Like a Dragon: Ishin! is undoubtedly the best hidden gem of 2023. This Yakuza series spin-off transports players to a pivotal moment in Japan's history, circa 1860, when the nation was encountering visitors from other countries, reshaping crucial aspects of its way of life.

This game is a remake of a title originally developed for the PS3 and exclusively released in Japan. This remake version boasts stunning visuals and modern gameplay. With its new features, it stands out as one of the top games available on PS5 and Xbox Series, while also being accessible on PS4 and Xbox One.

The narrative revolves around Sakamoto Ryoma, who grapples with conflicting pressures and uncertainty surrounding his identity and societal role. Amidst a coup in Tosa, he is determined to uncover the assassin responsible for his mentor's death, leading him to operate under a secret identity on the streets of Kyoto and aligning with the formidable Shinsengumi.

One drawback for me is the reuse of faces familiar from other Yakuza games. In a story set two centuries ago, it feels off to see these faces interacting again. The presence of undercover villains is somewhat undermined if you're familiar with the Yakuza storyline, as it becomes predictable, affecting the impact of plot twists.

The game offers an open world to explore, although not overly expansive. Despite its size, there are some noteworthy locations to visit.

Combat in the game is both enjoyable and accessible. While there are four fighting styles available, players will likely find themselves primarily using just two during gameplay. The standout moments in combat are undoubtedly the encounters with bosses.

It's unfortunate that Like a Dragon: Ishin! isn't receiving as much attention as it deserves. This release is unquestionably solid, and I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys action games.

Outside of the laborious and grindy mechanics and strange focus on upgrades and minmaxxing numbers, as well as the gacha-esque evolution of the trooper card mechanic, Ishin is a story so gorged with fanservice and series tropes that's able to temporary blind the player long enough that they don't realize Real People and Events are being talked about and boiled down into RGG's tried and true character archetypes. Kiryu in his unwavering determination and stubbornness to stand behind his ideals doesn't gel well with a complex and nuanced historical figure like Sakamoto Ryoma and his very limited emotional palette throughout the story is disappointing. As a whole, Ishin shares the heart of the rest of the franchise, but is bogged down so much by its willingness to play it safe with storytelling and indulge in constant roadstops.

The remake's issues have been explored thoroughly compared to the original experience, but I still feel a lot of the fundamental flaws and issues with Ishin aren't new.

...At the same time, the entire ending sequence is some of the most earth-shattering kino this franchise has ever seen. They managed to step things up and top Aizawa's QTEs in Yakuza 5. It ties the otherwise inconsistent and iffy experience in a really nice bow and always leaves me with my heart pounding.

Like a Dragon: Ishin is a familiar experience to RGG fans like myself, but definitely feels different enough to warrant its existence. Many of the pieces are there -- substories, minigames, goofy ass combat, and a killer main plot. There's a couple things that I think set Ishin apart, though.

The most obvious is the setting. I thought it was awesome to see this take on 19th century Japan, especially juxtaposed with all the wackiness of a Like a Dragon entry. The story it follows is one about incredible people fighting hard for the sake of their home, which is easy to get behind. I'll admit I thought it had a slow start, but I was captivated by the back half.

Ishin returns to real time action combat, with the notable twist of allowing you to equip troopers for your different battle styles which grant both passive effects and abilities. I thought this was a nice way to keep the combat fun, but unfortunately I only encountered a select few choices that were just way more viable than the rest so there wasn't a ton of variety. The game also tends to make its drawn-out combat sections a little too drawn out, throwing traps, bosses, and hordes at you without giving hardly a break.

I may just be fatigued on the Like a Dragon formula, but the innovations that are here to me don't heighten this game to the likes of Y0 or YK2. There's many things in Ishin that just feel way more tedious than they need to, and it feels like RGG did not do too much beyond reskinning one of the old Yakuza titles with a handful of new mechanics. Honestly, with some quality of life tweaks, overall less tedium, and a slightly fresher coat of paint, this could have been an instant classic. Instead, it joins the "good but overall unimpressive" camp of RGG titles.

ishin was pretty okay! i can totally understand people who think it didn't live up to the hype like other yakuza entries usually do and i understand people who think this was a pretty good remaster / yakuza entry.
i'm somewhere in the middle, i certainly did enjoy ishin but i kinda expected something more of it and i would change some things etc etc so i'll try quickly to mark up what i liked and disliked;

-i didn't like the combat that much, felt really clunky, expected something more akin to judgment combat which is fast and fluid; here in ishin combat falls flat. brawler style is completely void and in late game wild dancer is kinda useless too. swordmaster and gunner was the winning combo for me.
-the card system is really weird tbh i can get behind the concept but all in all it's just useless addition imo
-weapon crafting and upgrading felt like a chore and you can pretty much use that one heavenly sword from mukurogai until the lategame bosses
-speaking of bosses; combat wise the last portion of the last chapter was really crammed with mini bosses and boss fights in general and there's not a minute of respite not to mention the shortage of resources which made me restart some fights several times and ultimately killed my enjoyment
-as for the story aspect - the final boss esp didn't really live up to my hype and it was predictable, like one of my mutuals here mentioned
i may be projecting here a lot bc of the og yakuza characters and i realise that's not the main point here but it didn't sit well with me that they used specifically shibusawa for kiryu (ryoma's) kyodai. i'm a firm believer that should've been nishiki and everything would be more emotional and the stakes would be higher. but for those that think that'd be just a kiwami rehash they could've put someya at least, i think it would be a bit more believable compared to an old ass guy being the same age as ryoma LOL
-also like my mutual here said we were led to believe some characters would have a bigger role but in the end they just. did not.
-not a big fan of the oryo and ryoma romance angle, felt a bit forced

now the things i liked!
-the whole another life with haruka segment was so wholesome and fun and i would spend so much time there i just love ryoma and haruka so so so much
-the minigames were super fun
-this is my bias but i love how hijikata (mine) had a prominent role here and him interacting with kiryu filled my yakuza 3 holes with joy :) i love mine so much guys def my fave yakuza character + akiyama and hana too! although i wanted more screentime of them
-the shinsengumi quartet in the endgame was so good and gave me yakuza 4 vibes which i really liked
-even though the sidecontent could get sometimes overwhelming it sure was a fun ride

all in all a pretty decent game! def expected more but in the end i don't regret buying it and experiencing it for myself! hoping gaiden and y8 will be even better than this!

Eu sempre tive interesse em jogar os jogos da franquia Yakuza (Agora Like a Dragon); e desde que os jogos entraram no gamepass o interesse subiu mais ainda. Mas nunca encontrei muito um espaço onde eu falasse “Quero jogar Yakuza agora”. Já tentei com o 0, mas formatei o PC na época e daí nunca voltei. Sempre tive um pouco de preguiça, por mais interesse que tivesse, porque são muitos jogos. Então, quando eu vi que iam lançar um spin-off que não tem envolvimento com a franquia principal, eu fiquei bem animada pra jogar. Esperei no gamepass e, assim que veio, comecei a jogar. Felizmente, minha primeira experiência com “Yakuza” foi verdadeiramente muito boa; e por mais que eu ainda tenha desgostado de algumas partes do jogo, o positivo ainda se sobressai bastante.

