Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii (Feb 28 2025)

[nomdeplume]

Two new game threads in two days. For the sake of moderation I have deliberately avoided a punchy thread title hinting at potentially divisive game elements this time.

Not sure if I should be throwing up or halfway interested during the 6 month pre-order period. FFS within a few years flashy criminals awash in money and luxury goods flowing through the most technology advanced city on earth are swashbuckling on wooden sailing pirate ships. In 2025. Multiple someones need to be run through for that decision.
Digesting even a small isolated piece of this premise is...

RPG turn based combat in Like A Dragon series appears(?) to have been discarded?!?!!! At least it appears they have listened to players outside Japan and left the typically excellent voice acting by adding language specific subtitles/menu translations.

 

[GerKNG]

one of the few games i am actually looking forward to.

 

[kurosagi01]

I saw a tweet basically saying how RGG are able to produce "quality" games every year?
Well they basically do what Bathesda do but make slight tweaks to the gameplay with decent enough story telling to keep people engaged.
I am interested in it myself, which i'll be forcing myself to play Yakuza 7&8(not a fan of the change to turned based as i've played all of the main-line to date).

 

[Flogger23m]

I've only played Judgment and Lost Judgment. The story in Judgment, except for one illogical part, was quite well. The side quests were low quality and not voiced though. Some of them were funny and those were okay. Rather than having 25-30 hours of lame side quests, I would rather have 10 hours of the good/funny ones and they could voice act those as well. Lost Judgment was the same, except the main story was weaker and the side quests too even longer.

 

[kurosagi01]

I've only played Judgment and Lost Judgment. The story in Judgment, except for one illogical part, was quite well. The side quests were low quality and not voiced though. Some of them were funny and those were okay. Rather than having 25-30 hours of lame side quests, I would rather have 10 hours of the good/funny ones and they could voice act those as well. Lost Judgment was the same, except the main story was weaker and the side quests too even longer.

I've played Judgment and Lost Judgment, although I didn't do all the grind as my partner did as she is a semi-trophy/achievement hunter for RGG games.
They have certainly over bloated Lost Judgment in comparison to Judgment, the story was ok as well but yeah a lot of the side quest are boring and some of the grind to 100% is way too much bloated stuff to do.

 

[nomdeplume]

Based off small evidence in video and gif above I'm still not sure if they've ditched or attempted to improve the rpg turn based combat. Appears the entire ship is fighting their own hand to hand battles with your playable character able to slip through and attack any one of the enemies. Without being able to name a specific example. I seem to remember some clever programming and enjoyable gaming in this type of unpredictable situation.

Judgement and LaD seemed a lot more stale than Yakuza franchise that probably ran out of fresh ideas and wore a bit thin by the end. Hope this turns out to be a game worth waiting for.

 

[kurosagi01]

Based off small evidence in video and gif above I'm still not sure if they've ditched or attempted to improve the rpg turn based combat. Appears the entire ship is fighting their own hand to hand battles with your playable character able to slip through and attack any one of the enemies. Without being able to name a specific example. I seem to remember some clever programming and enjoyable gaming in this type of unpredictable situation.

Judgement and LaD seemed a lot more stale than Yakuza franchise that probably ran out of fresh ideas and wore a bit thin by the end. Hope this turns out to be a game worth waiting for.

Pretty much sticking with the traditional action combat they had from Yakuza 0-6, which is what Judgment and lost judgment used rather than LaD turned based.
Which I am not entirely a fan of if i'm honest, after playing 0-6 and Judgment prior to LaD 7 release it felt bizarre going from action combat to turned-based.
But yeah it is getting a bit stale now but then again people haven't seem to have gotten bored of the formula since the story is engaging enough to keep people interested.

 

[Flogger23m]

I've played Judgment and Lost Judgment, although I didn't do all the grind as my partner did as she is a semi-trophy/achievement hunter for RGG games.
They have certainly over bloated Lost Judgment in comparison to Judgment, the story was ok as well but yeah a lot of the side quest are boring and some of the grind to 100% is way too much bloated stuff to do.

Exactly. I hope there is a Judgment 3, though I really would like to see them slim it down. And the story needs to be better like the first game. I don't mind the over the top side quests, I would just prefer a good 15-20 ones with full voice acting and good gameplay over the mix of nice ones but about two dozen really lame ones.

 

[kurosagi01]

Exactly. I hope there is a Judgment 3, though I really would like to see them slim it down. And the story needs to be better like the first game. I don't mind the over the top side quests, I would just prefer a good 15-20 ones with full voice acting and good gameplay over the mix of nice ones but about two dozen really lame ones.

Not sure what else would make a good "detective" story, they have covered murder,drugs and bullying. The only thing left is huge political scandals(celebrities, sex, politicians) which i'll be impressed if they did somehow drag that out into a huge story.

 

[Ferrum Master]

Now this looks fun.

 

[Flogger23m]

Not sure what else would make a good "detective" story, they have covered murder,drugs and bullying. The only thing left is huge political scandals(celebrities, sex, politicians) which i'll be impressed if they did somehow drag that out into a huge story.

I'm sure they can do more. I was hoping the sequel would follow up on the politician and health care corruption.

 

[nomdeplume]

Soap opera plot twists keeping the story going have never been a problem for this studio. Just hope they don't pursue the rapid release strategy of LaD with Judgment. Timing can be as critical to full enjoyment as the quality of how a game comes together.

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Short gameplay trailer in 4K

25 minute Japanese market exposition! in 1080HD

Mini-games trailer in 1080 HD