Like a Dragon: Ishin! Review – New Era, Same Drama

Previously thought to forever be a dream of being localized for the West, Yakuza: Ishin! Has finally left the borders of its mother country to be released to a global audience. With the rebranding to officially title the series as Like a Dragon, some fans were left wondering if this Ishin! title is deserving of being called a proper remake in the vein of the Kiwami entries from the PlayStation 4 era or if this is little more than a timeless classic brought forth into a new generation and engine.

Like a Dragon: Ishin! centers around a look-and-soundalike of Kazuma Kiryu known as Sakamoto Ryoma in a storyline that often parallels the history surrounding the Shinsengumi and the events leading from the Bakumatsu Period into the Meiji Restoration, or Meiji Ishin, a period that began shortly after Ryoma’s death. As Sakamoto Ryoma, players venture out from Ryoma’s hometown of Tosa shortly after discovering the death of his surrogate father, Yoshida Toyo, at the hands of a man with an unusual fighting style known primarily by members of the Shinsengumi. Only just released from prison just a short time after Toyo’s death, Sakamoto isn’t particularly keen on being arrested or slain for false murder charges and instead sets out to discover the true identity of his father’s killer. To infiltrate the ranks of the Shinsengumi and sniff out the killer’s identity, Ryoma travels to Kyo and takes up a new name of Saito Hajime to join up with this historical peacekeeping force and discover the identity of his foster father’s killer. Throughout much of Like a Dragon: Ishin!, players will assume the name of Saito when dealing with the Shinsengumi and only let his identity of Sakamoto known by close conspirators and allies. In real life, these two historical characters were completely different people (although Sakamoto Ryoma did assume a different identity of one known as Saitani Umetaro during his time as the third captain of the Shinsengumi).

It’s no coincidence that Kazuma Kiryu appears in the role of Saito Hajime, just the same as Goro Majima plays the role of Okita Soji, with so many other famous Yakuza/Like a Dragon protagonists and antagonists filling out the roster of Shinsengumi and other key characters in the story. In many ways, Like a Dragon: Ishin! feels as though these characters are all simply acting out a historical drama as themselves. This makes even more sense when the player is left to consider why Kazuma Kiryu, a lawful good protagonist who has never killed someone in the mainline Yakuza series (ignoring his use of guns and rocket launchers and so forth), would be playing a Shinsengumi captain who is equally skilled at painting a room red with katana and gun. This places Like a Dragon: Ishin! in a unique situation where it feels very much like the traditional Yakuza games of the past with a familiar cast but even if it this is the first title in the series that a player has an interest in picking up (whether a fan of historical period pieces or a desire for the next great action RPG), there’s no reason why Like a Dragon: Ishin! can’t be a player’s first choice over Ichiban’s turn-based story or any number of Kiryu’s numbered entries.

Truth be told, it’s almost better to go into Like a Dragon: Ishin! without having played any of the previously released titles, at least from the past four or five years. Fundamentally, Ishin!’s gameplay formula is a step back from the recent enhancements, which makes sense given this title’s original release close to the launch of the PlayStation 4. Since then, Ryu ga Gotoku Studio has experimented with the Dragon Engine and more enhanced remakes of prior titles. While Like a Dragon: Ishin! is the first time the series has been developed within Unreal Engine, there’s little that makes it feel like a properly new title, especially compared to the original release.

The core gameplay loop to Like a Dragon: Ishin! is historically accurate to that of the prior adventures featuring Kiryu-chan. Nearly all of the action and story takes place within the confines of a singular city, in this case Kyo, after the main character leaves Tosa early on in the prologue. Substories and random battle encounters routinely litter the open streets, oftentimes blocking Ryoma from simply running from one story objective to the next. Combat returns to the action-brawler style that fans have been enjoying for nearly two decades now and remain as enjoyable as the original PS3/PS4 release of Ishin! The player has access to all four of Ryoma’s fighting styles from the get-go: an unarmed brawler, swordsman with katana in hand, gunman with a single pistol, and the wild dancer style which combines the two. Combat is driven through a variety of light and heavy attacks in each weapon style and while players can certainly pick one style and stick with it the entire game if they want to, there are situations where swapping between one another is crucial. Heat actions remain contextually important to the flow of combat and serve as a primary source of damage, not to mention flashy showpieces that highlight the brutality of combat.

If Kiryu truly never killed in the main Yakuza series, the same cannot be said for Sakamoto Ryuma. Sidestepping an enemy and slashing at their spinal cord or knocking an enemy to the ground and repeatedly shooting them in the crotch certainly would do more than simply leave an enemy limping away after a failed ambush. For the Brawler style, destructible objects such as signposts and tables can be used as temporary weapons, much like previous Yakuza titles, but they’re largely ineffective compared to a well-maintained sword or gun. Unlike prior titles, Ryoma’s Heat can be stacked up to multiple levels and used to unleash multiple heat actions in a row or power the special abilities on R2 that can cause significant amounts of damage to anyone around him.