Sempre me falaram muito bem sobre as atividades fora da história principal de Yakuza. E a maioria é realmente muito boa, eu amei os mini-games, pelo menos a maioria deles. Gastei horas apostando em galinha, fiz todas as músicas que dava pra fazer no Karaokê e adorei quase todas, quis fazer todos os dojos, achei a ideia de você ter sua casinha com sua horta e poder cozinhar e trabalhar nela bem legal também. Por mais que não tenha sido algo que eu passei muito tempo usando, eu me diverti nos momentos que usava. Uma pena que eu tenha achado a pesca horrível (Sou viciada em mini-game de pesca).

Mas não só os mini-games foram divertidos; eu gostei bastante de algumas side-quests, as do “Ee ja nai ka” foram minhas favoritas e elas sempre me faziam rir no final. Mas também adorei a de descobrir quem roubou o doce daquele homem, ou as de decifrar as cartas que a “web namorada” do século 19 mandava pra um cara. Eu não fiz todas as sides-quests; são demais e não tenho tanto saco assim, mas das que eu fiz, a maioria eu gostei. Pra mim, as que mais brilham são as que vão um pouco mais pro lado da comédia; o estilo de humor do jogo funciona muito comigo e a forma de trabalhar esse humor na maioria das vezes me agradava. Apesar de gostar da maioria, admito que ainda tiveram umas side-quests que eu odiei, principalmente as que se tem que ir de pouquinho em pouquinho construindo um vínculo de amizade com outro personagem. Acho que só fiz a do velho das galinhas (não foi proposital) e a do gato da sorte, porque de resto, meu deus, eu não aguentava.

Uma pena que as outras coisas que se faz fora da história principal como grindar o jogo seja tão, mas tão ruim, facilmente foi a pior parte do jogo. Eu odiei o sistema de tropas e sentir que ele era algo necessário, principalmente pra mim que tava jogando na dificuldade mais alta, fez tudo pior ainda. Tanto o processo de subir o nível deles quanto o de conseguir novos recrutas, principalmente no gacha que é algo estupidamente caro e exige demais da moeda do jogo, me faziam entrar numa agonia infinita enquanto passava pelo processo.

O mesmo vale pra farmar material e dinheiro em si, principalmente pra fazer melhores equipamentos com o ferreiro. Não só é muito chato aumentar o nível dele que é muito, mas muito lento, quanto é chato conseguir o necessário pra fazer melhores os equipamentos. Cada coisinha é muito exaustiva de se farmar; o processo é muito repetitivo, e não só é repetitivo quanto é muito demorado. Pra pegar os materiais se tem que fazer e refazer a dungeon que mais droppa do recurso X até se ter o suficiente. E o pior é que isoladamente eu até gostava das dungeons, mas quando tive que fazer elas repetidamente foi terrível; é o mesmo layout com os mesmos inimigos repetidas e repetidas vezes, cansa bastante.
Mas a pior parte de longe é pegar dinheiro, eu admito que usei os métodos da galinhas porque nenhum método mais legítimo de se fazer dinheiro no jogo é remotamente aturável. É necessário MUITO dinheiro pra fazer as coisas do jogo; mais de 150 ryo pra fazer uma espada, isso tirando o resto do equipamento que se usa, 10 ryo pra cada rodada boa de Gacha e etc. E eu juro que durante minhas 55 horas de jogo eu não juntei 1/3 do necessário pra se fazer SÓ uma espada “tier A”. A maioria das coisas que se faz legitimamente no jogo demoram demais e só não dão tanto dinheiro; e daí repetir a mesma coisa 50 vezes não é comigo, nem ficar um dia inteiro fazendo só isso. Meus pêsames pra quem fez ou vai fazer dessa forma.

Ainda existem outros probleminhas que sinto no jogo, mas não são tão impactantes. Tipo o combate, que apesar de ter me divertido bastante, eu ainda sentia alguns problemas. No jogo se tem 4 estilos diferentes: “Brawler”, que é basicamente dar porrada; “Gunman”, pra quem só quer usar a arma a longa distância; “Swordsman”, que é o samurai clássico; e então “Wild Dancer”, que mistura o uso da pistola com a espada. Eu não tenho nada a reclamar do Wild Dancer, é uma ideia interessante, os movimentos são bem fluídos e, no geral, ele sempre foi a opção mais divertida pra mim. O problema é quando eu ia pra outros estilos eu sentia que sempre tinha um probleminha neles. O brawler, apesar de muito divertido de usar, só me soava inutilizável porque, comparado a todo o resto, ele só dava muito pouco dano, eu dava 40 de dano no hit de Wild-Dancer e 9 de Brawler por exemplo. Já o Gunman, honestamente, só me soava um tanto tedioso, meus movimentos eram limitados, e as ações que eu podia tomar mais ainda. Tentaram dar uma profundidade na gameplay com a mecânica de balas especiais, mas não foi suficiente pra que eu sequer cogitasse a possibilidade de usar o estilo seriamente, eu acabaria dormindo nas lutas. Já o estilo de Swordsman não tem muitos problemas, de início, eu achava ele lento e limitado sobre o que eu poderia fazer, mas com o tempo foi me acostumando e me divertindo usando ele também, meu único problema com ele é sentir que ele é forte demais. A desvantagem dele é justamente ser mais lentinho e não ter formas de lidar com muitos inimigos de uma vez, mas quando se lida com inimigos isolados, o jogo vira brincadeira. Como a defesa básica não dá dano algum no personagem, é só pegar o timing que, mesmo quando quebram a defesa, é facinho de recuperar a tempo de parar o próximo golpe mesmo estando durante a animação de ataque do oponente. Então, apesar de eu gostar de lidar com algumas lutas com uma abordagem de duelo clássico de espadas, por causa do estilo do boss também, muitas vezes eu largava essa ideia por sentir que, usando o Swordsman, as lutas ficavam fáceis demais. E eu não sentia que elas eram fáceis por habilidade minha, não era como dar parry durante o hit de Wild Dancer, eu só sentia essa defesa como uma mecânica roubada do jogo, e daí não me era muito satisfatório usar. Mas eu ainda gostei do estilo; foi o segundo que mais usei.

