Yakuza: Like a Dragon - Part 1

 I don't play a whole lot of modern games, they generally don't interest me. But every once in a while, something new catches my eye.

I do occasionally review newer games, but it's usually because they fall into my lap rather than because I seek them out. Typically, the ones that I do play are from the 7th gen. I guess I should back up and talk about what I consider modern. To me, anything from the 7th gen on is considered modern. The PS3, 360 and Wii kind of start what I consider the modern era. Even those games are 15 years old at this point, pushing 20. I'm also not talking about games that are done in an old school style, stuff like Chained Echoes or Mega Man 10. Those games are modern, but they exist on a completely different plane than the stuff I'm talking about.

Which brings me to Yakuza: Like a Dragon. A lot of people were really excited about this game when it came out...and I wasn't one of them. The announcement of a new game in a franchise known for open world 3rd person action barely registered for me. The Yakuza games date back to the 6th gen, with the first one appearing on the PS2. I personally had never played any of them. I was never really interested in the whole "play as the bad guy" thing that Grand Theft Auto started and to me, Yakuza was just a continuation of that trend. When the first game came out, I dismissed it as "GTA in Japan" and ignored the series throughout its existence, figuring it would never interest me.

But then, we had a plot twist. Like a Dragon wasn't going to be (yet another) open world action game, but a turn based JRPG. And immediately, I knew I had to play it. A turn-based JRPG, by a AAA developer, on a modern console not set in some fanservice-infested chibi hell? Sign me up! Look, there were a lot of things I can find issue with here. But there was far, far more good than bad and I think a lot of the issues I did come across were more due to my lack of familiarity with the series and modern games in general. Y:LAD was a great experience, even if it had some aspects I wasn't a fan of, and if there is any justice in the world it will lead to a spinoff series of turn based RPGs that get bigger and better each time.

First, we will start with the story, which puts you in control of Ichiban Kasuga, a low-ranking member of a relatively small Arikawa family. Ichiban is an orphan, raised in a soapland (for the sake of keeping it PG, we will just say it's a bathhouse. Yeah, let's go with that) by proprietor Jiro Kasuga and the various ladies that worked there. As a teenager he begins lashing out, frequently getting stuck in over his head. Just when it looks like he has written one final check his backside can't cash, Ichiban is saved from death by Masumi Arikawa, patriarch of the Arikawa Yakuza family and fabled assassin. He begins serving the family, as he feels he owes them a debt of gratitude, which leads us to the start of the game, New Years' Eve 2001. Ichiban wakes up to a call from a melancholy Arikawa, asking him to come to the family office. What was supposed to be a night of celebration has turned deadly, a dispute has led family captain Jo Sawashiro to kill a high-ranking member of the Tojo Clan, the group that Arikawa reports to. This has put the patriarch in a tough spot, he knows having his captain go down for the murder will result in swift, brutal retaliation from his superiors. So he asks the low ranking Ichiban to take the fall. Still feeling he owes Arikawa his life, he agrees, finding himself sentenced to 18 years in prison.

Ichiban does his time, anticipating the day he will once again see his friends and brothers. He looks forward to his release day, where it is tradition for Yakuza family members to be picked up by their patriarch and family members. That day finally arrives...and Ichiban is shocked to find no one from the family is waiting for him. Instead, he finds a disgraced detective, Koichi Adachi, who wants to ask him questions. He tells Ichiban that his home in Kamurocho is much different now, that his family is not what it once was, and that the Yakuza are weaker than they have ever been. Ichiban refuses to believe it at first, but upon his return home, he finds that Adachi's words are true. The soapland he was raised in is shuttered. The Arikawa family office is empty. And worst of all, Arikawa himself seems to have defected to the Omi Alliance, a bitter rival of the Tojo clan. With Adachi's help, Ichiban finds a way to get in front of Arikawa, hoping to get answers. Instead, he gets a bullet to the chest. He wakes up two days later at a homeless encampment in Yokohama, nursed back to life by a vagrant named Yu Nanba.

With nowhere to go and no leads aside from a bloodied Yen banknote in his pocket, Ichiban sets out to once again find his former patriarch to figure out what happened. But it isn't going to be easy. For one, Ichiban is flat broke, all he has is the clothes on his back. And Yokohama is a new world, with very different social politics from his home in Kamurocho. The balance of power there is maintained by what's known as the wall of muscle, a tense alliance between the Chinese Liumang Mafia, the Korean Geomijul and the Seriyu Yakuza Clan. An activist group called Bleach Japan also holds sway, marching the streets in protest of the nation's "gray zones" where authorities look the other way on crime. Before it's all over, Ichiban will find himself embroiled in a battle that connects all of the madness to one of Japan's top political figures. He will also learn about his past, including the true nature of where he came from and who his parents were.

