4.5/5 ★ – FerrumCrow's review of Yakuza: Like a Dragon.

Played from – to: (2022-01-23 – 2022-03-03) – PC controller. ‣ 9/10 – Kasuga should go bald. ‣ Game Audio / Soundtrack - 10/10 ‣ Graphics – 9/10 ‣ Atmosphere – 10/10 ‣ Main Story / Characters – 9/10 ‣ Side Activities / Exploration – 10/10 ‣ AI – 7/10 ‣ Ragdolls / Physics – 7/10 ‣ Movement – 8/10 ‣ Voice acting – 10/10 ‣ Combat – 9/10 ‣ Final notes: After two very historic and interesting years I have come to the end of the main Yakuza franchise. With Yakuza 6 I said goodbye to Kiryu and now with this I say see you again to the entire franchise. Because I know this is not the end. We still have Judgement after all. Yakuza 7 at first was a very strange leap in direction for me. Not only was the gameplay dramatically different, but we got completely new and disconnected from the main story characters. It took me over 30 hours to finally start enjoying this game. I am so glad I stuck around, because in conclusion Yakuza: Like a Dragon is one of the best games in the franchise. The combat is extremely different and complex. There are tons of weapons and gear to collect, playstyles to try out and combinations of skills to find. What surprised me after 7 games was the writing. Everything said in dialogues made sense and felt real. There was never a moment where I wanted someone to speak differently then they did in a cutscene. The performance given is nothing but amazing, the characters are believable, and you can’t feel anything but love towards them by the end. Speaking more about gameplay I’d say the spawn rates for enemies can be unforgiving and annoying. There were multiple times where I defeated a group of enemies and then witnessed another pile of them spawn right before my eyes. Thankfully the game gives you auto battle options, however they are very unreliable due to somewhat bad AI. On top of that be ready to grind your balls off because you will need gear to easily progress and that will add more than 50 extra hours. What I’m trying to say is Yakuza is a time guzzler but everyone who’s familiar with the franchise knows that. Lastly, I just want to applaud the phenomenal soundtrack. Karaoke songs are great, and the battle music never stops to amaze me. Just when you think you heard all the tracks a new dubstep remix comes into play. All in all, the overwhelming number of times the writers kept reminding everyone that Yakuza is a video game, making even Kiryu speak as if he’s a dungeon guardian made me cringe, however that is exactly why Yakuza 7 is unique and amazing.