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A samurai epic held back by slow pacing and undercooked visuals - Like a Dragon: Ishin! Quick Review

2K View2023-02-26

PLAY IT OR SKIP IT?

Skip it if you’re not deeply into games about samurai. Like a Dragon: Ishin! has a really compelling story of political drama and restoring honor that’s complemented by impeccable voice acting. However, that epic narrative is delivered in a flawed manner thanks to inconsistent quality in visual design and animation—as well as the unbearingly slow pacing of the game.

TIME PLAYED

I played Like a Dragon: Ishin! for four hours. I managed to get past three chapters and I’ve nearly completed the fourth. Each chapter takes around thirty to forty minutes to complete, not including side quests or my sudden urges to explore different areas.

WHAT’S AWESOME

• Storyline. The storyline is filled with action, suspense, betrayal, secrecy, political drama, and so much bloodshed and death. It constantly gets deeper, and whenever I thought I knew everything that was going on, the game always surprised me with a new twist. And importantly, though it has alternate takes on some of the franchise’s characters, I didn’t need any prior knowledge about the other games in the Like a Dragon (aka Yakuza) series to understand the storyline.

• Cultural exchange. Like a Dragon: Ishin! introduced me to words and information related to its storyline that I was totally unfamiliar with prior to playing. Though it’s not aiming for realism or historical accuracy, it provided a great sense of the mid-19th century Japan setting and what life was like in that era.

• Voice acting. Like a Dragon: Ishin! has suitably epic voice acting for its characters. Every character is pretty badass and carries a unique personality that distinguishes them from one another.

• Exploration. Like a Dragon: Ishin! had a decently sized map that’s rewarding to explore. From side quests to rewards and petty thieves I could beat up for loot, I could easily spend hours discovering all the nooks and crannies.

WHAT SUCKS

• Visuals. Like a Dragon: Ishin!’s cutscenes look absolutely stunning, with lifelike character models and environments that look like they were plucked right out of historical Japan and placed into the game. However, everything outside of the cutscenes is significantly less impressive. In-game character models are bland, and the environments have a washed-out look. Ishin! Is a remake of a PlayStation 3 game from almost a decade ago, and that age shows in the graphics.

• Robotic animation. Like the visuals, the animation in Like a Dragon: Ishin! is also inconsistent between cutscenes and actual gameplay. The distinct difference between the way characters moved and talked in cutscenes versus the rest of the game felt unpleasant and awkward.

• Combat. Combat challenged me tremendously. Parrying attacks or dodging them is extremely difficult and required me to react in a split second. Enemies recover quickly from getting hit and fire back in an instant too, which made it harder to block attacks and survive. Even armed with a small handful of abilities and play styles, I died repeatedly in my efforts to get past enemies.

• Long loads and delayed responses. From opening the menu to using an item or walking into a shop, Like a Dragon: Ishin! takes forever to load even the smallest of things. Using abilities or sliding sideways in combat is extremely slow as well. This all adds up to an irritating experience, even for the most patient of people.

• Quests are hard to follow. Some quests were a little hard to complete because the game didn’t help me keep track of them. I needed to pay close attention to dialogue to take in information leading me to the next objective. If I missed important details, then I had to retrace my steps to figure out where to go. Quest markers are used but they can be difficult to locate.

💬 Will you play Like a Dragon: Ishin! or are you going to pass on it? Let us know down below.

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