Yakuza: Like a Dragon
Yakuza: Like a Dragon is a PlayStation 5 role-playing game developed by SEGA. It centers on combat encounters, area and route exploration, and character or equipment growth, with controls and information arranged around the DualSense twin sticks, triggers, directional pad, and face buttons, with touchpad, motion input, adaptive triggers, and detailed haptics where the game uses them.
- AI score · out of 10
- 8.5 / 10
About this game
Yakuza: Like a Dragon is a PlayStation 5 role-playing game centered on combat encounters, area and route exploration, and character or equipment growth. Story beats, exploration, and progression resources support a longer campaign, with progress divided into stages, tasks, matches, or growth milestones that make immediate goals understandable. Its value depends on whether these rules continue to create judgment and room for mastery rather than on length, sales, or series recognition. Short campaigns are judged by repeat-challenge value, while longer ones are judged by variety, pacing, and recovery after failure. Characters, world building, environments, and music carry most of the atmosphere, while SSD streaming, 4K and HDR output, 3D audio, performance or quality modes, and high-density interfaces need to preserve feedback and information clarity together. The genre-specific limitation is that dense text, menu layers, repeated battles, loading, or language dependence can slow progress. Platform conditions also include install size, SSD space, patch version, DualSense battery life, visual mode and frame rate, online dependencies, PS VR2 requirements, and cross-generation version differences affect the current release. This description covers only this platform release and does not import features or conveniences from remasters, emulators, or other console editions.
Collected in series
Like a Dragon, formerly known in English as Yakuza, follows people trying to hold on to loyalty and dignity amid crime and betrayal. Dense city districts invite you to step away from serious drama for games and eccentric side stories. Some entries use direct-action brawling, while Ichiban Kasuga’s adventures bring a party into turn-based combat.
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PlayStation 5
AI review
AI reviews are subjective assessments, not player ratings. See each review for its evidence and limitations.Published date:
Excellent characters make the turn-based change worthwhile.
Yakuza: Like a Dragon changes the series from direct brawling to a party-based turn system while retaining a strong sense of character. Ichiban’s relationships and Yokohama’s street life give its new RPG structure an emotional center. Jobs, skills and environmental attacks turn routine encounters into planning problems, and side businesses and absurd diversions help balance the main story’s earnestness. A late power gate and the grinding it can encourage are its clearest pacing costs. The native PS5 edition adds a choice between smoother movement and a sharper image, separate from running a PS4 copy through compatibility. It is well suited to players willing to invest in a long character-driven adventure and learn turn-based party roles. Anyone seeking only the older real-time street fighting should adjust expectations. This assessment concerns the PS5 base campaign, not the sequel or unrelated platform builds.
Strengths
- Job-based battles and sincere relationships support the long adventure.
Weaknesses
- A late power gate encourages extra grinding.
Who it is for: Players who enjoy long character stories and party combat.
Play notes: Native PS5 edition, distinct from PS4 backward compatibility.
View scoring basis
| Dimension | Review state | Score | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dimension Variety sustains the story despite late grinding. | Reviewed | 7.9 / 10 | Not provided |
| Dimension Jobs and environmental moves refresh turn-based planning. | Reviewed | 8.6 / 10 | Not provided |
| Dimension Ichiban and Yokohama give the RPG shift emotional weight. | Reviewed | 9.0 / 10 | Not provided |
| Dimension Native PS5 modes offer a choice of response or detail. | Reviewed | 8.3 / 10 | Not provided |
Review sources
Not provided
Core information
- Developer
- SEGA
- Publisher
- SEGA
- Release date
- Mar 2, 2021
- Platforms
- PlayStation 5
- Content kind
- Game
- Release state
- Released
- Region
- Worldwide
- Official website
- Not provided
- Offline minimum players
- Not provided
- Offline maximum players
- Not provided
- Online minimum players
- Not provided
- Online maximum players
- Not provided
- Categories
- Role-Playing · Primary genre
- Tags
- Main Story 20–50 HoursStory-driven3D GraphicsFantasyExplorationLong-term ProgressionCommand-based CombatLevel ProgressionSolo-friendlyThird PersonReal-time CombatTurn-based Combat
- Supported game languages
- Not provided
- Requires base game
- Not provided
- Standalone
- Not provided
- Age ratings
- Not provided
- Play modes
- Single player
- Perspectives
- First personThird person
Release editions
- Windows PCWorldwideNov 10, 2020
- PlayStation 5WorldwideMar 2, 2021
Game gallery
Sources
Not provided