Turn-based Combat From Yakuza: Like a Dragon is Here to Stay
Devs at Ryu ga Gotoku announced that the combat in the next games of the Yakuza series will be based on the turn-based combat system known from Like a Dragon. The Judgment series will offer classic battles.
The creators of the Yakuza series at Ryu ga Gotoku announced that combat in the next installments of the gangster series will be based on the turn-based combat system known from Yakuza: Like a Dragon. The brawler sequences characteristic of its predecessors, which involved chaining spectaular combos, will appear in Lost Judgment, which was announced yesterday, and probably of the next episodes of Takayuki Yagami's adventures.
This information was revealed in an interview with IGN by Toshihiro Nagoshi and Kazuki Hosokawa, the developers of both series. The gentlemen admitted that they had quite a dilemma - on the one hand, they wanted to introduce a completely new combat system to Yakuza, and on the other hand, it wasn't easy for them to abandon the proven solutions.
“The Yakuza series has been transformed into a turn-based RPG. On the other hand, over the years, Ryu ga Gotoku Studio has accumulated resources and know-how of making flashy and exhilarating action games that are effortless to enjoy. We decided that we should let our signature action gameplay live on through Lost Judgment."
Such a decision was certainly easier to make for the developers after the success of Yakuza: Like a Dragon. Reviewers praised the new combat system, which - although turn-based - retained the dynamics known from its predecessors. It was also appreciated that despite the change of such an important gameplay element and the introduction of a new protagonist - Kazuma Kiryu was replaced by Ichiban Kasuga - Yakuza remained Yakuza. The seventh game did not lack the crazy atmosphere, many side stories and a lot of fun mini-games, for which the series is famous.
However, if you do not like turn-based combat, you will be able to fight "the old fashioned way" in Lost Judgment. The game, announced yesterday, will be released on September 24 on PS4, PS5, XONE and XSX|S. It seemed that the lack of a PC edition was only temporary, but it looks like fans of PCs will have to wait for the adventures of Takayuki Yagami for more than just a few extra months... if the new game by Ryu ga Gotoku will be released on other platforms at all. A representative of Sega - the game's publisher - told PCGamesN that at the moment there are no such plans.
Which doesn't mean that PC gamers should lose hope - Judgment may not be available on Steam or Epic Games Store, but you can get it on Google Stadia. What's more, a tweet posted three months ago - before the game's release on PS5, XSX|S and Stadia two weeks ago - by SMT Network suggests that the streaming service's exclusivity is temporary, and that Judgment will soon see a "normal" release on PC. So we can only hope that the sequel shares the fate of the first game... and it's no coincidence that Sega was named the best publisher of 2020 in Metacritic ranking.