Wow, that was probably the longest plot synopsis I've ever done. And that right there represents both the best and worst thing about Y:LAD. On one hand, you have a deep, complex story filled with compelling personal quests, political intrigue and tense underworld standoffs. Some of it comes off a little bit cheesy, but I have been told that's kind of par for the course for the series. Had I known it didn't take itself so seriously, I probably would have started playing it earlier. The plot is fun and deep, but it's really the characters that carry the title. Ichiban may be my new favorite RPG protagonist of all time, he's that good. His quirky but intense personality is just so on point it's impossible not to root for him and you really feel for him during the game's darker moments. Y:LAD does a great job of making sure you know he's a serious character, while also giving him humanizing traits and interests that make him relatable. I find the fact that he's a die-hard Dragon Quest fan to be hilarious. The supporting characters are great too, from the beaten down but resilient Nanba to the jovial, oft-drunk Adachi to the tough but always supportive Saeko. The villains are strong too, Ryo Aoki is the epitome of a smarmy politician that's clearly more interested in building his own power than helping his constituents. His flunky Kume is an obnoxious pest that you just want to see get what's coming to him. There are other great antagonists as well, though some of them go on to become friends as the story progresses. As I mentioned previously, I have never played any of the other Yakuza games and a lot of the big character reveals fell flat because of this. I didn't realize who some of the characters that show up in some sections were until I had to look them up. I can't knock the game for that though, I am sure longtime fans were pumped to see some of their old favorites.

Here's the problem though. This all takes such a long time to get set up. It's largely down to the cinematic nature of modern games, something I've always had mixed feelings about. There are so, so many cutscenes at the start with very little gameplay for the first few hours. The game doesn't start in earnest until Ichiban gets to Yokohama, and that doesn't happen for three to five hours. You don't have a complete party until Saeko joins, probably about 10 hours in. Aoki, who is essentially the primary antagonist, isn't introduced until hour 15 and that was with minimal time spent on side quests. The game is constantly introducing new characters and entities, 20, 30, even 40 hours in. I always found this confusing, and it leads to a bit of sensory overload, especially as I didn't recognize many of the series stalwarts. You spend a lot of time being lead on as to who the villains is going to be, the Seriyu Clan, the Liumang, the Geomijul, Bleach Japan and a host of others look like they are going to take that mantle and then all of the sudden the script just arbitrarily flips. In fact, many characters who are seemingly antagonists end up becoming on the drop of a dime, seemingly forgetting about how you foiled their seemingly nefarious plans. I don't think I've ever seen so many Macguffins packed into a single game, so much of what you do feels like it's important for like, two seconds and then is never brought up again. This further slows the pace of the game and makes you feel like you are constantly running into dead ends. At the end of the day, it still works because the writing is so strong and the characters are so compelling, but it was definitely noticeable.

Overall, the presentation is fairly strong, although the graphics are mediocre at best. That sounds odd coming from someone that mostly plays games that are 30 years old, but Y:LAD looks just kind of okay for an 8th gen game. That's not to say it's bad though and while I wish the character models were more expressive, the areas you visit in-game all look pretty good. Ijincho, Sotenbori and Kamurocho all feel alive and lived in, exploring them feels like you are actually walking around a Japanese city. The best part of the presentation though is the voice acting. Everyone involved does a great job and they really bring their characters to life. This is definitely something that I like better about modern games, voice acting has come such a long way. This may be my new number one for best voice acting of all time, whether you are playing in Japanese with English subtitles or with the English dub. The English dub especially is a cut above what you would normally see, even in a modern game. Part of it is the strong writing, but the actors all deliver their lines with conviction, and they actually sound like real human beings. This may seem like a weird thing to call out, but the conversations in this game are some of the most realistic I've ever heard. This is something that all types of media struggle with, even convos in big time blockbuster films can sometimes seem forced. But here, they are flowing and natural. All of the voice actors do a great job, but Ichiban's might be the best. His inflection really helps the character's unique personality come through.

At the end of the day, Y:LAD demonstrated both the best and worst aspects of modern games. On one hand, it's extremely cinematic almost to the point that it lacks actual gameplay at some points. I don't typically like games that feel too much like movies, although I don't think we are quite in that territory here. On the other, it has all the modern amenities that make games easier to digest. Perhaps more importantly, its story doesn't get bogged down by bad translation or silly voice acting. It was kind of the best of both worlds for story and presentation, but what about gameplay? We will get to that next week.