OLD TIMES FOR FAMILIAR FACES
Kazuma Kiryu, the original protagonist of Yakuza, has his finger in everything. He can’t even resist the temptation to travel back in time and star in a story set in 19th-century Japan. While he doesn’t appear under his own name, Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio recycles both his character model and personality to ease us into the role of the “new” protagonist, Sakamoto Ryoma, the samurai hero of the spinoff Like a Dragon: Ishin!.
It’s hardly a strange decision. Kiryu is one of the finest protagonists in video game history. Who else can rival this stoic, stone-faced jester? Few come to mind—perhaps Red Dead Redemption’s John Marston and Arthur Morgan, or maybe Solid Snake and Joel Miller. Kiryu is dignified in the face of tragedy and effortlessly hilarious in moments of humiliation. At his best, he recalls Buster Keaton: the silent-film master who maintained a deadpan expression while performing some of cinema’s most audacious stunts.
Originally released in 2014, Ishin! was a Japan-exclusive entry with a reputation as one of the series’ strongest. The version reviewed here is a remaster, finally localized for Western audiences and upgraded with tasteful visual improvements. Set during the final years of the Edo period, the game weaves a fictional narrative around real historical figures, taking considerable liberties with history along the way.
Ryoma’s journey begins when he witnesses the assassination of his mentor and father figure. Framed for the murder and forced to flee, he sets out to hunt down the masked killer. The assassin’s distinctive fighting style leads Ryoma to Kyo, where he infiltrates the Shinsengumi—a powerful law enforcement group whose ranks include samurai trained in that very technique. The murderer is among them, and Ryoma methodically investigates each suspect with grim determination.
It’s a strong, intricate narrative that gradually morphs into a full-fledged whodunit, complete with an overabundance of characters whose primary function is to mislead the player. Thankfully, Kiryu isn’t the only familiar face. To help players keep track of the Shinsengumi’s many members, the remaster repurposes character models from earlier and later Yakuza games.
Seeing familiar faces like Goro Majima, Shun Akiyama, and Taiga Saejima—albeit under different names—makes characters instantly recognizable, but it also comes with baggage. Prior knowledge of these personalities can color your expectations and prematurely rule out certain suspects. That said, the game still manages a few satisfying reversals of loyalty, delivering some classic Yakuza twists.
I generally enjoy watching Yakuza’s political intrigues unfold, but here the complexity occasionally works against the experience. Ishin! was released between what I consider the series’ emotional high points—Yakuza 5 and Yakuza 0—and compared to those, it left me feeling less invested. At times, confusion overshadowed engagement.
The melodrama and political maneuvering can be dense. Set during a period of upheaval sparked by the arrival of Western “black ships” and their technologies, the game throws a barrage of factions, titles, names, and historical jargon at the player. Even with an optional in-dialogue glossary, it can be difficult to keep everything straight.
For various reasons—some organic, some contrived—you end up fighting most members of the Shinsengumi in a series of enjoyable and often challenging boss encounters. As a samurai, Ryoma can master four distinct combat styles: sword, gun, wild dancer (a hybrid of blade and firearm), and bare-handed brawling. Tougher fights demand proficiency in blocking, parrying, dodging, and building heat for devastating—yet somehow non-lethal—finishing moves. Without healing items, survival becomes a real challenge.
Each combat style has its own skill tree, reminiscent of Final Fantasy X’s sphere grid. You navigate branching paths of skill nodes, unlocking new techniques and boosting attributes. Ishin! leans more heavily into RPG mechanics than most entries, with layered progression systems and floating damage numbers reinforcing that shift.
As you rise through the Shinsengumi’s ranks, you can recruit troopers and commanders to form your own squad. Though they don’t appear directly in combat, they provide stat boosts and powerful special abilities on cooldowns. These allies level up alongside you, and watching your numbers steadily climb makes character progression feel rewarding.
Despite strong bosses and minibosses, I didn’t enjoy the moment-to-moment combat as much this time. Random encounters occur far too frequently, and while the four styles are ostensibly situational—wild dancer for crowds, sword style for duels—I found myself pouring most upgrades into the katana, which effectively covered every scenario. Eventually, I relied heavily on a single attack combo just to speed things along, and combat began to feel rote.
The game introduces a Virtue system that rewards altruism and participation in side activities. Virtue can be spent at shrines on meaningful upgrades like expanded inventory space or improvements to your countryside home, where you can grow vegetables for cooking or profit. Other diversions include betting on chicken races, serving noodles, chopping wood, and even deflecting incoming cannonballs to hone your combat skills.
For me, the heart of Yakuza has always been its substories—but here they’re hit or miss. A handful stand out, such as the American samurai or the perpetually seasick sailor, but too many boil down to filling friendship meters. They feel repetitive and narratively thin.
Like a Dragon: Ishin! may seem fresh on the surface, but beneath the historical trappings it remains very traditional. You can still fish, sing karaoke, gamble, and play shogi. Even the cannonball-deflection minigame feels like a historical remix of the series’ familiar batting cages.
Mechanically, the game echoes the late PS3 and early PS4 era. Invisible walls and frequent loading screens occasionally disrupt the flow. Given the series’ annualized release cadence, it would be unreasonable to demand a full remake—especially when the core Yakuza experience remains so reliable. Still, I couldn’t shake a sense of fatigue with the old formula.
Ishin! works well as a standalone entry, though it’s not the ideal starting point—that honor still belongs to Yakuza 0. Its cast is entirely new, the story is self-contained, and the game never dips into outright mediocrity. It’s also sensibly paced (I finished it in about 46 hours, semi-rushing). Veteran players may appreciate the change of scenery—Kyo is a lively city full of surprises—but might also feel slightly jaded by familiar substory themes, recycled minigames, and iterative combat systems.
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