Mas onde o jogo mais brilhou pra mim foi longe da gameplay. Eu achei a história incrível; é uma história dramatizada de samurai, são traições e traições das traições, reviravoltas e mais reviravoltas na trama, tragédias a todo momento, ideias um tanto loucas e absurdas mas que, ao serem levadas a sério, não só soam completamente válidas dentro da história quanto também levam a momentos extremamente interessantes, o desenrolar da trama também é ótimo, é feito de uma forma que me prende cada vez mais na história. O jogo sempre tem alguma relação interessante entre os personagens pra me apresentar, desde o embate entre o protagonista e o irmão, e as ideias dos dois sobre como levar a frente seus desejos, até as intrigas do Ryoma em meio aos Shinsegumi, os planos dentro da organização e a constante tensão que alguns dos integrantes me passam, principalmente os que carregam uma aura misteriosa e sempre me fazem estar ansiosa sobre o que será que vai acontecer a seguir, ou quais serão suas intenções. E quando a história e o jogo vão se revelando aos poucos, sempre é bem impactante, muitos plot twists me deixaram boquiaberta, com vontade de continuar e ver aonde aquilo ia dar.
Isso além do mistério que o jogo se baseia, que começa como algo pequeno e vai se desenrolando em algo cada vez maior, se interligando cada vez mais com outros personagens e pontos da história. Mesmo quando se recebe uma resposta sobre e o mistério parece resolvido, essa resposta abre junto uma questão complemente nova e nisso o jogo vai criando uma trama que não me deixa parar de me interessar e me envolver cada vez mais. E quando todos os pontos se ligam, acontece de uma forma tão bem feita, é a parte que mais amei do jogo.

De forma alguma é uma história feita só de grandes plot-twists e mistérios. O caminho que leva até esses pontos de impacto do jogo também é muito bom. Frequentemente, o jogo aborda temas como honra, identidade, a forma como se vê o mundo, ou os problemas causados pelo sistema de governo regente no país como a desigualdade, o preconceito e o constante terror sentido pelos personagens de classe mais baixa. O jogo tem uma boa consciência de como tratar esses temas, uma boa noção de quando inseri-los e, principalmente, de como trata-los sem fazer com que eles soem pequenos em meio à trama. Tudo é importante e bem trabalhado pra se ligar e potencializar o que tem de mais relevante na trama; e isso pode ser algo difícil de se fazer, tanto que algumas vezes o jogo não consegue, principalmente no último capítulo, mas na maior parte do tempo funciona muito bem.

Não dando muitos spoilers, mas um dos meus momentos favoritos da trama é quando ela para falar sobre a identidade daqueles personagens. Sempre é um tema recorrente na trama, principalmente porque uma das premissas da história é que Sakamoto Ryoma passou a viver como Saito Hajime, e muitas vezes no início da trama é tratado como se o Saito fosse uma mascara e tanto o que ele faz quanto o que ele sente são algo que não pertence ao Ryoma. Porém, mais pra frente no jogo, tem um diálogo muito bonitinho sobre o quão verdadeira é aquela identidade. Seus momentos, amizades e sentimentos enquanto Saito são tão verdadeiros quanto os de Ryoma, e não adianta ignorar e deixar pra trás tudo que se acontece por causa de um nome, tudo que ele viveu ali é real, e o jogo fala isso de uma forma tão bonitinha. O Saito existiu, e tudo que ele fez não pode ser só apagado; querendo ou não, ele é parte de Ryoma também.
Em geral, eu tenho muito a elogiar os personagens da trama também, principalmente o Kondo, Okita e Ryoma. Adorei cada um deles. Eles vão ganhando um lugar no meu coração conforme vão progredindo junto à trama, mostrando mais de si mesmos e mudando conforme as coisas vão caminhando e acontecendo.

Uma pena que eu sinta que o jogo falhe um tanto nisso logo no desfecho. Todo o capítulo final tem problemas, e dentre o que eu considero como a melhor parte do jogo (Capítulo 7–14), ele é de longe o mais fraquinho. Mas os momentos finais são tão bons; e tudo isso pra posteriormente se ter uma ceninha meia boca e o jogo parecer esquecer que algumas coisas existiram. A cena pós-crédito foi verdadeiramente frustrante, me fez sentir que o jogo pareceu esquecer que o Saito existe, toda a jornada e tudo aquilo que eu passei por pra no final focar unicamente em duas coisas. Achei fraquinho, entendo a mensagem e ela é tocante; o discurso final do Ryoma é muito bom, e eu gosto do peso que ele traz, mas depois disso foi só péssimo. Parece um jogo que em seus momentos finais esqueceu de si mesmo, mas isso de forma alguma tira toda a jornada que foi incrível.

Wife’s Reaction:
“You play all these Yakuza games and expect me to come up with some new pithy comment each time. It’s too much pressure!”

History Repeats Itself:
Ishin! follows the tried-and-true RGG formula and throws it back to the late Edo period of Japan. This setting and the four combat styles keep the game fresh, and—as always—the characters and story are the heart and soul that carry the game to heights and resonate on a crazy level with me.

Really had a good time with this one, seems that RGG can't miss. Definitely engaged with the side activities more here than in previous like a dragon/Yakuza games but that's kinda of a double edged sword.

In previous RGG games usually the main story was too juicy to leave it alone for long and despite having awesome and fun activities and side quests I always found myself itching to get back to the main plot which was not the case with this game. It's the classic Japanese medieval history period revisited once more intrigue, samurai honor, assassinations', class division, political schemes struggle to deal with foreign powers and greed. Don't have particular qualms with the story its just that I've seen it many times in different media before although it certainly fits with the yakuza style games.

Now when it comes to extra stuff to do this game has it in spades. At first I couldn't move an inch without tripping into another mini game, sub story or some other activity with a long ass progression system tied to it begging me to try it out. I gotta say I enjoyed pretty much all of it from the farming simulator in "another life" to Bloodborne style chalice dungeon crawl to the equipment crafting at the blacksmith and so forth, now if you want to 100% things then you'll need to put in some serious hours grinding and it can become a bit dull. The idea is to balance all that and main story, kinda like making a nice salad, add a bit of karaoke, a bit of combat arena, some grinding for crafting materials, some sub story fiasco and you gonna have a good time.

Combat in the game started off a bit on the slow side while most of your moves are locked it feels awkward and stiff but as you level up things get better and better as it should. Really like the leveling system, you get exclusive skill points for using that particular style in combat and a universal skill point after leveling up your character. Cool thing is that you can use the universal skill points to progress in the specific combat tree which you enjoy using the most and once you obtain the exclusive point dedicated to that tree you can swap them out allowing you to either progress further and faster in one particular style or level up multiple ones at the same time. While we're on the combat the trooper mechanic is awesome, simple yet effective. As you progress in the dungeon crawl you unlock trooper cards that can be slotted for each one of your 4 combat styles. Now they range from cards that give you healing, damage or defense buff to the ones that grant you a flashy moves to use like summon a bear for a combo or even let loose a kamehameha, these trooper abilities charge up over time and as you engage in combat. Also depending what cards you have equipped they provide you with a health bonus and can be leveled up, they may also have synergy with other cards equipped as well for stronger effects. Great way to add a bit of flare and customization to the combat big fan.

Honestly don't know what else to say here good game is good more at 6. If you played previous Yakuza/Like a Dragon games this will all be very familiar just with the medieval Japanese coat of paint on it.

