expanded inventory. I miss the lack of loading screens and more dynamic animations/environments, but it still looks and feels tremendous.
At the time of writing this, Like a Dragon Ishin is easily a top 3 RGG Studios game for me (along with LaD and 0) and I'm really glad the work was finally put in to localize it. Definitely looking forward to doing more of the side content and looking up some of the real history!
Ishin follows the story of Ryoma Sakamoto through 1860's Japan following the appearance of the "black ships". As you go through the story, you are introduced to a number of historical figures who are played/modeled after characters that span the main Yakuza/LaD series. Part of this new remake is recasting to include some new characters, and it was great to see newer faces (particularly from 0 and LaD). This also means great new battle remixes for the relevant characters as well. While I'm not overly familiar with the history surrounding the game, I assume quite a number of liberties/interpretations are made to adapt it into a RGG studio story, but it's definitely one of the better ones they have put out.
Gameplay-wise, Ryoma fights with 4 styles. Fists, Sword, Gun, and Wild Dancer (Sword+Gun). I had my doubts, but all 4 of them maintain relevancy in different situations throughout the game and are all fun to use. The trooper system that lets you equip cards to activate different abilities is really fun to use too. You can even set the abilities to auto-activate so you can set-it-and-forget-it, should you choose. While the game is back on the previous engine, some QoL from the Dragon Engine did get backported as well - namely, auto-saving and saving anywhere, and expanded inventory. I miss the lack of loading screens and more dynamic animations/environments, but it still looks and feels tremendous.
At the time of writing this, Like a Dragon Ishin is easily a top 3 RGG Studios game for me (along with LaD and 0) and I'm really glad the work was finally put in to localize it. Definitely looking forward to doing more of the side content and looking up some of the real history!
Great Game, characters and story, a few twists and at some points I thought I called something just for the opposite to happen. It was hard for me to call characters there names with them being from past Yakuza games for example Okita will be Majima to me and KUZE IS KUZE.
All the minigames in the game and side content were very fun and the masters were cool and seeing characters from the other games in the Edo period. I don’t fully know what was changed from the original but I very much enjoyed my whole time. I played on normal and found the game challenging coming from 6 which was fairly easy even on harder difficulties. Which Im glad was a challenge.
The music during some bosses were excellent cal lbacks to their encounters from the other games and made me hyped for the boss when I am about to fight them
4.5 game took a solid 45 hours to beat along side every substory. Highly recommend
All the minigames in the game and side content were very fun and the masters were cool and seeing characters from the other games in the Edo period. I don’t fully know what was changed from the original but I very much enjoyed my whole time. I played on normal and found the game challenging coming from 6 which was fairly easy even on harder difficulties. Which Im glad was a challenge.
The music during some bosses were excellent cal lbacks to their encounters from the other games and made me hyped for the boss when I am about to fight them
4.5 game took a solid 45 hours to beat along side every substory. Highly recommend
Y'know, maybe I should have been more wary. RGG have now proven they have a serious track record of fucking up re-releases. Monkey ball 1+2 got borked physics. VF5 got racist netcode. Yakuza 1+2 got Kiwami'd. And now it really feels like Ishin has as well.
RGG will really add an unforgivably terrible gacha Card system on what already seems like a way too bloated game, but not address that you can just bait one attack and gun down from across the room every story boss.
RGG will really just change what seems like a pretty well thought out original cast considering the conceit in what is obviously a shortsighted fanservice move that will reek in like 3 years.
RGG will really just not address the game's blatant issues like a quarter of the runtime consisting of you running to and from work, attaching Kiryu's morality system onto thi main character requiring consant contrivance and the game's map clearly being hamstrung by loading times on the PS3.
Deep,, deep under Nu-Ishin is the best Yakuza game. And frankly, I get the impression that it's buried a fair bit under the original Ishin as well - I don't think the Yakuza stuff helps tell the story at play (not-Kiryu just sucks the life out of what seems like a truly fascinating real person imo) there's a pointless aount of RPG nonsense that only detracts from the combat that I can't blame entirely on the remake, and the map is probably the series' weakest if you arent a huge nerd for this shit like me.
But im a huge sucker for stories from this period (WATCH YOJIMBO) i love the aesthetic, the combat whilst having issues gainst greatly from swords and guns, and the general plot is really cool. Frankly, just experiencing thils state of japan from the viewpoint of an RGG game is satiation enough for me, huge nerd. But god it could be so much better.
