Reviews from

in the past


Early impressions on chapter 5: This game is far stronger narratively than any of the previous yakuza entries. I love my hobo family.

peak gaming c'est giga marrant, t'as une tonne de side quests a faire seul ptit defaut a la limite c'est que j'ai pas envie de faire le majhong putain de merde

There is a lot that could be said about this game, so I will try to keep it simple.

This is a game that I respect more than I like. It´s such a bold to alter the core mechanics of your game so much after doing the same thing for almost 20 years, even though it misses more that it doesn´t.

The combat, unfortunately, is only mediocre at best. So much just doens´t work, from the ui, to tha absurd amount of skills you get (even though you will only use the same 4 ones the whole game), that weird thing where characters will run away from a enemy after landing a hit which only makes the combat even slower and not to talk about how absurdly unbalanced the game is. With all this said, I think this system with some changes could actually make for a pretty interesting (and unique) turn based system. (Here´s hoping the sequel nails the landing)

The story is a mess. An absoulte mess. Not bad, but there´s so much shit going on oh my god. Not to talk about the obligatory Yakuza long ass exposition cutscenes which are even longer in this game (chapters 6-10 are unbearable)

Other than this, this might be the best Yakuza game. Ichiban is one of the best characters ever (Zhao too, my beloved), the substories are some of the funniest in the franchise and the music is just insane.

Overall, an enormous leap by RGG studios, that even though it misses a lot, it still is more than worth it to sit through.

Dire qu'après avoir torché l'infâme Cold Steel IV, je croyais sincèrement que le tour par tour n'était plus fait pour moi. Et ainsi est arrivé ce Yakuza 7 dans mes mains (j'adore cette licence bordel, j'ai fait les épisodes 0 à 6 avant d'y arriver à ce jeu), et Ichiban.

LE ICHIBAN.

Cet homme est devenu mon héros, mon sauveur.

Ce jeu m'a réconcilié avec le style du turnbased RPG et m'a prouvé qu'on peut toujours faire des RPG tour par tour au gameplay toujours aussi fun, fourni sans être trop complexe et foutrement efficace, avec des combats fluides, dynamiques et ultra plaisants, le tout saupoudré d'une énorme dose de WTF comme la série sait toujours aussi bien en faire, aussi bien dans les attaques de vos personnages que le bestiaire incroyablement absurde.

Que vous soyez un connaisseur ou un néophyte des Yakuza, sachez que ce jeu est réellement une très bonne porte d'entrée dans l'univers, même si il y a pas mal de réfs qui vous passeront au-dessus de la tête si vous n'avez pas fait les jeux de la Saga Kiryu (épisodes 0 à 6) mais rien de bien grave.

J'écris cet avis sans préparation et avec le cœur, car c'est sans nul doute l'un des jeux vidéo les plus amusants, divertissants et émouvants qu'il m'ait été donné de jouer et de vivre.

Comme je le dis souvent, les jeux Yakuza sont des jeux particuliers pour moi car ils n'oublient pas que ce sont des jeux ; et ainsi, comme pour chaque jeu de la série, en parallèle de l'histoire principale et au fur et à mesure que vous avancez dans le fil rouge, vous pouvez faire tellement de choses, tellement de quêtes bien scénarisées avec des personnages qui raconteront un bout de leurs histoires, de leurs problèmes, mêlant à la fois humour et émotions, avec toujours de l'empathie et de la bienveillance.

Sans parler aussi de toutes les activités annexes comme faire du karaoké, du karting ; ou encore le mini jeu de gestion d'entreprise, qui en vrai est ultra simple à comprendre et trop addictif, j'ai même stop ma progression dans l'histoire pendant un bon moment rien que pour être au rang le plus haut.

