A little over a year ago, my wife and I finished playing persona 5 Royal and were eager to find another big rpg to play together. We went to the store and this bold, yellow game case covered in wild imagery sat on the shelf. It was yakuza like a dragon. This would be our first time entering the like a dragon franchise and it certainly wasn’t the last. Since then, we’ve played like a dragon 7, 0, Kiwami, Ishin and the spin offs Judgement and Lost Judgement. All of the games fabulous and, importantly, all games have independent enough narratives that it doesn’t really matter where you choose to get on board.
If you like big, narrative games, chaotic characters, eclectic and deep gameplay, and you don’t shy away from some intense tonal whiplash, DO NOT sleep on this franchise any longer.
Where I live, most of the games are on PlayStation plus, so you don’t have to go out of your way to buy them if you’re a subscriber. Otherwise they’re on frequent sale.
I’ve played all the Yakuza games and while I didn’t mind the frantic combat, Like a Dragon is just so much more approachable for me with its turn-based combat.
It’s funny, Final Fantasy is getting more like classic Yakuza in its combat and Like a Dragon more like classic Final Fantasy. It actually gives me hope we’ll one day see a return to form for FF as Like a Dragon proves you can do turn-based in a very engaging way.
However, Yakuza had its charm and mini-games to push me through FFXVI… not so much.