And Nu-Ishin is just the worst kind of re-release. It reminds me a lot of Strange Journey Redux - making pointless changes that dont help and just alienate, whilst adding pointless new stuff that's both terrible and bloats out a game that if anything needs cutting down.
RGG are a very competent studio, but god they need to stop doing this shit.
PS: the translation/localisation here feels really rough. To the point i've spotted multiple spelling mistakes. Makes it particularly tempting to go back to the original once i've improved my Japanese... a lot.
RGG will really add an unforgivably terrible gacha Card system on what already seems like a way too bloated game, but not address that you can just bait one attack and gun down from across the room every story boss.
RGG will really just change what seems like a pretty well thought out original cast considering the conceit in what is obviously a shortsighted fanservice move that will reek in like 3 years.
RGG will really just not address the game's blatant issues like a quarter of the runtime consisting of you running to and from work, attaching Kiryu's morality system onto thi main character requiring consant contrivance and the game's map clearly being hamstrung by loading times on the PS3.
Deep,, deep under Nu-Ishin is the best Yakuza game. And frankly, I get the impression that it's buried a fair bit under the original Ishin as well - I don't think the Yakuza stuff helps tell the story at play (not-Kiryu just sucks the life out of what seems like a truly fascinating real person imo) there's a pointless aount of RPG nonsense that only detracts from the combat that I can't blame entirely on the remake, and the map is probably the series' weakest if you arent a huge nerd for this shit like me.
But im a huge sucker for stories from this period (WATCH YOJIMBO) i love the aesthetic, the combat whilst having issues gainst greatly from swords and guns, and the general plot is really cool. Frankly, just experiencing thils state of japan from the viewpoint of an RGG game is satiation enough for me, huge nerd. But god it could be so much better.
And Nu-Ishin is just the worst kind of re-release. It reminds me a lot of Strange Journey Redux - making pointless changes that dont help and just alienate, whilst adding pointless new stuff that's both terrible and bloats out a game that if anything needs cutting down.
RGG are a very competent studio, but god they need to stop doing this shit.
PS: the translation/localisation here feels really rough. To the point i've spotted multiple spelling mistakes. Makes it particularly tempting to go back to the original once i've improved my Japanese... a lot.
Kiryu sword awesome
To finally experience this game is great. For years, us Yakuza had lost hope of ever playing Ishin, but now It's finally here, and it lives up to the hype. I was skeptical of it being a remake, but it feels just like classic yakuza, and it's got the gorgeous looks of the newer dragon engine games, and that's all that really needed to be done. and getting to play on pc with a smooth and crisp 120 fps was a huge bonus. I hope that one day we can see the same treatment with Kenzan and the Kurohyo games.
Great, solid entry with tons of fanservice and content. Retelling a historic event with RGG spin is an amazing idea, the ending was a bit flat tho. Also it looks amazing
Fantastic release, glad to have this game in everyone else hands because it's definitely worth experiencing. The gameplay is pretty smooth, around Yakuza 0 standards. The music is phenomenal, especially towards the end and every character is well acted. I haven't finished the original so as for the recasting I dont have much of a say but everyone who was new to this game is a welcome addition. The visuals sre beautiful, they really did well with the lighting here, models and textures are high quality and for a 2014 game the animations are good. The card system is fine, I wish there was a way to disable it though, would have liked the bosses not to shoot beams and swords but whatever. The UI is a little bulky too, the cards dont need ro be on screen at all times no? The pause menu is also kinda unresponsive, backing out of the ability menu or using restoration items takes way too long. Otherwise a great RGG game, definitely play it.
How do I describe my 30 hour experience of this game? Well, I suppose I would sum it up like this: Ishin checks off everything that makes an RGG game GOOD, but it doesn't check off much that really makes something in this series GREAT and stand amongst the rest in the franchise.
The way I judge an RGG is based on three things: the combat, the setpiece/side content, and the story. So let's start with combat.
The combat in this game is a total meh experience, even when you're high leveled and have a whole move set damn near maxed out. You have 4 fighting styles, but the game never warrants making use of all of them. I used Swordsman most of the game, while occasionally pulling out a gun for certain situations. Using the sword always felt like the best option, so it defeats any purpose of using much else. Even then, Swordsman feels rather empty even at max level. It just made me wish that this game would have placed all assets and energy on just ONE moveset instead of four.
