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