On PlayStation 5, Yakuza: Like a Dragon delivers the same ridiculous, heartfelt, engaging turn-based RPG brawling as before, just with blazing fast load times and improved visuals.
Last year, we reviewed Yakuza: Like a Dragon when it splashed onto “next-gen” on the Xbox Series X.
After a few months of semi-exclusivity, PlayStation 5 owners can experience Ichiban Kasuga’s bizarre journey with a handful of new features. Personally, I’ve only dabbled a bit in the Yakuza franchise–mainly because of a lack of time–and was slightly fearful of approaching Like a Dragon being so uninitiated. After hearing rave reviews for the game around 2020 Game of the Year discussions, I was itching to play Like a Dragon but definitely wanted to wait until its release on PlayStation 5.
Was the wait worth it? Of course it was!
Yakuza: Like a Dragon follows a similar path as early Yakuza games. Ichiban, our protagonist, is a young enforcer for the Arakawa crime family. Oozing a ridiculous confidence and a lust for life, Ichiban is an infectious protagonist. The first few hours of the game are soaked with dialog, giving players ample time to latch onto this new protagonist and fall in love with his personality. Soon enough, Ichiban’s life takes a turn as he is sent to prison for 18 years taking the fall for a murder committed by a higher-up in the Arakawa clan.
Reviewer Steve McGehee extensively covered Like A Dragon‘s finer details in his review but I can attest to its emotional, absurd, hilarious, dramatic, and heartfelt nature. This is a game crafted and written with love and an appreciation for its characters and Japanese culture. I spent time switching back and forth between Japanese and English audio pleasantly surprised at the high quality of both. A chunk of the game’s opening is packed with cutscenes and dialog, giving players small handfuls of gameplay to become accustomed to the mechanics.
Departing from the action brawler roots of previous Yakuza games, Like a Dragon transforms gameplay into a turn-based RPG. Surprisingly, the shift never felt too weird. Items, special attacks, and summons are grounded in enough reality while maintaining the fantastical element that makes them so flashy in fantasy RPGs. Players should delight in Ichiban and his party’s move set. Battles never feel protracted so as not to lose the grit and action feel of previous games. Players can select a number of jobs that change up how each character fights in battle, making for a system that is uniquely Yakuza yet entirely familiar to fans of the genre.
Ultimately, though, Like a Dragon on PlayStation 5 is basically the same game that players may have already experienced on Xbox or PlayStation 4. There’s not a wealth of drastic new content and nothing feels completely overhauled.
Instead, PlayStation 5 players will experience drastically increased load times, a current selling point of the new console. There’s virtually no downtime between loading screens and battles. The tip screen between loads barely has time to flash its text before disappearing. Loading so fast meant that transitioning from battle to battle never felt tedious. Additionally, two visual modes support either 60 FPS gameplay or 30 FPS gameplay with 4K visuals. Not being beholden to 60 FPS gameplay, I stuck with the more detailed visuals, giving Like a Dragon even more clarity, color, and depth.
Those hoping for any advantages used for the DualSense will only find basic rumble and a lack of haptic feedback or adaptive trigger use. I’m not sure how long it would have taken to have any of these features incorporated into the experience but it is slightly disappointing it wasn’t taken advantage of. Activity cards are also put on the back burner, providing players with minimal feedback on their progression through the game.
Yakuza: Like a Dragon is an incredible game. On PlayStation 5, it looks and plays better than before. Still, if you have played the game from start to finish, this update might only be enough to bring you back for a few minutes or until you’re hankering for another playthrough. Having not experienced the game yet, Yakuza: Like a Dragon on PlayStation 5 is a definitive experience, making one of 2020’s best even better. Hopefully a new influx of players will arrive to check it out on this next generation of hardware.