Speaking of combat, you have the crafting system in this game. Frankly, I've grown tired of crafting in AAA games, and the system laid about here is obnoxious. I couldn't be bothered to get deep into this part of the game because I almost always never had materials and money to get the most OP equipment. Not to mention that the storyline itself rewards you with weapons and stuff that will be more than sufficient to beat the final portion. Just felt pointless.
As for the setpiece that you'll spend your time in throughout Ishin, it's... good. Not great, per se, but good. If you've played RGG before, you know what you're getting here. You can go do all the things you love in this series like go sing your heart out to Bakamitai, or fish, dance, play shogi, etc. Along the way, you'll also encounter various characters which will segway into substories and bonds that you can work towards completing as you progress through the main story.
The substories themselves, of the ones I completed, were largely just mediocre. A lot of them consist of running into someone, doing a task/interacting, and then doing that repeatedly until you've completed their bond. That'd be fine if they were interesting, but they're not. There's an occasional substory here and there that is great, but by the endpoint, I wasn't particularly vexed on seeing if I was missing anything. Not every substory in RGG is great, but they're at least memorable. The only substory that I found in Ishin to be memorable was the one with the famous painter. Other than that? Ehhhh... I'll pass.
There's a lot more side stuff in Ishin, but playing what I did of the side content didn't particularly motivate me to spend hours upon hours conquering all of it. A more devoted RGG fan could probably comment better, but what I played here was just acceptably fine.
For the most part, I think the story here is the saving grace of Ishin. Because even if some of the other stuff I enjoy about RGG isn't quite up to par, it at least has a plot that I fairly enjoyed from front to back. You got gorgeous cinematics running on UE4 (not as great as Dragon Engine, but it's better than 0), a great score, good atmosphere, and an overall good narrative that left me wanting to keep playing because I was curious to see how it'd all play out. Playing the story of Ishin almost felt like watching a high-budget action/drama miniseries on HBO or Netflix. Side content be damned, I want to see what's gonna happen next in the story!
The story of Ishin starts off nicely, albeit slow, and eventually works its way up to where the real meat of the story is. And, here, the game is at its best. Unfortunately, though, it drags. The pacing in this game is just not the best. The last third of the story goes on for so damn long that by the end I was pleading for this game to not pull another damn twist to make itself last any longer than it really needed to. Not to mention that I think a lot of the soul and mystique of this narrative slowly diminishes the closer you get to the finale, where it unfortunately just kind of feels a bit like a dud. It's not offensively bad, but I wish the story would have been reworked a bit for a tighter pace and a more rewarding, earned conclusion. The overall climax of the story feels somehow both overdone, but also like it's missing a lot of things.
Ishin is overall just an average RGG experience. If you like RGG then I think you'll be sufficient with what you're given here. Just don't go in expecting to experience one of the peaks of the franchise. It may be stand-alone and friendly for new fans, but this is not a game I would use to try and get someone into RGG.
I hope a Kenzan remake is something we can maybe look forward to seeing one day after this. My time with Ishin was mostly enjoyable so I hope to try out the other one day.
The way I judge an RGG is based on three things: the combat, the setpiece/side content, and the story. So let's start with combat.
The combat in this game is a total meh experience, even when you're high leveled and have a whole move set damn near maxed out. You have 4 fighting styles, but the game never warrants making use of all of them. I used Swordsman most of the game, while occasionally pulling out a gun for certain situations. Using the sword always felt like the best option, so it defeats any purpose of using much else. Even then, Swordsman feels rather empty even at max level. It just made me wish that this game would have placed all assets and energy on just ONE moveset instead of four.
Speaking of combat, you have the crafting system in this game. Frankly, I've grown tired of crafting in AAA games, and the system laid about here is obnoxious. I couldn't be bothered to get deep into this part of the game because I almost always never had materials and money to get the most OP equipment. Not to mention that the storyline itself rewards you with weapons and stuff that will be more than sufficient to beat the final portion. Just felt pointless.
As for the setpiece that you'll spend your time in throughout Ishin, it's... good. Not great, per se, but good. If you've played RGG before, you know what you're getting here. You can go do all the things you love in this series like go sing your heart out to Bakamitai, or fish, dance, play shogi, etc. Along the way, you'll also encounter various characters which will segway into substories and bonds that you can work towards completing as you progress through the main story.
The substories themselves, of the ones I completed, were largely just mediocre. A lot of them consist of running into someone, doing a task/interacting, and then doing that repeatedly until you've completed their bond. That'd be fine if they were interesting, but they're not. There's an occasional substory here and there that is great, but by the endpoint, I wasn't particularly vexed on seeing if I was missing anything. Not every substory in RGG is great, but they're at least memorable. The only substory that I found in Ishin to be memorable was the one with the famous painter. Other than that? Ehhhh... I'll pass.
