How Like a Dragon's Sequel Can Improve the Yakuza JRPG Foundation

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For well over a decade, Sega and Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio have been iterating on the Yakuza story. Exploring Kazuma Kiryu's expansive story through the titular Japanese criminal syndicate, six mainline releases (not including spin-offs) have seemingly concluded the stoic protagonist's story after 15 years. In the context of the strange world of Kamurocho and its inhabitants, Kiryu's honor-bound-to-a-fault personality made him the perfect protagonist for the melodramatic main story, as well as the ludicrous side quests. Now, the series is moving on with a brand-new protagonist in Ichiban, alongside a turn-based JRPG overhaul and a completely new cast of characters.

The series' grand experiment in transitioning from brawler to traditional JRPG has largely proven successful for the franchise. Yakuza fans welcomed the new gameplay loop with open arms, as many found that turn-based combat matched the series' identity, characters, and narrative just as well as the beat 'em up gameplay did previously. There are certainly growing pains to be had with future games after Yakuza: Like a Dragon, and there's plenty of aspects of Like a Dragon's JRPG design that can be improved. Aspects like the game's job system, the automated pathing in combat, as well as some tedious dungeon crawling could easily be improved in a Like a Dragon sequel.

Yakuza 8 Gets Development Progress Report

Arguably the most important aspect of a JRPG's design is its combat, especially if it's based on a traditional turn-based gameplay foundation. For Yakuza previously, combat was a simplistic affair: Button mashing between light and strong attacks, alongside some special Heat actions and other unique/contextual attacks, was about as deep as it got for combat.

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