Reflection #4- Yakuza: Like a Dragon
Yakuza: Like a Dragon has to be, in my opinion, one of the best RPGs that came out of 2020. It was a great addition to the Yakuza series, keeping the dramatic and overtop comedy elements of its predecessor’s — while also being a fantastic edition to the RPG genre as a whole. For a series that usually goes down the action adventure roleplaying route, with the 8th installment of the series they decided to make a party based rpg game heavily rooted in Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy games. Still, keeping in line with the games foundations, they blended action and turn based mechanics in one. The game features a party of 4 characters, each with their own unique personal job, or class, and a slew of others they can swap to. On the action front, aside from the animations and how characters walk around the screen in their battle ready stances, there are actions you can take in the middle of attacks to either boost damage or reduce it. When a character is attacking your characters, you can hit the right bumper on gamepad and do a perfect parry. It’s hard to do but rewards studying your enemies attack animations and reduces damage by a lot. Then when you attack, during your character’s animations, you can increase the damage on most spells and moves by spamming a button or hitting a button at a perfect moment, giving a very action rpg lite spin on things. That with the varying battle music and themes and you have an addicting battle system that’s supplemented with smooth visuals and very funny and cool enemy types.
The game has a criminal underworld theme but lit by its main cast and their more optimistic and “good guy” nature. Yakuza is honestly best described as a game of contrast, especially Like a Dragon. It has serious moments, dramatic and heavy themed story beats, followed by extremely wacky, funny, and random gimmicks that the series is known for. Most games, or really stories that deal with this contrast fail to balance them or make it sensible — but Yakuza is a master of this contrast. And, like I explained before, its even in its gameplay with the blend of action combat and turn based rpg mechanics. And between story and gameplay, this is all enhanced further by the game’s world. The Yakuza series as a whole heard the saying, “an inch wide but a mile deep, not a mile wide and an inch deep”, and ran with it. The majority of your time in Like a Dragon is spent in Ijincho, a district in Japan’s Kamurocho. Essentially it’s a park, a few city blocks, and a train station. And by far this game’s world entices me to explore and travel more than some of the biggest rpgs I’ve ever played. These open world games are always fun to explore and look at, and they have their place, but they always feel “empty”. Look at Skyrim, and the entire area around Whiterun. Its “barren” tundra land potmarked with bandit camps and giants and a lot of dirt and grass. Ijincho is a vibrant cityscape that constantly changes as the story progresses or based on the time of day. The city is filled with gangsters, delinquents, cops, dinedashers, technomancers, A GIANT ROOMBA — it goes on and on at what you can encounter. And each city street has several different things you can find, Illegal poker games, a SEGA arcade with classic sonic on a machine, a random shady merchant selling some crazy good items at night that may or may not spawn. The city reacts and changes with each substory — the list goes on with how dynamic this game is. And it’s definitely something western rpgs should take a note from. Maybe focusing on a smaller area instead of making the game bigger and badder than the previous installment to justify the price of the deluxe edition will lead to more fulfilling games and maybe even stories. Just a thought.
Overall Yakuza: Like a Dragon is a true treat to rpg fans who enjoy other genres of games.
