Yakuza: Like a Dragon (PC) Playthrough [1 of 6] - NintendoComplete
105A playthrough of Sega's 2020 role-playing game for PC, Yakuza: Like A Dragon.
This is the first part of a six-part video, showing chapters one through four.
Part 2: https://youtu.be/hECWsyCz-Zs
Part 3: https://youtu.be/zfeFZ0RQpiI
Part 4: https://youtu.be/zfeFZ0RQpiI
Part 5: https://youtu.be/FQZhAnpO7as
Part 6: https://youtu.be/T13aqYXmFR8
When Sega first announced Yakuza 7, I was excited. After finally having finished off Kazama's seven-game-long story arc, the Ryu ga Gokuto studio wanted to take the series in a different direction. So how might someone completely reinvent a blockbuster action game franchise without alienating their core fanbase?
Well, why not turn it into a classically styled, turn-based JRPG?
Seriously. I'm not kidding in the slightest. And I'm so glad that they did it, because Like a Dragon is one of the best RPGs I've played in a long time. It's not quite the refined masterpiece that Dragon Quest XI is, but to be fair, this is the Yakuza studio's first RPG. And I hope Square is taking notes, because *this* is the modern Final Fantasy game that I've wanted for years now.
You play as Ichiban Kasuga, a young yakuza who finds himself in the unenviable position of being asked to take the fall on a murder charge, "for the family." He does, and when he is finally released eighteen years later, he finds that the streets are not the same place he one knew.
Shortly after he's released, he is shot and left for dead in a garbage dump in Yokohama. A homeless man tends to his wounds and brings him back from the brink of death, and so off sets Kasuga Ichiban, a hilarious buffoon with a heart of gold and a fist of dynamite, on a journey to find the truth. About everything.
It's a classic Yakuza-style plot, and its told with the same flash, glitz, and parade of cutscenes that the series is so well known for. There's little downtime, save for the time you allow yourself to be distracted and entertained by the endless number of side activities, and the pacing is pretty tight throughout, despite the game still easily lasting 35 hours or so if you're making a beeline for the end.
Along with the major plot related action, there are over fifty sidequests with an unbelievable amount of variety between them. One has you finding a crayfish named Nancy because she's the beloved pet of a crazy homeless guy, while another involves you fighting a power shovel that a chimp has taken control of. There's a full blown management simulation, a Mario Kart clone with several circuits to race through around Yokohama, Karaoke rhythm games... the list goes on and on. It's like Shenmue with a menu-driven battle system, and I dare say it does it better than the Shenmue series ever would have.
Battles are a lot of fun and very fast-paced, and they always paint a nice spectacle. There are lots of flashy explosions, blood jets, and weapons flying across the screen, and some of those summons ("Poundmates") have to be seen to be believed. There's a full job system here with the full range of RPG archetypes in Yakuza clothing. Wanna tank? Choose the enforcer job and charge in, fully clad in riot gear. Need a white mage? Switch to the idol class and sing soothing words to the party with a massive microphone (that also good for clubbing someone over the head with). It's pretty easy, but that probably has something to do with all of the optional content making easy to become overpowered. There's very little need to consciously grind here.
In the end, though, what really makes Yakuza: Like a Dragon such a success is the way its written. The plot gets super melodramatic, but it's all done in a way that feels natural within its framework. I think what prevents it from feeling contrived is how much it focuses on Ichiban's relationships with his friends. Their personalities are written and acted in a way that feels authentic in a way that feels rare to video games, and Ichiban is so damn likable. He's a good guy that I honestly felt myself rooting for, and it is soooo nice to finally play an RPG that casts the party as group of fully grown, middle-aged adults. There are no brooding, moody 16-year-olds boys that turn snark into an artform, nor are there any twelve-year-old girls that giggle and throw peace signs as they scream things like "kawaii!" at you. It's very refreshing.
I thought that the excellent Final Fantasy VII Remake would've ended up being my favorite RPG of 2020, but I have to give my vote to Like a Dragon. It does so many things right and feels entirely modern, like Dragon Quest XI, despite feeling so old-school.
*I recorded this at 2560x1440 at max detail settings w/v-sync on to cap the framerate at 60fps. My PC is running an i9-9980HK w/64gb of RAM and an RTX 2080.
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.