The use of Unreal Engine 4 isn’t without its share of growing pains and quirks that have yet to be fully ironed out. During my initial review period, some events would simply refuse to load, one being a minigame with the courtesan Anna at one of the not-quite-seedy joints in Gion and engaging in some Sensual Healing (Nursing, as it was known in the original Japanese release) that would simply cut to black. I could still quit the minigame, so it wasn’t a complete crash. At least, that was unlike a very consistent crash that would occur every time a cutscene would wrap up when meeting a key story NPC for the first time. This alone blocked my progression for a few days of review, time spent in the battle dungeons, and clearing any substories I could still access before a software patch fixed both issues. Since then, many of the other performance issues, including an uncooperative camera and occasional crashing, were fixed (but still not 100% perfect even as of now). Other quirks, such as a two or three-second delay between bumping into an enemy and starting the random encounter, are still present across all versions I’ve played.

Like a Dragon: Ishin!, while not a large-scale remake that some might have been anticipating, still gains a number of enhancements that make this version the definitive release of Sakamoto Ryoma’s adventures in Kyo. The ensemble cast of Shinsengumi warriors and other key players retain the cameos of iconic Yakuza cast members, including Goro Majima reprising his role as Okita Soji, while others have been recast from more generic characters with those that showed up in prior entries in the series. The leader of the Shinsengumi, once portrayed by Funakoshi Eiichiro, is instead voiced by Akio Otsuka, otherwise known as Adachi from the last numbered Like a Dragon title. Blacksmith weapon crafting has also been improved and rather than having a simple minigame where Ryoma strikes the last hit on a weapon to successfully craft the item, a hammer can simply be used to complete the weapon. Not all of the blacksmith changes are positive, as transferring seals between weapons of different ranks doesn’t seem to be an option through much of the story and the monetary cost to upgrade weapons far exceeds what players should realistically expect to save up, including some weapons costing the equivalent of five million yen to achieve the final tier.

Like a Dragon: Ishin! features an extensive variety of side content meant to keep the player engaged and Ryoma distracted from his story goals. More than seventy substories provide some much-needed brevity to the heavy story and the usual assortment of minigames such as mahjong and batting cages (cannon training in this instance) reward players with essential upgrades and loot for their dedication. Two separate checklists, Diligence Records and the signature Completion List, both have different tasks that reward Ryoma in different ways. The former provides Ryoma with divine Virtue that can be invested in shrines or the various priests around town for substantial benefits while completing an entire category in the completion list grants players the opportunity to pick up a unique reward from a certain clown-faced NPC that resides on the first floor of the Teradaya Inn (this same person grants players access to the paid and free DLC they’ve unlocked, including cameo trooper cards of Alex Moukala and Nyanners). For those looking to 100% the Completion List, expect an additional 60-80 hours of gameplay above and beyond the main story just to complete every category, with much of that additional time spent gathering materials and funds to craft all 206 pieces of equipment.

To facilitate grinding and additional challenges, an NPC at the Shinsengumi headquarters grants Ryoma access to take part in Battle Dungeons, a series of 40 different challenge missions that take him through enclosed dungeon spaces with typically a goal to kill or collect everything in sight. This is where the Troopers truly shine, with the collectible cards offering up both passive and active skill boosts as well as an addition to Ryoma’s health pool on a semi-permanent basis. Expect to spend a lot of time replaying the same missions over and over just to get enough materials to take your favorite sword to the next level, so taking full advantage of the Trooper cards and building together a synergy of skills can make the process go by that much quicker. One key tip is to pick up whatever Trooper cards can be acquired from the NPC mentioned in Teradaya. Kasuga Ichinojo, literally a Shinsengumi recruit version of Like a Dragon’s Ichiban, not only grants an active attack boost for a short while but making him your primary Corporal card instantly grants the entire squad a fourth character slot above the three normally available.

Like a Dragon: Ishin! was and still is a relic of its time, formerly thought impossible to see localized in the English language. Even with a new engine and series of console platforms, this chronological sequel to Yakuza 5 remains filled with the overall look and feel of how the long-running action JRPG series used to operate. Despite sequels and spinoffs that took the Yakuza series to new heights, Ishin! remains grounded in its period drama and political subterfuge that still hold up over time, even if the gameplay so greatly needed those timely improvements. As a title missing from the roster of Kiryu’s grand adventures, Like a Dragon: Ishin! still holds up as a historical drama worth seeing through to the end, even if the edges are starting to fray.

Reviewed on PS4 (code provided by the publisher).

Like a Dragon: Ishin!

Kazuma Kiryu’s lineage is ever present even as the streets of Kamurocho are swapped for the well-traveled streets of Kyo at a time when American influence was only starting to reach Japan. Despite being a period piece set during the tumultuous Bakumatsu period, Like a Dragon: Ishin! still feels like that classic Yakuza JRPG that fans already know and love.

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