Like a Dragon: Ishin! invited himself during the new State of Play. You might recognize part of the subtitle from Yakuza 7and this is quite normal since it is a spin-off of the series, more specifically a remake of a spin-off of the series.
Like A Dragon: Ishin! was set in feudal Japan before it was fashionable
Like a Dragon: Ishin! was announced for March 2023 on both generations of consoles (at least those from Sony and Microsoft) and on PC, both on Steam and on the Windows Store. It will surprise you but before the whole earth recognizes the superiority of our glorious Kiryu-sama and memorizes the words of Baka Mitai, the series Yakuza had great difficulty exporting.
If Sega has caught up since then, thanks in particular to remakes and remasters of old episodes, this has not been the case with the spin-offs taking place in feudal Japan, which are therefore not never been out with us until now. The principle is simple, we take the usual gameplay and cast of the series and we mix it with facts and real personalities (taking a lot of liberties eh).
The first test dates from 2008 with Ryu ga Gotoku Kenzan! which cast Kiryu as Miyamoto Musashi in 1605 in the early years of the Edo era. But the game that interests us today is Ryu ga Gotoku Kenzan! which takes place more than two centuries later, in 1867, Ryuga Gotoku Studios therefore offering us its own version of the events that ended this same era.
Here, Kazuma Kiryu lends his voice and features to the protagonist Sakamoto Ryoma. Ironically, this historical figure of Japan is also one of the heroes of Live A Liveanother game that remained a Japanese exclusive for a long time before it could arrive here this summer.
Another short-lived thriller?
The title of the game makes us ask some questions. Indeed, one wonders if it is the spin-off statue that explains the absence of the word Yakuza in the title. Or if the series is indeed looking to move away from the word mostly used in the West to simplify things, after having prepared us for change by putting both in the Western title of the seventh episode.
And since we are not very familiar with the original game, we also have a little trouble discerning for the moment what are the novelties of this remake compared to the original game, apart from the switch to Unreal Engine 4which is a first for the studio accustomed to its own Dragon Engine.
Fortunately, we won’t have to wait too long to find out more since the studio will be holding its RGG Summit on Sega’s official Twitch channel, today at noon French time. We will necessarily see this remake and we also hope for more concrete information on Yakuza 8 (Where Like a Dragon 8 so?), and if we are to believe the ESRB, Takayuki Yagami could finally see his adventures arrive on PC.
In short, for now, all we know is that Like a Dragon: Ishin! will arrive in March 2023 on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series and PC.