Recently I bought and played Yakuza: Like a Dragon. The 7th or 8th Mainline game in the series. I bought it on sale after finishing Yakuza 6, and the last Yakuza game I'd played before that was Kiwami 2. That feels like forever ago.

I've been a Yakuza fan for about over a decade or so. I'm not a day 1 fan. I first found out about the series from a panel in Momocon around like 2013 or 2014. The host who were some marketing guys from Sega claimed it was the spiritual successor to Shenmue, and I was too stupid and inexperienced in both Yakuza or Shenmue to know that was a damn lie.

They're both Adventure games set in Japan, but Yakuza is more a straightforward action RPG, while Shenmue is a closer to an adventure game with life sim mechanics that let's you do kung fu from time to time. Shenmue is a great game, but it's also boring as hell and extremely not for everyone.

I've played all the Yakuza games released for US region PS3s except for dead souls.

Not cuz I think it sucks, just never got around to it.

I don't say all this to prove myself as a true fan or anything, but to demonstrate that it's a series I've been with for a while. I've had to take a bit of a step back from the series after I switched primarily to PC gaming in like 2016. So I missed out on 6, the Kiwamis, and other spin-offs that were exclusive to PS4 for a while.

One day my sweet, I'll get the courage to dig out my PS4 from the rubble and buy you for like 25 bucks before you become retro and your cost increases a thousand fold

Like many folks, I was a bit shocked to find out that the series was going turn based. Felt like a shock. I wasn't happy about it either, but I like to think I handled it better than some of the online fan communities I was apart of at the time.

I regularly checked reddit and a facebook group for updates on Yakuza stuff circa 2017/18 I eventually stopped because of toxicity from the Yakuza 7 turn based reveal and another incident involving a games writer making a solid point about the women in the series

Anyway after like 8 years after its reveal and 5 or six years after its release, I finally started playing (Y)akuza (7) in January of this year. I'm not sure why, but I felt compelled to give a review of it, so I had a handy txt file reayd to jot down my thoughts and feelings as I played the game.

Ok, enough preamble, let's get to reviewing the game.

Yakuza 7 Synopsis

Ok so what's the deal with Yakuza 7? well, after about a decade and a half of Kiryu being in the spotlight

10 years of that time being spent on "we promise we're gonna retire Kiryu this time guys please trust us"

, The Yakuza games finally center on a new protagonist. This new protagonist isn't just filling in the shoes of the dragon, but he's also changing the entire series in alot of ways too. This is something I noticed about the game. The Yakuza studio is still strong and great at what they do, but some thing about the change to Ichiban changed some much else about the game. Not just the combat, but also the writing and presentation of the game has changed in various ways also. Like the basic skeleton of a Yakuza game is here, but also there's a new sorta flavor to the game.

The story starts in the year 1999, when our hero Ichiban Kasuga is just a grunt from the Arakawa clan within the tojo family. It's new years eve and he's gotta wrap up some stuff before bringing in the new year. Ichiban is very different from Kiryu in many ways, but one thing they have in common is they're both loyal to the yakuza way of life. Ichi has problems with members of the clan, but he's a dedicated soldier nonetheless. That's why when big man Arakawa asks him to take the fall for a murder a senior officer did, Ichiban accepts the charge. This is sorta the igniting incident in the game because it places our hero in jail to just stay there while the rest of the world moves around him.

The face of a man about to do an 18 year bid for the fam.

Gonna take some time during this interview to really dig into the jail part, because it's not really given alot of time compared to other plot points of the game, but it's really huge and I wanna talk about it.

Ichiban is sentenced to 10 years in prison. He has the chance to get out a little earlier for good behavior, but he gets into a fight with some other inmates, and his time gets extended, PLUS he has to spend time in solitary confinement. A normalized part of prison that is equivalent to torture. We're meant to see this simply as unjust simply because Ichiban isn't the real killer, but I think this is an opportunity to really examine this from an abolitionist viewpoint. While the prison sentence is a small part of the plot it affects everything in the game. Because Ichiban has been in jail for almost two decades, so much of the world has changed around him, and he hasn't had the chance to acclimate to the ways everything is different now. So much of the game involves characters treating him like a caveman that was unthawed from a block of ice.