En 45h de partie, j'ai conscience que je suis loin d'avoir tout fait, mais en tout cas, ce jeu restera dans mon cœur pour toujours. Avec Ichiban, je sais que la relève de cette licence est assurée. Et franchement, pour que RGG Studio fasse le pari de totalement changer le gameplay phare de la série qu'était le beat em all pour opter avec le tour par tour, eh bien la transition est vraiment très réussie, alors immense bravo à ce studio dont je suis amoureux de leurs jeux (jouez aussi aux Judgment c'est de la bombe).

Vive Ichiban Kasuga.
Le meilleur. Le numéro un.
Le héros légendaire.


Like A Dragon 7 would be one of the best video games I've ever played if it weren't for a few rather glaring flaws. Unfortunately, the story takes a while to get rolling (which caused me to bounce off of the game when it came out), only really getting into motion at the end of Chapter 4 - roughly 10 hours into the game. The game also has a few spots requiring massive grinding, such as in Chapter 12 where you have to earn three million yen to access a new area in which you need to grind from Level 34-ish to Level 50-ish, that kill the otherwise rapid thriller pacing.

This is a shame, because the combat system is quite fun and interesting, presenting a class system that's rather balanced and providing a few spins on Dragon Quest combat such as enemies taking pot-shots on you in proximity. All of the characters are very well written and the story is VERY engaging and emotional once it gets rolling. All of the side stories I played were top-class. Even the involved business management minigame and the Mario Kart clone were good!

It's just such a shame that those flaws are simply impossible to ignore, although this is definitely one of my favorite games I've played.

Amo a Ichiban con locura y el juego es muy muy bueno. El cambio a combate por turnos es fresco y hace que la saga siga brillando.

A.k.a Shin Megami Like A Dragon Quest Tensei

And now for something completely different. With Judgment having been wrapped up and Ryu Ga Gotoku team still not ready to bring back Kiryu, they needed a new hero with a new story. But clearly they felt this was the perfect time to try something different for the franchise. And boy was it different.

Yakuza: Like A Dragon is a turn-based JRPG. The reason being is that Ichiban, a former Yakuza who becomes a problem solving hero, sees life as a video game. Not literally (well, not always) but rather he sees life's issues and solutions as ode's to a favourite game of his (which is alluded to be Dragon Quest and indeed the game has many shout-outs to that franchise.) Thus as he unravels a Yakuza plot wrapped around politics and corruption via power, we bust heads not with timed combos and sidestepping but onscreen commands that see Ichiban and co due abilities, cast "magic" and summons.

This leads to an over-the-top presentation that would be out of place in any other Yakuza game (even with its known goofiness) but here, fits YLAD very well. The visual flair is fantastic and while the animation can be janky and we still have issue, where non-essential character models can look plastic and/or uncanny and even essential characters can have a wooden or derpy look depending on the emotions they are meant to be having. Yakuza games tend to have, it's overshadowed by just how cool and flashy everything is.

While we have brief stops in familar location Kamurocho and Sotenbori, the main crux of the story takes place in Yokohama (Isezaki Ijincho), a place that soon becomes very known in the mind, aside from some weird visual issues such as grass pop-up, retains the vibrant presentation that the Like a Dragon series has shown throughout its games.

Of course, how does the gameplay fare? Very solid. Combat is fun and there is a semi-experimentation vibe due to everyone being able to switch classes (or rather "jobs") and its cool to see how the new attacks look, see what are the most effective for a situation/different enemies and assign favourite ones. Since this is the first implementation of a JRPG system in a Yakuza game though, it's not all clear sailing and it has a element of roughness, as some skills can be RNG due to the ways enemies don't stand still, so lining them up can be due to being ultra quick, lucky that they are in position or waiting an absurd amount of time, meaning some area of effect attacks are wasted.

Also as this is a JRPG AND a Yakuza game, you're going to find its very grindy in places, especially if you want certain items/equipment. The past Yakuza games already required dedication to achieve or gain certain stuff and this being a JRPG just adds to it. While this doesn't affect the main story and substories difficulty too much, aside from a few nasty battles, this can mean you will need to sink an ungodly huge amount of time if you're one of those who seek 100% or even get most stuff.