Excelente jogo, uma das melhores histórias d franquia e me prendeu do início ao fim.
Meu único problema com a história seria aqueles 3 finais falso lá pra reta final, Po jogo se decide se vai acabar logo desgrama.
Eu amei os minigame e as side mission, me fez tirar quase 40 horas só nisso.
Eu gostei de ver alguns rostos conhecido mas tenho um grande problema com o mal uso é até a não precisão que muitos personagens tinha.
Esse remaster também tem problemas de textura, iluminação e raramente de colisão.
Eu acho que a RGG tem muito a aprender com esse remaster pra evitar esses problemas no futuro.
Eu gostei do combate porém dps de 25 horas o combate começa ficar chatinho......
Enfim e um baita jogasso sendo facilmente um dos melhores da franquia.

A nice change-of-pace for the Like a Dragon franchise, it allows for a few almost entirely new combat styles that distinguish it from the rest, with a cool aesthetic and world. Sometimes, the more powerful enemies feel like sponges and the mechanics make it apparent that RGG are not experts in this style of combat, but for the most part it's quite fun. The story is a lot to handle, as is the case with most RGG games, and maybe if I had a better grasp of Japanese history it wouldn't be as convoluted. I also will say the familiar faces and voices were great, but they only served to hinder me in figuring out each character's role in the story and allegiances.

O Yakuza de samurai!

Pra muitos isso ai pode ser um sonho, pra poucos como eu, os olhos não chegam a brilhar tanto quando penso nisso, porém, eu sou fã de Yakuza e não vou deixar passar nem sequer um spin off da minha reta, então gostando ou não gostando, fui dar uma chance pra Like a Dragon Ishin, entretanto, fui com as expectativas um tanto alta.. o que me causou o sentimento humano que muitos odeiam até mesmo escutar ou ver falar dela, a horrenda Decepção.

Quando iniciei o Ishin eu já notei uma diferença nos gráficos, que você percebe de cara que não é feito pela clássica Dragon Engine, e sim pela Unreal, e como todo mundo sabe a Unreal é uma engine complicada de se lidar, não é toda empresa que tem o domínio das funções dela e sabe executar bem o trabalho gráfico com ela, por isso, alguns jogos costumam ter a mesma cara e o mesmo aspecto, e infelizmente com Like a Dragon não foi diferente. Os rostos dos personagens são um tanto pálidos, o carregamento de algumas texturas incomoda um pouco, bugs de iluminação são recorrentes e a única coisa que não ocorreu comigo graças ao bom deus, foram os benditos stutterings.

Mas saindo da parte nerd, o principal da franquia aqui ainda continua bom, no caso a história. É uma das partes mais fortes do jogo (isso se não a única), tem reviravoltas, mistério e todo aquele ar maravilhoso que existe na franquia inteira, há momentos em que você se sente motivado a jogar apenas pra saber o que vai acontecer no próximo capítulo, e em outros momentos você não vê a hora de terminar ela logo por conta de fases chatas e entediantes, mas em geral ela agrada bastante seja fã ou não fã da franquia, é de facil discernimento e seu único problema é não conter legendas em PT-BR pra melhorar mais ainda a experiência.

Sua gameplay eu achei mais ou menos, com o tempo fui me acostumando mas dos 4 estilos eu apenas o usei o da espada, pois os outros parecem um tanto fora pra mim e não caiu muito no meu gosto, Wild Dancer é efetivo contra inimigos em área, o Gunner contra inimigos a distância, Swordsman contra 1v1 e o Brawler.. ta aí só por existir. Mas é claro que a gameplay dele não se resume apenas ao combate, o modo de ''bairro aberto'' como muitos gostam de chamar, é um tanto chato de caminhar por aqui e considero o mapa do Ishin um dos piores, o lugar é grande e te força em vários momentos a utilizar do fast travel e acaba tirando um pouco a gostosura de andar a pé e passar por encontros aleatórios como nos jogos anteriores.

O jogo tem seus pontos bons, mas pra mim ele não me agradou o suficiente pra eu dar 4 estrelas ou 5, só foi ficando bom depois do capítulo 8 e quando fui ver eu ja tava terminando ele, to triste pois queria ter gostado mais desse aqui, mas enfim, nem todo jogo é pra todo mundo e ta tudo certo!

Só não recomendo a quem nunca jogou Yakuza começar por esse aqui, acho que uma das melhores coisas que tem nesse jogo é você já conhecer os personagens e ver eles atuando outro!

Old Gold

First, Ishin (Known in Japan as Ishin Kiwami) is a remake of an exclusive game to Japan released at the end of the PS3 life cycle and the start of the PS4. It's still a PS3 game in it's DNA nonetheless. This new release aimed both to be released in the west and gave the original a new coat of paint, while still retaining the everything from the original game and adding some extra content.

Personally, I only played little of the original game since it's in Japanese. Tried to find a guide that translated the text to english like I did in Kenzan. No luck, only the cutscenes were translated. A year after, a sort of remake was announced in a State of Play presentation. I was really happy that day.

Having said this let's start with Ishin itself. The first thing it struck to me were the return of familiar faces, literally. The original Ishin for PS3 as far as I know used a mix of new face models for the occasion and fairly old model from past games, specially Yakuza 5. The decision to face swap the character was odd, but a welcome one and most of the characters that were changed do fit the personality of the original, but unlike the Yakuza 0 cast they don't shine as bright. It is more remarkable knowing in the original those characters didn't flesh out much of them to begin with, only serving for the one purpose they were given. This feeling made me expect something way more of them, but it didn't deliver at their full potential. It's like trying to fit something, but it doesn't because it's too big.

The story itself is interesting, while not being something wildly different from past games. In fact, the main premise of changing our identity to hide our past and search for an impostor of ours is directly taken from Kenzan. It has major pacing problems towards the end making it oddly enough longer that it has any rights to be. For example, the town were Ishin takes place gets burned to ashes just to be rebuilded in a couple of days. It was cool for a setpiece, but it didn't had any major consequences whatsoever. Liked the decision of Okita (Majima) as an ally rather than a rival and some of the characters of the shinsengumi, either allies or foes. If you ever played a Yakuza game, either Y1 or Y7 you'll now how things will roll throughout the story. While playing I was trying to spot a differences in some characters to see how they differ from their original counterparts. Kiryu now kills people for example, so they are not totally the same characters as before and that was refreshing to see.

I didn't like much of what of the gameplay offered me. We have 4 styles to play: Swordman, Gunman, Wild Dancer and Brawler. In a sword battle you won't be throwing hands like crazy making Brawler pretty useless because of it's minimun range capabilities. Wild Dancer and Swordplay were the most useful ones to level up and combat. The light RPG system is what ruined the combat for me, is the difference that makes this game easier or harder outside of the difficulty you selected in the menu screen. It trades the mostly skill based combat of past games with something much more approcheable. While there is still skill necessary to tackle the bosses in this game, normal battles against a group of enemies are either more harder than it needs to be or easier thanks to the Wild Dancer. Mainly because the enemies don't lost their stability as often as past games and are prone to make those combats much more of a headache that has any rights to be. Wild Dancer Style is perfect for this since it's fast, covers a lot of space and while it doesn't do much damage is perfect for crowd control. Braindead easy, or overly hard. Boss battles are great in my opinion while using the Swordman style, it is the optimal way to beat them. They are a good fun challenge to tackle.

