Yakuza/Like a Dragon Ranked
Current rankings for each game in the Yakuza/Like a Dragon series, including spin-offs. It is ordered, but if I'm being honest, you could put the top three games in any other order and I wouldn't argue against it. I do plan on playing the original versions of Yakuza 1 and 2 to compare them to the remakes in the future, as well as the Kurohyo games. The only games in the series I actively dislike are 5 and Ishin. Every other game I like to some degree.
14 Games
Yakuza 7 is an excellent shift in gears for the series, as well as a great RPG in its own right. Ichiban quickly became my favorite character in the series, and his boundless optimism and loyalty played a big part in making this game's story one of the best in the series. By the very end, I was a weeping mess.
2
This is an enduring and endearing classic. Not just a classic in the series, but a classic video game in general. It showcases the appeal of the traditional beat-'em-up games at it's best. Incredible gameplay, a soundtrack consisting of anthems, and an emotional rollercoaster of a story. It is unforgettable.
The biggest and boldest game RGG Studios has ever produced with an overwhelming amount of content. Refines everything Yakuza 7 introduces to a mirror shine with excellent quality of life changes as well as improvements to combat and exploration. Story didn't move me quite as much, and is quite flawed in some areas, but overall I still enjoyed it.
The story's not quite as good as the first game, but the subject matter was a bit more personal to me. Other than that, everything else sees a major improvement. Refined detective mechanics, fully fleshed out combat, and some of the best side content in an RGG Studios game makes it a dramatic improvement over the original Judgment, as well as one of the best titles RGG Studios has put out.
Excellent story, and heat finishers are back after being absent from Yakuza 6 which fixes one of the biggest problems I had with that game's combat. Kiryu feels awful to control at the very beginning but if you look up a guide on the stupid food system, it's really easy to mitigate it and he ends up feeling much better to control once you level him up a bit.
The plot has great momentum that all comes crashing down with bafflingly silly twists at the game's climax. Still, I really enjoyed all of the characters' personalities and gameplay, it has the best levelling system in the franchise, and I found the expanded Kamurocho to actually be really neat to explore. I don't really get why people think Kamurocho is so hard to navigate in this.
Solid story, and a decent send-off for Kiryu as the mainline series protagonist. The lack of traditional heat finishers as well as the terrible camera for Extreme Heat Mode hinder combat, but it's still mostly enjoyable.
8
Its attempts to differentiate itself from the mainline Yakuza series with the detective mechanics don't quite work out, but Judgment still proved that it's characters and gameplay had potential, even if the game as a whole was a bit undercooked.
Short and predictable, but still a good time. Kaito's my favorite Judgment character, and finally getting to play as him was a treat. He's really enjoyable to play as.
I love the character development for Kiryu, and I appreciate it's lighter tone and atmosphere. However, mundane tasks take up way too much of the game's runtime, and a lot of plot details are explained via long exposition dumps that absolutely kill the pacing.
If this ends up being the final traditional Yakuza game where we play as Kiryu, then I think it's a fine enough game. It's quite lacking in regards to the story, but the ending is truly excellent, and had me choking up.
All of the good changes this remake introduces, like implementing 0's fun combat and the extended Nishiki scenes are balanced out by the repetitive and obnoxious Majima Everywhere system.
It has really fun combat, but it also has a frustrating story, insufferable enemy encounter rate, and entire sections of the game are outright terrible. I'm so baffled as to why this game is so well received in the fanbase. Shinada is my goat though.
Despite having a solid story with some excellent fan service, Ishin is plagued with an abundance of grindy systems that aren't fun to engage with, and the remake does little to improve upon its flaws.