There's a lot more side stuff in Ishin, but playing what I did of the side content didn't particularly motivate me to spend hours upon hours conquering all of it. A more devoted RGG fan could probably comment better, but what I played here was just acceptably fine.
For the most part, I think the story here is the saving grace of Ishin. Because even if some of the other stuff I enjoy about RGG isn't quite up to par, it at least has a plot that I fairly enjoyed from front to back. You got gorgeous cinematics running on UE4 (not as great as Dragon Engine, but it's better than 0), a great score, good atmosphere, and an overall good narrative that left me wanting to keep playing because I was curious to see how it'd all play out. Playing the story of Ishin almost felt like watching a high-budget action/drama miniseries on HBO or Netflix. Side content be damned, I want to see what's gonna happen next in the story!
The story of Ishin starts off nicely, albeit slow, and eventually works its way up to where the real meat of the story is. And, here, the game is at its best. Unfortunately, though, it drags. The pacing in this game is just not the best. The last third of the story goes on for so damn long that by the end I was pleading for this game to not pull another damn twist to make itself last any longer than it really needed to. Not to mention that I think a lot of the soul and mystique of this narrative slowly diminishes the closer you get to the finale, where it unfortunately just kind of feels a bit like a dud. It's not offensively bad, but I wish the story would have been reworked a bit for a tighter pace and a more rewarding, earned conclusion. The overall climax of the story feels somehow both overdone, but also like it's missing a lot of things.
Ishin is overall just an average RGG experience. If you like RGG then I think you'll be sufficient with what you're given here. Just don't go in expecting to experience one of the peaks of the franchise. It may be stand-alone and friendly for new fans, but this is not a game I would use to try and get someone into RGG.
I hope a Kenzan remake is something we can maybe look forward to seeing one day after this. My time with Ishin was mostly enjoyable so I hope to try out the other one day.
i love rgg games, i found them around this time last year and 2022 ended up being the hardest year of my life so they kept me company & kept me sane through all of it. when this was announced i was so happy that i was gonna be able to play another new game so soon, i had actually just gotten my import copy of the original in the mail the day of the anniversary presentation cause i thought people were insane for theorizing about ishin kiwami at the presentation, so when it showed up on the stream & it had a new engine, had yakuza 0/7 characters, and the fans who played the original were saying it was “easily the best rgg game” or “their favorite rgg game of all time” i was so insanely excited, i was so certain this would end up as one of my favorites, the hype kept me running for months until i finally got to play it
the story is a pretty simple revenge plot, but for those to be interesting i have to not see all the twists coming right away & i think the twists were especially bad due to character choices. im not going to spoil anything but there was quite a few characters who i knew were gonna be more important than they led on originally & cause some of them and their main series counterparts had extremely similar motivations, which i guess is kinda cool for a fanservice game like this but it ended up being a bad thing for me cause there was zero tension. the characters tend to be my favorite part of rgg games too but this one had like nobody i cared about at all, hijikata was cool & i love having more mine screentime but i feel like even he was pretty underdeveloped and i think that could’ve been fixed for him and the rest of the shinsengumi if this game had more content to get to know the characters instead of just sidecontent bloat
the combat is also really disappointing, i only have a few major things that bother me about it though. the game is very wild dancer centered, even late game when i had most of my trees unlocked. to be fair i didn’t do much of the class training either but i would be very surprised if that actually made a drastic enough difference. it felt like majima in yakuza 0, where all the styles are technically playable but in almost every single situation breaker was preferable. also the card system that you can supposedly just not interact with is a system the games bosses feel balanced around regardless of if you’re using it or not & speaking of bosses am i insane or was there only like 1 or 2 good fights in this game? yakuza bosses are very hit or miss and i rarely like all of them so i wasnt going in expecting a perfect group but only having a few that i like is very rare for me
i havent interacted with much of the side content in this game, but theres a lot of it as expected from the game that landed between yakuza 5 and yakuza 0, which are two of the longest games they’ve made. i really liked the minigames that i did play though! i think one of my favorite parts was them taking minigames that are very familiar to people who've played the rest of the games and turning them into something that actually fits into the era, favorite example being cannon coaching in place of baseball
