Yakuza: Like A Dragon

Yakuza: Like A Dragon (also known as Ryu Ga Gotoku 7: Hikari to Yami no Yukue/Like A Dragon 7: Whereabouts of Light and Darkness) is an action-adventure role-playing video game published by Sega and developed by Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio and is the 10th mainline installment in the Yakuza (as a final game before the name change worldwide as Like a Dragon) franchise.

It was released for the PlayStation 4 in Japan, and then afterwards, it was localized throughout the world alongside a Microsoft Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X and S versions. A PlayStation 5 version was also released worldwide a year later with the "International" subtitle for Japanese releases.

Synopsis
In the year 2001, Ichiban Kasuga, 23 years old, was a low-ranking member of the Arakawa Family, a yakuza group part of the Tojo Clan, an organization situated in Kanto, and his job was to be a bodyguard of Masamoto Arakawa, son of Masumi Arakawa, leader of the Arakawa Family. All of that changed when Arakawa requested that Ichiban be sent to prison for 15 years (later changed to 18 years due to Ichiban fighting other inmates) for a murder the latter had never committed in order to protect Sawashiro.

18 years have passed, and Ichiban, now 42 years old, is finally released from prison in the year 2019, and comes to realize that Yokahoma, much like the rest of the world, has changed and most of the people he knew 18 years ago are either now gone or retired to other lives. Along the way, Ichiban begins his search for his former boss, which suddenly results in Arakawa shooting Ichiban the moment they officially reunite.

Ichiban fortunately survives the gunshot, and is now on a journey to be a hero and solve the mystery of his banishment from his own clan with the help of Yu Nanaba, an ex-nurse who was fired from his job at a hospital and is now living in poverty, Koichi Adachi, a detective who was originally due for retirement a year from now, but was later dishonorably discharged, and Saeko Mukoda, a bar hostess employed by a soapland proprietor.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) Although the genre is slightly different due to being an RPG as opposed to the previous games being purely action-adventure, this game still feels very faithful to the Yakuza formula, and is just as chaotic and addicting as the rest of the installments.
 * 2) * Because of this, the game is unique to the JRPG genre with it's grounded and present-day setting. As most JRPG's take place into the distant past or future with their weapons and powers being fictional elemental-based spells or futuristic and advanced weapons, Here in Like a Dragon they're instead an exaggerated version of types of attacks that you can do in real life or as seen in movies while retaining wacky and chaotic elements.
 * 3) ** It can go as far as Ichiban and the gang following up each of their attacks or him calling an orbital laser to take down all of his enemies. He can even call other Yakuza characters for help such as Kazuma Kiryu, Goro Majima, Taiga Saejima, etc.
 * 4) * As most Yakuza games are, this one does a good job on balancing the tone in being both serious and comedic.
 * 5) The characters are very memorable and well-written, including Ichiban Kasuga, the new protagonist of the franchise succeeding Kazuma Kiryu, who was a mainstay in the series up to now.
 * 6) The story is very deep and compelling, and makes a great many characters in it relatable in a way. Plus, there are far more light-hearted moments compared to the darker nature of the prior entries.
 * 7) Speaking of light-hearted moments, there are also tons of funny and satirical parts of the lore, like Ichiban imagining himself as a brave hero on a noble quest, and a variety of some enemies like a hooligan or a group of protesters.
 * 8) Like the previous entries, you can explore the city in an open-world sense as you can go to restaurants to level up your characters, do some side-quests, play some minigames like baseball in batting cages, throwing a dart or even playing some old-school arcade games by Sega such as Virtua Fighter 2, Out Run, Space Harrier, and Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown.
 * 9) The voice acting is top-notch, especially the English dub (which is an entire overhaul compared to the over-the-top and edgy swearing dub of the original Yakuza), including the talents of Kaiji Tang as Ichiban Kasuga, Greg Chun as Yu Nanba, Andrew Morgado as Koichi Adachi, Elizabeth Maxwell as Saeko Mukoda, and Darryl Kurylo reprising his role as Kazuma Kiryu from the original Yakuza, alongside Bill Farmer as Makoto Date.
 * 10) * Greg Chun, also did Takayuki Yagami from the spin-off series Judgment.
 * 11) The graphics in the Dragon Engine have been improved upon, and it's art style is superb and the best in a Yakuza game yet.
 * 12) The music is very memorable, due to the use of a mix of techno and rock and its rhythm will vary depending on the tone of certain scenes.
 * 13) * The main theme, Ichibanka is an honorable mention.
 * 14) This game has a very nice variety of enemies, and many of them are very humorous and fun to battle. The same goes for the boss fights, as well.
 * 15) * On the subject of boss fights, the main characters go as far from fighting the head of a mob to literal heavy machineries, and the game embraces it to the max.
 * 16) Due to being an RPG, you can bond with your party members by chatting with them at certain areas while exploring the city, or even at local bars, which can increase their chances at success in future battles.
 * 17) During battles, depending on where a party member is, you can use an environmental object such as traffic cones or bicycles to attack enemies.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) Because of the shift from the series' staple beat 'em up gameplay to being a turn based JRPG, Reception from the fans is mixed.
 * 2) Getting yen to purchase certain things such as weapons, clothing, or even items that increase your HP or MP can be really grindy.
 * 3) Some groups of enemies are almost impossible to avoid getting into battles with, so your only option to do so is wait for them to leave the area.
 * 4) Despite using environmental objects to attack enemies, you can't manually move any of your party members in battles.
 * 5) Similar to Persona, if Ichiban dies during battle then it's game over.
 * 6) *Like Dragon Quest, you have to pay the certain percentage of your current on-hand yen as the penalty for two ways:
 * 7) ** Story Battle, Boss Fight or Dungeon has an arcade style countdown when you have to retry the battle by paying up:
 * 8) ***30% with current starting health or backtrack the current area from the beginning.
 * 9) ***50% for a full restore; recommended in the boss fights.
 * 10) **Losing in street fights cost you half your current on-hand yen. If Ichiban dies with zero yen, then it will boot out to the title screen, forced players to reload their previous save.
 * 11) New Game+ is paid DLC, when it was free in previous games.

