One man and his failed punch perm.
No-one would have believed that his unflinching resilience would allow him to uncover the sordid truth, but they were obviously underestimating the effectiveness of him repeatedly punching those that he deemed to be responsible. As antagonists in the Yakuza series regularly do. Yakuza: Like A Dragon is an exhilarating narrative-driven JRPG featuring an unashamedly exuberant protagonist, revitalised character development mechanics, surprisingly fluid turn-based combat, challenging boss encounters, and wonderfully unorthodox character classes.
Words can’t do them justice.
The creativity (and diversity) inherent in these character classes is staggering. Each fulfils a specific role in combat and has its own transferable skills, which not only makes them remarkably flexible, but encourages experimentation with different combinations of character classes.
This flexibility is bolstered by being able to forge (and upgrade) equipment, which helps immeasurably during the toughest boss encounters. You can forge both weapons and armour, but only weapons can be upgraded, and doing so often requires significant financial investment or rare components, but the results are definitely worth the investment. Making the Romance Workshop integral to your continued success, as the equipment that you find during your adventures is rarely comparable to that which you’ve forged (or upgraded) yourself. But that’s what the shareholder meetings in Management Mode are for. Reliably earning a ¥3,000,000 bonus for listening to the complaints of those who haven’t even contributed to the growth of your business, which is exactly what I imagine an actual shareholder meeting to be like. Only with less chickens.

Having earned over ¥45,000,000 during shareholder meetings, and having immediately spent those earnings, I can confidently say that the majority of what you need to upgrade weapons can be bought. It’s not always cheap nor is it always readily available, but it can be bought. So I’ve once again avoided learning the rules for various mini games. I’m not sure if I necessarily benefit from that decision, but at least I don’t need to fumble through shogi pretending to know what each piece does. Or whether the exclamations from participants are positive or negative.
Because I have absolutely no idea.
The introduction of turn-based combat is what makes Yakuza: Like A Dragon unlike other entries in the Yakuza series, but I can’t criticise its implementation nor the changes made to established mechanics, as it feels as intuitive as the real time combat that we’ve come to love.
Given that I’ve now purchased every entry in the Yakuza series available on Steam, I felt that it was finally time to experience the enrapturing narratives of each in earnest. I can’t say how many of these prodigious adventures that I’ll be attempting per year, but I am committed to finishing them, and will undoubtedly be devoting a considerable amount of time to these endeavours. Of the two that I’ve finished, Yakuza 0 and Yakuza: Like A Dragon, I’ve found both to be ridiculously content dense, and anticipate that those to follow will be just as immense. Which I’m wholeheartedly looking forward to. I don’t know what to expect from the next entry in the Yakuza series, but I highly recommend Yakuza: Like A Dragon as it fundamentally alters countless mechanics but still delivers an exceptionally enthralling experience.
Have a nice week, all!
Moggie