Sunday, February 16, 2020

Ryu ga Gotoku 7 / Yakuza: Like a Dragon Review

WHAT IS IT?

Yakuza 7 is the seventh main line game in a long running action RPG series set in the world of organised crime. It is also the first main line game with a new main character in Kasuga Ichiban and new battle system with a command based RPG system.


In other words, after 10+ years of doing the same thing, it was time for Ryu ga Gotoku Studios to do something slightly different.


THE GOOD

- Kasuga Ichiban is a great main character and more emotive than Kiryu and Nakaya Kazuhiro's voice acting is superb.
- Jdorama fans will recognise Yasuda Ken, Tsutsumu Shinichi and Nakai Kiichi.

- Otsuka Akio aka Snake as Adachi. Please bring him back in the sequel!
- Its refreshing to have a female party member in Saeko.
- The main story about Ichiban and the main villain is good with a great ending.


- Bleach Japan, the group that wants to end grey zones in Japan is so easy to hate.
- Continuation of side quests from the older games are fun, including the infamous Be My Baby from Yakuza 2.
- Side quests are partially voiced in the beginning and end
- The new city Isezaki Ijinchou is 3 times Kamuro's size and its refreshing to run around someplace new that bigger but not too big.
- Group conversation are fun


THE BAD

- Some parts of the main story happen for the sake of happening and are completely WTF. Something really big happens in the story that should not be just a footnote to the main story.
- There is a certain point in the game where if you don't level up at a tower, you will not beat a boss. Believe me, I tried. This just spoiled the pacing of the game for me.
- Last dungeon has no save before the 2nd last boss and that boss has a one hit kill move and you can't change your equipment during battle so I had to redo the freaking dungeon just so I could equip anti one hit kill accessory.


- Freeter class (Ichiban's base class) is useless.
- Other party members do not participate in the side stories so its like the old Yakuza games where Ichiban does them himself but all party members magically turn up to fight at the end. I would have loved to have seen everyone's reactions to the side stories!

SUMMARY

RGG Studio really put a lot of effort into this. They can easily polish the RPG formula for the next game and make it really really good. I think fans won't be disappointed and if you are looking to get into the series, I would suggest starting with 0. Yakuza 7 is coming out in English probably end of 2020.

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