The Trooper Cards is an addition that I didn't mind throughout the game. It was simply there and forced more than anything. It could've served to alliviate the pain that is getting through the dungeons and meaningless task, but they are present in the main adventure. Wish they weren't or at least be optional, they take a decent portion of the screen and do very little to shake up the gameplay itself.

Alongside the RPG elements there is crafting. Never really used it outside upgrading some of my equipment since crafting weapons is expensive and you're required to have really specific materials, found mostly in dungeons. Bosses in this game throw some weapons; from sword to guns that are really powerful and do an exaggerated amount of damage, for free. I'd say crafting more than anything, is optional content.

Side content, as any RGG game is prevelant and very extensive. The Substories, a farming-type minigame, dungeons to gather material, the trooper card system and lots of extra content to be completed. It's been a tradition at this point so I'm not totally crazy about it and is something that rather than be surprised it's there, is something that I was expecting. The Dungeons are really big, well dungeons that help gathering materials for the blacksmith to create better equipment. But as I said, it would be hard to convince someone to do these dungeons if the rewards ain't that big for the time wasted on them. They are really long, or at least the one I tried. If crafting isn't so effective then why would you do the dungeons at the end of the day. Something like an arena full of enemies and a boss at the end would have worked way better to level up the character. Lastly we have "Another Life" with Haruka. This time she isn't a major character that directly affects the story unlike past games or Kenzan and is only relegated here. There are a couple of exclusive minigames in her house like cooking and farming. Decent time killers.

Exploration is big and inmerssive in this game. Like Kenzan you can go on narrow paths with very close camera angles that are nothing but nature, it's refreshing to escape from the big crowded Kyoto once in a while. Kyoto itself is really big and a bit hard to navigate. At first I didn't knew where Haruka's home on the map was since you can only go on boat and I totally forgot that, oops.

As for my experience, I did play this game on Hard since in my personal opinion Yakuza games are fairly easy as long as you have medicines equiped. But I found this game to be fairly challenging and the difficulty curve was well adjusted. From Chapter 10 to the final chapter there is a big spike in difficulty, some long battles felt like I was running towards the end of the game by how spectacular and difficult they were, the very last stage felt underwhealming because of it.

Technically speaking the game looks great overall and everything runs at stable 60fps but the cutscenes. Going from a 60fps gameplay to the CGI cutscenes running at 30fps was jarring but once I got use to it I didn't really mind the change. As much as it looks good it uses Unreal Engine 4, and the textures takes sometime to load. It's most notable on cutscenes and close-ups. The menu has really slow animations, in fact the sound that is used while pressing a button is faster than the transition itself. Selct Inventory > Exit the Inventory Screen, pressed B a total of 4 times and the menu was still loading, you can test it yourself. It might had to do with animations more than anything, the old games had faster and snappy ones.

It is a fun time at the end of the day like any Yakuza game. I'd recommend this game to the fans of the series either are sick of Kamurocho or want can't wait for Kenzan to be localized.

As someone who feels like they're in a constant game of tug of war with each Yakuza game they play, I was genuinely surprised with how much I ended up enjoying Ishin. As far as ones I've completed go, this very well may be my second favorite in the series.

Yakuza games are often funny and unique, with really entertaining characters. I really think Kiryu is one of the best protagonists of all time. But theres always some things that bring them down for me. Grueling pacing, terrible boss design and lackluster endings are what a lot of this series has left me with. Most of the games make up for this overall (besides Yakuza 4. Sorry I dont usually like to use reviews to insult other games but god I fucking despised playing that). But starting with 0 which does have some of the same issues but is by far the strongest I've beaten yet has made the entire series onwards feel a bit disappointing. Especially with my last two experiences, Yakuza 5 and 6. I never ended up reviewing them but they did so much that I wanted from the series and I really felt the Yakuza love again (much needed after 4), but then both of them completely dropped the ball for me with some of the most unsatisfying endings I've ever experienced.

So yeah, I made sure my expectations were tempered for this one. Which I think in the end made me enjoy it more. Its completely fair to expect the mainline series to be high quality but in most cases its understandable to expect a spinoff to be a little weaker. But damn, not this one.

I'm not really familiar with the history behind what inspired the story, but the small amount I do know tells me they definitely took some liberties. I can't really comment on if thats a good thing or not, but the way they play off of some of the real life events is pretty damn cool. Even without the history aspect, its just a badass story to begin with. And my god, characters are getting murdered every other chapter. I love that shit. And! Half of them aren't ridiculously stupid fake out deaths, hallelujah. I can't really get into too much detail because of spoilers but, for basically every Yakuza game there's a few chapters in the beginning or near the middle where I want to cry myself to sleep, but with Ishin I was hooked the entire time past the end of chapter 1.

The combat is already pretty fun. Yakuza needs more guns. Wild Dancer obv is the most entertaining but Swordsman and Gunman are both fun in their own right. Brawler is completely useless, barely touched it lol. The card system is fine, It wasn't implemented all that great and the best cards in the game are free DLC so I just used those the whole time, but It existing is neat. There's also the Another Life farming sim side mode that was cute and fun but for a reason I'm about to get to, I didn't get too far into it.

By 'about to get to', I mean we're going to talk about it right now. The only thing I really disliked about this game is how god damn grindy it is to interact with the side stuff. I usually skip a lot of the side content in this series but I like to do a bit of it when its one of them I particularly like, and it really felt like this one was fighting against me. The battle dungeons are absurdly long, everything in Another Life takes ages (also you can't pay off Haruka's debt with your own money normally for some dumb reason) and trying to upgrade weapons and make the blacksmith actually useful is a nightmare. The light rpg elements and how slow everything is really take away from wanting to interact with much of that.

But that rather large-but-not-really issue aside, this was definitely one of the most surprising games I've played in a minute. Very high contender for the most fun and best written game in the series.

We are now at the blog portion of this review. Skip to the bottom for a TLDR and my final score if you don't care about all that. Things have been going solid, this was one of 5 games I beat in a day (not in their entirety obv) the other day so I'm pretty proud of that. Found a sealed copy of Persona 4 Arena for PS3 so happy to get that. Been playing Breath of the Wild too. Not sure what my next review will be but a MGRR one is quite likely. Also been doing a lot more creative writing which made trying to do write this review harder than usual. I hope this turned out good enough and you enjoyed reading it. If you did, thank you <3

-----TLDR-----
+ Great story
+ Fun gameplay
+ sexy music
- Extremely grindy side content

Nancymeter - 89/100
Trophy Completion - 41%
Time Played - i forgor I'll add this in later
Completion #3 of May
Completion #92 of 2023

I'm going to spoil the hell out of this one, so fair warning.

