Yakuza Like A Dragon Review: Is it really better than GTA V?

 

    Finally finished this game after about one month or two. I had to stop playing at some point because I also have work, and this game man, it's really really good and better than its predecessor Yakuza 6: Song of Life. It introduced fresh gameplay plus it has a lot of mini-games.

    I didn't really play a lot on the series of Yakuza, just the 6th, and 7th installments. However, the details in this one are amazing and the main story needs work but it was creative and very unpredictable. 

    I might say some spoilers so to be safe, I'll have to mention a few warnings as I go.

STRATEGIC GAMEPLAY (main gameplay)

    Compared to Yakuza 6, Yakuza 7 is more of like Pokemon gameplay. Instead of repeatedly smashing the x, square, circle, and triangle buttons of your controller, you get to only strategically choose attacks for your character/s.

    Each character is also assigned a job, which has different techniques. The main character, Kasuga Ichiban, 

COMPANY MANAGEMENT

    Company management is one of the mini-games in Yakuza 7 that is also strategic gameplay. It is a bit confusing at first but after watching tutorials on Youtube and roaming around the city, I finally mastered it, and helped me earn more money for the game. It is a side story if you will, and it also unlocks the character Eri, who may or may not join your team.

    This game lets you choose which company or store to buy as well as employees to hire. It also helps you navigate income for your main character. 

MINI-GAMES ARE BETTER

    The mini-games, aside from company management, were better than the story mode. Whether playing a Pacman-like garbage collecting game or collecting a toy at a claw machine, it is damn good. Collecting trash never felt so fucking good.

SOME THINGS TO WORK ON

    Of course, this game isn't perfect but I'd like to think that some of the minor details can still be fixed if its game developers are willing to improve it.

    There are a lot of villains in this game, and I have to say it is difficult to recall all these villains and find out about their weaknesses. I think it's better for the player to access the sujimon app in order to determine or remind them about the weakness of the player they are fighting.

    I also noticed some glitches like some villains are not respawning, no matter how many times you move past them such as the Gifted Gatherer. I tried to pass that alley at the cabaret but it never respawned which is kinda difficult to do.

    

    In the course of this game, I was nearly at its end and what frustrated me was when I only gained 3 million yen for each shareholder's meeting, no matter how fast I beat it. It's kind of frustrating because I still had to raise more money for my weapon and upgrades and yet I still had a few yen to fund it. I think for a weapon to be at its full potential which is, EX EX, a player must pay around 50k yen which is too much.

    

GTA AND YAKUZA

    After making a little research, some people are actually saying that Yakuza 7 is better than GTA. Before anything else, I am not here to directly compare it with GTA. For me, both games are equally fun to play and the adventure is both great. I don't think I can say that Yakuza is better than GTA because even as both of them are sandbox games, they are still apples and oranges.