From the modern state of Yakuza power relations to new technology, to old friends and neighbors. Ichiban's prison sentence acts like a time portal that sends him to an unfamiliar world, and the crazy thing is that his prison sentence and how it affects his understanding of the world is the most realistic part of the game. I want other players to think about this plot point when they play Yakuza 7 and consider that this is a reality for many formerly incarcerated folks.

Ok, back to our regularly scheduled programming. So after 18 years of prison, Ichiban is released, but not so warmly received. Trying to figure out what gives causes him to get shot and wake up in Yokohama homeless and half-naked. Working his way up from the bottom, Ichiban makes friends in this strange city that help him solve the mystery behind the disappearance of the Tojo Clan. It's a great story of grit, heart, and friendship.

Overall thoughts

To give my thoughts on the game as a whole, I thought it was great. This is a huge game. I spent about 140 hours on the game. And alot good bit of that was from grinding that I found didn't respect my time very much, but it's a grand and good game that has alot of great parts to make a great whole. I don't exaclty consider the Yakuza games to be open-world, but the world in this game was SOOOO much bigger compared to other Yakuza games. So much to do, so much to see, so much to take part in. I spent a good amount of time with decision paralysis because there was so much to do that I wasn't sure what to do next.

Substories, collectahons, minigames. One thing I like about the minigames is that each minigame has a super weapon you can unlock by grinding that particular game alot, so if you're a real sicko about the minigames,

And who isn't, RGG puts crack in those minigames.

then you'll have an excuse for hyperfixating on your favorite for hours at a time. If there's a minigame you don't like, but it has a weapon you want, then you can just buy it in an endgame shop. Everyone wins, I have a reason to mainline hours of can collecting, and the Mahjong lobby still has no power over me.

I'll go into greater detail in specific sections, but I thought the Combat, RPG mechanics, Story, and Localization efforts were all great. If it weren't for one small issue, I'd give this game a 10/10, but there's one thing that really grated me near the end, and it's that the game isn't very efficient with how it spends your time. I have no problem with having to grind, but there's ways the game works that make grinding a harder task than it already is. To be fair, it does have auto play, and you can skip the cutscenes for the more fancy moves, but one thing that stuck in my craw is how there's only one job change center and it's located in the starting city, Yokohama. So this isn't a problem in the early parts of the game, but it's a flaw that makes itself more obvious as you advance further and have to constantly go out of town because that's where the better grinding spots are. Anyway, I'm going into the specific parts, and I'm gonna start with what I think is the weakest part of this game, the Combat system.

Combat

I don't say that to mean the combat is bad, but out of the categories I made note of, it was the part that was the least impressive to me. I'll say I was impressed by RGG's ability to do a good turn based combat system that is more than just I attack then you attack, and combat ineracts with the RPG systems well, but there isn't a alot of sauce here in my opinion. Here's a breakdown of how the battle system works:

• Player and enemy character characterstake their turns (which is decided in order of the agility stat)
• When it's a party member's turn, you can chose from four main categories of actions Attack, Guard, Skills, and Etc
• Normal attacks are simple, but skills sometimes come with a QTE, that will require you to either do a timed button press, or mash a button.
• While on defense, if you press the O/B button in time with the enemy's attack, you can perfect guard, and reduce the amount of damage you take, even if you didn't choose to block.
• Some attacks affect enemies within a certain range, so with proper positioning you can hit multiple enemies at once.

This is the combat in broad strokes. The game is sorta a basic turn based system with QTEs, but enemies and party members will move around, so taking advantage of positioning and selecting your actions at the right moment is also instrumental. This is a good combat system coming from the action packed combat that defined the previous games, but also it's sorta lacking in some places. It has all the basic parts. You can even use the Etc. button to summon help, but it's not quite amazing. For one thing. Positioning seemed to only be important for Ichiban. He's the only character that will pick up a random item and hit someone if it's close when he attacks someone. Positioning is imporant for stuff like normal attacks, but the positioning aspect wasn't as much of a factor as I thought it would be. There's situations like the Spinning Queen move from the Dom class. You can get alot of damage from it if you're able to lock someone in a corner, but positioning stuff felt like something I could only react to, not something I had agency over as a player.

You read that right gamer. She spins on it.