Our fictions set in the past reflect our thoughts, in the present, about that time. That's obvious they told me that in grade school. They were like, hey you dipshit kids don't assume everything in a book is real. There's a unique madness to historical fiction involving real people. Actual human beings with thoughts and dreams and complicated lives, all at the mercy of history, interpretation, propaganda, and literary tradition, made to dance like a puppet for whatever point some dipshit author wanted to make long after their deaths.

I guess what I'm saying it that I want to have a time machine to show historical figures really fucked up versions of themselves from video games. I could kill half the dudes in the Three Kingdoms period instantly with Dynasty Warriors. Ryoma Sakamoto would survive though I think. I think he could have been a gamer if he was born a hundred and fifty years later.

So, on some level Ishin is the test on if just throwing whatever into a LAD style of game will keep my interest, and the answer is yes. Turns out that yeah, I like the most generic possible LAD experience. This isn't my least-favorite of them, either. I enjoy learning about history, so I was happy to have a reason to kick off some light research to see just how bullshit every bit of the plot was. And honestly I expected it to be more of a drama of Ryoma Sakamoto's life rather than a whole-ass thing, but this is the RGG studio so it's on me for expecting anything straightforward from a game where Kazuma Kiryu gets to shoot a gun while spinning around. And also, I like when a dude I recognize is on the screen and I clap and hoot because it's Ryuji Goda. I remember Ryuji Goda. I saw him after punching a couple of tigers to death that one time.

Speaking of the whole "guys from those other games playing historical figures" thing, that's an interesting little gimmick isn't it? I started off thinking of it as like, all your pals are putting on a little play for you. Then I wondered if it was just the same thing is casting a bunch of the same actors in another movie, since most of those are being played by real actors. Finally I was forced to admit that it's like that time when Family Guy did the Star Wars movies. Because for the most part nobody is cast even slightly out of type. Almost everyone is the same character they are in the "main universe," to the point where I was convinced that Date was going to be a secret traitor specifically because it would represent a meta-twist. Didn't happen though! The closest thing is Mine, who is just fully on your side the whole time, but he's sinister as hell about it. Typical Yakuza series thing where a guy is introduced by murdering a guy with torture and then you just have to forget about it later because you're friends now.

I don't think this is really totally on purpose, but it all sorta ties into the plot being basically 90% dudes having secret identities. I haven't entirely figured out how but I'm sure it does. At least half of the main cast has more than one name in this sucker, obviously inspired by the fact that some of them actually did do that since they were actively trying to overthrow the government and had to avoid being arrested. It has the vibe of a major theme, and the characters go around discussing like, which parts of their lives are the real ones worth keeping, but fuck if I can really find anything more compelling in it than the simple fact that there's two Ryoma Sakamotos.

On its face, this is the sort of soap opera you'd expect from the series. Imposter using your guy's name, it's his sworn brother, something about their adopted dad's desires and one of them being the favorite etc etc. Viewed in context, it's the most bonkers this series' politics have ever been. Wild nationalism and a generally conservative worldview have always been there, of course, but that's just what you expect from a mass-market entertainment product. The big-brain liberal genius happening here is in taking the history of a handful of real guys and putting them into a blender so you can construct your own perfect revolutionary who never did anything that made you uncomfortable. Honestly it kicks so much ass. I want to show the real Hajime Saito the game at the same time as Sakamoto so they could both be pissed off about the former being the latter in disguise. That would rule.

(Note: I say disguise but it's exactly Kiryu's characterization so this version of Sakamoto is entirely gormless and everyone later reveals they figured him out immediately because going undercover in the Shinsengumi to catch a guy whose face you don't know but who knows yours is a terrible plan.)

Right where was I? Oh yeah, so we distinctly separate things into stuff the REAL Sakamoto did (think the caste system is bad, technically broker a peace between the Satsuma and Choshu although in this game it's entirely on accident) and the stuff the FAKE Sakamoto did (use force of arms to achieve political results) and goes so far as to make the fake Sakamoto be deliberately working to get Britain to take over Japan in one of the wildest ending FMV plot twists I've seen in a very very long time. When it comes to the feudal system, the plot is heavy-handed in its criticism to the point where I was thinking 'yeah okay I get it you can move on now', but that kind of criticism doesn't actually extend to the kind of force required to keep a system in place. The Shogun is ultimately presented as a super cool honorable badass who can shoot laser beams as you one-on-one duel him in Edo Castle after fighting your way through a really impractical number of wacky traps and ninjas. Oh yeah he stepped down because Ryoma Sakamoto sailed to Edo and beat the shit out of him but like, respectfully. And at the end of it all everyone agrees on two things. One is that Japan is so fuckin good bro. Two is that you simply cannot make real change without... love. Love being defined as like being really nice and only killing dudes when it's cool to do so for drama reasons. And I'm like hey this actually happened! This was a real thing!! The government DID change and it involved a whole-ass civil war and everything it really happened!!! What are you even GOING with this. I don't love everything that happens in any given historical period either but come ooooonnnnnnn

So basically it kicks ass. I had a blast the more fucked up it all got and did all the substories and did NOT do all the combat dungeons they added to the remake because life's too short but it was still like 40 hours of game for me. You wouldn't play this before a normal Yakuza game but if you really want more of that shit, it's all here and it's nice. I will ultimately, I think, always be harder on the historical drama than the dumb soap opera specifically because I will research stuff and find your bullshit out more carefully. Because I love the human stories of history! They're complex! People change and aren't clean dramatic characters and you have to take them as a whole. The lessons you take from real history will never be these pat little things that make you feel good all the time. What I'm saying is that Ryoma Sakamoto would probably think Castlevania 2 was bad. And I'd have to tell him listen up fucko

Ryoma Sakamoto, the man who rewrote history with his sword.

No "Like A Dragon" game is complete without it's many substories, plot twists, and action movie-style cliches. Was really excited to play the new installment, however, when I ended up starting my journey I started to have issues taking this spinoff seriously at all. It is difficult to be immersed into the characters and stories when I know these characters and mannerisms as others in the canon Like a Dragon universe. It is confounding because I honestly do not know if it could be as good without these great performances, especially with Takaya Kuroda killing it as always. Fortunately, it did not take me long to adapt to it and get invested in the story which seems to suffer from a bit of a slow start but kicks into gear after a few chapters.

Great beat-em-up gameplay with the new editions of the upgradeable weapons and crafting system. The world and environment are as vibrant and lively as ever. This is one gorgeous-looking game especially crossing the bridges and seeing all the scenery and water surrounding Kyo.

Swordplay is really nice against many bosses and the final climactic battles are always one hell of a ride. Definitely a must-play for die-hard fans of the series with a plethora of side content and mini-games to enjoy. I put 59 hrs in and ended up only completing 19%.

Sing some Baka Mitai and watch Ryoma's story unfold. Hopefully, we will eventually get Kenzan as well, I really wanna get my hands on that one now!

