It turns out that the past years have led the Tojo clan to decline, and power over Tokyo has been seized by his worst enemies – the Omi alliance. Later, a sudden ally of Ichibana in the person of a retired policeman Koichi Adachi informs the hero of even more frightening news – such a radical change in the balance of power in Japanese organized crime was caused by the actions of Masumi Arakawa, who has now pledged allegiance to the Omi alliance.
Refusing to believe that Arakawa could betray the ideals of Japanese honor, Ichiban, along with Adachi, begin their own investigation in an attempt to get to the bottom of the truth. And you don’t have to wait long – Kasuga meets face to face with the man he considers his father, only so that the entire world he knows will collapse overnight …
After a series of tragic events, Ichiban wakes up in an unfamiliar landfill in the city of Yokohama. Having lost everything that is dear to him, the bandit with a heart of gold tries not to lose heart and sees before him the only logical consolation – when you fall to the very bottom, the road remains only upward. That is how, with the support of a homeless doctor Namba, Ichi, like a dragon, rushes forward, taking the heroes of his favorite game as a role model – Dragon quest…
The mention of Ichibana’s love of Japanese role-playing games in the text is not present for the sake of a neat reference, but in order to frame Yakuza: Like a Dragon in the necessary form. Literally inspired by the traditional adventures of the protagonists of the cult JRPGs, Kasuga decides to become a real Hero himself. And for this he, of course, needs to gather a detachment of loyal friends, defeat thousands of enemies and defeat a terrible villain.
Hence comes such a critical change of focus in the gameplay. Entering the battle with another villain, Ichiban imagines himself as a mighty hero, and his rivals as ordinary weird monsters. Thus, the game presents its combat system – a truly unusual variation on the theme of turn-based battles.
After a collision with enemies, Yakuza: Like a Dragon loads “combat” models of characters and opponents, and the necessary interface elements appear on the screen. All the options in battle are pretty standard – you have ordinary physical attacks, a set of unique skills that spend mana points, the ability to stand on the defensive, as well as a number of additional options, including calling especially strong (and sometimes funny) allies and using useful items.
But if, when viewing the gameplay records, it might seem to you that the developers did not delve into the details of the combat subsystems, simply depicting a beautiful illusion of JRPG, then you are deeply mistaken. During battles, the game calculates an infinite number of variables – all attacks have certain elements associated with them, skills can impose status effects, squad indicators affect the probability of a successful attack, and all opponents have predetermined strengths and weaknesses.
At the same time, the turn-based mechanics of Yakuza: Like a Dragon manages to maintain high dynamics atypical for the genre. This is achieved through bold design solutions. First, the need to perform actions in a strict sequence does not at all mean that the world remains static – on the contrary, heroes and enemies constantly change positions, move closer, and then diverge again. Considering that many skills are positional, instead of digging through the menu for a long time to find the most effective option, you are constantly analyzing the position of enemies. For example, breathing the burning alcohol on enemies, timing correctly, you can capture a whole group of opponents, ending the battle in just one turn. Secondly, we must not forget that opponents lying on the ground receive double damage, which sometimes makes it possible to build effective and quick combinations, where the attack of one character, knocking down, is followed by a powerful lunge of the second. The element of surprise also introduces trash lying on the ground, which can be spontaneously used by your party members, if suddenly they seem to be within his reach.
Conditional controlled randomness, by the way, does not always play into your hands. After choosing another victim to hit on the head with a baseball bat, a completely different enemy may stand in the way of Ichiban or his friends, who will automatically interrupt your turn, forcing him to reevaluate his nearest strategy.
Another point is related to episodes that require you not to take your eyes off the screen, even choosing the most effective technique. From time to time, by analogy with traditional Heat Actions (special attacks in the Yakuza games), Like a Dragon invites, hitting the timings, to press certain buttons, which multiplies the potential damage. The block system works in a similar way – by pressing the button exactly at the moment when the enemy’s weapon comes into contact with your hero, the system counts the so-called “perfect block”, which significantly reduces the likelihood of dying.
The balance of difficulty is also worth noting. Overall, the games in the Yakuza line have never really tried to challenge. Passing on higher settings, of course, made its own adjustments, and those who did not have enough of this could always resort to some interesting challenges – for example, refuse to use healing items during a battle. Nevertheless, quite quickly (this moment was often associated with obtaining the Tiger Drop skill from Kiryu) any difficulties were completely forgotten, and all you had to do was look at the beautiful Heat Actions a hundred times. Therefore, here Yakuza: Like a Dragon also compares favorably with the previous parts. Accidental skirmishes on the streets of Yokohama in most cases fly by unnoticed, but some unexpected story boss is quite capable of making you ponder your next move with due responsibility and carefully monitor so that your party members have access to the best equipment. In a similar vein, the whole game is actually kept, and outside of street fights, the intentions of gameplay designers are extremely transparent – the key battles are built in such a way as to maximize all the subtleties of the available mechanics, not allowing you to rely on the auto-fight button thoughtlessly.
