Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio’s recently-announced Yakuza: Like a Dragon will release in Japan on January 16, 2020, and sometime later in 2020 in the West, Sega announced this week.
For the first time in the series, players will see a brand new protagonist, Ichiban Kasuga, who is a lowly Yakuza member trying to make it big. Players will follow the journey of Kasuga and his crew as they rise from “rags to riches in this modern human drama.”
This description might make Like a Dragon sound like just another Yakuza game but Sega has promised that it’s a “complete reimagining” of the franchise. The publisher wrote:
Yakuza: Like a Dragon is much more than just a new chapter in the Yakuza series. Much like the new English title itself, Yakuza: Like a Dragon is a complete reimagining of the franchise, a landmark to coincide with the series’ 15th anniversary. With the bulk of the game taking place in the large-scale, painstakingly-realized setting of Ijincho in Yokohama, players will explore an entirely new side of Japan never-before-seen in the series. Not only that, but Yakuza: Like a Dragon’s combat system has undergone a major overhaul, combining Yakuza’s established brawling action with a turn-based RPG battle system.
Kasuga will be voiced by Kazuhiro Nakaya. Actors Shinichi Tsutsumi, Ken Yasuda, and Kiichi Nakai will be lending their appearances and voices to the main cast.
You can check out a new trailer from the Tokyo Game Show 2019 below:
Yakuza: Like a Dragon is in development for the PlayStation 4. We’ll update our readers when a Western release date is announced.