i wanted to talk about the switch to unreal engine or at least the pc optimization for this game as well. i’m not knowledgeable enough about video game development to say whether or not the engine in this game is the reason for a lot of its technical problems, but i do know that the game runs worse than any other rgg game i’ve played thats been officially ported & i know that in at least 3 important cutscenes the screen would just cut randomly to black and white blinking for 5 seconds at a time or cut to a shot of a random wall instead of focusing on the characters, which sucks cause i already wasnt invested in these characters and then when they actually get character development the cutscene breaks and i cant see it or can only see it in chunks
this probably doesn't add much to the conversation but i’ve been thinking about it a lot since i finished playing and it will forever bother me how excited i was for this and how it turned out. i'm still holding hope for gaiden & rgg8 later this year and next, i'm just really sad that this didnt stick with me like it did for other people
edit: they've actually fixed a lot of the technical issues the game had when i reviewed it thankfully! it's reassuring knowing that they're looking out for problems :3
the story is a pretty simple revenge plot, but for those to be interesting i have to not see all the twists coming right away & i think the twists were especially bad due to character choices. im not going to spoil anything but there was quite a few characters who i knew were gonna be more important than they led on originally & cause some of them and their main series counterparts had extremely similar motivations, which i guess is kinda cool for a fanservice game like this but it ended up being a bad thing for me cause there was zero tension. the characters tend to be my favorite part of rgg games too but this one had like nobody i cared about at all, hijikata was cool & i love having more mine screentime but i feel like even he was pretty underdeveloped and i think that could’ve been fixed for him and the rest of the shinsengumi if this game had more content to get to know the characters instead of just sidecontent bloat
the combat is also really disappointing, i only have a few major things that bother me about it though. the game is very wild dancer centered, even late game when i had most of my trees unlocked. to be fair i didn’t do much of the class training either but i would be very surprised if that actually made a drastic enough difference. it felt like majima in yakuza 0, where all the styles are technically playable but in almost every single situation breaker was preferable. also the card system that you can supposedly just not interact with is a system the games bosses feel balanced around regardless of if you’re using it or not & speaking of bosses am i insane or was there only like 1 or 2 good fights in this game? yakuza bosses are very hit or miss and i rarely like all of them so i wasnt going in expecting a perfect group but only having a few that i like is very rare for me
i havent interacted with much of the side content in this game, but theres a lot of it as expected from the game that landed between yakuza 5 and yakuza 0, which are two of the longest games they’ve made. i really liked the minigames that i did play though! i think one of my favorite parts was them taking minigames that are very familiar to people who've played the rest of the games and turning them into something that actually fits into the era, favorite example being cannon coaching in place of baseball
this probably doesn't add much to the conversation but i’ve been thinking about it a lot since i finished playing and it will forever bother me how excited i was for this and how it turned out. i'm still holding hope for gaiden & rgg8 later this year and next, i'm just really sad that this didnt stick with me like it did for other people
edit: they've actually fixed a lot of the technical issues the game had when i reviewed it thankfully! it's reassuring knowing that they're looking out for problems :3
Novamente a franquia entrega uma das melhores narrativas que essa mídia tem a oferecer. O combate é um dos mais divertidos e variados, apesar de ainda achar o aspecto mais fraco, todo o resto brilha bem mais, principalmente a ambientação e o conteúdo secundário que é muito variado e divertido.
Colocar personagens já conhecidos de quem é fã da série pra "atuarem" nessa história incrível do início ao fim é mais um acerto tremendo da RGG, que, não satisfeita com a narrativa ótima, ainda entrega um combate divertido em um mundo aberto charmoso
Fun game with a fantastic story! Love the Yakuza games and was really happy to see this game release outside of Japan. I loved the thrill and suspense of the plot and the combat was intense and engaging throughout the play through. My only critique would be that the combat felt a bit clunky and unbalanced in certain scenarios, but other than that I immensely enjoyed my time with this game!
During my playthrough of this game, I was telling my girlfriend a lot of the things about this one, and she had the audacity to make a lot of Gintama references
Not that I’m complaining of course
Not that I’m complaining of course
wild dancer my beloved
and of course...
ASSASSINATION OF BODHISATTVA
and of course...
ASSASSINATION OF BODHISATTVA
Haruka: Ola tio kaz :)/
Tio Kaz con 1000 gingsengs metidos en el culo: ISHIN!
Tio Kaz con 1000 gingsengs metidos en el culo: ISHIN!
I'll come back with more expanded thoughts once I have had some time to process this game. And hey, maybe i'll be up to replaying it later even after.
Wild Dancer sweep