Still its worthwhile and a lot of fun to experience a Yakuza game as a JRPG and YLAD pulls it off well.

Story wise, its another engaging banger with a great cast of characters (Ichiban easily solidifies himself as a great main character) and a plot that is not just interesting but with some good twists too. Yes its goofy, a lot of the times and there is a lot of great fanservice for those who have played the past games. But its also not afraid to gut punch you many times through it's playthrough, with some hard-hitting scenes. Of course, it has many uplifting wholesome moments as well, mainly in the sub-stories which are, as always, great to go out of your way to see.

Yakuza: Like a Dragon is rough around the edges but its a hugely successful twist on the Yakuza series and one that can't help but leave a smile on your face.

Rating: 9/10

2 homens, 2 irmãos, 2 viradas de ano, 2 vidas entrelaçadas desde o nascimento, um é luz outro é trevas, um guiado pelo amor outro pelo ódio, no momento em que luz se transforma em trevas e trevas se transforma em luz seus destinos conectados enfim chegam a uma conclusão quando a carpa sobe a cachoeira pra se transformar em dragão

I'm not the biggest fan of JRPGS nor RPGS in general, but I liked this entry, the new protagonist is extremely likable and funny to watch, the story is extremely good and made me shed a few tears

Beautiful shift for the Yakuza series and Ichiban Kasuga is one of the best protaganists.

Don't mind the Shelved marker. I plan on coming back to this game later to beat the shit out of the superboss, as is tradition with this series for me - but after 80 something hours I need a bit of a breather.

TL;DR - One of the best stories in the series. Gameplay can be rough and might be a bit too simple for some, but it's well done for a first attempt at an RPG from a usually-action/platformer studio. Great game.

This is very easily one of the best, if not the best Yakuza game - tied with Judgment and 0, without any question. I have so many thoughts on how incredible the story is, how wonderful Ichiban and the party is (ESPECIALLY with Party Chat, Table Talk and Bonds, genuinely a genius 3-way set of mechanics to pour so much personality into every party member without taking the main storyline off-course), how this game's story beats with humanity through its veins - but there are absolutely people who articulate the thoughts I have way better, and will do it way better again, than my dumbass running on 3 hours of sleep and an energy drink writing this at 4am because I have the day off. All I'll say is, Ichiban has absolutely earned his title as protagonist. Maybe I'll do a story version of this later when I'm not running on fumes.

So, how about I complain talk about something else instead? I feel, paradoxically enough, the game is both too simple and too complex under the hood. Flipped where it shouldn't be.

By too simple, I mean this in a few ways. For one, balance is all over the place. There are literally skills that trivialize the game by wiping out entire groups of lower-tier enemies, do insane damage to bosses, fully heal your team, for very lenient MP costs. One of the best skills in the entire game is a 6MP light attack where one of your party member causes head trauma to one guy - but it crits like mad and scales a little too well with who it's paired with. I wiped out an infamously tough boss, 10 levels under where I should be, because I just beat their skull in for 6MP a few times. Summons also vary wildly from absolutely broken to questioning what the point of it is outside of wiping fodder.

There are also elements like a sizable chunk of modern day RPGs - but not enough variety in those elements that aren't blunt/blade/bullet. With very few exceptions do party members get skills with inherent elements attached to their unique job, and those skills are usually incredibly weak. There are universal jobs that do have these elements attached, but it's only half of them. Only 3/4 have skills that are actually learnable. They're only AOEs with medium MP costs, and not anything special outside of the huge damage they do, basically the same attack with an elemental reskin and an animation change. I would've loved the unique jobs being more focused around certain elements - hell, 2 of them are based around blade and bullet in late game - but I guess I can understand why, since at that point why would you swap jobs if you can just swap team members instead?

