Yakuza: Like a Dragon

 

Discarded after birth and raised in a brothel, Ichiban Kasuga is taken under the wing of feared-but-honorable Tokyo midlevel yakuza boss Masumi Arakawa. In early 2001, Kasuga takes the fall for a crime committed by a member of the family and spends the next eighteen years in prison. But instead of a hero’s welcome upon release, he is betrayed and abandoned. Left in Yokohama’s Isezaki Ijincho district, Kasuga is determined to find out what happened and why. He’s aided by several others who have similarly fallen on hard times: Adachi, a former police detective, Nanba, a disgraced nurse living among the homeless, and Saeko, a barmaid whose boss is murdered. Their investigation draws them into intrigue involving Ijincho’s ruling underworld triumvirate (a tenuous Korean-Chinese-local yakuza alliance), Kasuga’s former yakuza clan, moral crusader activists Bleach Japan, and the latter group’s founder, ambitious Tokyo governor Ryo Aoki.

 

Sega’s long-running Yakuza series gets a shot in the arm thanks to a radical change in direction. Unlike previous series protagonist Kazuma Kiryu (an intimidating yet principled yakuza with a legendary reputation), Kasuga is a quirky exuberant optimist who models himself off a Dragon Quest hero and is regarded by most (at first) as a nobody. Like a Dragon also swaps the game’s real-time fighting for a turn-based RPG approach. Though this decision understandably proved controversial among longtime fans, the new combat system adds depth and complexity to the gameplay, compelling players to choose between attacking or guarding, conserving MP (magic points) or unleashing a special ability. Characters can even gain different abilities and stat increases/decreases by changing jobs, which function as classes in classic RPG parlance.

 

Despite changes to the formula, Like a Dragon is still very much a Yakuza game, both in terms of the themes (father-son relationships, the plight of the homeless, the cost of ambition) it explores and the world it depicts. Like previous entries, you can wander around different Japanese cities, be accosted by random thugs, find collectible items, shop in stores to gain valuables, eat in restaurants to replenish health, and play a variety of minigames. One such minigame, business management, is a spiritual successor to Yakuza 0’s real estate game, right down to being able to employ a chicken.

 

Yakuza games have always blended the dramatic and the comedic, but the main storyline tended to embrace the former while the latter could be found mainly in the stranger-assisting substories. Like a Dragon embraces stronger expressions of both and eliminates the barrier between the two. Even within the main storyline, you can fight enemies who try to club you with giant hunks of meat, and you can summon a poison-generating crawfish to your aid. For all this silliness, the game’s heavily melodramatic ending can feel like emotional whiplash.

 

Whether delivering Seinfeldian party banter or screaming in anguish, Like a Dragon’s voice cast does stellar work. The original Yakuza featured big-name talent but dubbing so poor that it caused Sega to swear off English voice tracks in Yakuza games for more than a decade. Here, Kaiji Tang fits Kasuga’s personality perfectly, George Takei lends gravitas to Arakawa, and several veteran voice actors (Elizabeth Maxwell, Rino Romano, and Metal Gear’s David Hayter) complete the ensemble.

 

Jarring tonal shifts and occasionally tedious leveling up aside, Like a Dragon is a refreshing entry with something for newcomers and Yakuza fans alike.