Not Your Average Yakuza Game
This series has been my long standing favorite since 2019 and I've enjoyed all the games I've played(not counting Yakuza 3). With the exception of Yakuza 1 and 2, since those games have been remade into Kiwami. Yakuza is a lot of things, intense and gritty drama, game of games because of how many mini-games there are, and a full fledged brawler. Yeah, not many of those out there in today's gaming culture, is it?
The last brawler-based Yakuza was Y6: The Song of Life. After that series have handed, the developers have decided to split the games. One is the spin-off series called Judgment, which will carry the brawler tradition, while the mainline game series, starting from Yakuza 7, will be made RPG. So how is Yakuza 7 one of my favorite games ever?
Well, for starters it is actually a better RPG games than most I've played out there. While it is based around an actual Japanese city and grounded storytelling centered around politics, character dramas, and Yakuzas, the game manages to be ridiculously fun and silly in its nature. Unlike most Yakuza games, where their stories are much more of a serious tone.
Yakuza games can also be hilarious, pathologically insane, and tongue-in-cheek, but Y7 embraces its absurdity while taking its serious stories to a level not seen in the games. That's all thanks to how Kazuga treats the world around him. Like it's all a grand RPG, and he needs to XP up to get to the top.
More Than The Songs Of Life
Like A Dragon despite the name stars a new chapter by giving the lead role to a new character, named Ichiban Kasuga. Raised in the streets of Kamurocho by a foster father who raised him in a brothel, he later joined the Yakuza at a young age, for the Arakawa family. Little did he know, his life was going to take a complete derailment and that he was set on an adventure that would take him to broader horizons.
It does have the feeling you get from a Yakuza game when played with Kiryu, but the changes here are largely noticeable. Kasuga isn't Kiryu, he's still much young, a bit of an optimist, and has a rather charming naivete about people. Despite being middle-aged after doing his prison sentence, he still gets into stupid trouble with any imaginable shenanigans the Yakuza games usually throw. He is kind of like Kiryu, but there are big differences between the two.
Much like Kiryu, Ichiban had a lot to lose as well. He has spent 18 years in prison for his patriarch, but after returning, he was not received with the warm welcome he would expect. A simple explanation for this would be that a lot has changed, and it's a different era for the Yakuzas.
The big element that the Yakuza games deal with is politics and dramas. Centered around mostly the Yakuza business, the game creates complex narratives with well-written characters and intense conflicts. It's also a simple story about people trying to do right in their lives while cast under the dark shadows of their pasts. The Yakuzas games when it comes to their main narratives are mostly sad affairs where characters duel out in the end like those Hong Kong films. Where masculine prowess and sheer will take the win. And you can guess from this point on how the good guy always wins, no matter what. Yet the stories are really riveting enough to let the cliche just go by.
Yakuza 7 carries the spirit of the prior Yakuza games, but overall it's also something else entirely. The game is about a guy who is trying to find himself in the twisted thread he's stuck with that is family. Fortunately for him, he gets to deal with it through the power of friendship, which leads him to places he'd never expected himself to be somehow. Kazuga's strengths are different from Kiryu. Kiryu is a sheer force of nature, an unshakable object that cannot be steered away from reaching its goal. Kazuga gets tripped over multiple times, life's always hard on, but no matter what happens, he finds ways to get back up.
An endearing character with the endearing nature of the game takes it to places that not only molds Yakuza games with a more clownery makeover, but it takes whatever levity the series is known for and pushing up the ante even higher.
Oh, and did you know this is the first Yakuza game after Yakuza 1 for the PS2 to get an English dub? And it's really good. Heck, it surpasses the Japanese dub even amazingly. The voice cast that was chosen for the games added so much personality to every one of the characters in the game, including Kasuga himself.
Trying To Level Up
Being an RPG requires mechanics that encourage tactics, strategy, and resourcefulness. Y7 is all that, but also more. It requires that you spent time with characters, do sidequests to unlock poundmates(Yakuza version of FF summons), doing the grind, synergy, and knowing how to have fun beating the absolute crap out of your enemies.
The one big important aspect is jobs, these are like what you might call picking classes. Like different characters can choose and change jobs, and rank them up to unlock deadlier skill moves. Not only that, but they also factor in half of the character stats. The game isn't always clear which stats relate to and benefit what, but the game doesn't make it too difficult for the players without figuring them out.
Much like other Yakuza games, the stakes rise up in the main plot and so you have to grind, save up currency, and buy whatever's out there that is the most powerful. This is a staple for every Yakuza game that force the player to consider whether they've reached the power level to fight off tough battles and the crazy bosses that come in the way.
And speaking of friendship, there are up to 7 playable characters in the game. 6 of them are recognized in the story, while the other is just there in the sideline to be played for battles. Each of these characters have crazy abilities, like Adachi-san grabbing an enemy and then curling into a ball before pummeling everyone as an AoE skill, or Saeko in her idol job puts an enemy in a grid between 3 of her fans before they knock em down. It's fun to sometimes try them out even if you've just recently leveled up and unlocked it on tougher enemies or difficult boss fights. Some
Boss fights in this game will push you to the limit, there's one that literally throws a ranch in the casual playstyle you get used to. Will have you use everything within your arsenal in order to overcome such a powerful foe. I won't exactly spoil who it is, but these guys are considered legends in the Yakuza universe and they do not hold up. Well, maybe a little. Some will create ailments like bleeding, poisoning, paralyzation, or even seduction.
Putting aside battles, there are plenty of mini-games out there that carries the wacky spirit of the Yakuza games where they have not much of a place in the main storyline. In this iteration, however, the absurd, silly nature of the games does become a tangible part of the main games. Often leaving you to try them out just to see how they become integrated in the main story branch.
This game has more areas to explore than the prior games do. Of course, this could also mean that the assets from the prior Yakuza games using the new Dragon engine were reused. But it's still warm return to have 2 other different city locations to play in, besides Ijinchou in Yokohama. Like Sotenbari in Osaka and the return of Kamurocho in Tokyo.
Yet, parts of the game lack the kind of polish you find in the earlier Yakuza games. They've tried out something new and I could tell that it lacks the refining touch. After playing Judgment, I've accepted that Ryu Ga Gotoku team have fully utilized all they've learned into making a game that is worthwhile for veterans to play. Y7 isn't one of those, it obviously needed a little more time in the oven. But I can overlook those thanks to the gargantuan amount of content that it offers. You can easily get lost, putting even a 100hrs into the game.
Hoping for the future
Just awhile ago, Ryu Ga Gotoku announced that they're still working on a 3rd Judgment game. Right after Lost Judgment, which I am hoping to check out later on. In addition to the announcement, they've revealed that they're also working on a different IP and lastly on the latest Yakuza game. Which will reprise the new protagonist, Ichiban Kasuga.
Yakuza 8 could be my next favourite game, here's hoping they do improve many of the things I've liked in 7. But it's going to be a long while before they make reveal trailer or two for the next game. In the meantime, I strongly recommend that you give Yakuza 7 a check. It's a brilliant game and one that has a bright future for the franchise and Sega even. Yakuza games are all the hype now.