It's actually pretty hard for me to decide how I wanna go about rating Yakuza Like A Dragon compared to many of my other favorite games and even how it ranks against my previous RGG favorite, 0. As my introduction to the series, I am very biased towards 0 but it also might help that I'm not entirely privy to brawlers compared to something like RPGs. I say this as I have a few issues with the battle system and overall structure of LAD that im hoping get ironed out in future games. It's not a perfect rpg, and despite a lot of the issues I'll list, I will at least say it is very impressive just how seemless the transition from brawler to rpg is, and above all else how superb the Like A Dragon cast is- not just against yakuza games but other rpgs as well.
Firstly I'll cover some of the issues I came across:
One of the biggest issues I had overall was figuring out how 'enemy area' attacks work. It's kinda just left up to the player's imagination as to who's gonna get in the way of certain moves. Some are a bit easier to figure out but others felt really odd, like I used Ice Spreader several times but i really couldn't figure what exactly was the area in which the ice would deal damage. I wouldn't really want these to be 'larger' or anything, just more clearly indicated whenever fighting several enemies at once.
I kinda wish the class system was a bit more ironed out. It's definitely a cool part of the game although it does has it weaknesses. Primarily, a good chunk of the main cast's starting job is usually the best to stick with toward the end of the game and the only characters I had with differing jobs were Adachi as enforcer and Eri as Night Queen (probably could have stuck with Idol but didn't really matter in the end). I think there's a few options that could be done just to make it a bit more interesting, like making smaller but more distinct movesets across each character, or making the 2 'learned' skills every class has differing so that it better suits each character's general build. Saying this because I did question myself as to why I bothered making Nanba a bodyguard for a while when he has jack physical strength and doesn't get any useful moves out of it, wondering if there were any system in which you could actually make that work for a magic based character. It's also a bit odd because certain moves you get through classes seem to overshadow those you might get from main classes/character skills. Like the Fortuneteller revive skill working 100% of the time versus Ichiban's signature hero revive skill working like
I do wish certain boss fights had more interesting 'phase' changes. Some bosses kinda just seem to go 'alright, now i'm getting serious' and then get a new move or two. One of my favorites in this game was actually the chapter 13 boss fight since it seemed to have not just new moves, but visually each phase had a cool cutscene to transition into each phase, and the character in mind adjusted to a entirely new strategem. A lot of the bosses are still great but I do wish phase changes were a bit cooler/interesting than a few new moves.
Last big thing I'll say is that I do wish there was just a bit more QoL throughout the game. This just means stuff like:
Having certain minigames be easier to retry (losing to the final dragon kart rival a few times put me through 5 load screens thank you ps4)
Job Changing being easier, since having to run back to Hello Work often was pretty annoying.
I wish resistances were a bit easier to discern. I had a few instances where an electric 'magic' attack would count as towards the enemy's weakness, but when doing an electric 'physical' attack it would be resisted.
With some of these complaints, it might seem like a rougher game than the score im giving but truthfully it's hard to explain just how great of a game this ended up. It's really nuts how fun they went with this game; obviously Yakuza has never shyed away from silly, absurdist and over-the-top moments but it just feels so right with the RPG formula and doesn't really hold itself back with the ways in which Like A Dragon expresses its story, its world and its characters. Ichiban and his crew are immensely charming from the first few moments you see each of them, which is great because I was never really wanting to bench any of them. Even Adachi, who I figured was gonna be my weakest link turned out a lot better once I put him in a role that actually worked (Detective isn't a very good class, switch him outta that asap). It also helps that this beginning chapter of Ichiban's saga is as gripping and meaningful as it is, although it does leave me wondering just how the hell the next game is gonna shape up to be. On top of all of this is the usual Yakuza shenanigans that is just fantastic. Even with all of this RPG melded with the Yakuza formula it's always great to just take a break and play Outrun or sing Karaoke. There's a lot to talk about, both nitpick and praise-wise, but I came out of this really amazed yet perplexed about how I would felt compared to other RPGs and Yakuza games. At the end of the day though, I did spend 90+ hours doing most of what the game offered (haven't platted, would rather not spend an endless amount of time getting the Honk-Honk trophy....yet) and although I still love 0 a lot, I'd be damn if this isn't close. The only thing holding this back is knowing there's still a lot of improving that can also be done. Highly recommended, although you might want to play on something that loads faster tbh, there's a lotta loading I wish I could have done without. Praise be to RGG for somehow making a brawler into an RPG -an incredible one at that- in 11 months.
