Renaming the franchise is just confusing
Ishin is set in the 1860s so it’s not even in the same universe, yet it has the same name
Technically they’re not changing the name, just translating it
The Kiryu spinoff and Shinsengumi game will both be in gamepass, announced today.
Ishin (shisengumi) will be sometime in 2023
Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name - November 9, 2023 release on gamepass. Day one.
So many Yakuza games and I’ve only actually “finished” Yakuza 0. They are such huge timesinks. I’d love to play them all in order, but I think you would have to just avoid all side quests to ever get it done this century. And the side quests are so much fun. I saved a crawfish from certain death just yesterday. ;)
I’ve finished 0, and Kiwami. Kiwami 2 got buggy so I couldn’t finish it. Oh, Yakuza 7 was easy to finish (the turn-based one that introduces Ishi)
I hate the brawling in the main Yakuza games, so despite wanting to check out the story and the side activities, I just can’t get past the stupid brawling. But I do plan to play Yakuza 7: Like a Dragon, since they did away with the brawling and made a turn based combat based main gameplay instead. I just need to find the time to actually do it.
I’ve only played 1 & 2 on the PS2 and Yakuza: Like a Dragon (is this really 7? Always thought it was a separate spinoff - title should be changed!) and haven’t finished any.
Was having fun with Dragon, but got distracted by something else. Also, hard to play with my limited time with all those ridiculously long cut-scenes, so when I have time, I opt for something else. Think I’ll get back to this during the long end-of-year holiday break. I think I was also getting annoyed by the street battles with low-level baddies which were too constant and easy. Boss battles were always fun.
I’ve owned Yakuza 0 and Kiwami 1 & 2 for some time, and I think I may have 3 as well; just haven’t played any of them.
Same here, I think that’s why I never finished the first two games on PS2 long ago. I enjoyed the story elements, characters and setting, but the combat got old quick. I imagine they’ve improved combat and made it more engaging on the newer games, but haven’t played them, yet.
The change to turn-based was welcome, but they really needed to tone down the frequency of encounters. And the the localization, voice acting, and storytelling are great, but there are a LOT of long cut-scenes.
Polygon says " The game was released in Japan, under the name Yakuza 7: Whereabouts of Light and Darkness , earlier this year."
I think it was renamed for the US market, probably because to get new customers. Nobody likes to jump in the middle of the story.
I’ll admit I’ve skipped cutscenes before… specially the main plot ones where you’re killing Subboss #16. I am not a fan of cutscenes or intro scenes in general.
So you have finished the best of them. :) I finished 0, Kiwami 1 and 2, but I have yet to play any of the others. I did play Yakuza 7 but never finished it - for some reason the turn based combat never really grabbed me, but I was playing plenty of other turn-based JRPGs at the time, so maybe that’s why.
Yeah, I finished 0, and made it halfway through Kiwami and Like a Dragon. I really want to like the series, and I’m on board with the story and tone. But with both the brawling and the turn-based combat, I wound up feeling that it just wasn’t challenging / interesting enough to justify all the time it takes up.
Turn-based Yakuza has its gameplay issues too, and the routine encounters can be dull, but if you have problems with an encounter you can do the usual level-up thing to get past it instead of having to hone your real-time button-mashing skills. Like a Dragon is generally fun and has all the silly side quests and activities of the rest of the series, but I have to admit I never finished it either… I’ll buy Ishin! when it’s discounted to “old game” status.
I’m with you on this but unfortunately they just made it have a bunch of grindy turn based fights instead. There’s one section in the main storyline where you spend over two hours going through corridors fighting grunts. I was going insane by the end of it. I definitely prefer the new combat system, but they’re still wedded to the fundamental design.
I prefer the old one (with all its faults, which are many), though I guess it’s because I play so many turn based (J)RPGs that the combat system in Y7 feels even less compelling.
Ha, no kidding. I played a good bit of Like a Dragon in the summer of '22 via Game Pass and even fought through one of the “dungeons” once, but couldn’t possibly finish it [meaning the game]. I didn’t particularly want to race go karts nor play a business sim.
The key thing with those games is you don’t HAVE to do any of those things. You can totally skip it and it’s not going to mess up the game at all. I forget which game, but there’s a photographer session where they have real videos of models where you take pictures. I noped the heck out of that.
You do have to engage with the combat system, constantly. And it’s usually mandatory to do each of the major minigames once.
I know I’m late to the party on this game but it’s taken over my life. I got Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth because I liked the setting. The game was so fun and engaging I stopped playing it and dug this one out of my Steam library. I’m about 20 hours in now and it’s bonkers. How have I gone this long as a gamer and never played a Yakuza game? Now I’m going to have to go back and play others. I have most of the games thanks to humble bundle choice.
Either start at 0 or 7. 0 is chronologically earlier and starts Dragon of Dojima’s story. 7 does introduced the new protagonist, Ichiban, as well as made it turn-based combat. 0 is probably a good choice.
Main problem with starting at 0 is that it’s all downhill from there, side-activities wise.