Ishin is an alright RGG game whose appeal lies in its fanservice more than anything else. It was sold as a remake, but it doesn’t really feel like one. Granted I haven’t played the original, but quality-wise, this feels on par with the remastered PlayStation 3 Yakuza games more than a full on remake. While I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing, it doesn’t really feel like the game should be sold for full price either, and should be priced closer to those remastered PS3 Yakuza games instead. Combat generally doesn’t feel very good, and the game has an abundance of tedious systems that I just actively refused to engage with.

The story is the best part of Ishin, though in all honesty, I didn’t enjoy it more than the vast majority of other RGG Studios games. The story’s main appeal is in its fanservice. It made me super giddy to see so many different characters from past Yakuza games (the vast majority of which are dead) come together and interact with one another. Even though these are technically different people, at their core, they’re still the characters we know and love. This made for really interesting tension and plot dynamics, since despite knowing these characters, we didn’t know what roles they’d play in the story. This allowed the writers to subvert our expectations and surprise us, allowing for some of my favorite story moments in any RGG Studios game.

That’s pretty much where my praise for this game ends. Just about everything else regarding this game is either a let down or a drag. There’s an abundance of systems that aren’t fun or interesting to engage with at all, and hinder other areas of the game. Money is incredibly stingy, unless you do the homestead farming minigames, which aren’t interesting to do at all. The stingy economy is also an element of the really poorly implemented crafting system that after a few attempts, I actively refused to do whatsoever. There’s also the Trooper system which I also just didn’t really mess around with at all. The gacha nature of it dissuaded me from wanting to have anything to do with it. I didn’t want to manage the Troopers, nor did I want to spend the already limited money I’ve got trying to fish for more/better Troopers. These systems make the game such a grindy, boring drag. I didn’t want to do them at all, despite the drawbacks of not engaging with them.

Thankfully the game has ways to circumvent these systems. There was a free DLC sword that’s really strong which I used the whole game. Very rarely did I have to upgrade it at the blacksmith. As a result, I spent the vast majority of this game using that one sword. I made money using the log chopping mini game, and spent it on filling my inventory with medicine. I did spend time unlocking various skills for the different styles, but I generally played the game by avoiding attacks as much as possible, and taking medicine whenever I did get hit, since enemies are so aggressive and do an immense amount of damage. Now I fully admit, I might have hindered my experience by not meeting the game on its own terms and engaging with these systems. However, from what I’ve read from other people, these systems were very much the tedious grind that they seemed to be, so I don’t think my experience would’ve improved all that much even if I did engage with the blacksmithing and farming.

Combat doesn’t feel very good in this game either. The original Ishin was a precursor to Yakuza 0, so this was the first game in the series to implement the style system in combat. Compared to the styles in Yakuza 0/Kiwami or the Judgment games, the styles in Ishin don’t really mesh well together. Whereas the styles in the latter RGG games had situational uses, the styles in Ishin just feel more like alternate ways to engage with the combat and nothing more. I primarily used Swordsman for most of the game. Wild Dancer was good for crowd control, but I’d quickly switch back to Swordsman once I knocked enemies down and got myself some breathing room. I used Gun occasionally to pick off low health enemies from a distance. It seemed really easy to exploit Gun, and shooting a gun just doesn’t feel anywhere near as satisfying as the melee in an RGG game. I never really used Brawler much at all. It never seemed to do much damage and so I saw little point in using it. Plus I primarily wanted to use my sword in the game about samurai.

The game also has minor issues that aren’t that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things, but I feel like they are still notable since this game is being sold as a $60 remake. The UX in this game is very laggy. It takes a noticeably long time to enter/exit menus on the pause screen, especially the abilities and equipment menus. Also, every cutscene in the game is only 30 fps. For me, this was a bit jarring, especially after playing every single RGG Studios game currently on Steam with cutscenes that were 60 fps. It just makes me feel like the care and attention that was put into this remake were put in the wrong areas.

Ishin has a lot to do, but hardly any of it is actually fun to do. It has a great story with tremendous fanservice, but that is just about all the game has going for it.The terrible economy forces you to either grind tedious minigames and crafting systems, or feel largely underpowered for the vast majority of the game. For a game that’s being sold as a remake, I don’t think enough was done to actually improve it. Instead, it just adds an additional tedious system to engage with. Now that I’ve reached the end of my journey through all of the RGG Studios games (until Like a Dragon Gaiden comes out), I eventually plan on revisiting them all and playing through their Premium Adventure modes. However, I don’t think I’ll be coming back to Ishin. Since I’ve completed the story, there just isn’t really anything appealing that would make me want to come back to it.

It feels like a bit of a sin given all the nerd stuff I'm into as well as the attendant affinity for/beginner's knowledge of/interest in the country's culture, but I have never been all that big on historical Japan stuff in media. Can't pin down why, but it never really appeals to me, and I usually go out of my way to sidestep it where possible. So, while I was never gonna NOT play this game (or KENZAN, which I'll get to at some point), I was expecting more of a dutiful observance than anything.

But, not so! This game rules and I loved it. Maybe I'd just played too many of the new-school RGGs in a row but damn if this didn't feel like some old time YAKUZA goodness. Some Y3-5 stuff, just tons of dumb crap to do and minigames and almost triple digit sidequests and that viiiibe. It really hit the spot for me.

And I ended up loving the story, despite my prejudices. The mystery plot was fun and the standalone nature of the game made the stakes astronomically higher than a mainline game, with the characters dropping like flies. It's easy fanservice, but seeing all the old (and some quite unexpected) faces pop up in this world (and then get taken out) was awesome.

The combat is 100% broken and the game is beyond easy with the right loadout but I just don't care about that stuff - really just not at all why I play these games. I can see why people who do would be rankled. But not my problem! Dumping on dudes with the equivalent of the Robocop gun while my invisible Shinsengumi trooper squad fry them with chain lightning and instaheal me is fun, lol.

I'm sure the original is better - just kinda how these things go - and I'll probably try it at some point (I do have it!) now that I would know what's going on. But on its own, this was a real good time for me. Love my Y games.