Firstly I'll cover some of the issues I came across:
One of the biggest issues I had overall was figuring out how 'enemy area' attacks work. It's kinda just left up to the player's imagination as to who's gonna get in the way of certain moves. Some are a bit easier to figure out but others felt really odd, like I used Ice Spreader several times but i really couldn't figure what exactly was the area in which the ice would deal damage. I wouldn't really want these to be 'larger' or anything, just more clearly indicated whenever fighting several enemies at once.
I kinda wish the class system was a bit more ironed out. It's definitely a cool part of the game although it does has it weaknesses. Primarily, a good chunk of the main cast's starting job is usually the best to stick with toward the end of the game and the only characters I had with differing jobs were Adachi as enforcer and Eri as Night Queen (probably could have stuck with Idol but didn't really matter in the end). I think there's a few options that could be done just to make it a bit more interesting, like making smaller but more distinct movesets across each character, or making the 2 'learned' skills every class has differing so that it better suits each character's general build. Saying this because I did question myself as to why I bothered making Nanba a bodyguard for a while when he has jack physical strength and doesn't get any useful moves out of it, wondering if there were any system in which you could actually make that work for a magic based character. It's also a bit odd because certain moves you get through classes seem to overshadow those you might get from main classes/character skills. Like the Fortuneteller revive skill working 100% of the time versus Ichiban's signature hero revive skill working like
I do wish certain boss fights had more interesting 'phase' changes. Some bosses kinda just seem to go 'alright, now i'm getting serious' and then get a new move or two. One of my favorites in this game was actually the chapter 13 boss fight since it seemed to have not just new moves, but visually each phase had a cool cutscene to transition into each phase, and the character in mind adjusted to a entirely new strategem. A lot of the bosses are still great but I do wish phase changes were a bit cooler/interesting than a few new moves.
Last big thing I'll say is that I do wish there was just a bit more QoL throughout the game. This just means stuff like:
Having certain minigames be easier to retry (losing to the final dragon kart rival a few times put me through 5 load screens thank you ps4)
Job Changing being easier, since having to run back to Hello Work often was pretty annoying.
I wish resistances were a bit easier to discern. I had a few instances where an electric 'magic' attack would count as towards the enemy's weakness, but when doing an electric 'physical' attack it would be resisted.
With some of these complaints, it might seem like a rougher game than the score im giving but truthfully it's hard to explain just how great of a game this ended up. It's really nuts how fun they went with this game; obviously Yakuza has never shyed away from silly, absurdist and over-the-top moments but it just feels so right with the RPG formula and doesn't really hold itself back with the ways in which Like A Dragon expresses its story, its world and its characters. Ichiban and his crew are immensely charming from the first few moments you see each of them, which is great because I was never really wanting to bench any of them. Even Adachi, who I figured was gonna be my weakest link turned out a lot better once I put him in a role that actually worked (Detective isn't a very good class, switch him outta that asap). It also helps that this beginning chapter of Ichiban's saga is as gripping and meaningful as it is, although it does leave me wondering just how the hell the next game is gonna shape up to be. On top of all of this is the usual Yakuza shenanigans that is just fantastic. Even with all of this RPG melded with the Yakuza formula it's always great to just take a break and play Outrun or sing Karaoke. There's a lot to talk about, both nitpick and praise-wise, but I came out of this really amazed yet perplexed about how I would felt compared to other RPGs and Yakuza games. At the end of the day though, I did spend 90+ hours doing most of what the game offered (haven't platted, would rather not spend an endless amount of time getting the Honk-Honk trophy....yet) and although I still love 0 a lot, I'd be damn if this isn't close. The only thing holding this back is knowing there's still a lot of improving that can also be done. Highly recommended, although you might want to play on something that loads faster tbh, there's a lotta loading I wish I could have done without. Praise be to RGG for somehow making a brawler into an RPG -an incredible one at that- in 11 months.