Like a Dragon: Ishin! review – crazy samurai action meets absurd humour
17/2/2023
Translation: Veronica Bielawski
Instead of fist fights with Yakuza henchmen, you can expect katana duels in a historical setting in the latest Like a Dragon. This samurai game is already one of my highlights of the year, despite some outdated gameplay elements.
The Like a Dragon game series – known until recently as Yakuza – has enjoyed great popularity in Japan for years. In the West, the series eked out a niche existence for a long time due to poor translations and delayed releases. For this reason, the 2014 samurai spin-off Like a Dragon: Ishin! was never released outside of Japan.
Some nine years after the original launch on PS3, developer Ryu Ga Gotoku has given Like a Dragon: Ishin! a complete makeover in Unreal Engine 4 – one including revamped graphics, additional game content and new characters. For the very first time, fans outside of Japan can also enjoy the Samurai spin-off.
If you’re even just remotely interested in Japanese history and culture, or simply fancy a delightfully twisted action RPG, you should definitely give this unique game a go.
Murder and civil war in the Edo period
The story of Like a Dragon: Ishin! is set in the late 19th century, at the end of the historical Edo period. Japan is on the brink of civil war. Supporters of the Shōgun’s military dictatorship and loyalists of the Japanese emperor are facing off. New technologies from the West – including firearms – are creating additional tensions between the factions.
You take on the role of the samurai Sakamoto Ryōma, who, as an imperial loyalist, wants to overthrow the Shōgun dictatorship. Your father is the leader of a local loyalist group. After he’s killed under mysterious circumstances, you’re falsely accused of murder. From then on, you make it your mission as a grieving samurai to find your father’s real murderer.
As is typical of Like a Dragon games, Ishin tells an epic story full of twists, intrigues and unique characters in its approximately 35 hours of gameplay. The game mixes historical facts with fictional storylines. Fans of the main series will also recognise variations of characters from the Yakuza games.
But you don’t need to know the story of the main series in order to follow the game. Knowledge of Japanese history isn’t necessary either. The game slowly introduces you to the historical setting and provides helpful features to keep you on top of the complex story.
Source: Domagoj Belancic
Pistol, katana and Trooper Cards
In search of the real killer, you travel to Kyo, or present-day Kyoto. To bring the truth to light, you’ll have to fight through huge hordes of enemies and powerful foes, as is typical of the series. A difference to the mainline games? As a samurai, you rely not only on your fists, but also on your katana and various firearms.
During fights, you can freely switch between four fighting styles. Each style has its advantages and disadvantages in the defensive and offensive. As a Swordsman, you rely exclusively on your katana. As a Gunman, you shoot down enemies from afar with revolvers and pistols, and as a Brawler you let your fists do the talking. But my personal favourite is the Wild Dancer; with a revolver in your one hand and katana in the other, you can easily take down large groups of enemies.
Source: Domagoj Belancic
The chaotic battles are rounded off with Heat Actions. The more successful you are at beating up hordes of enemies and the longer your combos are, the more Heat you generate. When your Heat bar is full, you can perform spectacularly staged special attacks. The short cutscenes are hard to beat in terms of absurdity and brutality – and they remain just as fun to watch after a bunch of replays.
Source: Domagoj Belancic
As the game progresses, the already crazy battle system is supplemented by the even crazier Trooper Cards. These didn’t exist in the original version of Ishin.
For each fighting style, you can equip up to four cards. The selected troopers will either give you passive buffs or actively help you in the offensive at your command. As you progress through the game, you’ll unlock more and more ridiculous cards. You’ll then be able to attack enemies with lightning bolts, burn them with bursts of fire or let loose huge combat bears upon your foes. Yes, you read that right. Combat bears.
Source: Domagoj Belancic
Sound crazy? That’s because it is! Combining contradictory gameplay and story elements into a coherent whole has always been a hallmark of the series. In Ishin, the contrast between seriousness and absurdity is on a whole new level. It’s amazing that the game manages to integrate such an over-the-top combat system into such a dramatic story that takes place in a historically accurate setting.
The problem with upgrades
Unfortunately, the flexible and varied combat system in Like a Dragon: Ishin! is tied to an extremely time-consuming and tedious upgrade system. Yes, the franchise is notorious for its grind-heavy gameplay loops. But in Ishin, I find it’s overkill.
Want to upgrade your weapons and armour? You’ll have to pay the blacksmith in Kyo a small fortune in money and raw materials. All the while, you get very little money for completing missions, especially at the beginning of the game, and collecting raw materials is a combination of dumb luck and repetitive tasks. But we’re not done yet. Some upgrades can only be performed if you level up the forge first. And you can do that only if you shower the blacksmith with rare resources and weapons.
