Sega and RGG Studio have announced Like a Dragon 8, the next (newly rebranded) Yakuza series game, coming to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC in 2024.
Ichiban Kasuga returns from Yakuza: Like a Dragon, but he’s joined by a familiar face (if not hairstyle). That’s right. Kiryu Kazuma is back after taking a break after the events of Yakuza 6, ready for more Yakuza series shenanigans. He’s got grey hair befitting a Japanese boy band idol, though.
Except this isn’t a Yakuza game anymore. Following on from the announcement of the Yakuza: Ishin remake – Like a Dragon: Ishin – it’s clear that the series will now be called Like a Dragon around the world. Called Ryu Ga Gotoku in Japan, and with the studio named Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio, this translates to English as Like a Dragon, so you can consider this Sega righting the wrongs of Western branding from the early 2000s.
There’s plenty of questions left to be answered about the game, though. Yakuza: Like a Dragon made the jump from the open world brawling of the Yakuza series up until that point to turn-based RPG battling, in what was a potentially controversial shift. Thankfully it pulled it off with aplomb, but with Kiryu returning, will that also mean that the real time brawling will be back in some form? So far, Sega and RGG have only described this sequel as being a turn-based RPG.
Looking back on our Yakuza: Like a Dragon review, we wrote:
“Yakuza Like a Dragon is an enjoyable new twist on the series, although it’s not hard to imagine that many long-time fans of the series will be put off by its slow pace. In a day and age where video game companies rarely take risks, Like a Dragon is a refreshing change of pace for a series that risked starting to feel stale.”
Source: YouTube