The Yakuza franchise has been around for decades and while it may not have a massive fan base within the Western markets, there’s been a growing group of followers thanks to the remakes that came out recently. These games have been a semi-open world brawler where players typically fight against other Yakuza family members while solving some elaborate crimes within the sacred families. However, after six mainline entries to the series, the development team was interested in switching things up for the latest installment.
Yakuza: Like A Dragon will follow a new protagonist that has a similar start as the previous series. Our hero ends up in prison, scrapped of his Yakuza family, and begins his return of redemption. However, unlike the past installments, the core gameplay of the Yakuza series is being changed to provide players with a turn-based combat element. It’s a big change for the series and its one that we’re not sure how players will enjoy it. After all, with the series really making some big strides in the Western markets, it’s curious as to if players will find the same enjoyment with this next main installment.
At the moment, the game has already released for the PlayStation 4 within the Japanese market, but a worldwide release is set to come out at some point this year. The game as expected will have an English dub and would be available for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, and the Xbox Series X. With that said, it’s been confirmed to also hit the next-generation PlayStation console as well.
Announced through IGN, Yakuza: Like A Dragon will hit the PlayStation 5 platform at a later date, so we may not see this title release on the console platform this year. We’re sure that there are plenty of fans eager to try this next installment out, but again we’re definitely interested in seeing just how many enjoy the change-up in terms of gameplay.