Another thing that annoyed me is how bosses where really resistant (almost impervious) to most mental status effect like rage, brainwash, charm, or fear. I think about a class like enforcer is built around being a tank, but isn't able to draw aggro in the situations where you'd really want him to be able to do that. You can still proc stuff like poison, bleeding, and sickness

Poison *jumps for effect* 2

, so you can land those and make certain boss fights a war of attrition, so at least status effects aren't completely useless.

My final verdict is that the Combat is good, but not exactly great. It's a good foundation that they build upon in the next mainline game. Since we spent all that breath on the combat, let's go into the RPG mechanics.

RPG Mechanics

The RPG mechanics in this game are pretty simple. All the stats are pretty straight forward and work in fairly expected ways. Attack for physical damage and Magic for Magic damage. There's different damage types and hitting weaknesses gets you more damage in battle. Something to note about this game is that it's a job changing RPG like Final Fantasy 3 or 5. You can change jobs freely by going to the temp agency. Not all jobs are available at first. Ichiban's job options are gated by improving his personality stats (more on that later) and other party members jobs are gated by how strong their bond level is.

The job system is pretty well done since leveling up your job will give benefits that stick with the character even if they change jobs. While most of the time you may change jobs for a certain set of skills, some job skill stay with the character now matter what their job changes to. The same applies to stat bonuses that you can get after reaching certain milestones in job ranks. I spent plenty of time leveling up certain jobs just for the stat bonues, Like I would upgrade Nanba's (Magic user) Enforcer rank for the defense bonus, or raise certain characters bodyguard rank just because that job gives you permanent attack bonuses every so often. An interesting way to encourage different types of grinding. My main gripe with the job change system is that there's only one temp agency in teh whole game, so grinding in late-game area requires you to keep goin back and forht between the starting city and the ideal grinding spots.

In addition to these mechanics, your party members have bond levels you can improve through various means. Eating, fighting, and watching movies together are a few ways to build bonds with your teammates. The bond system was pretty basic, but it was a good way to learn more about your party members and their previous lives. In a game looking to move the focus beyond just one hero, The bond substories are a great tool in fleshing out the other characters in the party.

The game has a forge you can use to make and improve gear. You have to invest in the forge to be able to make higher level gear and upgrading it to max level costs over 22 Million yen. This brings me to my other gripe, making money is kinda hard in this game. Fighting level appropriate enemies isn't enough to make money, not until endgame at least. Before you can get out of Yokohama to grind at late game areas, you main money making options are....

1. Business Management minigame
2. Gambling in the Men's Room
3. Gambling under the bridge.

Gambling under the bridge was my favorite because of the oichu-kabu game, but it still wasn't my main way of making money, before late game, Business management was my primary source of making millions of yen at a time.

Business was not a minigame I liked at first, but I eventually learned how it works and got a bit more into it. As you progress, the game will give you more covenient ways to raise money. Business management is a minigame that has you managing a young lady's bakery business after a lot of crazy misfortune in the main story. It's like the real estate game from Yakuza 0, but it require actual effort. In Business Management, you're responsible for managing millions of dollars to improve the day to day functions of various businesses under the Ichiban Confections family of businesses. Even though you're responsible for managing millions of yen in captial, you aren't allowed to embezzle any of it for your own personal gain.

Already making this game an inaccurate representation of real life corporations.

I think the RPG mechanics were done very well. RGG team is already very familiar with RPG mechanics after 20+ years of making and action RPG, but turn based RPG mechanics are different from action ones, and I think they did well. Now let's talk about my favorite part of the game to talk about.

Story

So I'm just gonna say I was absolutely in love with the writing of this game. Something that's been great about the Yakuza series for as long as I've been a fan is that the game will describe realistic issues as a way to move the plot. Talking about stuff like homeless people and finanicial crashes and how various big events can send ripples throughout a society and change so many lives in the process. The Yakuza games are good at identifying problems in modern society and their wide-reaching consequences. From the military contract in Yakuza 3 to the unowned plot in Y0, These games have a subtle way of critiquing the current order.

However, something that's different between then and now is that while the old guard of games would be more subtle with regard to their dissenting opinions of Japanese society, Yakuza 7 is throwing that shit straight out the window. It's not like Yakuza 7 has a wildly different ideology from the older games, but it's just so much more straightforward about what it believes.

