Like a Dragon: Ishin! Follows the same formula as the main ‘Yakuza’/‘Like a Dragon’ games but manages to have a more engaging combat system - similarly split into 4 different types; Brawler (hand to hand), Gunman, Swordsman and Wild Style (a mix of both gunman and swordsman). Wild style became my absolute favourite for how fluid it is, the only downside of course is the strength is lost, and no defence.

Story wise, it’s pretty much what you expect from a Ryu Ga Gotoku game - family, death, betrayal and vengeance. Only this time set in 1800s Japan, which, is absolutely beautiful to look at (thank you modern graphics).

Again, as per the other Ryu games, it’s packed with side content to abundance - minigames, side stories, farming etc etc.

I found the addition of having ‘troops’ to be a bit jarring only because they add ‘special abilities’ to the player like shooting lightening or fireballs (though the health restoration ones and attack boosts were soooooooooooo handy). Of course, this means that all bosses also do weird super moves, again, jarring.

There’s also weird and annoying difficulty spikes that made me really have to go back and spend time grinding money to craft better armour and swords.