These problems and, barring 3, there's unfortunately a lot of nothing bosses in this game. One of my favorite parts of prior games were the bosses because outside of a few outliers, they were bespoke and well designed. Sure, other enemies later down the line can use watered-down versions of their movesets, but there is no feeling like learning a Yakuza boss proper on the harder difficulties (without cheesing it with something like Tiger Dropping their max range attacks). It really forces you to think around the rules they can break and what rules you can bend. There are few of those in 7, and the next rung down the ladder from the 3 unique boss designs are "it's a normal enemy with more HP but they can also block attacks for a turn!" It's... not the greatest, honestly since these damage sponge bosses are so simplistic.

By too complex, I mean it in ways that it should not be. One of my biggest annoyances was a party member getting stuck on the smallest piece of geometry and completely whiffing because, for some reason, attacks work off hitboxes and not just flat damage. Not the biggest fan of this, because I don't think RGG's pathfinding on NPCs has literally ever been good and it definitely hits the hardest in this game seeing my party members get stuck for literally 0 reason. This has happened in boss fights where I was literally 2 good powerful hits away from a clear, only for Ichi to get stuck on a potted plant or a desk, whiff his bat swing skill, and then get instadowned. Same with both the parties and enemies moving on their own. I like it on paper and it can be rewarding at times, but most of the time it just wastes time before they teleport to the target or breaks the AI. I've had the final boss of the game interrupt a huge attack because one of my party members walked behind a wall right before it happened, making the AI break and giving me a free 4 turns... except one of the turns was bugged because of that party member's AI also being broken, doing their ability in place and wasting the turn.

It is also probably the grindiest RPG I have played in a while; it does call back to YK7's inspirations in classic RPGs, but there's a reason most of those started implementing more frequent save spots/save features in dungeons and ways to catch-up newer party members to current ones that are more interesting than "do the battle arena 10+ times". I'm personally used to it, but to say I wasn't still a bit annoyed by it was a bit of an understatement, especially when the first "recommended" grind is in a very, very late part of the game and for the average player will probably be 10-20 level ups needed to even stand a chance against the boss and get set on track for the rest of the main game. Among a list of other things like maxing jobs, which is a slog and a half, or weapon upgrading, which is an absolute nightmare in of itself unless you're doing loads of side stuff or you're completely locked into material grinding for the entire game and then some. You're gonna be hunting down very specific enemies for a long, long time unless you get very lucky. Maybe "complex" isn't the word for some of it, but rather "busy", since a lot of this is exactly that - busywork - but there are just some very strange complexities where there shouldn't be.

It is very flawed, but don't get me wrong - it's still fun, just incredibly basic. Outside of the grindy snags the game has, I was still honestly having a good time. It helps that most special attacks snatched heat action QTEs from the previous games to keep you paying attention and, honest to god a welcome surprise, timed blocking from SNES era RPGs. The variety within jobs is also great, at least once you get a lil further in the game. While a lot of them are vastly outclassed, it's still entertaining to mix and match to make dumb strategies. Musician was one of my favorites due to an ability that stacks when you have multiple in the party, and the goofy, purposefully crappy singing from each party member when using an ability. Host/Hostess was another, making entire waves of enemies drunk and fighting each other was just so dumb but so fun. Enemy types are also WILDLY varied and great to figure out with a few notable exceptions, unlike a lot of bosses - and those 3 bosses that I mentioned earlier are easily some of the best in the series. It's admittedly a bit too simple for my tastes - I am a big fan of experimentation in a lot of rpgs - but it's also just varied enough to warrant testing some things out to see what the limits of certain jobs are even if I'm not going super in depth. A good foundation to build on with Infinite Wealth. Hopefully.