Ishin Kiwami is a really weird one for me, and that’s all because of the “Kiwami”

I played through the original RGG Ishin last year and whilst it wasn’t as easy since I had to use a guide, I loved it. Like a Dragon Ishin was announced later on in the year and I was hyped because of how much of a good time I had with the original. Then released this February, and I held off on buying it since it felt too soon to pay full price. It wasn’t until now when I sped through it on Game Pass and this just wasn’t it. The biggest problem I had was the trooper card system. This was a huge concern to me throughout the buildup to its release, and it ended up being… much more of a problem than I expected. It doesn’t help that the balancing in this is already a lot worse than in the original but not using the cards managed to make it EVEN worse

At the end of the day though, it’s still Ishin with the story that I loved. The cast replacement is a shame (original Takechi, you’ll always live on), but isn’t as much of a killer for me unlike what I’ve mentioned. I would recommend the original over this version which is much better but it’s also hard to recommend it since it’s in Japanese only (which isn’t a problem if either you can read Japanese or don’t mind using a guide but it’s also worth mentioning that it’s been taken off the PSN store so importing a physical copy is the only way to buy it now 🙃 thanks Sega), so… maybe it isn’t as bad if this is your first time playing Ishin… idk. This is the first Yakuza game to ever disappoint me, but at least that’s from looking at it as a remake and not a completely new game by them

While initially this feels like a fun fanservice game, this quickly delves into its own characters and story and really stands on its own as a separate Yakuza story. While the roles and characters are similar to the ones that share their faces, i really felt like the ones with even just a decent amount of focus are entirely their own characters and their faces only serve as an introduction to give you an initial impression of them. It took me a few chapters to actually get invested in the story, but once it grabbed me it didn't stop being amazing. The combat was fresh, engaging and some of the best in the series and the mini-games and side content are quite easily the best. The only gripe I have is that the antagonists aren't particularly engaging, especially compared to their counterparts, but the Shinsengumi and any other characters make up for that a lot.
I LOVE OKITA I LOVE OKITA I LOVE OKITA I LOVE OKITA I LOVE OKITA I LOVE OKITA I LOVE OKITA I LOVE OKITA I LOVE OKITA I LOVE OKITA HE IS MY WIFE

A história é o ponto alto do jogo, apesar de um inicio bem lento ela faz jus aos titulos da franquia principal reimaginando a história do real sakamoto ryoma no jeitinho yakuza, cheio de plot twists, porradarias sinceras e vários monólogos com um bom e extenso conteúdo extra.

infelizmente a gameplay não é tão polida assim, com o combate do jogo sofrendo também desse início lento, apesar dos 4 estilos de combate prometendo variedade, eu acabei me vendo focando todo meu tempo de jogo em um só estilo que eu achei divertido e ignorando os outros, e o sistema de upgrade desse jogo meio que te recompensa por jogar assim. pelo menos, conforme os upgrades e novos sistemas são adicionados o combate do jogo se torna sim divertido.

já o sistema de equipamentos (por que sim, esse jogo tenta ser bem mais um RPG de ação)sofre já que o grind do jogo é chato demais, e o sistema de crafting é bem mais ou menos, só se tornando realmente útil se você gastar bastante tempo farmando os materiais pra usar ele direito, então essas mecânicas de rpg acabam não vingando muito. Apesar disso, da pra zerar o jogo sem engajar com o sistema de crafting a fundo, eu acho ate melhor já que evita a parte mais tediosa do game

At its core, it's a Like a Dragon game like all the rest, but man I did not like it as much as I would have liked.

The story is good. A samurai game with various series characters filling the cast is a really charming idea. All of the casting/recasting is good, they all seem to fit the characters. The only one I was iffy with was Takechi. Just 0 fan service. Shibusawa is one of the weakest final bosses in the series story-wise. I just think they should have kept him the same or replaced him with someone friendly with Kiryu, like Nagumo from 6 or maybe even Ichiban. There's probably a better match somewhere. I just wish there was more stuff from 6. 6 is good!

I did not vibe with the gameplay initially. I ended up using the swordsman style exclusively, it feels like the style the game is built around. The other styles just don't feel fleshed out. In general your damage is comically low and the damage enemies do is pretty crazy, though it's likely I was using armour with awful stats. I wish the combat was faster in general.

I couldn’t bring myself to care about that stuff with the cards. I just kinda ignored it. I did find improved healing and damage cards which I used. I also ignored the crafting. Is it good? I don’t know. I don’t want to know.

Fights can be annoying, this game rivals Yakuza 3 in terms of enemies blocking attacks, although it’s easier to break through. Bosses are pretty bad about this. You’ll usually have to dodge to the side and get behind them and hit them a couple times for pitiful damage before they start blasting your ass.

The camera is bad. It's like a constant boss fight. There's a bunch of jank in general. I have to wonder how much of that is carried over from the original. This is probably the Like a Dragon game with the least polish. Also from what I've seen, the original looks better at times? I hope they go back to the Dragon Engine.

All in all, I really like gambling on chicken races, Great game.

THE YEAR OF THE DRAGON

Yeah, no, I gave my best shot, but this was just a dud for me. It could be a sign of burnout from playing through so many games in this series almost back-to-back, but I got through Yakuza 5 relatively unscathed, so I don’t think it’s quite that. Ishin was just such a bore. It’s an Unreal Engine 4 remake of a spin-off game that never got localized, and that alone should tell you this something of an acquired taste. I don’t blame people who got more enjoyment out of this than I did, there’s something here, massive flaws aside, where I can see the hype. It’s historical fan-fiction with stand-ins played by many of your favorite characters across different eras of Yakuza/Like A Dragon. It’s entertaining seeing characters brought in, many retaining their core personality, and interact in a totally different context. Some, not helped to know they were replacing old cameos from Ishin’s original PS3 release, are just questionable in how they used iconic series regulars as fan service. Like, why did they put Shibusawa and Nishiki in the game but Shibusawa is the one they decided to make Ryoma’s sword oath brother?? Despite the deliberate slow pace, tense dramatic moments, and some of the best directing RGG probably has done, I just can’t feel immersed into this concept. It wants to be a dramatic historical retelling of a famed Japanese figure, yet it wants to also be this fun dish of elseworld fan-service, and it just makes the narrative feel disconnected as hell because neither side complemented each other into something… good? A story that didn’t click with me wouldn’t be much hassle if it weren’t for how the gameplay just feels clunky to play. It’s not even ‘charming clunk’ or ‘jank’ people like to toss around a lot, but something that felt gross to move around and fight in the map. Which I didn’t like either, since I never got hooked into the historical setting and felt we just had the weakest map RGG has ever made. Having multiple fighting styles like slashing enemies, shooting enemies, bashing enemies Yakuza style, or even dual wielding a katana and gun was very fun until the content bloat kicked in with weird trooper cards, unexpectedly dull substories, and so much grinding that I had to put down the controller and close the game right in the middle of a cutscene because I knew this wasn’t getting any better from here on out. This was the only RGG game I dropped, didn’t bother to see the end, and I think I’m fine with leaving it incomplete as that. Yakuza in Unreal Engine is cursed af, I’m glad RGG is never dropping the Dragon Engine in favor of it like some bigger studios are doing recently.

I’m not even gonna lie, I was so hyped for this game, but I really think overall this was such a mid experience. It literally took me like 45 hours (chapter 10) to realize that this game wasn’t fun.

There were some really awesome moments and it was so sweet seeing old faces like Mine and Nishiki again but that alone isn’t enough to make up for how annoying the combat was and how boring the story was…

Also man oh man changing some important character models to people from Yakuza 0 and 7 was such a lame move. This game made me feel sour towards the series for some reason… which is awful because I LOVE this franchise. I think it’s just because I went in with high expectations… but I hope my love will explode (in the good way) again once I play Lost Judgment, and hopefully whenever Yakuza Gaiden and Yakuza 8 come out.

Also hearing “For Whose Sake” in the game made me cry real bad