Holy heck. During tonight’s Sony State Of Play livestream, it was announced that Like A Dragon: Ishin! was heading to the west for the first time – and heading to PC at the same time. The Yakuza spin-off set in 1860s Japan was first released in 2014, and the remake is described as having been “rebuilt from the ground up”. Watch the trailer below.
Set during the late Edo period, Like A Dragon: Ishin!’s protagonist is real historical samurai Sakamoto Ryōma. It otherwise follows a similar structure to other Yakuza games, with melee combat (albeit with more swordplay) against large groups of goons being broken up by exploring an open world town (albeit with less pinball and fewer J-Pop idols).
With Ishin on the way, and if indications of an imminent PC announcement for Judgment and Lost Judgment are true, I think there are only a handful of Yakuza things not on PC. Those include Ishin! predecessor Ryū ga Gotoku Kenzan! and the much more interesting noncanonical zombie apocalypse spin-off from 2011, Yakuza: Dead Souls.
Developers Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio are doing a livestream on September 14th, called the RGG Summit, where hopefully they’ll confirm Judgment and show more of Ishin. It’ll be broadcast at 11am BST/12pm CEST/6am EST.
Like A Dragon: Ishin! will launch on PC via Steam in February 2023. It oddly wasn’t the only game set during the late Edo period to be revealed during tonight’s State Of Play.