Like a Dragon: Ishin!

Having played 6 entries in the series at this point I am fully attuned to what these games offer. 20 to 25 hour stories with twists galore, wacky sidequests/minigames and men expressing their emotions through their fists. I mention this because if you have played other games in the series, Ishin follows the exact same set up almost to a tee albeit with the backdrop of 1800s Edo Japan. The lack of change outside of the setting while initially comforting also led to me being burnt out with the game sooner than I did with other entries. That being said some of the ways the game does differentiate itself are great.

The city of Kyo is a refreshing new setting that does a good job of differentiating itself from the series usual setting of Kamurocho. The addition of forming bonds with the citizens of the city and helping them out not only made it so there was always something for me to do but also added additional depth to city that I wish some of the other games took note of. I loved that fact that when I helped NPCs with problems they started to react to my presence positively as I roamed around the city. Kyo also has great parts of it that are just fun to walk around. Whether it be the bustling main street or a quiet temple path Ishin succeeds in one of my favorite aspects of the franchise, that being it's fun to just run around town.

One of the largest changes to the game is its story with many beloved Yakuza taking the roles of real life historical figures that existed during this time. Through this you get the usual structure of a Yakuza story with the slow unraveling of a grander plot being orchestrated by unknown enemies. The context that this based on historical events, albeit obviously fictionalized in many ways, made the story plenty entertaining to go through even with is predictable setups.

For the most part, I had a blast with Ishin. For the first 12 hours I was glued to it with me wanting to do as much of the side content and even engage with its crafting system which I am usually not a fan of. Past this point however the intense similarities to previous titles made me start to become burnt out. Even the setting change and updated combat was not enough for me to really feel like I was playing the same game again. That being said the format the series is a lot of fun its just hard not to notice how repetitive it can be.

It's kind of sad to see this game pushed to the wayside after it came out early last year as I believe its a worthy entry and an overall great remake.

I feel like the narrative is a bit too complicated for its own good, constantly twisting and turning to its detriment. The different styles are fun even if I ended up just being too reliant on guns since it's relatively easy to just keep distance and blow everything away. Didn't care for any of the minigames and it's probably the weakest collection of side stories in the series. That said it's still an RGG game and it's becoming one of my favourite franchises.