Reception
This game has received a positive reception from critics and gamers for its gameplay, graphics, narrative, and its unique take on the JRPG sub-genre.

All versions of the game have critic scores and userscores ranging around in the 80s on Metacritic.

The game also received a "great" score for all of its versions on GameFaqs.

Tips

 * 1) The game has an insane difficulty spike, that being the Majima and Saejima boss fight in Chapter 12. Around that time, your party might be around Level 35-39 as the bosses are Level 50. It is recommended to garner more EXPs first in the Sotenbori Battle Arenas.
 * 2) Due to how the game over works like Dragon Quest, make sure you deposit your on-hand yen to small amount (like at least a thousand yen) in order to prevent losing a significant amount of your overall yen.

Trivia

 * In Virtua Fighter 5: Ultimate Showdown, there is a collaboration of that game and Yakuza where playable characters receive costumes from the latter franchise, and that includes characters from this game like Ichiban and Seong-Hui.
 * While not the first game to not have Kazuma Kiryu as the main character, it is the first one to have a proper Western Release.
 * This is the first game in the series to have its worldwide release date with the same as the Japanese version, back then Yakuza games would either be localized at least a year later worldwide or never.
 * If not counting Judgment, this is the second mainline game in the franchise to feature English voice acting, the first being the very first Yakuza game for the PlayStation 2 in 2006.
 * Ichiban and Akira "Nishiki" Nishikiyama (a prominent character in Yakuza 0 and the first Yakuza and it's remake Yakuza Kiwami) share the same Japanese voice actor (Kazuhiro Nakaya).
 * Both characters also have a Koi as their back tattoo, although Ichiban's a mix with a dragon.
 * Both the Japanese and English voice actor of Metal Gear Solid Solid Snake appear to have roles in this game. The Japanese one being Akio Otsuka doing Koichi Adachi while the English David Hayter doing the Survival Bar's Bartender.
 * This is the final game to use Yakuza as a localized name due to the events in Chapter 12 which is The End of Yakuza 極道の終焉 (Gokudō no Shūen), as well for calling Like a Dragon as localized name starting with Like a Dragon: Ishin! (2023).
 * This is confirmed by the localization team to match closely to the Japanese name.