All in all, it’s a time-consuming vicious cycle that severely dampened my enthusiasm for experimentation, especially when I first started playing. But, credit where credit is due, access to rare resources does become a tad easier as you progress through the game.
Source: Domagoj Belancic
As if things weren’t frustrating enough, the menu navigation to the upgrades is clunky, confusing and somewhat buggy. It took me several attempts to understand how to upgrade my swords. Yeesh! I just want to play a cool samurai game with cool weapons – not pore over needlessly complicated menus that feel like a relic of a long-gone era of gaming.
Source: Domagoj Belancic
Learning new combat skills also involves unnecessary detours. And unlocking new Trooper Cards is reminiscent of opening loot boxes in live service games. You spend your hard-earned virtual cash and have no idea if you’ll get a completely useless card, or a rare, amazing card.
Where I feel at home
In addition to the combat orgies and katana duels, the open world of Kyo has a plethora of other activities to offer. Compared to more recent Yakuza titles, the city is relatively small. But it’s all the more densely populated and offers even more side activities and distractions.
If you need a break from the samurai grind, you can let off some steam at a karaoke joint, participate in a dance class, drink away at a brothel or blow your hard-earned dough on illegal chicken races. The range of mini-games and side activities is enormous and nicely breaks up the action-heavy gameplay. Yes, even a proper Animal Crossing-esque farming simulation has made it into the game.
Source: Domagoj Belancic
However, the heart and soul of the Like a Dragon series are the amusing side quests, which often stand in stark contrast to the serious main story. Ishin doesn’t disappoint in this respect either. Kyo is packed with funny side stories that often put you in absurd situations.
Many of these optional stories are told through multi-part quest series, meaning you’ll have to pay individual characters regular visits to increase your friendship with them and unlock new tasks. As a result, you get to know the residents of Kyo really well over time. The sake merchant around the corner isn’t just some anonymous NPC, but a real person with a real backstory. By the end of it all, I really felt at home in Kyo. I didn’t want to leave the quaint little town with its quirky inhabitants.
Source: Domagoj Belancic
Completing side quests and mini-games rewards you with experience, money, raw materials and Virtue. The first three resources can buy you weapon and armour upgrades, while Virtue can get you improved basic abilities, such as more inventory space. That fact that you’re constantly earning resources and points gives you a sense of continuous progress and ensures that even the more mundane side activities don’t feel like a waste of time.
A double-edged sword
When it comes to graphics, the game makes quite a splash at times. Kyo looks especially beautiful at night. The busy streets are full of NPCs going about their daily lives. There’s hustle and bustle around every corner – dogs and children running around, travelling traders roaming the streets in search of customers, and pushy shopkeepers trying to lure you into their store. Sometimes I’ll just aimlessly walk the city’s streets, soaking up the one-of-a-kind atmosphere.
Source: Domagoj Belancic
Away from the busy main streets, however, the game can look quite drab. It’s in these moments that the game clearly lets on its PS3 origin. The loading screens when transitioning between districts and entering indoor spaces also feel outdated. It’s a shame, as the newer titles from the main series feature even bigger cities completely without loading times. Technologically speaking, it certainly would have been possible to do more here.
Source: Domagoj Belancic
My verdict: a must for all fans of Japan and action RPGs
Like a Dragon: Ishin! is a crazy game that combines at times contradictory gameplay and story elements into a coherent whole. The revamped combat system is impressive with its high degree of flexibility and still feels fresh and motivating even after your hundredth street fight. The historical setting of the Japanese Edo period has been implemented with great attention to detail and sets the perfect stage for an epic story full of twists, intrigues and unforgettable characters. Crazy side stories and absurd mini-games loosen up the samurai narrative and provide plenty of entertainment.
When it comes to the technical implementation , the game does come across as somewhat old-fashioned at times. The unnecessarily complicated and time-consuming upgrade system and the ghastly menu navigation also feel like relics of a long-gone gaming era.
Fortunately, these annoying but ultimately negligible flaws aren’t enough to tarnish the outstanding overall impression. My samurai adventures as Sakamoto Ryōma are something I’ll reminisce about for a long time to come – and I’m already making a mental note of Like a Dragon: Ishin! as a candidate for my game of the year.
Like a Dragon: Ishin! will be released on 21 February 2023 for PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One and PC. My PS5 version was provided by Plaion for testing purposes.
Header image: Ryu Ga Gotoku
Domagoj Belancic
Senior Editor
Domagoj.Belancic@digitecgalaxus.chMy love of video games was unleashed at the tender age of five by the original Gameboy. Over the years, it's grown in leaps and bounds.
