#YAKUZA LIKE A DRAGON BATTLE ARENA PC#

This is probably the last thing you want to hear if you’re a potential newcomer to Yakuza with this entry. Curious about how closely Like A Dragon would rely on knowledge from the previous games, I replayed every single mainline Yakuza title earlier this year to brush up my memory. Like A Dragon is a turn-based RPG now, not an action beat’em up brawler, and it stars a new main character in Ichiban Kasuga. Simply put, this is not the Yakuza experience that series’ fans will be accustomed to.

I can see why painting Like A Dragon from that angle seems appealing. Despite the western marketing push for Like A Dragon to be a new starting point like Yakuza 0, it feels disingenuous in expecting optimistic individuals to understand Like A Dragon’s narrative without prior knowledge or experience of the series. In Japan, Yakuza: Like A Dragon is titled as Ryu ga Gotoku 7, which distinctly categorizes it as a mainline game that takes place after the events of Yakuza 6. Now at seven mainline titles prior to Like A Dragon, there is an understandable concern to reinvigorate the series so more newcomers can give it a shot.

#YAKUZA LIKE A DRAGON BATTLE ARENA PC#

Yakuza 0, Yakuza Kiwami, and Yakuza Kiwami 2 were later made available on PC and Xbox One, while the rest remain PlayStation exclusives at this moment in time. There have been recent efforts to expand the series beyond just PlayStation though. To many fans, that game was the ideal entry point into the series and most importantly, it was a damn good game. Despite its long-standing presence, the awareness and popularity that the Yakuza franchise enjoys today in the west exploded with the localization of Yakuza 0 three years ago. From its humble beginnings on the PS2 and having a title on every PlayStation non-Vita platform since then, the series has grown and evolved each step of the way. It is hard to believe that the Yakuza series has been around for nearly fifteen years now.

Yakuza like a dragon battle arena