Yakuza: Like a Dragon Exclusive Gameplay Is Appropriately Bonkers

3 years 11 months ago
We've gotten an exclusive look at the Western version of Yakuza: Like a Dragon, and it looks brilliantly ludicrous - right down the fact that you can make friends with a crawfish called Nancy. Revealed during today's IGN Expo, the gameplay shows off exploration, the game's new party-based turn-based battles, and minigames from the 8th installment in the Yakuza series. You can watch it, accompanied with an interview with senior localization producer Scott Strichart, below: [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/06/10/yakuza-like-a-dragon-is-a-turn-based-jrpg-in-beat-em-up-clothing"] Yakuza famously balances weighty stories about Japanese organised crime with absurdist substories and over-the-top combat, and Like a Dragon doesn't disappoint in that regard. Lead character Ichiban Kasuga is obsessed with retro gaming, which accounts for this game's switch to turn-based battling. It also means that enemies literally transform in his mind's eye, and the resulting monsters can be catalogued in Kasuga's "Sugidex" app (and if that sounds familiar to you, that's a purposeful choice). Battles aren't the only place things get weird. Substories will continue to include weird and wonderful escapades, including the ability to meet a lone crawfish called Nancy on a bridge and make friends with her. As Strichart puts it, "for the most part, the substories lean pretty hard into the nonsense side of things." I wouldn't have it any other way. Mini-games will include a "Dragon Kart" kart racing game featuring rocket launchers and satellite strikes and "Can Quest", a game in which Kasuga needs to collect discarded cans while taking down rival recyclers and avoiding aggressive garbage trucks. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/yakuza-like-a-dragon-next-gen-announcement-trailer"] Like a Dragon's take on a business management activity will see Kasuga taking over a failing confectionary company, recruiting managers, assign them to properties and take on "shareholder battles" against the company's investors. Taking a leaf out of fellow Sega property Persona's book, the game will also feature a relationship system that allows you to level up Kasuga's personality and begin dating NPCs in the new Yokohama area. Yakuza: Like a Dragon will arrive on an unspecified date for PC, Xbox One and PS4, and will be a launch game for Xbox Series X (which will support Smart Delivery upgrades from the Xbox One version). There's much, much more to see from today's IGN Expo, and we're running the Summer of Gaming throughout June – here's the Summer of Gaming full schedule. All month, we're supporting some incredibly important causes – the World Health Organisation and The Bail Project – if you are able, help us support them too at donate.ign.com. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter.
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Joe Skrebels

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