I wouldn't go so far as to describe any part of the message or themes of this game as explicitly leftist, but it does imagine fighting for a society where we're more responsible for taking care of each other within our communities. I remember reading a long time ago that Japan's overarching economic philsophy was more humanist in nature before American ideals took over. Still capitalist, but still taking stock to value workers and customers that make up their economy. If I had to venture a guess, I think the writers of this story would like Japan to return back to that rather than go full communist.

But Ichiban does wear alot of red..? Maybe it's ok to call a spade a spade.

Regardless of the political leanings, it's a radical viewpoint for any mainstream game to take. The game is also very compassionate to downtrodden or less valued members of society. The homeless, sex workers, immigrants, and various other members of a metropolitan society that are often treated as less than human. The game does a great job of humanizing these people and telling stories about them that endear you to see they're just trying to live their lives the same as all of us.

This is demonstrated in a scene where our hero asks everyone in a homeless camp why don't they just go to the temp agency to get jobs, and then someone has to explain if it was that easy they'd have done that already. I will stand by my assumption that this isn't exactly a leftist text, but it does make use of material analysis very often throughout the story. Often describing to the player that many folks in the lower parts of our society aren't there because they want to be, but because their current conditions make it difficult or almost impossible to move from their current locus

Locus is a fancy word for location. I heard it in a employee motivational event last year.

in the peking order.

Moment to moment, the game is a more silly compared to older games, but I think it's more brave about confronting serious themes. I really appreciate that, and assumming this game is a sign of things to come, I'll really be looking forward to the story in future RGG games.

Substories in this game are as good as ever. While my main point in playing substories is to unlock the superboss, that hasn't been a requirement for a while it seems, so it's just sorta nice to see all the stories and get a peek into the lives of the interesting folks around the city. None of the substories really disappointed except for the romance ones. They're kinda basic for a romance quest. You just keep giving a woman flowers until they fall in love with you and then.... y'know. The romance substories in Yakuza 6 were a lot better imo and I know RGG has it in them to make a really breathingtaking date sim, even if it's just a bite sized one.

Localization

I may not have as much to say on this part, but I really loved the localization. Hearing the game in English was a huge surprise to me, and it liked most of the voices. The first pair of old Yakuza characters to show up had great casting for their English voices. They really fit the personalities that i've come to know from the Japanese dubs of the game. When I heard Kiryu's voice, I wasn't super impressed, but then I found out that he was Kiryu's voice actor in the original PS2 NA release, so I guess it was perfect casting, just didn't quite vibe with me on frame 1.

Some voice actors I thought were particularly impressive were folks like Rino Romano, who voices Reiji Ishioda, and someone that voices Yumiko, a substory character that works as a dominatrix. So much of the voice talent in this game was amazing. There were some interesting word choices. I think the dirty language some of the punks and criminals used in this game was a bit too suburban for lack a better word.

The better word is "too white"

There was also a random young boy NPC who used the word "pwnage" in the year of our lord 2019. Broke the suspension of disbelief for a minute there. On the other hand, you have funny jokes like Ono Michi-hoax, and a great flavor text explaining all the good cuisine you come across in your travels.

I have no clue what the original Japanese copy say, so I can't judge the localization based on how accurately they translated it, but it did reach my American eyes and ears very well, so I'll give em an A+ for that. Localization is a rough and often-overlooked role of video game developement, and I wanna give those hard workers their props for doing such a great job.

Conclusion

This is a great game. I expected to not be a huge fan of the shift from action to turn-based gameplay, but The RGG team handled it pretty well. They know how to write a good story, they know how to make a good RPG, It's a good game through and through. After this I'm a bit more at ease with the main series being turn based.

One thing I'll say aginst this game is that it's not very efficient with your time. Grinding in an RPG is acceptable, but RGG isn't really efficient for how much grinding it asks you to do. The fact that I have to travel all the way back to the starting city if I want to change anyone's job was a HUGE waste of time. It became a real drag in the last 1/3 or so of my playthrough. I've been told by friends in the auldnoir forum that Infinite Wealth is alot better on that front, so I'll see for myself after I've played all the other RGG games on deep sale and Yakuza 8 goes on sale for 10 bucks.

For my Final verdict, I'll give the game a 7/10 If it was better about how it spent my time, I'd give it a 9 or 10/10, but that was a real sticking point that caused me to not like it that much.

Other Things I've written