With this being RGG's first attempt at an RPG, it's incredibly rough, but I can turn a bit of a blind eye to a lot of it's problems since the team clearly has love for the genre. Like I said about a previous game in the series, I'd rather the series make mistakes and find ways to iterate in their own fashion than be manufactured in such a "perfect" way that you can smell the corporate on it. A drastic shift in, well, everything would not have happened if this was the manufactured "perfect" Yakuza - it'd just be a worse, hamfisted, repeat of 0 since that game is what made the series finally break out into the greater world. Or it'd be Kiwami 2 again because that game sucks. Instead, we got a team genuinely stepping out of their comfort zone and trying something wildly different than what they've ever done with their best foot forward. Admittedly, they stumbled a bit, but that's whatever.

I would absolutely say this game's worth a playthrough. There are absolutely abrasive aspects of the game that will take some adjusting and might be deal breakers for some, but sticking with it through the rough bits only makes it better, both gameplay and story wise; as long as you're not going for 100%. In which case, good luck!

yakuza: like a dragon.. HOLY BALLS THIS IS THE BEST YAKUZA GAME I HAVE PLAYED SINCE YAKUZA 0! THE STORY, THE GAMEPLAY, THE SIDE CONTENT ARE ALL JUST SO GOOD!!

the story is up there with yakuza 0, hell i'd argue it surpasses it! ichiban, oh my god holy crap ichiban is such an amazing protagonist! i never stop smiling at anything he does! adachi is also a great character! funny enough that 2 sega characters are an adachi and an a detective. nanba is really gooood! he fits right in with the group and his friendship with ichiban is just too wholesome! saeko (rgg can write women?????) is a really good character and definitely a badass in this game, her dynamic with the group is gold. i never got eri as a playable character cuz i never bothered with the business managment content (i definitely will eventually)but she seemed interesting. there are 2 playable party members i can't mention because spoiler reasons but just know they took me by surprise and they're such amazing characters too! one of them is very broken too. won't mention any more characters but just know they're all very good (except one that i absolutely hate you all know who) and the story is just excellent!

the gameplay might not be anything special compared to other rpgs for sure, but it's still really fun! especially for people who are not familiar with rpgs, you can get many different jobs and outfits for the characters and they're all hilarious and awesome to use! although they give you the most stats so if you ever switch them up you'll be as weak as a skeleton until you level them up which doesn't take too long but it's a hassle. the bosses are also really fun but get really tough halfway through the game so make sure to grind!
this game introduces poundmates, which are basically summons in this game, they're all very quirky, funny, awesome, and over the top that id recommend getting alot of them! first time is free but then you'd have to pay in-game money to use them again.

the side content, where do i even begin? alot of them are really good and fun that i won't spoil them and just say that you should check them out! the music.. left me speechless, quite literally every single track is at worst good and at best SPECTACULAR!! the boss themes too holy crap the boss themes!! they're so GOOD!!

overall THIS GAME IS A GODDAMN MASTERPIECE AND YOU SHOULD 100% NO 1000% CHECK IT OUT!!!!

Ichiban Kasuga's in it so it's peak fiction (the gameplay on certain moments were a bit of a drag though)

la intro es muy larga y aburrida

I'll finish it when I have another 60 free hours, i promise XD

Olha, tenho sentimentos complicados em relação a esse jogo. Apesar de eu compreender a mudança dos personagens, pois a franquia necessitava de uma renovação, ainda não consegui me engajar tanto com o sistema de turnos, até porque o que mais marcava na franquia era seu combate e mudar tão drasticamente assim me pegou de surpresa. É engraçado de pensar que iniciei Yakuza só para poder jogar esse jogo e ele foi um dos que eu menos tenho apreço. Tendo dito isso, Ichiban é um excelente protagonista e pode não chegar aos pés do Kiryu, mas acredito que merece suceder o mestre. E, como todo jogo de Yakuza, uma história complexa, cheia de twists e tosquice - a fórmula perfeita pro sucesso!

Conseguiram, Bateram o mesmo nível do Yakuza 5, e ainda mudando toda estrutura do jogo.


i love ichiban, thanks for being number one🥺🥺