
Unlike recent releases from developer Ryu Ga Gotoku that feature English voice casts like Yakuza: Like a Dragon and Lost Judgment, Ishin can only be played with the original Japanese audio with subtitles. Like a Dragon: Ishin! might not be on the cutting edge of the katana blade, but it rarely strays onto the dull side either. Still, my fondness for him helped me buy into his plight almost immediately, and although Ishin’s story beats are similar to those featured in several other Yakuza games, setting its figurative (and literal) backstabbing against the backdrop of a potential Japanese civil war made the stakes feel higher than those surrounding the typical turf battles.

I must admit that even as a longtime fan it initially got a little confusing when Kazuma Kiryu playing Sakamoto Ryoma went undercover as Saito Hajime in order to infiltrate the Shinsengumi police force.
LIKE A DRAGON ISHIN 2014 SERIES
Thus its protagonist Sakamoto Ryoma, a disgraced ronin out to avenge the murder of his adoptive father, is clearly just series stalwart, Kazuma Kiryu, right down to his permanent scowl and unwavering sense of justice. The events of Like a Dragon: Ishin! may take place in 1860s Kyoto and feature characters loosely based on real historical figures, but most of the roles in its main cast are filled with a host of recognisable faces from other Yakuza games. It appears you can take the Yakuza story out of the streets of modern Tokyo, but you can't take the modern gangsters out of the Yakuza story.
